[YouTube] Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2014 Speech with English Subtitles

A video recording of my speech for the 2014 Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum, which was hosted at Umm Al-Qura University on April 20, is now available on YouTube with English subtitles.

Please click “CC” to turn on the subtitles.

[YouTube] Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship 2014 | 2014 شباب الإبداع وريادة الأعمال

A video taken of my speech for the 2014 Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum, which took place at Umm Al-Qura University on April 20, is now available on YouTube.

The 10-minute speech is almost entirely in Arabic.

Day 3 of ArabNet 2014: Diverse Paths to Success

With the ArabNet Digital Summit in Dubai taking place at Atlantis the Palm next week, now is perfect time to catch up on events from the last ArabNet session, which took place in Beirut.

ArabNet is the #1 event in the MENA region for digital creatives to geek out over Web and mobile development, Web and mobile design, online marketing, e-commerce, and much more.

This article is the last in my summary series on ArabNet Beirut 2014. Here is the full list, if you want to read them in order:

• Day 1 of ArabNet 2014: Entrepreneurial Ecosystems, Arabic Typography, Development Tools, and Psychological Web Design
• ArabNet 2014 Panel Discussion: Developing an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
• 18 Innovative Pitches from the Second Day of ArabNet Beirut 2014
• Day 2 of ArabNet 2014: Morning Announcements Reveal New Opportunities for Entrepreneurs
• Day 2 of ArabNet 2014: An Afternoon of Seeds, Bridges, and Growth

If you are interested in reading about the major events of the last day of ArabNet Beirut, keep reading.

Talk: State and Growth of Digital Advertising by OOX

The first talk of the day came at 10:45 a.m., covering digital advertising trends in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. The talk was given by a representative from OOX, an online advertising, monitoring, and intelligence company serving the Middle East.

OOX has come up with estimates for advertising activity in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait by calculating the total number of advertising campaigns in each country, multiplying that number by the total number of websites involved, then multiplying that figure by the total number of active weeks.

I will summarize their findings below.

United Arab Emirates

According to OOX, the 3 most active advertising categories in the UAE in 2013 were:

• Automotive
• Banking and finance
• Telecom services

The UAE was also distinguished by the following popular advertising categories:

• Leisure and entertainment
• Hotels and resorts
• Real estate and property
• Retail
• Food
• Snacks

One noteworthy factor at play in the UAE was that the total share of the market held by top brands was relatively low compared to the number of brands in the market. In the UAE, only 19% of the market was controlled by top brands, compared to 30% in Saudi Arabia and 27% in Kuwait.

“I’d say this indicates that the market is more competitive,” said OOX’s representative. “There are more players in the UAE that are active online, and therefore they’ve diluted the share of the top ten in the market.”

Saudi Arabia

OOX found that there were 4 top advertising categories in Saudi Arabia in 2013:

• Automotive
• Telecom services
• Banking/finance
• Health/beauty

The additional popular advertising categories that stood out for Saudi Arabia were:

• Mobile phones
• Media

Saudi Arabia’s top rising brand seemed to be Mobily, STC’s competitor in the mobile telecom services market. Traditionally, STC has been the most active brand in Saudi Arabia, safely holding its position as one of the leading investors in online advertisement. However, these roles were reversed in 2013, with Mobily having not only taken over the top spot, but boasting a share of activity more than 30% that of STC.

“Definitely Mobily is the brand to watch in 2014,” said the representative. “There seems to have been a shift in strategy.”

Kuwait

Finally, OOX found that these were the top 3 advertising categories in Kuwait:

• Telecom
• Automotive
• Banking/finance

Kuwait’s additional popular advertising categories were:

• Retail
• Food
• Snacks

In Kuwait, the rising brand was J&J, which climbed from the 10th position in terms of top advertisers to the 2nd position. According to OOX’s representative, this made J&J a brand to watch in 2014.

Finally, the representative discussed the differences in seasonality and advertising language among the 3 markets.

Interestingly, the high and low months were not in sync among any of the markets. For example, the high point for advertising in Saudi Arabia was in July, while the high point for the UAE was in March. In terms of language used in advertising, OOX found that, while advertising campaigns in the UAE were more likely to use English for creative text on ads than campaigns in Saudi Arabia, there were more English campaigns and more English communication in campaigns in Saudi Arabia than in the UAE.

The representative then wrapped up by emphasizing that the 3 markets studied were all very different.

“Every market has its own mindset,” said the representative. “Every market has its own logic.”

Panel: Music & Digital Distribution

This panel was moderated by Eddy Maroun, the co-founder and CEO of Anghami, a Lebanon-based music streaming service. Focusing on the opportunities and challenges facing the music industry in the age of digital distribution, the session took the form of an interview given by Eddy to Claudius Boller, the Director of Digital Business, Business Development and Brand Relations at Universal Music MENA.

I will summarize the main points presented by Claudius for each major topic that arose.

Universal’s Acquisition of EMI

According to Claudius, while EMI was not very profitable, they had a huge catalog, including The Beatles and Coldplay. Some of EMI’s content had to be resold to Warner Music because of the U.S. Senate and the European Union’s regulations regarding monopolies.

However, Universal was able to obtain exclusive license for Warner Music content in the Middle East, representing them and taking care of monetizing Warner Music in the region.

The Importance of Digital Revenue

“From our perspective as a music label, digital is essential,” said Claudius. “It is very important. I can say that we increased our digital revenues in the three years that I’ve been with Universal Music massively, by three times.”

Claudius added that, while physical sales are still important, they are not a major money-generator. Likewise, while bands make most of their money from live concerts and music videos, this is not as important a source of revenue for Universal when compared to digital sales.

However, Claudius encouraged artists to think of digital distribution as an important promotional tool to gain traction for future releases.

Cooperating with YouTube

Claudius said that Google is an important platform for Universal, yet the Universal team has long felt that the money they earned from each music video shown on YouTube was not enough. This was one reason that Universal, Google, and several other major companies created the joint venture known as Vevo.

“We work with Google together on Vevo, but still there’s not enough money,” explained Claudius. “But you have to see that there is no big release without music videos. So we have to live with the fact that YouTube consumption and Vevo consumption is huge across the world. So, when artists come to us at the moment, show a great lead and their music’s great, they’re good singers, we have to talk about the video immediately.”

Claudius added that this is why YouTube videos from Universal Music artists like Rihanna, the Rolling Stones, and The Beatles include links to platforms like iTunes, Amazon, or Anghami—the goal to raise the viewer’s awareness of music services.

The Threat of Piracy

According to Claudius, the music industry is to blame for its own decline because the industry has not been able to monitor activity in other spaces, such as the digital realm.

“I see in Sudan there is illegal stores with CDs,” said Claudius. “No one actually bought a CD in their entire life, an official CD. And we can never win the race against piracy… if you want to have pirated music, you will always get it.”

However, in 2012, Claudius noted that industry revenues began growing once more. He said that the key to success is serving broadcasters and audiences by making access to music convenient. The peace of mind that comes from always having access to their favorite songs is something Universal can provide to music fans, but piraters can’t.

Getting Artists Involved in the Value Chain

Claudius encouraged artists to think of themselves as taking on some of the roles traditionally associated with a record label.

“They need to do their own social media,” said Claudius. “They need to do their own Facebook, being very creative.”

Essentially, the artist has to find their audience in order to eventually make money from brand ambassadors and sponsorships.

Finally, Claudius wrapped up by emphasizing that the key to digital distribution is introducing convenient options for accessing music to mobile users. By offering a free music service that offers some paid features (freemium), users can be gradually encouraged to become paid subscribers over the course of one year to several years. Thus, by combining advertising income and sponsorship, a free music service can maintain a balance between free users and paying users.

Claudius has envisioned a future where each music fan will have a music rights list that they can seamlessly access from any PC or other device, just by logging in.

“Convenience will win over clients,” he concluded.

Interview: Digital Luxury Brand Management

This session took the form of an interview between a moderator and Fatma Ghaly, the daughter of Azza Fahmy, best known for Azza Fahmy Jewelry. She is the current leader of the luxury brand, established in 1969, which launched a full e-commerce site in early 2013. In the next four years, Fatma believes online sales will make up six to eight percent of AFJ’s revenues.

Promoting the Website

Fatma started by discussing her focus on building AFJ’s Internet presence and driving traffic to fuel her site. Collaborations and partnerships with entities that already shared a market with AFJ have been key in driving relevant traffic, as opposed to traditional mass market advertisement. The Web platform has also provided a wealth of information on her customer base in ways that traditional advertising can’t match.

She said that running campaigns that can be easily adapted to both the online and offline worlds is essential. One of Azza Fahmy Jewelry’s biggest campaigns currently focuses on tagging and uploading photos on a social media outlet, but also writing notes to loved ones in their stores to be uploaded online. This has helped create “crisscross action” between the two worlds.

In terms of online promotions, Fatma said that they were an important tool for promoting online engagement, but that since AFJ is a luxury brand, she always had to be careful not to devalue the brand. Thus, the buy-one-get-one-free promotional ideas associated with pizza restaurants would not be appropriate.

“We sell art,” said Fatma. “You don’t give away art for free.”

Instead, AFJ has has run promotions that give away jewelry pouches or a free gift with a purchase, or the company’s book—always something far from the actual product.

Online Challenges

Fatma pointed out that a dichotomy exists between the accessibility of a website and the traditional inaccessibility of a luxury brand. She said that her focus has been on making AFJ a world-class company, not just an e-commerce site.

One challenge has been making shopping on the website similar to the experience of being in one of AFJ’s retail stores. For example, customers want to try on products before buying them, so she was initially concerned that customers would be turned off by shopping for high-end items online. She said that getting the products into stores, whether through “pop-up”/temporary stores or department stores, is a priority. Once people see and experience the product in person, they will go to the online store for more. Fatma is also hopeful that, with the advent of 3D printing, a better solution may be achieved.

The single greatest difficulty in taking AFJ online, however, was shipping. Fatma said that, since luxury jewelry is expensive, shipping problems could have spoiled the launch. However, once customers became more comfortable buying online, and saw how well the process worked, the results were worth it.

Panel: Emerging Commerce Platforms

This afternoon panel discussion focused on the experiences of 4 participants who had helped shape the e-commerce landscape in the region.

The participants were:

• Rabih Ghandour: founder of Wamli, an online social e-commerce site that sells “funky, cool gift products” and uses social platforms to let each user follow along with and share what their friends are buying

• Muhammad Chbib: co-founder and CEO of Citra Style, an online store featuring modest and stylish fashion designs made for Muslim women

• Fadi Dabbagh: the founder of Mistile, a platform for the sale of high-end luxury goods in many different categories

• Rania Kana’an: co-founder of Ananasa, an online marketplace for art designs from the Middle East that helps artists ship worldwide with no barriers

I will now briefly summarize the main topics of discussion that came up during this session:

Challenges in Regional Online Retail

Rania said that setting up shop in the Middle East as a region had its challenges, especially in terms of dealing with different countries’ rules and regulations. She mentioned being a big supporter of PayPal and said she hopes it will become more developed within the region. The other panelists mentioned customs exchanges and the reluctance within Arabic retail culture to make the transition to online business.

Online Advertising Platforms

When asked about using Facebook as an advertising platform, Muhammad mentioned that Citra Style generated a lot of buzz by collaborating with a woman who had gained a huge following by posting about fashion. Fadi said that flash sales are all about connecting the consumer with the opportunity to buy the next new thing, so social platforms are crucial.

Rabih said he had used a wide array of advertising platforms, including Twitter and Google. Not only do all of these platforms cost different amounts of money to use, but each one also produces different results in different countries and areas. His advice is to entrepreneurs was to stay close to the market and be ready to make adjustments.

Rania said that Ananasa had reached its current level of success partially through crowdfunding. The main problem that crowdfunding solves is bridging the gap between incubating the start-up and generating steady cash flow. She said that investors in the Middle East are not very eager to get involved with start-ups at that “gap” stage, but that crowdfunding provides an effective way to overcome that hurdle.

Fulfilling the Need to Haggle

Rania spoke about the experience of adding a bazaar feature to her e-commerce site. She found that her sellers were sometimes inexperienced, and allowing her customers to haggle over the price of goods was not only a great way to bring the offline experience online, but also allowed them to gain invaluable data on sales prices on specific items to further assist sellers.

Talk: Building Creative Communities by EyeEm

Finally, the last event of ArabNet Beirut 2014 before the closing Creative Combat and Awards Ceremony events featured Ramzi Rizk, co-founder and CEO of EyeEm. EyeEm is one of the world’s largest photo communities, as well as a social networking site for serious photographers that allows them to network and sell their photos.

How to Build an Online Community

Ramzi said that EyeEm is valuable because it is a real community, and that the first thing to know about building a community is that no one can actually do it.

He said that the following factors did help EyeEm progress from its first photo exhibit to the millions-strong community it is today:

• Transparency: EyeEm does a few things to set them apart as far as communicating with their users. They have terms of service in plain readable language, their users know everything that is going on, and their users have complete control over their profiles and photos. EyeEm never changes anything without talking to their users first.
• Approachability: EyeEm literally has an open-door policy. They regularly have members from all over the globe visiting Berlin to drop by their office. This shows users that they are valued and appreciated. It also allows users to communicate with management directly.
• Love: Ramzi and his team are running EyeEm because they are photographers. Their focus is on the people in the community, not “huge numbers.” The team has built something that they love, and it permeates through the product.

Ramzi said that everyone thinks that that point of startups is to build a company, grow it, and then sell it, but that is missing the mark. When the consumer sees that a team loves and cares about the community they are building, that community will flourish.

“How do you build and create a community?” asked Ramzi. “You really don’t. You actually find one and you join it. You find something that you love, you find something that you’re passionate about—in our case it was photography—and you just go in there, nurture it, support it, and try to grow.”

This final day of ArabNet stood out to me because of the diversity of stories and experiences presented by interviewees, panelists, and presenters. It was truly a reminder that there are many different paths to success.

I hope you have enjoyed my series on ArabNet Beirut. If you have not already done so, please take this opportunity to sign up for the ArabNet Digital Summit in Dubai through their official website. “Late Bird” registration is only open for two more days, and on-site admission is considerably more expensive, so don’t miss your chance.

Day 2 of ArabNet 2014: An Afternoon of Seeds, Bridges, and Growth

With the 2014 ArabNet Digital Summit in Dubai less than a week away, now is the perfect time to review the panels and talks from the last ArabNet session, which took place in Beirut.

ArabNet is the #1 event in the MENA region for digital creatives, with offerings for everyone from programmers to social media managers. If you have not done so already, feel free to review my other ArabNet Beirut summaries:

• Day 1: General summary
• Day 1: Summary of panel discussion on entrepreneurship
• Day 2: Summary of Ideathon and Startup Demo
• Day 2: Morning summary

This article will summarize the afternoon of the second day of ArabNet 2014, which presented thought-provoking opinions and information from a range of distinguished participants.

Panel: Supporting Seeds

This memorable panel discussion focused on supporting start-ups at the seed stage. The featured participants were Intigral’s Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development, Juan Jose de la Torre; Founder of Arabreneur and MENA Apps, Dr. Abdul Malik Al Jaber; and Eureeca’s Head of Strategy, Partnerships and Outreach, Joanne Kubba.

I will summarize each panelist’s main points below.

Juan Jose de la Torre

Juan Jose de la Torre, also known as J.J., is a 15-year telecom and media veteran who has worked for companies such as Orange, TeliaSonera, Etisalat, and Booz. He is also a seasoned entrepreneur who has successfully founded 3 start-ups. In the past two years, he has been working at Intigral, where he helped found Afkar, a fully-fledged product incubator for the MENA region.

J.J. explained that Afkar differentiates itself from other incubators by means of 4 unique value propositions, all of which are based on a year and a half of research into the needs of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists:

1. Actual money: Providing funding in exchange for revenue sharing (from gross profits) rather than taking equity
2. Access to revenue: Offering clear access to revenue for start-ups and adding each one to Akfar’s portfolio after product development so that the Afkar sales team may help all participating start-ups enter the market
3. Support: Covering all of the support and accommodations needed on a day-to-day basis, from logistics to office space
4. “Mini-MBA”: Getting to know start-ups, understanding their strengths, weaknesses, and areas in need of development, then taking the entrepreneurs behind them through a 3-month “mini-MBA” program to educate them and help them grow

J.J. also said that Afkar works with with start-ups in different phases, from those who just have a business plan to those who are already in the growth phase.

According to J.J, entrepreneurship is a state of mind.

“It’s really about you pursuing your dreams and pursuing them with a certain level of passion that you inject into what you do,” said J.J. “That injection basically lets you pursue an objective and keep going after it. That doesn’t mean that you’re going to keep your world hidden; that means that when the different obstacles come your way, you’re going to try to take them and basically surpass them.”

J.J. also said that each entrepreneur should take the time to select a team with a shared vision. An entrepreneur’s teammates should help the entrepreneur materialize their dream, provide a lift during hard times, and help overcome obstacles.

Finally, J.J. added that 100% of start-ups Afkar has invested in thus far have been run by women. He said that was a sign of great progress in the MENA market.

Dr. Abdul Malik Al Jaber

Dr. Abdul Malik Al Jaber is a Palestinian businessman who served as COO for Zain Group from March of 2010 to June of 2011. Since then, he has established two enterprises that specialize in supporting start-ups: MENA Apps and Arabreneur.

According to Abdul, Arab youth have the same potential as American and European youth, but have been hindered by what he called the “bad, corrupted, stupid governments” that some countries have had.

Next, Adbul said that MENA Apps and Arabreneur are not typical venture capital funds, accelerators, or incubators. He said that they focus on helping very early growth-stage start-ups in the following ways:

1. Investment: Investing about $50,000 per company
2. Hosting: Providing office space in the same building where Abdul and his colleagues work and cultivating a family environment
3. Hands-on mentorship: Discussing positioning, packaging, marketing, and pricing with each start-up, along with how to approach targeted customer segments
4. Opening doors: Making sure that appointments are scheduled and set to run with potential customers

More generally, Abdul said that he’s not concerned about exits, mergers, and acquisitions in the MENA region yet, because he feels these will come naturally once start-ups hit their potential. He said that the market has a lot to offer, and start-ups have an advantage in terms of market knowledge, allowing them to handle localization better than big players.

Furthermore, he said that the MENA region should avoid trying to duplicate Silicon Valley, a model that only works within the context of the advanced legal, financial, and entrepreneurial environment of the United States. For example, in the early stages of developing an entrepreneurial ecosystem, Abdul said it is usually unemployed people who submit ideas, and clueless investors who throw in money.

Only recently has the MENA ecosystem evolved enough for a dedicated entrepreneur to be willing to quit a well-paying job for an idea, and for countries like Kuwait and Omar to begin setting aside funds for start-ups. However, the legal framework in many countries, such as Jordan, still makes writing an effective contract and offering different share structures impossible, so there is still a lot of work ahead for the MENA region. Abdul said that he believes the major player in supporting entrepreneurship will remain the private sector, not the government, as the region moves toward the development of a true entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Interestingly enough, Abdul said that his team has heard pitches from all over the Arab world, yet the best ideas presented came from Gaza, despite the lack of Internet and 3G access. He said that when he entered Gaza, which he described as “almost a big prison,” in a partnership with Google, he was not even allowed to bring equipment.

“Sometimes when you have these difficult conditions, innovation is not a luxury,” said Abdul. “If you are not innovative, you die.”

According to Abdul, now some of the best entrepreneurs are coming from war-torn Syria, and being recruited by tech accelerator and investment company Oasis500.

“These are young entrepreneurs who lost their businesses, who lost their companies, and they’re starting from zero. Coming after they have been successful running a factory, or owning a factory, owning something—they come to Jordan as refugees, they have nothing, and they are starting with this new desire to rebuild their lives.”

Finally, Abdul emphasized that he has seen truly original ideas coming out of the Arab world. He said that now, working with entrepreneurs, he has much more hope for the future than when he was “working the corporate life.”

Joanne Kubba

Joanna Kubba is Google’s former Head of Public Affairs for the MENA region. One of the first people to work for Google in the region, she started out working from home, handling various major business functions herself. Since then, she’s moved on to Eureeca, where she is Head of Partnership, Outreach, and Strategy for the global crowdinvesting platform.

Joanne said that Eureeca was started by two guys who wanted to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which are crucial to creating jobs in any economy, by creating the first global crowdinvesting platform.

According to Joanne, crowdinvesting is distinguished from crowdfunding, as seen on Kickstarter and Indiegogo, by the following main features:

1. Crowdinvesting offers financing for entire companies, while crowdfunding offers financing for specific projects only
2. Crowdinvesting provides funders equity or shares in each business they invest in, while Kickstarter and Indiegogo generally reward backers with goods or services

According to Joanne, crowdinvesting gives entrepreneurs the chance to leverage their networks, including online social networks. It also lowers barriers to entry for investors, allowing people who only have $100 available for investment to participate. Joanne has found that the average investment during one of Eureeca’s online 90-day funding proposal periods is $5,000.

“It empowers and democratizes investments,” said Joanne, speaking of Eureeca’s platform.

Joanne also said that Eureeca looks at businesses from all sectors and parts of the world, focusing on young, established companies rather than fresh start-ups.

“They say true innovation and real economy change takes place at the growth level, not necessarily at the super-early or later stages, but kind of that key middle phase that a lot of people don’t tend to pay attention to.”

According to Joanne, the role of the university in fostering innovation is also extremely important around the world. Without knowledge and proper research and development, people will only copy each other. Another problem is that people who aren’t privileged enough to enjoy familiarity with the world of entrepreneurship don’t know how to enter it. That’s why Eureeca is working with universities and other organizations to teach people about the options available for turning ideas into businesses through a transparent system that shows average people how they can become entrepreneurs or investors. She said that incubators and accelerators can’t spread this knowledge alone, but need to work to push the entire system forward.

Finally, Joanne said it was exciting that about 80% of SMEs that have raised money on Eureeca have been female-run. She said she feels inspired by the “powerful and practical” women at ArabNet who are, as Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg might say, “leaning in” at the global negotiation table. Joanne anticipates growing female involvement in entrepreneurship in the future as more women with drive and motivation enter the field.

Panel: Building Bridges (MENA to Silicon Valley)

This session featured the story and opinions of Nima Adelkhani, the founder of PITME, a social impact organization aimed at linking Middle Eastern start-ups to Silicon Valley resources.

According to Nima, early inspiration for PITME came from watching the 2005 film Kingdom of Heaven. The story focuses on a blacksmith who participates in the 12th century Crusades. Just before dying, the protagonist’s father tells the hero to create a “kingdom of heaven” where Muslims and Christians live in peace. Being the half-Iranian, half-German son of a Christian mother and Muslim father, Nima “got goosebumps” at the thought that this could also be his mission.

The idea for his organization’s name came when Nima saw a friend sign an e-mail with the acronym PITME, standing for Peace In The Middle East. Finally, when he went on his first trip to the MENA region with his fiancé, he had an epiphany and began asking himself what he could do to change the world.

On his 35th birthday, he left a successful job as the Vice President of Business Development for an e-commerce startup called Keen Systems to grab a flight to the Middle East. After seeing Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Beirut, and Cairo, he thought of setting up a growth-stage, $70 million dollar venture fund. But, after 10 days of silent meditation, he decided to focus on peace through technology, reeducation, and mentorship, leveraging the relationships he had already built through years of work with the Silicon Valley-based Founder Institute.

After telling his story, Nima “busted myths” circulating about Silicon Valley, such as:

Myth: You just need to show up in Silicon Valley, give a nice presentation, and you’ll get a check.
Reality: Getting funding is never that easy for entrepreneurs!

Myth: Outsourcing works.
Reality: Entrepreneurs will end up rebuilding whatever they outsource in order to fine-tune it.

Myth: MENA companies can raise money by pushing for introductions to Silicon Valley investors.
Reality: There are many barriers between MENA entrepreneurs and Silicon Valley investors, including culture, distance, and lack of an existing relationship. That’s why PITME does not allow entrepreneurs within the program to approach mentors for funding.

“If you ask for money you get advice, and when you ask for advice you get money,” said Nima.

Instead, within the PITME program, entrepreneurs are encouraged to build relationships with mentors, then allow those mentors to decide whether to fund them or introduce them to others without a sales pitch.

Myth: The developer or developers need to be present when fundraising.
Reality: To be cost-effective, only the founder or co-founder should go on fundraising trips to the U.S. If the start-up’s team is good, they will be able to achieve results from home, especially with a strong Vice President of Engineering helping translate vision into product.

Myth: A lifestyle business isn’t worth an entrepreneur’s time.
Reality: While it is true that a lifestyle business isn’t considered fundable in the U.S., Nima says that lifestyle businesses are “exactly what the region needs to create jobs” in the Middle East. Although a non-scalable business doesn’t lead to huge profits for investors, it still gives the entrepreneur a chance to build a good business, hire people, and follow their passion.

Myth: A start-up is a bigger commitment than marriage.
Reality: Nima said this one is true! He joked that he is getting divorced thanks to ArabNet. According to Nima, a start-up is a 10-year commitment where investors can divorce the entrepreneur, but the entrepreneur can’t divorce the investors, as seen in cases where a founder is fired from their own company. He said that the average marriage in California lasts 3.4 years, so a start-up is 3 times the commitment of a marriage!

Myth: Angels invest money.
Reality: “When they do give you money, it’s a convertible note, so they’re actually just loaning you money,” expained Nima. “The idea is, if you make it to the next milestone, you get a discount as well, then they become investors.”

Until then, Nima said, angel investors are really just sharing your loan.

Myth: Marketing works.
Reality: “I have a marketing degree and I totally feel that marketing is fluff,” said Nima.

According to Nima, making large marketing expenditures is basically telling an investor that you’re going to give their money to Facebook and Google. From the investor’s perspective, they might as well buy stock in Facebook and Google instead because they will make more money than the start-up.

Nima said that the key to success for new start-ups, seed stage companies, and early-stage companies is to figure out how to market organically until significant revenues are available and ads have been optimized.

Myth: Investors are very smart.
Reality: Investors are not as smart as entrepreneurs think, but they have learned to trust their pattern-recognition abilities.

Nima believes that the main factors that influence an investor’s decision to provide funding are luck, timing, and the “gut feeling” the investor has when meeting the entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs listen to a lot of pitches and learn to understand patterns, picking out opportunities that stand out based on their experiences.

Myth: Distribution is more valuable than market.
Reality: This “myth” is actually true, according to Nima.

“The biggest thing you can do is figure out how to transfer the burden of distribution,” said Nima.

Nima said that, while a $100,000 investment will run out in 3 or 4 months, a distribution agreement can be the key to real success.

After a brief question-and-answer session with audience members, the moderator thanked Nima for his participation and Nima received a strong round of applause.

The State and Growth of Digital Advertising by Ipsos

At 5 p.m., toward the end of the second day, a representative from Ipsos, a global market research company and the leading research agency in the MENA region, provided an update on Internet and smartphone penetration in the area over the past year. This update was based on interviews with 25,928 people from 9 MENA countries.

Ipsos’ research found that the following increased from 2012 to 2013 in all MENA countries surveyed:

• Internet penetration
• Smartphone penetration
• Social network penetration
• Active daily users on social networks
• Content streaming

The following either increased or remained stable from 2012 to 2013 in all countries surveyed:

• Online streaming and online downloads
• Electronic game penetration

To list just a few specific examples, Saudi Arabia experienced the following increases:

• Increase in Internet penetration from 60% to 82%
• Increase in consumption of streamed content from 51% to 63% (among Internet users)
• Increase in mobile Internet access from 71% to 84% (among smartphone users)

To learn more of what Ipsos’ research uncovered, watch this slide deck.

Seeds, bridges, and growth can all be symbols of hope and opportunity, and they certainly were on the second day of ArabNet Beirut. This sense of optimism shone through the new incubators and platforms nurturing budding start-ups in the MENA region, Nima’s dream of building a bridge of opportunity across the oceans and cultures, and even the number of Arabs who are now connected to the world’s greatest information and communication resources. These opportunities could hardly be imagined even 20 years ago, and I believe the entrepreneurs they help create will bring innovations we can hardly imagine now.

Please check back here for further information on ArabNet Beirut 2014, and please be sure to sign up for the ArabNet Digital Summit in Dubai before “Late Bird” registration closes.

Day 2 of ArabNet 2014: Morning Announcements Reveal New Opportunities for Entrepreneurs

If you are planning to attend the ArabNet Digital Summit in Dubai this June, it’s helpful to review what happened at this year’s ArabNet Beirut so you can know what to expect. ArabNet is the major event in the MENA region for digital creative professionals, so if you are a developer, artist, freelancer, investor, or entrepreneur interested in Web design, mobile or Web development, e-commerce, Internet marketing, content creation, or related fields, ArabNet is the perfect chance to geek out.

I recommend starting by reading my summary of highlights from Day 1 of ArabNet 2014, which included information on entrepreneurial ecosystems, development tools, psychological Web design, and Arabic typography.

This article summarizes the morning sessions of the second day of ArabNet Beirut, which featured the Ideathon and Startup Demo, as well as 3 major announcements of interest to every Lebanon-based entrepreneur.

Ideathon and Startup Demo

Two well-known ArabNet events, Ideathon and Startup Demo, gave a total of 18 entrepreneurs the chance to present pitches that ranged from introducing ideas to making a case for existing start-ups. To give each presentation the attention it deserves, please read my separate summary of ArabNet Beirut’s 18 innovative pitches.

Interview with Marianne Hoayek, Executive Director at the Executive Office Unit of the Central Bank of Lebanon

After the Ideathon and a quick coffee break came an interview with Marianne Hoayek, Executive Director at the Executive Office Unit of the Central Bank of Lebanon, that focused on the entrepreneurship funding solution known as circular 331.

Circular 331 allows the Central Bank of Lebanon to guarantee $400 million at 75% for Lebanese banks to make equity investments in start-ups, accelerators, incubators, and entrepreneurship funds.

Marianne made the following main points about circular 331:

• Circular 331 is meant to boost competition in Lebanon by supporting entrepreneurs and creating new job opportunities for Lebanese youth
• The funds will be available to Lebanese companies headquartered in Lebanon that mostly operate in Lebanon
• Circular 331 could boost Lebanon’s GDP by 1%

Finally, Marianne said that start-ups and entrepreneurship-focused funds in Lebanon should approach banks directly to make use of circular 331’s offerings, since the Central Bank is backing the funds, not distributing them.

Announcement by Walid Hanna, Managing Partner of Middle East Venture Partners

Immediately following the interview with Marianne came an announcement by Walid Hanna, Managing Partner of Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP). Walid said that his team recently put together a 50-million dollar fund with the help of circular 331’s offerings, along with 8 Lebanese banks and 15 investors, most of whom were from the GCC countries.

According to Walid, Middle East Venture Partners has already made investments ranging from half a million to one million dollars in 21 companies total, creating 150 new jobs.

The 6 latest start-ups to receive investment from Middle East Venture Partners are as follows:

• Fadel Partners: An eastern Lebanese company that focuses on global sales of IT management software; U.S. is a major buyer
• Potential: A training program for businesses, mostly based in Dubai
• Apstrata (Alamanta): A back-end-as-a-service provider that gives mobile app developers the APIs they need to develop and launch apps
• Instabug: a bug-reporting tool for apps
• Lamsa: a children’s entertainment app that offers interactive stories, games, art, rhymes, and learning opportunities for Arabic-speaking children
• Bnooki: a price comparison website for financial services

Then, Walid said that Middle East Venture Partners is planning to make even bigger investments in fields such as ICT, energy, and fashion. However, MEVP is only interested in companies that started in Lebanon and have a regional or global market.

Finally, Walid encouraged high-impact Lebanese entrepreneurs in need of equity to contact Middle East Venture Partners.

Announcement by Rabih Nassar, CEO of Apstrata

Next, the founder and CEO of Apstrata, Rabih Nassar, spoke on behalf of Touch, one of two major mobile developers in Lebanon. Touch has recently launched an initiative to empower app developers, built over Apstrata’s technology.

Touch’s initiative features the following:

• The Touch API, available from touch.com.lb, which provides developers the fundamental back-end Web services needed to power their apps, along with core network APIs
• The Touch app store, which allows developers to publish their apps in a local app store in Lebanon where users can buy and download apps without using a credit card
• A soon-to-be-launched app builder that will allow non-programmers to create mobile apps by dragging-and-dropping different components, then let them publish these apps in app stores
• Touch Cloud’s Direct Operator Billing API, which will allow mobile phone users to pay for apps or in-app purchases by charging to their next phone bill or deducting from their top-up credit

According to Rabih, this initiative will help Lebanon leverage everything from its nearly universal mobile penetration to circular 331’s offerings to the country’s budding entrepreneurial and high-tech ecosystem.

It’s clear that Lebanese entrepreneurs have a lot of opportunities ahead of them. I would like to see Saudi Arabia follow Lebanon’s example with improved access to funding for start-ups and greater opportunities for developers in the fast-growing mobile sector.

Please check back soon for a summary of the afternoon sessions of the second day of ArabNet Beirut, which featured guests like Intigral’s Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development, Juan Jose de la Torre; Arabreneur and MENA Apps Founder Dr. Abdul Malik Al Jaber; Eureeca’s Head of Strategy, Partnerships and Outreach, Joanne Kubba; PITME Founder Nima Adelkhani; and a representative from Ipsos, the leading research agency in the MENA region.

Osama Natto Shortlisted for G20 Young Entrepreneurs’ Alliance Summit 2014

I have been shortlisted for participation in the G20 Young Entrepreneurs’ Alliance Summit (G20YEA) this year in Sydney, Australia. This event will take place from July 18 through 22.

G20YEA is a collective of top entrepreneurship support organizations representing G20 countries who wish to promote youth entrepreneurship, especially as a solution to youth unemployment. For a look at what to expect, please read my summary of the first day of the G20 Young Entrepreneur Summit from 2012, held in Mexico City.

For more information about G20YEA, please visit G20YEA.com, and check out the hashtag #G20YEA on Twitter.

18 Innovative Pitches from the Second Day of ArabNet Beirut 2014

This is the third article in a series covering ArabNet Beirut 2014, the most recent ArabNet conference. ArabNet is, in my opinion, the only worthwhile conference in the region for developers, investors, and entrepreneurs in the fields of mobile, Web, e-commerce, and content creation to attend.

The second day of ArabNet Beirut included, among many other attractions, 18 creative entrepreneurial pitches by entrepreneurs with different levels of experience. This post will summarize each pitch.

First, at an 11:30 a.m. session, came the Ideathon pitches. As the name implies, this event featured pitches for entrepreneurial ideas that had not yet come together as start-ups. The Ideathon format provided 3 minutes of valuable stage time to 9 entrepreneurs.

The first pitch was for Instalist, an app described as “Instagram for classifieds.” With Instalist, users will be able to browse classified ads by scrolling through a simple, visual interface that will emphasize photos of the items or properties up for sale or rent.

Next up was House Styles, a service that aims to simplify architecture for renters. House Styles will use digital modeling to help users choose apartment layouts.

Afterward came Fairy.li, a social discovery and suggestion engine. Fairy.li will allow the user to enter general information about themselves, such as their office location, favorite hangouts, lunch spots, and weekend hobbies, and also collect this information from each user’s social media profiles. It will then allow users to find each other based on these day-to-day commonalities.

Next up was Lifeline, a mobile app for off-duty emergency personnel. After downloading Lifeline, each first responder’s phone will connect them to the emergency chamber, allowing them to be dispatched to the nearest emergency whenever first aid is needed.

Another socially-focused pitch was for DeeDream, an online fundraising platform that will give users the chance to win prizes while supporting humanitarian causes, starting at the $5-donation mark. 85% of proceeds will go to charity.

The pitch that followed was for U3abber, an online database that will connect users with life coaches, therapists, and mental health professionals. On this website, each user will be able to communicate with a life coach or mental health professional through messaging, voice messaging, or video conferencing. Communications will be private, or if the user wishes, can even be anonymous.

Next in line was Turny, a queuing app and website that will allow users to check the status of any queue remotely, as long as the business or office in question has signed up with Turny. It will also allow users to join the queue remotely, letting each one step in when their turn comes.

Along the same vein as Lifeline, My Herooz will be an augmented reality platform that seeks to connect people who need help with those who can provide it, but with a focus on average people instead of first responders. My Herooz will be set up as a gamified platform where users can both seek assistance and provide assistance to others on problems ranging from car trouble to math homework, earning achievements and rewards along the way.

Next came DeRecipe, an online platform for connecting designers with the resources they need, such as printing presses, executors, and suppliers. Among other interactive features, designers will be able to view and rate the profiles and portfolios of resource providers.

Wrapping up the pitches, ر م ا ز is a service that will help people learn to code in Arabic. ر م ا ز will teach Arabic programming through a three-step strategy that can be summarized as “see, learn, do.”

The Ideathon event ended with the moderator announcing that 2 out of last year’s 3 Ideathon winners are now running businesses, one of which was accelerated by SeedStartup and granted its first round of funding.

The next pitching session, entitled Startup Demo, ran from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. This session featured 9 start-ups that were already and up and running, but sought funding to fuel further growth.

The first pitch was for a social organization app named Kablaow. Kablaow allows contact information to be simultaneously traded between smartphones using the front camera, automatically tags contacts entered according to the time and place they were added, and groups all conversations according to sender regardless of the medium through which they were sent.

Next came Crowd Analyzer, a social media monitoring platform that tracks and analyzes what users are saying about brands. Crowd Analyzer can read different dialects of Arabic, detect whether social media posts have a positive, negative, or neutral connotation, and distinguish words that are spelled the same way, but have different meanings.

The next app, Smart Document Scanner, turns each user’s smartphone into a scanner that creates cropped, digitally-enhanced PDFs out of any document photographed. SD Scanner also automatically backs up each document, gives the user the option of syncing it with Google Drive, and employs a multi-level file storage system.

Back in the B2B sector, the pitch for a digital marketing platform called Ta3rifah offered businesses the chance to target customer segments as well as track and analyze customer behavior through a 360° dashboard. Customers gain the benefit of promotions customized for them, while companies are able to target and communicate with each customer directly.

Another ambitious pitch was that of Sohati.com, an Arab health care portal that provides physician-verified medical content and an online patient-doctor interaction platform. These interactions can take place through e-mail, live chat, or video. Demand for online interaction has been especially high among patients seeking help in the fields of gynecology, sexology, and psychiatry.

Next up was Fashion Encore, an online marketplace that not only allows users to buy and sell used clothing, jewelry, and accessories online, but checks items to see if they are in good condition and authenticates all high-end pieces. Users can search by brand name, condition, size, color, and material, as well as ask sellers questions, require details that verify authenticity, and request discounts.

Another marketplace facilitator, Handasiyat.net, focuses on making remote engineering support services more accessible and affordable in the region through an all-female team of more than 9,000 engineers. Handasiyat is particularly focused on construction projects, but can provide engineering solutions in a variety of fields.

Along the same lines as Fashion Encore, Mini Exchange is an online consignment store that allows parents to buy and sell used children’s clothing, accessories, fancy dress outfits, and school uniforms that have been examined for quality. However, Mini Exchange also takes care of the task of photographing, describing, listing, warehousing, and shipping on behalf of the seller. It also allows sellers to direct proceeds to the charitable causes they care about.

Last but not least was Limo ‘N Taxi, a cloud-based tracking and dispatching system for taxi, limousine, shuttle, and delivery companies that just needs to be installed as an app on each driver’s mobile phone. Limo ‘N Taxi includes solutions for customer data management, booking, reservations, manual and automatic dispatching, and unlimited free messaging through a dedicated messaging service.

Seeing a pattern? These pitches focused on using apps or websites to improve the lives of people in the region, often by connecting people in the ways they need most. Listening to these pitches, it seems our greatest resource is each other, and technology’s role is to remove barriers to communication so that we can fully utilize this resource.

If you liked this post, please check back as the series on ArabNet 2014 continues. You can also check out @ArabNetME on Twitter. Additionally, now is the time to register for the ArabNet Digital Summit in Dubai this June.

Finally, if you have an innovative start-up pitch to share with me, please submit your pitch today.

ArabNet 2014 Panel Discussion: Developing an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

As discussed in my previous article, Day 1 of ArabNet 2014: Entrepreneurial Ecosystems, Arabic Typography, Development Tools, and Psychological Web Design, the first day of this year’s ArabNet Beirut conference included a panel discussion that led to a rich dialogue on how to develop an entrepreneurial ecosystem in the MENA region.

I would like to use this opportunity to give my point of view on the topics that came up in this discussion. If you have already read my full summary of the first day of ArabNet 2014, you can just skip ahead to each analysis section.

The need for regulatory development in the MENA region.

Summary:
Many panelists said that the region’s underdeveloped regulatory system was a major barrier to progress.

Necessary changes brought up by panelists included:

• Simplifying and speeding up the process of starting a business
• Simplifying and speeding up the process of getting work visas
• Enabling different stock options, such as preferred shares
• Protecting board members from facing imprisonment if the founder of a company messes up

Comments:
I agree that all of the changes brought up by panelists would help establish a healthy entrepreneurial ecosystem in the region. The pressing need for regulatory development is a topic I have covered in previous posts, particularly Grading the Saudi Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: A Report Card by ICT Veteran Barig Siraj.

That said, I don’t think this is an especially productive topic for entrepreneurs in the region to focus on. If we wait for regulatory changes to be handed down to us, we will remain frozen for a very long time. We need to find ways to work around the underdeveloped regulatory system, such as establishing a headquarters in another region and coming back to set up sales offices in this region. Complaining doesn’t earn money.

The ethics of foreign venture-builders that fund copycat start-ups.

Summary:
This part of the ArabNet panel discussion focused on foreign venture-building organizations that take business models popular in very well-developed regions and fund the creation of copycats in the MENA region, typically by training and launching entrepreneurs under stressful conditions. Rocket Internet was the big example here.

The optimistic side of the discussion focused on:

• The fact that these organizations are training locals
• The inevitability of some of these trained locals filtering into the job market with profitable skills

The other side of the discussion emphasized:

• The lack of originality found in the start-ups these organizations create
• The idea that this high-pressure training is focused on statistical success, not helping each entrepreneur succeed
• Foreign organizations’ lack of patience and familiarity with the region

Comments:
Since this discussion focused so much on Rocket Internet, I have to say that, whether you love them or hate them, you can’t deny that they have helped create more entrepreneurs in this region. I’m glad that people in the discussion acknowledged this.

That said, I’ve heard complaints about Rocket Internet from locals wherever I’ve traveled, from Saudi Arabia to Dubai to Egypt to Lebanon, and even in the organization’s hometown, Berlin. Businesspeople have told me that Rocket Internet has poor business ethics, fires people overnight, closes companies and leaves people jobless in a flash, uses ideas pitched to them without hiring or investing in the entrepreneur who pitched to them, and so on.

But I don’t believe in judging people or organizations until I have personal experience with them. That’s why when Rocket Internet recently contracted me, I met with their people in Jeddah, even though others told me not to. We followed up through phone and e-mail, too.

They wanted me to join a newly-established Saudi venture as a co-founder. Even though the opportunity was very lucrative, I was worried that it would distract me from my ultimate mission: building a billion-dollar Saudi start-up, creating 10 Saudi brands, and developing 100 Saudi entrepreneurs.

In the end, the opportunity didn’t pan out. Maybe they saw that I was moving in a different direction and thought I wouldn’t be right for the job, or maybe when I stopped following up, they thought I wasn’t serious.

Either way, I was relieved that I wouldn’t have to deal with backlash from Saudi entrepreneurs saying that I had joined the dark side of Internet businesses in the MENA region or saying that I had sold my noble mission out.

The truth is that no matter who I work with, my goal for creating an entrepreneurial Saudi Arabia will come first. I hope that this is true for other entrepreneurs in the region as well.

The lack of profitable exit strategies in the region.

Summary:
Several panelists agreed that few entrepreneurs cash out successfully in the MENA region.

The following were cited as areas of the business environment that need to develop in order to facilitate exit strategies:

• A merger and acquisition market within the region
• A true market for ideas
• More companies that are dominant in their niche
• More companies that define their customer base and exit plan from the start
• More companies that appeal to existing big players’ pain points, growth plans, and/or interests
• More companies willing to invest in growing themselves past the $30 million mark

Comments:
As you can see, most of the factors needed to facilitate exit strategies require business owners to have a start-up mindset, which few in this region do. Choosing a niche to dominate, defining a customer base, selecting an exit plan, appealing to big players, and investing in big growth all from the beginning requires the kind of entrepreneurial point of view that most people never even learn about.

In Saudi Arabia, for example, most new entities are opened as microbusinesses, small businesses, or businesses in traditional Saudi fields, such as construction or manufacturing. You can read more about how those types of businesses differ from true start-ups in Why Start-Ups Don’t Get Funding in Saudi Arabia.

This is a problem that will resolve organically once there are more successful start-ups in the region to lure in rich, traditional businessmen to invest outside of traditional fields. Entrepreneurs will take graceful exits when money is being thrown their way. We just need to create successful start-ups and entrepreneurs worth throwing money at.

How to improve accelerators.

Summary:
The Deputy Director of a relatively new accelerator asked for advice on what regional accelerators should do next.

Participants advised this director, and accelerators in general, to focus on the following areas:

• Training people
• Bringing in people who can scale up a business
• Providing accurate metrics to participants and investors
• Providing access to an excellent mentor network of entrepreneurs and angel investors

Comments:
Now that I am running AccMakk, an accelerator program closely tied to Umm Al-Qura University, these issues are on my mind every day.

I believe that AccMakk is following the advice given above, especially in terms of training university students to manage entrepreneurial projects and teaching them the importance of scalability. AccMakk is also striving to link the 40+ separate entrepreneurship programs in Saudi Arabia, thereby giving participants access to the largest network of entrepreneurs and angel investors the kingdom has to offer.

Overall, the ArabNet panelists that participated in this session were excited about improvements in the region’s budding entrepreneurial ecosystem, and so am I. Entrepreneurship in the region is still far from where I believe it should be, but the past four years have brought serious improvements. I believe we will see still more progress in the next few years as the entrepreneurial ecosystem begins to bloom.

Osama Natto to Speak at IDBG Youth Entrepreneurship Forum on June 23

On June 23, I will participate in a session of the Islamic Development Bank Group’s 3rd IDB Annual Youth Development Forum entitled “Selected Success Stories of Young Entrepreneurs from the IDB Member Countries.” This session is slated to run from 10:15 to 11:00 a.m.

My story will be one of three “success stories of young entrepreneurs” featured.

The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) is a multilateral development financing institution with headquarters in Jeddah.

The 3rd IDB Annual Youth Development Forum, entitled “Youth Entrepreneurship: From Job Seekers to Job Creators,” is slated to run from 8:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Sessions will cover topics ranging from the challenges of youth entrepreneurship to opportunities for young entrepreneurs.

This conference will be held in the Al-Qasr Hall A at the Hilton Hotel on North Corniche Road in Jeddah. Expected attendance is between 150 and 200 guests.

Young entrepreneurs and business students are welcome. Although the language of this conference will be English, simultaneous interpretation will be provided in Arabic and French.

For more information regarding this event, please contact Associate Relationship Manager Bandar Alhoweish.

Day 1 of ArabNet 2014: Entrepreneurial Ecosystems, Arabic Typography, Development Tools, and Psychological Web Design

As we are approaching this year’s ArabNet Digital Summit in Dubai, I thought I should share what happened at the latest ArabNet session, which took place in Beirut.

ArabNet is the one of the most important events in the region for digital creative professionals. The conference features workshops, talks, interviews, and panels on the latest topics in the Web industry, from coding to elements of design.

I have said and tweeted this many times, but I believe that ArabNet is the only conference in the Arab world that is truly worthwhile for developers, investors, and entrepreneurs in the fields of mobile, Web, e-commerce, and content to attend. And I say this having attended most of the others.

Yet, at ArabNet Beirut this year, I hardly saw any participants from GCC countries. It was just the CEO of GlueTube, based in Jeddah, and myself. At previous ArabNet conferences, there were many people from GCC countries participating as entrepreneurs, developers, sponsors, and even speakers. Some said this absence was caused by the political unrest in Lebanon, while others said it was because ArabNet Riyadh and the ArabNet Digital Summit in Dubai soaked up the GCC audience.

No matter what the reason, ArabNet Beirut produced interesting insights that I hope I can bring back to Saudi Arabia through a series of related articles over the next month.

Although the first of day of ArabNet 2014 was filled with talks, workshops, and a few breaks from 8 a.m. straight through 4:30 p.m., this article will focus on the events from the first day that were most memorable to me.

“Lightning Talks” Sessions

The “Lightning Talks” event was among the most information-packed of the first day. Each featured a very short presentation by an expert focused on a specific topic.

Psychological Elements of Web Design

In the first lightning talk, a designer named Myrrha discussed the psychological elements of Web design.

Her recommendations for Web designers were:

• Limit choices and calls to action to keep the user motivated to act.
• Emphasize headlines and captions, which allow the user to consume information quickly and easily.
• Focus on design and text decisions that inspire trust in order to ease the user’s fears.
• Ensure the user can see progress toward their goal, such as where they are in the checkout process.

Myrrha closed by saying that small details make a big difference to site users.

GreenSock Animation Platform vs. CSS Animations

In the second lightning talk, a developer named Simon discussed the following benefits of using the free, open-source GreenSock Animation Platform (GSAP), a platform based on Javascript, instead of the trendier CSS animations for browser animations:

1. Independent manipulation: Unlike CSS animation, GSAP allows for independent scale, rotation, and position control.
2. Hardware acceleration: Both CSS and GSAP can escalate processes to the GPU in order to go faster.
3. Control in general: GSAP allows animations to easily be reversed, restarted, forwarded, sped up, and slowed down, also unlike CSS keyframe animation.
4. Workflow: GSAP allows you to nest animations inside of other animations, utilize callbacks, and know when an animation starts, updates, completes, and repeats, while CSS3 does not.
5. Compatibility: CSS3 animations aren’t compatible with Internet Explorer without special tweaks, but GSAP is natively compatible with IE.
6. Effects: Unlike with GSAP, CSS3 limits you to physics-based motion. You can’t animate along a curve, animate the scroll position, or utilize animation attributes with CSS3, but you can with GSAP.

Finally, Simon encouraged audience members to always test technologies themselves to find a good fit for each project.

Back-End Scaling on a Budget

In the third lightning talk, a business founder named Joubran recommended the following strategies for back-end scaling:

1. Choose a scalable Web server, such as Nginx, that can handle numerous concurrent users.
2. Use a reverse cache proxy, such as Varnish or Nginx, to serve a cache version of each requested page to the user, which allows delivery to occur up to 1,000 times faster.
3. Use a queuing service, such as Gearman or RAS, to queue jobs that could cause a delay for the site user, such as sending the user an e-mail through a third-party API service.

According to Joubran, these solutions are all compatible with a limited budget.

Advantages of Django

The final lightning talk was presented by a developer named Eyad and covered the following advantages of the Django web framework:

1. Since Django is written in the programming language Python, which emphasizes readability, it is easy for both new and experienced programmers to work with.
2. As it is open-source, Django has an active community behind it.
3. Django comes with all of the expected components of a modern web framework, such as templates, user creation, sessions, etc.
4. This framework is easy to personalize: you can extend what you like and ignore or replace what you don’t.
5. Many helpful third-party apps exist to extend Django, facilitating tasks such as API creation.

Eyad closed by emphasizing that organizations from Instagram to Mozilla to ArabNet have successfully used Django. He advised the audience to visit djangoproject.com, or, for third parties, djangopackages.com.

Panel Discussion on Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

Another memorable event on ArabNet’s opening day was a panel-based discussion that led to such a rich dialogue on promoting entrepreneurial ecosystems that I plan to dedicate a separate blog post to it.

Here are some of the points that came up most often during this discussion:

1. The need for regulatory development in the MENA region.

Many panelists said that the region’s underdeveloped regulatory system was a major barrier to progress.

Necessary changes brought up by panelists included:

• Simplifying and speeding up the process of starting a business
• Simplifying and speeding up the process of getting work visas
• Enabling different stock options, such as preferred shares
• Protecting board members from facing imprisonment if the company founder messes up.

2. The ethics of foreign venture-builders, such as Rocket Internet, that fund copycat start-ups.

This discussion focused on foreign venture-building organizations that take business models popular in regions with well-developed business environments and fund the creation of copycats in the MENA region, typically by training and launching entrepreneurs under stressful conditions. Rocket Internet was the major example.

The more optimistic side of this argument discussed the benefit that these organizations provide to the region by training locals, some of whom become successful within the companies that are funded and others which filter into the job market with profitable skills.

Arguments against these organizations focused on their lack of originality, high-pressure training, focus on statistical success rather than emphasis on helping individual entrepreneurs succeed, and lack of patience and familiarity with the region.

3. The lack of profitable exit strategies in the region.

Several panelists agreed that few entrepreneurs cash out successfully in the MENA region.

The following were cited as areas of the business environment that need to develop in order to facilitate exit strategies:

• Merger and acquisition market within the region
• True market for ideas
• More companies that are dominant in their niche
• More companies that define their customer base and exit plan from the start
• More companies that appeal to existing big players’ pain points, growth plans, and/or interests
• More companies willing to invest in growing themselves past the $30 million mark

4. How to improve accelerators.

Toward the end of the session, the Deputy Director of a relatively new accelerator asked for advice on what regional accelerators should do next.

Panelists advised accelerators to focus on the following areas:

• Training people
• Bringing in people who can scale a business
• Providing accurate metrics to participants and investors
• Providing access to an excellent mentor network of entrepreneurs and angel investors

The session closed with panelists expressing excitement about improvements in the region, especially growth coming from the spread of knowledge and information, improved access to funding, and technological progress.

Arabic Typography on the Web and Mobile Apps

Finally, a workshop titled Typography in Web & Mobile was memorable to me, perhaps because one of the apps I co-founded, ShopMate, was publicly reviewed there! It was hosted by Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès, Founding Creative Director of the Khatt Foundation, and Fawzi Rahal (@fawzirahal), Founder and Managing Partner at gamutt.

The workshop covered the following topics:

1. Improving legibility for screen-based Arabic type.

• What people read best is what they are used to reading, so change to type should be incremental
• Unlike with books, screen-based type must be designed for fast reading on small surfaces (laptop, iPad, etc.
• As with road signs, type that is too light or thin will seem to fade
• Type should also not be exaggeratedly bold, as that will make letters seem to close up, becoming less distinguishable
• Type should not have unnecessary, calligraphic, or ornamental details
• Type should be horizontally and vertically compact (e.g. ascenders and descenders as short as possible, no long kashidas, etc.)
• Type strokes should have fairly even thickness

2. Using type to organize information.

• Mixing type styles can help create hierarchy, but care must be taken to do so in a logical way (one font for headlines, another for body text, etc.)
• Mixing font weights and sizes can also organize information
• Using color for headlines is another classic organizational strategy

3. Appropriate use of color in typography.

• Typeface should always contrast with background (e.g. dark font, light background)
• Light or white font or a dark or black background appears bolder, so a thinner font should be used
• Dark or black font on a light or white background appears lighter, so a thicker font should be used
• Color can be used to create mood and send signals (pink for femininity, blue for masculinity, or a mix of primarily colors for child-friendliness, yet care must be taken to make sure these stereotypical colors actually appeal to the target market)
• Less is more; overuse of color distracts from content
• Avoid using complementary colors (i.e. colors directly across from each other on the color wheel)

4. Wireframing basics.

• Wireframing is a pre-design, pre-workshop step that involves creating a simple skeleton of what your app, website, or content will look like
• The purpose of wireframing as a first step is to isolate design and focus on creating a logical structure
• Balsamiq is one of many UI wireframe apps; its childlike sketches help isolate design
• MediaLoot is a membership-based website that offers flat UI kits in the form of Photoshop files
• PowerPoint templates have also been designed for wireframing

Huda and Fawzi then reviewed apps suggested by participants. The creator of a newer app was the first volunteer. They advised him to improve his logo’s readability by making it bolder and simpler, as well as decreasing stroke modulation. They also suggested replacing the white-on-black color scheme with black writing on a lighter color, both for the logo and app text. General usability advice focused on reducing the amount of information presented to the viewer at a time, replacing the complicated icons with simple dots, better separating images from text, using color to create hierarchy, and replacing the standard Apple Maps with more accurate maps.

Next up was me, presenting with the app I co-founded, ShopMate. Huda described it as “useful” and “kind of cute,” with “not too much gimmick.” Fawzi said it had an “Instagram-ish approach.” ShopMate was praised for being simple, colorful, and straightforward to use.

Then Huda and Fawzi encouraged each participant in the audience to pick one app to analyze, play with it on their phone, and write down which features could be improved. Then, participants worked on using wireframing to create a better version.

As you can see, ArabNet delivered on its promise to cover the most pressing topics in the Web industry from day one. Whether the task at hand is writing code or designing type, most digital creatives wear many hats, and ArabNet knows how to cater to that innovative mindset.

If you enjoyed this article, stay tuned for more inside glances into the top event for digital creative professionals, and check out @ArabNetME on Twitter. Finally, please consider registering for the ArabNet Digital Summit in Dubai this June. There is a discount for attendees under 30 and an even better discount for attendees under 22.