Startup Rising
The Entrepreneurial Revolution Remaking the Middle East
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3.8 • 6 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Startup Rising presents a surprising look at the surge of entrepreneurship that accompanied the uprisings in the Middle East, and why it's the new best place for Western investment and opportunity.
Despite the world's elation at the Arab Spring, shockingly little has changed politically in the Middle East; even frontliners Egypt and Tunisia continue to suffer repression, fixed elections, and bombings, while Syria descends into civil war. But in the midst of it all, a quieter revolution has begun to emerge, one that might ultimately do more to change the face of the region: entrepreneurship.
As a seasoned angel investor in emerging markets, Christopher M. Schroeder was curious but skeptical about the future of investing in the Arab world. Travelling to Dubai, Cairo, Amman, Beirut, Istanbul, and even Damascus, he saw thousands of talented, successful, and intrepid entrepreneurs, all willing to face cultural, legal, and societal impediments inherent to their worlds. Equally important, he saw major private equity firms, venture capitalists, and tech companies like Google, Intel, Cisco, Yahoo, LinkedIn, and PayPal making significant bets, despite the uncertainty in the region.
With Startup Rising, he marries his own observations with the predictions of these tech giants to offer a surprising and timely look at the second stealth revolution in the Middle East-one that promises to reinvent it as a center of innovation and progress.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
During a 2010 regional conference of tech startups, entrepreneur and investor Schroeder was surprised to find in Dubai a tech-centric, globally focused group of entrepreneurs, both male and female. Here, he paints a remarkable picture of the entrepreneurial shift going on in Dubai, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and other regions, discussing companies such as PayPal Middle East, Maktoob, and Souq.com, as well as the growing emphasis on creativity in Egypt, ecosystem building in Saudi Arabia, and Google's efforts across the region. Schroeder asks, " happens when the vast majority of talented people don't want to move when they not only want to stay home, but are driven by almost patriotic passion to make change where they come from?" This new generation has never lived in a world without Internet technology, and it wants to escape the tyranny of wasta favoritism based on personal and family connections. However, new media entrepreneurship in the Middle East faces particular challenges: business networks are still being developed; credit card usage is low; and two-thirds of shipping transactions are COD, making development of an online retail marketplace difficult. Still, for opportunities in "mobile technology, solar energy and social networks," Western businesses will soon be looking far beyond Silicon Valley, and recruiters and investors would do well to consult this illuminating book.
