A new layer in the entrepreneurship ecosystem is taking shape through the increasing institutional presence of academic bodies, including both top-tier and less prominent universities in Lebanon. Universities have been linked locally to entrepreneurship in the past, but this link was often feeble and limited to teaching a few courses or having an occasional conference.…
Taking stock of the entrepreneurial ecosystem
The month of November is often the most pleasant month to live in Lebanon. The weather is nice, the mood is relaxed (with no holiday shopping stress yet), prices are in low-season mode to invite visitors and National Day is around the corner. It is the perfect month to celebrate entrepreneurship as the most promising…
The rocky road from inventor to businessman
Antoine Sayah is learning how to actually build a business. Two years ago, he was an undergraduate studying architecture and working on an assignment for a design class. Students were tasked with building a product that was “useful in your everyday life,” he recalls. A Jounieh native, Sayah loves the beach. He made a foldable…
Going it alone, together
Samar Ibrahim doesn’t like her current office. Since February, necessity has forced her into a small space in the bowels of ABC Mall, Ashrafieh. She suggests meeting for an interview instead at Urbanista on the top floor. It’s fitting that she’s chosen a coffee shop as a setting – she sounds like her own ideal…
Locking up the key
Identity protection is a huge and ever growing need in the knowledge economy. Ki, which was initially conceived as a hardware authentication token for password storage by its founders Priscilla Elora Sharuk and Antoine Jebara, is a Lebanese solution for identity protection. Executive caught up with Sharuk to see how the startup has progressed since…
Sharp Minds
Antoine Saab and Nadia Moussouni are the entrepreneurs behind Energy24, a power storage solution which they claim is suited to solving the most challenging electricity supply problems. Since being recognized as a Top 20 entrepreneurial company by Executive in 2014, their company Sharp Minds has added a solar energy component to its electricity storage product.…
Economena Analytics
There is a tremendous link between what Lebanon needs in terms of information, transparency and planning, and what improved data can help deliver. In this context, Executive followed up on developments at Beirut-based data services provider, Economena Analytics, with company founder Tamim Akiki and deputy chief executive Amani Kandil. E What has happened with…
Tech entrepreneurs update
When hiking through an aging natural forest, did you ever accidentally burst your foot through an old log and see the wood fibers crumble while bugs and worms scuttle away into the moss or wiggle around your hiking boot? That is a moment to not only gaze at the young shoots, but also appreciate the…
A stroll through the ecosystem
The most common ecosystem disturbances are fast and furious. Earthquakes. Floods. Fires. Not so Circular 331. The initiative by Banque du Liban (BDL), Lebanon’s central bank, provided a long-awaited capital injection into the country’s entrepreneurship ecosystem. But it’s a disturbance more akin to climate change than a meteor strike. Organisms long part of the ecosystem…
Bireme ad(ventures)
Startup ecosystems in the United States continue to be major magnets for young Lebanese companies that want to benefit from valuations that the local market seems unlikely to generate. Executive learned of a new fund called Bireme Ventures from Elie Habib, the fund’s managing partner. In an interview during the central bank’s international startup conference…