Tech-Savvy Entrepreneurs put Egypt on the Map
By: Sherif El Hakim
@sherifelhakim2
The most successful startups in the MENA region in 2018 are all technology based, according to MAGNiTT’s 2018 Mena Venture Investment Report.
Mobile applications or websites led the way in terms of investment earned.
Omar Emara, 22, the co-founder of FreshSource, Egypt’s first and only mobile e-vendor of agri-goods, connects farms to businesses and provides last-mile solution.
Last-mile solution is the movement of people and goods from a transportation hub (producer) to a final destination (seller) in the home. He believes that passion, drive and desire are key to becoming an entrepreneur.
“The overall market remains to function in a traditional manner throughout the whole process, meaning technology could help remove the inefficiencies that appear in different areas throughout the market,” Emara said.
FreshSource raised seed funding from HIMangel, a venture capital firm based in Cairo. Upon expanding and executing the business plan, Emara believes that their technology and data analysis could benefit different industries.
“The long-term goal for FreshSource would be to expand to all governorates in Egypt. We then plan to take our technology and expertise to the rest of the MENA region. Our technology and data analysis could benefit many industries in many different countries,” he said.
Emara believes that his background in computer science engineering was part of the reason he was able to notice the impact that lack of technology has on the agricultural market.
“When looking at Egypt, we can see how technology has started to affect numerous industries such as transportation and yet, one of Egypt’s largest industries, agriculture, which contributes 11 percent of the country’s GDP still lacks any sort of technological innovation,” he added.
Another young entrepreneur in a completely different field, Malak Shamsi, 22, is the founder of MGMP, a contemporary clothing brand which produces digital-printed, embroidered and hand painted fashion pieces.
Shamsi believes that with digital printing, individuals are able to have their imagination on display.
“Through the digital printing platform the brand is able to let everyone show their uniqueness, because with the printing clients can print all shapes and colors of their choice, and this is a key part of the business,” she said.
Although technology is a major asset for young entrepreneurs, they can still be faced with obstacles.
Both Emara and Shamsi believe that one of the biggest obstacles is employing the right people with sufficient technical skills.
Farah El Masry, 26, co-founder of The Doodle Factory, an Egyptian lifestyle brand that aims to inclusively empower vulnerable children by creating designs using their drawings, believes that having a skills-based background and being hands-on in the business is key for entrepreneurs.
“Starting your own business without much expertise and having to handle everything from design to operations and financials is definitely the biggest challenge but that’s also how we learned so much and grew to understand every aspect of the business,” El Masry said.
El Masry emphasized that market research is critical in order to fill a gap in the market for entrepreneurs.
“We wanted to help children in need in a way that is creative and inclusive, so we started as a pilot project under the NGO we were working with,” she said.
But it is also on young entrepreneurs to acknowledge the socio-economic realities of growing a fledgling startup into a major enterprise.
“Sometimes entrepreneurs become too invested in their projects that they don’t realize their products may no longer fit in the market anymore. It’s essential that entrepreneurs seek constant validation and feedback from the market to make sure they’re still on the right path,” Emara told The Caravan.
Shamsi said that entrepreneurs often find that they are being held back due to a lack of funding.
However, she believes that being employed and funding a business from their income could be pivotal for future entrepreneurs.
Another young entrepreneur, Mohamed Saddik, 22, experimented with trying to build an app in 2017, but due to numerous problems he faced, the business proved unsuccessful and eventually was removed from the app store.
The application, Rattle Movies, was created to have an application that could recommend movies, based on an algorithm to an individual with the shaking of a phone. Users were also able to send movie recommendations to each other and also create playlists to share.
Saddik believes that his downfall was due to a lack of communication between different parties hired to develop the application.
“We had people from Canada and from the UK working on developing the app. The idea was to split the workload in order to launch quicker but due to the differences in working styles and different time zones, the lack of communication led to the demise of the application,” he said.
Based on his experience, Saddik advises that young entrepreneurs should be more concerned with the marketing and business parts of the business rather than the development of the application.
Despite his initial attempt at creating an app and attempt at becoming an entrepreneur, Saddik still encourages his fellow Egyptian youth to take risks and become entrepreneurs.
The unsuccessful spell of the application is perceived as a learning curve for Saddik, as he credits that trial as an positive aspect for his long term future as a potential entrepreneur.
