Google Ibdaa
Program in Egypt
Google has recently
announced a new entrepreneurship support program in Egypt and here are the
links:
This Google
activity is not the only one in the MENA region, several multinational IT
companies like Cisco and Microsoft are developing and supporting
entrepreneurship and innovation programs to increase the awareness and improve
the capabilities of the nations of youth.
Here I will
try to highlight the main interesting points I found in the new Google program,
you can have a look at the program details in the above links.
The main objective
of the program is to spread the awareness and motivation of entrepreneurs
-
in 7 months
-
training of 200 entrepreneurs
-
qualify 100 entrepreneurs and link them to
investors
-
start 50 companies
-
one entrepreneur will win a prize of 200K USD
·
The program/competition name is Ibdaa meaning
Start (as an activity or action: start doing) which I believe they have selected
it wisely to encourage on acting rather waiting for the support.
·
The program is promoted as a competition not as
a support program and for that I have the following points:
1. Participants
have to work and be active to earn the prize and not to apply and pass the
evaluation criteria to be involved in the program
2. Might attract
the right people who are willing to work, learn and compete to earn the prize
not those who are just applying to get a fund for free.
3. The
participants have to work hard to earn the prize focus on what they will do,
not what the program will do for them to earn the fund and support.
·
The organizers utilize the local entrepreneurs’
success stories to promote the program (at least that what appears in the
video). This approach encourages young entrepreneurs to see if those older and
local entrepreneurs have done it locally so they can do it.
·
The competition is not about a business plan development,
it is a competition to start and realize the business ideas. So it should
attract only committed applicants to realize their business not those looking
for money. The real prize will be realizing the company and the extra prize will
be the funding by the program.
The main
support activities are:
-
Training
-
Networking
-
Mentoring
-
Prizes
-
linkage with investors
Further
details about the implementation and the process of this program which includes
boot camp, several stages of evaluation and presentations to experts, mentors
and investors are available in the website of the program.
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