Iran has startup ambitions, watch out!
After organising Startup Weekend MENA I was very fortunate to get to know the only Iranian participant who was always on time for every meeting. The Iranian team was pretty impressive I must say with over 10 participants. We had most North African countries present next to Libanon and even 1 participant from Germany! Amirreza Mohammadi is from Teheran, but active in Zanjan, more northern situated and hosting quite a lot of students. You can call him a full-time startup addict spending a lot of his time on creating a startup community. Upon his return to Iran he invited me for Startup Week, participating also in Global Startup Battle. I spend a week in Zanjan with Amirreza and his team/friends/partners/sponsors joined by Wout Laban from Amsterdam and Tina Yazdi. It resulted in an amazing discovery of the startup scene in Zanjan with some Teheran flavour.
Amirreza prepared a full week program, with 2 highlights that I personally loved. Social entrepreneurship day and Startup Weekend Zanjan. Next to Wout we had another great team member coming over from Dubai, Tina Yazdi. She is from Teheran but working abroad. After I arrived on day 1, spending my night in the plane, I had the privilege to have breakfast at Amirreza’s lovely parent’s home. I had no precise idea what was going to happen from here, but as we learned during this week, our host would still our hunger with the famous words “trust me”. Wout, Tina and I found each other together in the car of Amirezza, not knowing that we were on our way for a road movie pur sang. While waiting in the car for Tina and Wout we saw some street workers. From Afganistan. Each country has foreign workers I guess. Tina suggested to pass by her father in the summerhouse. Great idea, more hospitality to enjoy and more over, more background on the economical situation in Iran. The red line throughout this week is hope, better future, and hope. The trip consumed 8 hours to Zanjan, normally it is 3,5 hours I found out on my way back. Next to the summerhouse visit and an amazing discovery of the stone build Dome of Soltaniyeh we were able to get to known each other. Tina and Wout were old friends and all of them could be my kids. The startup scene is very young in the MENA region, I am always the Gandalf of the company. It’s my destiny.
Together with Wout I stayed in a wooden village, previously build by Siemens, serving as guest houses for the sponsor Iran Transfo. Brilliant and surreal. The HR manager, Farzad, brought us breakfast, always helping us out on anything. He was responsible for 100 people or more. I don’t see to many managers in Europe serving guests like he did, forever thankful. This modesty was present from all people around us, all the time. Impressive. Also during the Social Entrepreneurship day. In the morning we visited the workplace were woman were teached how to cook in the big kitchens, learning and making some money. They came from broken families, with no future. In the afternoon we had a panel discussion with audience. The enthusiasm and modesty struck me again. Warm people with a big hart. Startup Weekend was the second big highlight for me. Don’t misunderstand me though, every hour I spend during the packed week was worthwhile. Wout was the facilitator, doing a great job, where I gave a short mentorship training to the mentors, over 15 if I recall correctly. I can fill 3 blogs easily describing my impressions during the last 3 days but it all comes down to this.
Apart from some initiatives in Tehran, like Avatech and very modest incubators in universities, the startup scene is just kicking off. I assume most will, like in many emerging countries, first copy what is successful worldwide. What is most striking is the willingness to work and build actively towards a better future. Startup Weekend started at 8am in the morning. While the team was preparing the breakfast all the teams were already working! Not on fancy tables in a cool futuristic building. In a school with chairs with a board. Not the “everybody has a Mac laptop” but some, with a Windows based laptop. A good comparison can help here. The Amsterdam budget to organise Startup Weekend in money sponsoring is 16.000 euro’s, in Istanbul 500 dollars and in Zanjan … . Same number of participants, same result. Farshad was my best friend on the floor, not only because he provided the WiFi, but because he worked during the night to have free during the day to help. On the 2nd day he paid the price and had to go to hospital where they put him down with serum for 4 hours. Next day he was back. Willingness.
Startup Weekend was a feast, I am sure Wout thought the same. The team around Amirreza was amazing. Artman was another discovery. They sponsored but also really helped on the floor. Their story is quite amazing. 2 brothers continuing the business their father set up. I met all and shared a lot of good time together with them. They design, produce and sell high end shoes and accessories. Only in Zanjan, city with 250.000 inhabitants. I am still speechless how they are doing this. They became friends and hopefully more.
I predict that Iran will boost the startup scene big time. Even Forbes thinks like this, read here if you don’t believe me. Very young population, 80 million in total, smart and educated. Of course I understand also the arguments painting another picture of Iran, but staying there for a week learned me that reality and perception do not overlap completely. Motivation and attitude are in my opinion very important ingredients. What in the Turkish startup scene is missing is available in Iran. People who want to make their hands dirty, who listen and who WANT to work (hard) to create a better future. If you doubt I will give a very simple example. In Istanbul the participants of Startup Weekend arrive at 10 or 11 am. In Zanjan it was 8 am. You do the math. Of course it is not black and white, or so extreme, but you get the picture. Stage-Co will hopefully operate soon in Iran, so I will be able to confirm in a couple of months what I wrote here. I like to proof wrong :-D.
I have too many people to thank for this extraordinary experience. Of course Amirrezza, Farshad, Ehsan, Peyman, Zahra, Farzad, Amir, Aydin, Yasser, Reza, Noosh, Alireza, Seyyed, Wout, sparkling Tina and many more…
More pictures here.
And a brilliant recap on video by The artist Peyman: https://vimeo.com/146555079
