Iratel Ventures Meet & Greet / عید دیدنی
First allow me to introduce myself: My name is Mahyar Khattak aka Max aka Mad Max, I’m a partner at Iratel Ventures. You can find me on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram and yes I’m a foodie, I’m cool like that!
I love traveling, currently based in London, UK. I travel to Tehran, Iran often. I recently did a crazy road trip in the US! (around 5,000 miles)
I’ve been officially involved with Iratel Ventures since August last year. My partners are Mohammad Reza, Mohsen and Benyamin. I’ve known these guys since my university days and together we have been through a lot of crazy stuff. We are young, we are bold, we are well traveled, we are hungry and we love the Iranian entrepreneurs! (we love doers!)
Yes I’m putting it right out there, this is our time and regardless of your view on Iran we are declaring it loud and clear!
Who are we? What do we do? Why do we do what we do?
We are a Venture Capital firm investing in entrepreneurs building global companies at seed and early stage in the Middle East. Our team works closely with startup founders on strategic partnerships, talent management and global growth. We have a special appetite for IoT, Enterprise and Productivity software but generally speaking we have a lot of love for crazy but commercial startups!
Now that I’ve covered the basics, we come to the last question, which is the main reason why I’m writing this post:
Why do we do what we do? Really why do we invest in Iran and Iranians?
The simple objective for a VC, some may argue, is to increase their investors’ wealth, but you can also do that by investing in property, stock exchange, FX etc so that’s not the main reason why we invest in the Iranian entrepreneurs.
So why Iran? Why Iranians? We have global connections so potentially could invest anywhere, so why Iran and why Iranians? The reason is that there is a certain perception of Iran being a high risk place, people have their doubts about Iran being a good investment opportunity and as Iranians we see it as our job to challenge that mind-set and what better way to challenge that by putting our money where our mouth is?!
Why Iran? The real answer is why not Iran?!
Why Iranians? Why not Iranians?!
I’m not trying to paint a rosy picture of Iran. Of course there are a lot of things that need to be improved or built bottom up but we understand Iran and Iranians and we see incredible talent, enthusiasm and spirit in this community. We love it and we are diving deep!
Caution: you have to know the depth before you dive in so make sure you have done your homework - no shortcuts!
If not us, then who?! If not now, then when?!
I’ve watched Iran go through a lot of ups and downs, I was born in Iran during the Iran-Iraq war and saw the effects of war on the society first hand. I’ve witnessed the effects of sanctions and how it impacts the citizens.
If we don’t invest in our people and have faith in their abilities to do amazing things, who will? This is not some blind faith, do a quick Google search of Iranians in Silicon Valley and you’ll see many names among the heavy weights. I’m not saying Iranians are shy to raise their profile but Iran is not exactly considered a heavy weight in the tech scene even though we have the third highest graduates in engineering degrees in the world and the highest tech female graduates in MENA!
The Iranian new year (Nowruz - the biggest event in the Iranian Calendar) is coming up in the next two weeks and on the 27th March we are holding an open day in our Tehran office to celebrate Nowruz and to meet and greet anyone who is interested in making an impact in shaping the future.
Iratel ventures has a vision to reverse the country’s brain drain and make Iran a destination for tech talent. We are here for the long term and will work to remove pain points for entrepreneurs and investors to be part of a world class ecosystem.
The picture above is of Haft Seen which is a collection of seven items that start with S (س) in Persian Alphabet. They are a representation of love, life, health, rebirth and so on, basically a list of awesomeness. You can see more pictures or add your own Haft Seen pictures in a My 7 Seen Facebook page which I created a while back. What makes every haft seen special, apart from the list of awesomeness, is that they are very personal and intimate, something which at Iratel Ventures we inspire to build in our relationships with entrepreneurs.
If you are in Tehran on 27th March I love to celebrate Nowruz with you and discuss how we can work together to build the future. Sign up for our open day on the 27th here.
