Incubating Potential: The story of young entrepreneurs in Lebanon
Opinion piece by Michel Sadek, Staff Writer
June 14th, 2020
Get money.
Start a business.
Make money.
Invest your money.
Formally known as the investment cycle, this circular flow of money is what determines the fate of an entrepreneur. Come up with a great idea, get that stipend to realize it, and boom. You’re (very likely) rich.
But what happens to you, an aspiring entrepreneur, when that first investment is unattainable?
When:
your country is suffering an almost unparalleled economic crisis
a viral pandemic has suffocated small businesses
currency devaluation has rendered salaries meaningless
a plummeting purchasing power has erased hopes for corporate profit
banks won’t even give out money in the first place
Do you just put your revolutionary idea aside, and go focus on whatever it is that the economy presently allows you to do? Superficially, the flawless logical sequence of the investment cycle tells us yes: wait until the time is right, until you can ‘get the money.’
But that is only a superficial logical sequence.
It is the kind of reasoning that governments and business accelerators use to blind you, an excuse as to why they won’t help out. They remorsefully inform you they have no money to invest in your idea, ask you to come back in a couple of months in hopes of a changing tide. That is precisely how these institutions free up their schedules, ingeniously rid themselves of the burden of helping you. By doing this, they are putting aside an equally great form of support they can, and must, offer you: advice.
I am, like many of you, an aspiring entrepreneur. An 18-year old undergraduate student at the American University of Beirut, I have been working on a biomedical product for almost a year now, and have sought some form of mentorship to nurture my innovation. No money, no office space, no marketing. Just some good old business tips.
Throughout the past year, I’ve applied to 7 startup incubator programs in Lebanon, in hopes of receiving advice pertaining to my revenue models, marketing plans, and just my idea as a whole. I’ve just needed a formal entity to make sure I’m on the right track, to pave the way for the future of my innovation. So far, I’ve received only 1 response – an automatic reply email highlighting said institution’s lack of funds.
What is more startling, however, is that I recently participated in just one idea-pitching e-conference chaired by Stanford and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, the latter accepting to review my models and connect me with biomedical specialists in clinics across the US to discuss the scientific basis of my idea.
And hence the brain drain.
Brain Drain in the Arab World. Credits: Al Fanar Media
Indeed, the business ecosystem in Lebanon does not entail the support that young, enthusiastic entrepreneurs need. In line with statements made by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), one in six adults in Lebanon report that fear had prevented them from starting a business when they were younger, fears which may have been countered by “incubating youth at an early age.”
Without a doubt, fledgling entrepreneurs need coaching just as much as they need money. Youth empowerment involves nurturing their creativity, enhancing their skills, quenching their worries. The drive to innovate should be met by an equally enthusiastic desire to help, to mentor these go-getters and keep their ideas alive. Entrepreneurship must be a cornerstone of our educational curricula, a viable option for students looking to promote social change via their groundbreaking ideas.
Putting me in touch with health professionals has helped me modify my idea, while listening to their feedback has given me the confidence I need to take my innovation a step further. So the question is: why did the help have to come from abroad, and not from a Lebanese institution?
We live in a country with (most unfortunately) a variety problems, too many to mention, which arguably at least some could be solved by young visionaries. It is just a matter of listening to their ideas, reviewing their models, and most importantly, trusting their capacities. For what is the point of having a top-tier curriculum in the sciences if we are going to ignore a student who has come up with a model he believes can revolutionize the recycling sector?
A vast majority of millennials in Lebanon want to use their skills to benefit their communities, yet we continue to deny them the right to see their ideas become a reality. This may, indeed, be explained with the help of the 2017 U.S Global Entrepreneurship report, which highlights that the perception of skill level is lowest in 18-24 year-olds at just 32%, even lower than that in 65-74 year-olds (49%).
27-year old Lebanese entrepreneur, Charlie El Khoury, who developed his application with the help of Silicon Valley's program Blackbox Connect. Credit: The 961
Hence, it is important to strengthen intersectoral bonds between civil society, media corporations, and educational institutions, so as to incubate youth potential. Be it in the form of orientations, e-conferences, or accelerator programs, we young entrepreneurs need everything we can get in terms of direction and prospective improvements. We need specialists to tell us to use a different marketing plan, to teach us how we can raise donations more efficiently. We need to listen to experts’ advice on reaching a wider audience, on ensuring a coherence between our product and market behavior. Yes, the realization of an idea will necessitate funding at some point, but in the meantime, it would be unfair to leave us hanging.
This is a call to support aspiring innovators, to fortify their role on the entrepreneurial stage. It is a call for each and every one of you to shoutout your friend’s new app, to donate to your cousin’s new online store, in hopes of expertise coming across it. It is a call for the various institutions of our society to put more faith in us, for with proper guidance, our generation may be able to fix what those before us broke.