For Egypt's Startups, Unstable Government Is the Least of Their Worries

Read on. Mashable, by COLIN DAILEDA

An Egyptian waves a national flag for a military helicopter flying over a pro-military rally marking the third anniversary of the 2011 uprising in Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2014.IMAGE: AMR NABIL/ASSOCIATED PRESS

When the Egyptian startup Instabug launched its app last Summer, CEO Omar Gabr couldn't believe how bad their timing was. Inside their office in Egypt's capital, Cairo, they had just put out a beta version of an app that rapidly identifies glitches in software and lets users provide feedback on those glitches, and everyone lavished it with praise.

But outside, the streets were jammed with people violently protesting Egypt's government, and the country was in the middle of a military takeover. It's hard to talk about business opportunities when the nation's future is murky at best.

Though the riots have somewhat waned since summer, Egypt's political turmoil has been ongoing since January, 2011 and was on display again on Monday after Egypt's interim Prime Minister Hazem Beblawi suddenly announced his own resignation and the resignation of his government. That turmoil has done what you might expect—damaged the economy, harmed international relations—but its effect has also spiraled out into Egypt's fledgling startup community.

Egypt's revolving government over the past three years has made investors less willing to dole out cash to new businesses, especially when many new CEOs are better at discussing fanciful company ideas than turning those ideas into a staff, office space and money. And the stnartup community is small and experiencing growing pains, because tech scenes feed off new people who bring new ideas, which are hard to come by when it's difficult for anyone to see past the political violence to startup success.

Yet by many accounts, many startup founders have pressed ahead with their dreams. Startup fever has slowly spread from Cairo, the country's capital, into Alexandria and upper Egypt, and plenty of people believe the country's tech community as a whole has big potential. Transforming that into a thriving culture, though, is something founders should know is easy to say and trickier to do.

“One thing that entrepreneurs struggle with in Egypt is to get quality support," said Hossam Allam, founder of Cairo Angels, a company that invests in startups.

 

Participants in the Cairo Startup Cup plan out their business. IMAGE: CAIRO STARTUP CUP CAIRO STARTUP CUP

via mashable.com