Egypt 2.0: The Revolution Continues
Summary
It was nearly a year and a half ago that we wrote in AllThingsD about the remarkable and inspiring narrative we called “Egypt 2.0.” As judges for the State Department’s Global Entrepreneurship Program, we met hundreds of Egyptian tech start-up entrepreneurs creating and building innovative businesses. And with their drive and ambition, it was no surprise that every young man and woman we subsequently befriended were on the streets of Alexandria and Cairo creating a revolution unimaginable even a few weeks before. It is equally unsurprising, checking in a year later, that the momentum of entrepreneurship in Egypt, if anything, has increased amid the ups and downs of the macro economy and political uncertainty. The cost of starting a business can be merely thousands of dollars in Egypt, and an ecosystem of angel and venture capital is rising in the region, as well as coming from Europe and the United States. “The reason why this huge market of some 400 million users has been under-served was that the young people were not encouraged to innovate, not from anyone around them, and they themselves had little hopes that a dream can come true.” He believes that this way of thinking has been forever shattered in the last year.