MIT Arab Startups Competition 2013
MIT Arab Startups Competition 2013
Every year when the MIT Enterprise Forum starts announcing the winners at their annual Startups Competition Award Ceremony, I feel it again. I feel all the tension and anxiety I felt when I was one of the participants back in 2009.
I still remember every single detail about that journey 5 years ago. Coming up with the idea, forming the team, filling the application, writing the plan, traveling to Beirut for a bootcamp, then to Dubai for the award ceremony! It was such an amazing experience. Luckily we ended up with an award at that time :-)
This year it was in Qatar, and I was super happy that I got the opportunity to attend 2 full days of the week-long program last week at Katara Cultural Village, and mingle with the ambitious entrepreneurs who came from almost every arab country. This time it was bigger: 72 teams of twos or threes were there!! Being with such a group of people in one room just boosts your positive energy!!
For the sake of continuous enhancement, I will include in this post few points that were raised by the participants hoping that it will be well received by the organizers.
First of all, there were more than 70 mentors, investors and successful entrepreneurs who came to help, so why not to engage them in selecting the top 10 finalists or maybe in selecting the top 3 winners as well! Why only 6 judges were entitled to pick the finalists and the winners?!
Second, participants were asking for more transparency in the top 10 selection process. They asked for the scores to go public on the venue’s screen, specially that some of the judges were actually investors in participating startups. To avoid any perceived conflict of interest, the process should be more transparent.
Third, there was a confusion in the startup vs. idea segments. Everyone thought that they will be totally separate groups competing for different awards. But that was not the case, startups and ideas were competing for the same 3 cash awards.
People were suggesting an app for mentors, investors, and successful entrepreneurs to vote for or score the top 10 finalists and then the scores will be shown on the spot.
Anyway, no one returned home empty handed. Everyone won something. Some won cash awards, but some won friends, mentors, clients, investors, and invaluable feedback and advices…… and above all, everyone won a life changing experience.
