Created BY : Abdelrahman El-Mawawi
Resources for
Early-Stage Startups Before Securing First Series A Funding
A startup is developed to provide an answer to a pressing problem or worthwhile idea that has potential. Often, the idea for the startup arises from a game-changing insight, but it may also take years of thought and effort to develop such a suggestion into a viable solution that has an appreciable profit potential.
The progress of a fledgling venture, from beginning to end, is a continuous process. It can be difficult to identify where you are in the startup life cycle, particularly because it relates to many different facets. The duration of startup stages will vary based on business planning, the business sector that you work on, and your financial resources.
Investors, partners, prospective employees, and other interested parties will be quicker to project where you are at your company's life cycle. Your position on the continuum can be used to gauge the prospects for success that your company currently has.
Fundraising throughout the process can be challenging, so start with a solid plan, organization, and ability to sustain your team, and your probability of success will be improved.
Raising capital from investors is certainly the most prevalent formula if you wish to rise to tens or even hundreds of billion dollars in revenue. The investment comes with a price, usually with a 15 to 25%
dilution rate* in each round of investment and lofty expectations, which if not followed by immediate success, may point the way forward to your company's demise.
In this blog posts, we, in ITIDA, came up with an extensive list of accelerators, incubators, investors and venture capitalists as well as a broad range of
Resources. We made it even easier by dividing them up according to the stage in which your startup dwells at the moment.
Early-Stage Startup | A Scalable Idea Attracts Funding
– Learn, Develop and Validate
Get Inspired
1.
Disrupt Africa | your go-to resource for news, information and commentary on Africa's startup and investment ecosystem. Africa's startup portal, as is known, offers not only pieces of news, interviews and live coverage, it also produces
Disrupt Podcast, generates research papers, and provides
Pipeline Service.
2.
Egyptian Streets
Technology | an independent, young, and grassroots new-media organization providing readers with an alternate depiction of events happening on Egyptian and Middle Eastern streets. The org establishes an engaging social environment for discussion of various issues that impact Egypt and the region.
3.
EgyptInnovate | provides a platform for Egyptian innovators and entrepreneurs to exchange ideas, get inspired, educate themselves, and connect. The platform's content presents the innovators and entrepreneurs with educational, inspirational, and various tools offering useful insights into the world of innovation.
4.
MENAbytes | an online-based media publication that covers technological and startup development from the MENA region.
5.
WAMDA | Wamda accelerates entrepreneurship ecosystems across MENA region through its sector-agnostic investment vehicle, Wamda Capital, which invests in high-growth technology startups. Its leading knowledge platform provides the region with impactful thought leadership and research, community development as well as corporate/gov advisory services to stakeholders of startup ecosystem.
Where is the Spark Coming from?
Creative ideation is a delirious spark sent out when a crowd of [especially
young] people get together, face-to-face, coffee in hand, pacing back and forth against a cluttered whiteboard. If this happens inside your startup and amid your persons, you should also mingle with others in the field.
There is a wide range of startup events in Egypt centered on
Ideation. We brought you some inspirational meetups below:
1.
Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center's
Events |
TIEC supports the development of technology-based startups on early and growth stages. The
Center has a multidisciplinary team ranges from great engineers to business leaders. Premises dwell Smart Village with four core departments. Every department incorporates a set of programs and initiatives custom-made to serve students, graduates, entrepreneurs, startups, and SMEs. Get to know more about what events are coming now!
2.
Information Technology Industry Development Agency's Calendar |
ITIDA offers a wide range of services that helps to strengthen the capacities of the local IT firms, attracting and servicing multinational IT companies. It expands IT businesses by providing unique access to several markets through sponsoring and taking part in the local, regional and international trade shows. See what is awaiting and get engaged!
3.
EgyptInnovate's Events | This events feature encapsulates events happening soon in Egypt, Middle East and North Africa or even in the whole wide world. You can find seminars, conferences, workshops, and scholarships. Register now and enjoy the benefits of EgyptInnovate's events feature now!
You can always use the above three sources to know about the upcoming events for you. On another hand, we collected some of the
most thought-provoking startup events here:
1.
Techne Summit [Alexandria] | a must-attend international multi-industry focused investment and entrepreneurship event that aims to impact multiple sectors and stakeholders of the startup communities in the Mediterranean region.
2.
RiseUp Summit [Cairo] | MENA region's largest innovation and entrepreneurship summit, taking place in the heart of Cairo annually.
3.
Egypt Entrepreneurship Summit [Alexandria] |
EES is an annual summit organized by the Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN Egypt), and founded by the International Labor Organization (ILO).
Access to Education
Future Work is Digital | eighteen-month scholarship offers integrated learning and upskilling experience for learners.
FwD 2.0 program provides access to Udacity MooCs, webinars, mentors and more.
Next Technology Leaders | capacity-building initiative, started to provide 33 ICT learning online tracks for the youth in Egypt.
NTL offers high-quality content developed by working together with world-class universities and leading companies.
African App Launchpad | Presidential initiative tailored to specific needs and capacities of the young people from Egypt and Africa.
AAL fosters setting up sustainable startups in the fields of ever-changing application and game technologies. Top online content from esteemed universities and leading entities, is crowd-sourced and delivered in Coursera, edX, and Udacity.
InnovEgypt | training program on innovation and entrepreneurship customized for university students and graduates. The program is an exemplary option for learners aspire to be future innovators and entrepreneurs. It seeks the ones looking forward to establishing their start-ups. InnovEgypt also looks for prospective entrepreneurs with skillsets highly required by local and multinational companies.
Software Engineering Competence Center |
SECC enforces software standards, provides consultation and assessment, offers training and SW testing, conducts R&D activities, fosters embedded software efforts, launches industry initiatives, and promotes international cooperation. Browse
SECC Training and Certification Services
GeekFactory | technical academy founded by industry experts from leading tech companies. Its promise for candidates is to become world-class software engineers and for employers to find a consistent source of reliable technical talent.
Information Technology Institute | supports local young people to improve their career opportunities by developing their skills and preparing them for highly in-demand jobs, and related vast technologies to fulfill today's needs, and tomorrow forecast. Visit
ITI Professional Training Programs,
Intensive Training Programs as well as online learning.
Validate Your Startup
Before launching your product or service as a startup, you should ideally go through a series of steps [get to know startup idea validation know-how[AE1] ]. So, for the time being, you need to know that there are three common approaches to think up an idea: 1) a market you are interested in and find a problem there, 2) uncover an area that needs a better consumer experience – iterate! 3) begin with a problem you've experienced and find if others had it too.
Here is a host of resources to find co-mates, co-founders or teammates to help you with the validation. Building startups is not a one-man show.
-
Egypreneur | large network of entrepreneurial business owners and executives in Egypt.
Egypreneur connects you with the right people, services and solutions to adjust costs, boost profits, and grow your business locally and globally.
-
StartUs | find co-founder jobs, connect with startup enthusiasts and present your company idea.
-
Global Entrepreneurship Network |
GEN Egypt operates an array of programs in 200 countries aimed at making it easier for anyone, anywhere to start and scale a business.
Validating your startup, more specifically your
Idea, is a cornerstone before reaching the
Launch
Stage[AE2] of your business-to-be.
ITIDA Stage-Based Guide to Local Startups is an excellent resource for entrepreneurs. It provides inspiration for those who are looking to start their own business, and it offers a clear and concise guide for how to get started. This guide is an essential tool for anyone who wants to be successful in the world of entrepreneurship.
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*Dilution ratio refers to your ownership percentage in your startup. Go to
https://techcrunch.com/2011/10/13/understanding-how-dilution-affects-you-at-a-startup/ and learn more about
dilution
[AE1]New article , use https://techsauce.co/en/tech-and-biz/how-to-validate-your-startup-idea-a-guide-on-market-validation-for-new-entrepreneurs
[AE2]New article
