Entrepreneurship Night by MENACatalyst
27 May 2019, Ramallah: MENACatalyst kicked off its first ‘Entrepreneurship Night,’ last night, at the Grand Park Hotel, in Ramallah. A gathering intended to celebrate the slowly emerging, yet vibrant startup community in Palestine – the event sparked a wave of enthusiasm and support among the young and talented entrepreneurs it contentedly welcomed. Through its signature ‘Pitch Challenge’ events, which award startups seeking business opportunities and access to international markets, the opportunity to travel to international destinations to meet with business enablers, potential investors, and mentors from around the world. Under its mandate, MC extends its support to Palestinian startups operating out of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, ’48 community and broader diaspora community of entrepreneurs, in its efforts to build a more vibrant and viable startup ecosystem in Palestine, and ultimately, building the groundwork for a Palestinian global virtual economy - an endeavor which, to date, has yet to be tackled successfully.
The evening commenced with the breaking of fast with the MC family of startups, followed by a keynote address by the Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister -Dr. Estephan Salameh, who offered his take on the new government’s policy direction within the purview of youth empowerment and entrepreneurship. Naturally, the discussions solicited key policy recommendations, which the entrepreneurs outlined and were eager to offer the welcoming government representative; leading to a multitude of insights and set action points of which the new government might undertake to help ease the process of doing business in Palestine, especially with concern to startups, which face a number of obstacles operating in Palestine. Key policy topics ranged from expediting the startup registration process, to the need for increased investment opportunities and a formal angel investor network, which MC is currently at the forefront of.
MC then opened the floor to its alumni of young entrepreneurs, to discuss their startup journeys and their subsequent progress following MC’s international demo events in Chile, Dubai, Amman and soon in London. The evening was full of great success stories and positive networking opportunities for the young entrepreneurs - who are relatively disconnected from one another, but brought together by MENACatalyst’s efforts to forge such connections.
MENACatalyst expresses its utmost gratitude to its host of advisors and contributors, for their continuous support which makes its work possible; namely - KOICA , the Welfare Association, Dietmar Hanzen- GIZ, David Dick - David Dick - Palestine Britain Business Council, Omar Omran and Mohanad Itayem – MC’s local startup experts, as well as Michael Jilleh, the Head of Economic Diplomacy at the British Consulate. Thank you for being a part of the MENACatalyst family!
