Bringing Silicon Valley to Erbil: teaching Kurds to “do world domination”

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – When Swedish news site Your Middle East called a meeting of entrepreneurs in Erbil, an enthusiastic group of young Kurds—predominantly women—showed up, eager to launch businesses to the region despite a lagging economy.

“There are so many ideas and so much energy here,” Jörgen Lindstöm, the Swedish ambassador to Iraq told the crowd at the swanky Divan hotel on Monday evening. “Many of you have an idea, but you need to have the willpower to see it through.”

So how do you turn a concept into a successful business in Kurdistan?

Aurore Belfrage, a startup coach, and co-founder of the successful digital gift-carding company Wrapp, spent the rest of the session coaching the enthusiastic crowd how to shed their inhibitions and “do world domination.” They had to believe that they can be the next zillionaire whose ideas rock the world.

Belfrage strapped on a microphone, took the stage, and played the business guru, wooing the crowd with the eagerness of Mark Zuckerberg and the command of Steve Jobs.

She spoke in fluent English, but it was a particular dialect you don’t hear very often in Erbil—Silicon Valley Speak—where people say things like: "We knew what part of the ecosystem we wanted to innovate in" or “There are no rules. You are creating a disruption."

In this world, there are no mistakes, there are only “learnings.” You don’t give up when your idea doesn’t work out, you “pivot.”

It’s not enough to simply learn the new language; a successful entrepreneur must look beyond good and evil.

“To appeal to a market you need to tickle some of the seven deadly sins,” Belfrage told the crowd, citing her company’s research that most Facebook users clicked on most advertisements when looking at their own profiles—illustrating the power of vanity.

All of this information delighted the crowd, who were keen to learn the lingo.

Banu Ali, a young Kurdish woman who co-organized Startup Weekend Sulaimani, talked about her experience founding Kurdistan’s first such event in 2012.

“We didn't believe there would be many people to come and pitch their ideas. But we were definitely wrong,” she said. “This is a great time to start your business in Iraq because a lot of ideas haven't happened yet.”

In her experience, many young Kurds have ideas for mobile phone applications.

“They think they can't do it because they are not programmers,” she said. “But they just need to find somebody who is passionate about technology and work with them throughout the development process.”

There are other significant barriers young entrepreneurs face in Kurdistan.

“Money is the biggest issue,” Ali points out. “People think they can't work with an idea because they don't have the venture capital.”

There is not yet a culture of investing in startups and technology, with most investment going into traditional sectors like real estate and hospitality. There are no ‘angel investors’ in Kurdistan, wealthy individuals who provide capital and mentoring, nursing a young company through the tender stages of development.

“We need a boot camp for angel investors,” Belfrage proposed. “We could turn it around and have a panel with entrepreneurs for judges.”

Rejna Alaaldin founded Kurdistan Legal Services, a law firm in Erbil, when she grew tired of working for someone else. But staffing her young firm has presented challenges.

“It hasn't been easy working with some of the law graduates, especially with men,” she told the crowd. “Middle eastern men don't like to receive orders from women, even the younger men.”

Alaaldin pointed out that there is plenty of space for old concepts as well as new, because “quality is what is missing here.” Word of mouth is still the best marketing, she insists, no matter how many Kurds are glued to mobile phones and Facebook.

Belfrage pushed the audience to talk about their businesses even at the early concept phase, when most people consider their plans secret.

“Tell everyone, share your ideas,” she told a shocked audience. “They won’t take it because it takes too much work to make it a reality.”

Bringing Silicon Valley to Erbil: teaching Kurds to “do world domination”

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