Early Stage Startup Competition
Judges: Mike Butcher, Loic Le Meur, Leila Janah, Ville Miettenen, Sanjay Sabnani

The below are the finalists and the final scores they received from the judges:

Altitude:
Altitude want to start distributing their air quality sensor in the Middle East, the perfect environment.
Altitude’s air quality sensor was first a consumer product, but they hope to take it to oil rigs and big enterprises.

Judges grades: 7, 10, 7, 8, 7.

ChefXChange:
Early stage startup ChefXChangeCXC from UKLebHub bring you the personal chef experience to your own home. Through ChefXChangeCXC, chefs increase their exposure and their income. Foodies get a hassle-free personal chef experience. They started in 2014 and expanded in 2015 to Dubai and will bring headquarters to Lebanon to increase employment opportunities.

Judges grades: 9, 9, 8, 8, 8

Krimston Two:
Early stage startup Krimston Two are pitching their dual sim and hotspot add-on device, a beautifully designed phone cover and app which offer dual sim and hotspot with dialer & synced contacts. Krimston Two consulted a group of experts including Nicholas Sehnaoui to develop and perfect their dual sim cover. They  expect $2M gross profit by the year 2017.

Judges grades: 10,10,10, 9, 9

Concepts:
Early stage startup Concepts, part of TopHatch are pitching their app that designs and builds your ideas using the most accessible, accurate, and flexible sketching. The app is flexible and also allows you to write notes.

Judges grades: 9, 9, 9, 8, 8

ReAble:
Early stage startup ReAble are pitching their financial app specially designed for those with cognitive challenges. The inspiration of ReAble is Emile’s brother who is autistic. There are 73 million people living with autism today, 35 million of which fit their target. They have consulted with experts to help them develop an app that would allow functional autistic people use at ease. The app improves accountability and communication between those with cognitive disabilities and their parents. The app allows centers to realistically educate users on how to manage their finances.

Judges grades: 10, 10, 10, 9, 9

There was a tie between Krimston and ReAble. The crowd got to break the tie but cheering for their favorite startup between the two.

The winner of the Early Stage Startup Competition is: ReAble!

The winning prize is $10,000! This is thanks to Banque du Liban and Chivas – The Venture.

Idea Stage Startup Competition
Judges: Mansour Salameh, Mira Kaddoura, Liz fleming, Andra Larin, Jamil Corbani.

Aspiring to educate and inspire youth, Banque du Liban is hosting an Idea Stage Startup workshop series and competition themed Reimagining Lebanon. Inspired by youth driving change in Lebanon, the series of design-thinking workshops offered by SETT, a think tank focused on enabling emerging startup companies, is going to empower applicants with the entrepreneurial skills to develop solutions for a better Lebanon.

The below are the finalists and the final scores they received from the judges:

Bingo
They converted the garbage crisis in Lebanon into an opportunity – turn your trash into cash. They would reward your recycling activities with online currency.

Judges: 7, 7, 7, 6, 7

Hello
This team tackling how to facilitate game development in Lebanon. Game Mbrabba (game jam). It’s a network site with incentives for game developers that also allows people to try the games. It encourages people to make games, network with other game developers, and give people access to play Lebanese video games.

Judges: 7, 6, 7, 7, 6

Medsuite
Using Medsuite, a user finds a doctor and surrounding health facilities to ease the process of getting healthcare. Moreover, if a patient has an emergency they can contact red cross and send them their GPS location and the Red Cross can find the closest available hospital for their condition as well.

Judges:  8, 8, 7, 7, 6

The winner of the Idea Stage Startup Competition is: ReAble!

The winning prize is $5,000! This is thanks to Banque du Liban and Daher Capital.

Announcement of Hackathon winners:
Web & Mobile Hackathon
3rd place: GreenLab – $1,000
2nd place: Edupath – $2,000
WINNERS: Coordonate – $3,000

Wearable Hackathon powered by Innovo a DNY Group
3rd place: Tennis Core – $1,000
2nd place: Lag – $2,000
1st place: Dream Team $3,000

The 2nd day of BDL Accelerate 2015 kicked off with a panel discussion on Lebanese VCs supporting startups on Stage A and a panel discussion on Lebanese Seeds & Investments on stage B.  4100 have attended today, 2900 of which are returning attendees from yesterday, and there have been 1200 new registrations.

Below are some highlights from all the keynotes & panel discussions on both stages:

Stage A:

Panel Discussion: Supporting Startups
Moderator: Nicolas Sehnaou
Speakers: Marwan Kheireddine, Mohamed Rabah, Maroun Chammas, Robert Fadel

The panel discussed the current state of the Lebanese startup ecosystem that have moved from one that did not exist some years ago to quite a sophisticated one.  They also discussed the challenges the ecosystem faces with slow internet connection, poor infrastructure, and the role of the government in the ecosystem. All speakers were rather confident on the current resources available to entrepreneurs and the structure of the Lebanese ecosystem calling for entrepreneurs to go create and innovate since the structure and support is there. They also voiced the need for coding in schools to encourage the culture shift. The overall feel was that we are to expect success stories in the near future and that we will be witnessing the Lebanese startup ecosystem take strides.

Panel Discussion: How Entrepreneurial Family Business Give Back
Moderator: Michael Lints
Speakers: Nicolas Boukhater, Youssef Abillama, Nay Ghorayeb, and George Abouadel

After individual introducing themselves, the panel discussed their role in the entrepreneurial ecosystem and how both they and entrepreneurs may benefit. As 3rd or 4th generation family businesses they all agreed that they cannot take the same risks that entrepreneurs do and they could learn to at least take more risks. They discussed ways on how they are approaching investing in startups for instance, Youssef Abillama the CEO of MMG stated that they have an internal corporate VC who looks for startups that they can strategically invest in especially since their plan is to invest in 10 to 15 startups in the next few years. All speakers agreed that they look for startups with similar focuses as their own business and that would complement or benefit them.

Keynote: Startup Success – An Unexpected Journey
Speaker: Mark Haidar

Mark gave a highly inspiring and entertaining 15 minute keynote in which he spoke about his incredible journey as a kid in a refugee camp wanting to earn some money to pay for his tuition, to arriving in New York with just the clothes on his back and $200 given to him by his dad, to him becoming the successful Founder & CEO of Vinli. The audience were in awe as Mark told them to always dream big and never give up.

Keynote: Full Circle
Speaker: Mansour Salameh

Mansour Salameh talked about the journey his career took him on from being an entrepreneur to an angel vc to an investor and back to an entrepreneur again. He added that you don’t have to be an entrepreneur to have an impact on the startup ecosystem. He gave tips to investors to understand what they are investing in and to invest in a team who know more than they do and are capable of solving problems.

Hybrid: Emerging Opportunities
Moderator: Paul Papadimitriou
Speakers: Mbawana Ailliy, Samir Abdelkrim

Both speakers discussed the emerging opportunities in African and shared their experiences. Both speakers seemed to agree that although the ecosystem in Africa is still in its infancy, its growing exponentially rather fast and that we should expect to hear many more success stories from there.

Hybrid: Bridges to Asia
Moderator: Paul Papadimitriou
Speakers: Joyce Kim, Gen Kanai, and Sally Park.

The speakers started by individually sharing their experience and introducing their ecosystems providing valuable insights on connecting with the Asian ecosystems. Through understanding their respective markets in terms of consumer, culture, tech-savviness, etc Lebanese should consider exporting their products and services to those markets.

Fireside: 15mins with TechCrunch
15 minute discussion with Mike Butcher

As expected, Mike Butcher was highly informative and opinionated on stage. In reference to banks, Mike thinks that banks should leave the game to those specialized in it. Leave it to VCs, to angels, to entrepreneurs. He told entrepreneurs to aim for larger markets by going regionally rather than just think locally. He also advised Lebanese to compare themselves to other emerging ecosystems such as Cairo instead of Silicon Valley who already have a 50 year lead. Mike made a point that ecosystems should be lead by entrepreneurs and everything in the ecosystem should be directed to them.  He then concluded by briefly informing the audience about TechFugees, an initiative he started that has been recently bringing the power of technology to the refugee crisis.

Hybrid: Building Startup Ecosystems
Moderator: Joe Haslam
Speakers: Liz Fleming, Andra Larin, Natalia Kiskova, Josephine Goube

Liz Fleming started with a presentation on building startup ecosystems discussing how entrepreneurship is a tiny market with large economic impact and demonstrated that if you increase the volume of activity, you will see much larger markets. She advised entrepreneurs to go with their gut feeling, exemplified how fear could become opportunity and reiterated that entrepreneurs are the core of the ecosystem and all activities should be targeted towards them. Andra then introduced Estonia showing how Estonia has changed so much from a country who aimed to getting computer labs and internet to all schools to a country that has wifi connectivity everywhere. The startup ecosystem is strongly supported and is a result of having everything aligned, including regulations, and that a forward thinking government and tech-savvy population have created in advanced e-country. Finally, Natalia Kiskova introduced Slovakia highlighting how small the country is in terms of startup ecosystem where it only have 5 real startups at the moment and it’s only been 1 year since the 1st law was passed by government to help startups. They have plenty of money to invest into startups but no where to really invest it. She added that unlike Slovakians, Lebanese people constantly sell Lebanon to everyone and the ecosystem is highly accelerating.

Hybrid: Computer Video & Gaming
Speakers: Ville Miettennen, Moaffak Ahmed,
Moderator: Paul Bragiel

The speakers discussed the emergence of gaming and the development of the ecosystem in Finland. The emphasized on the importance of collaborating and sharing. Finland ecosystem started by 5 to 10 people who made it happen. They advised the audience not to wait for the government to provide a platform for them but for them to do it themselves and to overshare. Share. Share. Share.

Keynote: The Microword Revolution
Speaker: Leila Janah

Sama Group has 2 programs. The projects are broken down into microwork and give them to people in our offices. Impact sourcing models can help people with low income do entry level work. They provide a lot of data behind the algorithms. This helps them move people out of poverty and develop their talents. They have been recently asked by Morocco to launch there. This would be very useful and helpful given the refugee problems in the area. They have clients like trip advisor and getty images. Sama  moved 30,000 people from 2 dollar per day income to 8 dollar per day income. Connectivity is still the biggest issue but they are trying to ride this wave by getting some help from people who can afford it.  Additionally, Sama school offers free training to prepare people to work in refugee camps and such areas.

Stage B:

STAGE A

Hybrid – Lebanese VCs
After lunch break, Stage A kicked of with a hybrid discussion on Lebanese VCs. The speakers included the Managing Partner of Leap VC, Henri Asseily, Waleed Mansour the Managing Partner at Middle East Venture Partners, and Paul Chucrallah Berytech  Fund 2 Fund Manager.  Marvin Liao, partner at 500 Startups moderated the panel. The 3 VCs introduced their companies, listed the kind of companies they are interested in, and what they look for/expect.

Announcement – Berytech
Chairman of Berytech, Maroun Chammas made an announcement of new investments as follows: $4mil in Instabeat, $2.5mil to Loop, $900k in Slighter, $1.5mil ElementN/Scriptr, $2mil in CCC, & $2 mill in Mobinet.

Hybrid – Hardware innovation in Lebanon
The speakers included Jamil Corbani the CEO of Green Studios,the CEO of Multilane Fadi Daou, Ziad Yasmine at YLE and was moderated by Aziza Sheerin.

Hybrid – Building Communities
The speakers included Aziza Sheerin, City Director at General Assemb.ly , Co-Founder & Co-CEO of HUBBA Thailand Amarit Charoenphan, Head of Advertisement & Monetization Rishita Bachu,  Mario Berta the Founder & CEO of FlySpaces. The session was moderated by Paul Papadimitriou.

Keynote -Investing in Emerging Markets
Partner at 500 Startups Marvin Liao provided some insights on how emerging markets grow, how being a small country could be an advantage since you’re obliged to think on expanding regionally/globally from the start. He gave examples of other small markets where ecosystems grew exponentially by being driven by an exit. Marvin also emphasized on the importance of an emerging ecosystem to have to think about how to grow the pie TOGETHER.

STAGE B

Idea stage startup competition finalists:
Bingo: an app that rewards recycling with online currency that can be used for online shopping.
Medsuite: an online platform that connects patients to doctors without the hassle of going to the clinic then pharmacy then laboratory.
Game Mrabba: an online platform that connects game developers with resources they need.

Early Stage Startup competition finalists:
Concepts: Smarter Sketching: an accurate creative design app
Reable: a financial solution for people with cognitive challenges
Altitude: an air quality monitoring device
Krimston: a dual SIM and hotspot add-on to your phone
ChefXChange: an online platform that connects foodies to professional chefs to book a personal chef experience.

Hackathon

Web and mobile Hackathon ideas: 
How to better deal with traffic jams through technology?
How to better choose your career?
How to provide access to e-commerce for local retailers?
How to connect handymen with the marketplace and provide job opportunities?
How to create emotional information for better user understanding in every day services?
How to clean up Lebanon through technology?

Wearables hackathon:
mytrainer wearable device that gives you a personalized workout plan and monitors your exercise routine.
Wearable device that acts as a game controller based on the arms’ direction.
Wearable bracelets that allows parents to monitor their children from a distance based on their heart rates.
Wearable glove for tennis players that allows them to monitor their game performance and evaluate their progress.
Wearable motorbike helmet that alerts emergency based on a sensor in case of an accident.

Workshops:
Tools for business planning workshop just started in the Innovation workshop space with Andra Larin.
Data driven decision workshop with Imad Riachi in the Innovation workshop space.

Startup & VC fundraising workshop  in the Investment workshop space.
Anti dilution clauses workshop started in the Investment workshop space with Lawyer Rita Khoriaty.

That’s a wrap! See you tomorrow!

An entrepreneur should be excited by the prospect of work. They should always have a strong drive to succeed and overcome obstacles. They should not only set big goals for themselves but also see that they are actually committed to achieving them regardless of the countless setbacks that occur.

A successful entrepreneur always has a strong sense of self confidence and a healthy opinion of their skills and abilities. Their personality is assertive and strong. They are always focused and do not really dilly dally with the issues at hand. This is what makes them different from the rest.

An entrepreneur should always be on the lookout for new innovations and ideas in order to emerge as a winner. They should constantly reinvent themselves and think of better ways to run a business and improvise on the products and services offered by them.

Another important quality of a successful entrepreneur is openness in adopting change. They should not be headstrong and stubborn when it comes to choosing other options. Change is the only thing that is constant in business no one can make any profits on age old methods. Ralph Raad, Chief Marketing Officer at DNY Group said, “For entrepreneurs to thrive they need to be resilient, courageous, extremely resourceful, and embrace failure. Also, another important quality of a successful entrepreneur is openness in adopting change.” 

The path to success lies in evolution, whether it is evolution of ideas, services and products or technology. An entrepreneur should have an open mind and eagerness to learn new things. It is imperative to understand that the only way to keep at the top is to keep on changing and evolving with the time. An entrepreneur should be aware of the latest service techniques and technology in order to serve the clients in a better way.

Competition should never scare an entrepreneur. In fact, competition is what a successful entrepreneur thrives on. Monopoly is never a good thing. This is because in monopoly there is no scope for improvisation or change.

An entrepreneur should be highly energetic and motivated. He or she should always be on the go. At the same time, the commitment levels have to be pretty high. Only when a person is motivated can he do justice to his line of work.

Accepting rejection or constructive criticism can go a long way in making an entrepreneur successful. Criticism shows what he or she is not doing properly or where change is needed. However it must be remembered that accepting criticism is a very important way of getting success. This is because a person will then be aware of the shortcomings of his business and accordingly make amends. Hence accepting criticism is actually a good way of improvising.

Passion, resourcefulness, willingness to improvise and listen to others and strong determination to succeed is what makes an entrepreneur successful. And this is what you have to keep in mind as well if you want to be a successful entrepreneur yourself.

To determine which is best, let’s first identify the role of coworking spaces and accelerators for you to know how each works and how they would add value to you:

Accelerators:
First of all, you have to apply to an accelerator. Once accepted, the program typically lasts for approximately three months and would include a workspace for the team, a financial seed injection, mentorship, and networking opportunities. Beirut has quite a few accelerators such as Berytech, UK Lebanon Tech Hub, and Speed@BDD.

Coworking spaces:
The spaces are created to enhance the ability to interact with others. They are an alternative solution to the isolation that work-at-home professionals and independent contractors frequently feel. They are places where you may meet brilliant and inspirational entrepreneurs who can help you strategize, share insight, and provide networking opportunities. Some co-working spaces constantly have workshops, events, and seminars to help entrepreneurs turn their startups from ideas to reality. Most of them offer affordable rent from daily to monthly contracts with access to necessary office amenities such as Internet, printers, and conference rooms. There are quite a few co-working spaces and startup hubs in Beirut such as Berytech’s DigiHive, Alt-City, Beirut Digital District.

Another thing to consider when finding or creating the right workspace for you is to consider the physical space since it largely impacts how you do business. Innovative, modular office furniture tend to encourage collaboration and foster vibrant office cultures.  You can check Start by CrownHouse in Beirut who specialize in this field.

Meet our workshop sponsors:

Leap Ventures
Leap Ventures was founded in 2014 as a venture capital firm specializing in investments in startups. The firm is based in Beirut and is also located in Dubai. It invests in the MENA region with a focus in Lebanon.  It considers investments between $3 million and $7 million and up to $12 million through partnerships with other firms. Leap Ventures closed off its first round at $71 million and is expected a second closing that would most likely increase the fund size to $80 million.

Leap Venture leverage their extensive entrepreneurial experience: engaging with promising entrepreneurs, providing fresh views and strategic opportunities, and planning for transformative growth.

Leap Venture has 4 founding partners with over 70 years of combined experience in founding and exiting companies.  The 4 founding  partners are Henri Asseily, Hala Fadel, Herve Cuvilliez, and Noor Sweid, each with a wealth of experience as investors and entrepreneurs. The 4 have founded and scaled 8 companies leading to over $ 2 billion in exits, and have invested in a total of 47 startups to date.

Booz|Allen|Hamilton:
Booz Allen Hamilton has been at the forefront of strategy and technology for more than 100 years. Today, the firm provides management and technology consulting and engineering services to leading Fortune 500 corporations, governments, and not-for-profits across the globe. In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, Booz Allen builds on six decades of experience partnering with public and private sector clients to solve their most difficult challenges through a combination of business strategy, digital innovation, data analytics, cybersecurity and resilience, operations, supply chain, organization and culture, engineering and life-cycle project management expertise.

As strategy consultants, Booz Allen Hamilton can mentor entrepreneurs and start-ups, particularly through structured programmes organised by accelerators and incubators. Many of their consultants have worked closely with government and multi-nationals and understand what these organisations look for in their suppliers –  therefore, Booz Allen Hamilton can help entrepreneurs ‘speak the right language’ to these entities, who are likely to be their customers.  They have also worked with countries to set up entrepreneur ecosystems and recognise the complexity of the ecosystem that entrepreneurs need to navigate. Their mentorship can help them in this regard and their consultants also have honed skills that entrepreneurs need to develop, particularly in relation to thinking strategically, segmenting customers and building viable financial models.

Booz Allen Hamilton are inspiring innovation and change within the industry. Their objective is to bring innovation at the heart of their people and service offering. Booz Allen Hamilton have ventured into new technologies and instilled a creative and imaginative DNA culture to drive innovation internally within their organisation and externally for their clients.

Here’s what you need to know to get to and into BDL Accelerate 2015 swiftly and smoothly:

Getting to BDL Accelerate 2015:
The 2 day conference is taking place at Forum De Beyrouth. For security reasons, there may be an army checkpoint prior to entering the vicinity.  All cars must be given to the FREE valet parking service we are providing. If you do not wish to give your car to the valet service, you may park at BO18. Another option is to grab a cab with our Official Transportation Partner, Charlie Taxi.

Getting into BDL Accelerate 2015:
Once you’ve passed through the metal detectors at the door, you will find 10 registration counters. Due to the massive number of registered attendees, we are opening up early registration from 7am. Each check-in process takes 15 to 30 seconds. We strongly recommend you get to Forum De Beyrouth before 8am to skip the long lines. As per our calculations, we expect to process a minimum of 1000 check-ins per hour.

In addition to the 10 registration counters, there also will be a VIP registration counter. This counter is solely dedicated to VIPs who have received white invitations from Banque du Liban via snail mail, the speakers, the official press, and the organizers.

Post-registration:
At the Berytech DealMakers Lounge, we will be serving breakfast and coffee provided by Socrates and Dunkin’ Donuts. The Opening Ceremony starts at 9:30am promptly.

We look forward to seeing you all tomorrow morning!!

(Don’t forget: Get to BDL Accelerate 2015 before 8am to skip the long line!)

There will be 2 stages at the conference, one of which will be dedicated to panels, keynotes, and fireside chats as a space for 100 influential speakers from over 30 countries to share their best practices, discuss the challenges they faced during the developing stages of their ecosystems, and exchange their knowledge. The aim of the valuable engagement and knowledge shared on this stage will be a great stepping stone for the Lebanese ecosystem to thrive through learning from the trials and errors of other ecosystems.

The second stage will be dedicated to panels and  the startup pitches as part of the two competitions BDL Accelerate 2015 is hosting dedicated to idea stage startups and early stage startups. The aim of these competitions is to educate and provide tools to aspiring entrepreneurs and to assist them in succeeding, as well as to find the best startup in the local scene.

Our Startup Competitions & Exhibition attracted hundreds of applications from dozens of countries. 30 top-tier startups from around the world have been selected for our Early Stage Startup Competition. The winner will take home an impressive 10,000 US$ in cash, but more importantly, will peak the interest of the 200+ investors with over $500 million to invest. Investors are not limited to locals, with some flying over 10,000 kilometers to participate in Banque du Liban Accelerate 2015.

Separately, our Wearables Hackathon and Web & Mobile Hackathon have received hundreds of applications as well. Each is awarding 6,000 US$ of cash prizes, which should make for worthy challenges to test the best

From co-founding her own startup to working as a government official, Sally Park has a unique position in Seoul’s startup community. Recently joined as the Head of Sales and Operations at Knowck, one of the leading platform for Digital Signage industry. She is currently working on how to simply and effectively advertise and monetize by using different kinds of displays remotely.

Sally stepped into the startup community in 2010 by co-founding a startup, Moglue. Having background as Developer, she started creating more values in Operations and Business Development. She worked both in the US and Korea as an Operations Director, where she met the partners at K-startup, global accelerator based in Seoul. With Korea’s number one telecom company, SK Telecom as a core partner she took a role as an Operations Manager, developed accelerator programs for early staged startups.

After working both as an entrepreneur and an operations manager at an startup accelerator, she continued on bringing new approach as a Government Official. With her past experience Sally initialized Global Expansion Program supporting over 200 early staged startups based in Korea. Creating a soft landing platform globally for Korean startups, connected various channels such as investors, mentors and entrepreneurs in Singapore, Israel, US(NYC, Boston, LA, Silicon Valley) and Europe(London, Paris, Berlin).

Once again, starting a new chapter as an entrepreneur at Knowck, Sally is ready to go “To Infinity And Beyond”. She’s a Latte-addict and an avid traveller.