“It always seems impossible, until it is done.” – Nelson Mandela
In the previous two parts of this article, we have heard bits of the stories of three lady entrepreneurs. And they have helped us in answering some questions about starting a business in MENA, and as a female. We still have one more story to read today before we reach our conclusion.
Ms. Eman Hylooz, is another successful entrepreneur who started her career as an employee in different Startups. From 2005 until 2012 she worked with young, bright, and successful founders who inspired her and made her feel she can do the same too, one day.
In 2012و she landed a job at a big company. Several months afterwards she quit, and started working on Abjjad.com, the first arabic social readers platform.
And like Ms. Brunori, she had the help of Oasis500, where she met many entrepreneurs and tutors who helped her translate her vision to reality. “I owe it all to Oasis500, where my journey began” she remarked.
Today Abjjad.com has 280K users and works with more than 40 publishers. “It was not easy. We have had many ups and downs along the way. The hardest was raising funds. I had to stretch my seed fund to last 16 months! I had a team and they needed salaries and my business had other operational costs to keep going.”, she continued “Early 2014, I had to travel in MENA looking for funds, and finally we got lucky with eureeca.com crowdinvesting platform, which is much riskier than crowdfunding. We were able to exceed our target of $120K by another $40k.”
Moreover, Ms. Hylooz was able to win her business few grants and awards; the Mohammed Bin Rashid Award for Young Business Leaders, the Etihad Bank Business Woman of the Year Award, His Highness Sheikh Salem Al Ali Al Sabah Informatics
Award, and a grant from Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation.
When asked about what an entrepreneur needs she replied “You will need a trustworthy cofounder, the type that will stick around no matter what happens. And he/she must be a good fit, to fill in your weaker skills”, she continued “After almost five years of doing this, I noticed that the entrepreneurs who become successful are not the smartest, but the ones who do not give up. Ones whom have high tolerance, can manage their temper, and stay focused on their vision.”
Ms. Hylooz also stressed on the importance of funding, as from her experience she could have not made it without the grants and funds she was able to attain. “Stress over finances is devastating. Entrepreneurs need to understand early on that they are the biggest asset of their own businesses, and they need to feel they have are safe financially, and get paid well themselves from the beginning to be able to perform well. This is something I wish I knew early on.”
And about entrepreneurship in MENA Ms. Hylooz explained “Trainings and mentoring in MENA is more than great, but I think what we need is better financing opportunities and talent acquisition support and management.”
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And the most interesting part was this: To all four woman I asked “What obstacles do women face that men don’t in Entrepreneurship, in MENA?”
The answer unanimously was “None!”
“When it comes to establishing and fighting for your startup, we females share the same risks, obstacles, and challenges as males do.” Ms. Hylooz explained
And Ms. Brunori stated “Gender is not an issue here.”
The conclusion here I think is simple. Females do have challenges in MENA. Different challenges that depend on their surrounding culture. But, the world today is providing much more support than we assume it does. And MENA is no exception. Actually, in some regions males are complaining as they feel discriminated against! Because of all the initiatives and support the entrepreneurship ecosystem is giving to females in many MENA countries. So if you are a female, feel blessed and proud. And if you feel you have what it takes to become an entrepreneur, start researching and sketching.