Shama's Excellent Egyptian Adventure

Shama Kabani talks with two Egyptian entrepreneurs.

Image: Scott Gerber

This past week, Portfolio.com was fortunate to have Dallas-based entrepreneur Shama Kabani blog for us from the NexGen IT Entrepreneur Boot Camp. Kabani and a handful of other young American (along with a couple of veterans) and Danish entrepreneurs mentored more than 40 Egyptians who were starting their own businesses.

Each day, Kabani wrote a diary of what took place and offered her own spin on the proceedings. As the CEO of her own firm, the Marketing Zen Group, Kabani was well positioned to offer counsel to her new Egyptian peers. Here are highlights. Click on the links to read more.

Day 1: After breakfast, we were driven to an area outside of Cairo called Smart Village—essentially a business oasis of 650 acres housing 120 companies built using green technologies. This community (which includes a library, a gym, and a school) may not seem out of place in the United States, but in Egypt it’s a great achievement. This is a country where the population is growing by 1.5 million people each year. "Where are they immigrating from?" I asked one of our hosts. The response: "They aren’t. It’s the birth rate."

Day 2: I distilled my advice down to the top 10 lessons I learned while building my business. I encouraged these entrepreneurs to follow their passion and not let others deter them when they had research to prove otherwise. I tempered my encouragement by adding that no idea begins perfect. They must be willing to listen to their marketplace and tweak their business models in order to succeed. I also recommended that they marry a lawyer. They found this particular lesson especially funny, but I explained the rationale behind it: Always protect your business, and surround yourself with people who you can count on to give you solid advice.

Day 3: How do these young entrepreneurs feel now that things have shifted after the revolution? Did they feel that entrepreneurship was a respected choice in Egypt? To the first, they answered that they finally felt like they had something to strive for. Their country was breathing, and for once they didn’t feel like the future was set in stone. To the latter, they explained that entrepreneurship in Egypt was still not as widely encouraged by schools. Kids went through the education system mostly to strive for technical and medical professions—noble, yet perceived to be safe. Then, I asked them the one question I felt would really tell me something. "Would you want to raise your kids in Egypt?" The majority raised their hands. One female entrepreneur said, "Before the revolution, no. After everything that has happened, yes. I feel that they will have choices."

Day 4: I recently learned that only 16 percent of entrepreneurs in Egypt are female, and I wanted to understand from the women here why they felt that this was the case and how it could be improved upon. It seemed most of them became entrepreneurs because they wanted to follow their passions and blaze their own paths. It didn’t sound like being a woman had anything to do with it.… When I wondered if they felt a women entrepreneur’s group would be beneficial for them in their city, many said no. They said that they didn’t want to be considered separate or "women entrepreneurs." They just wanted to simply be "entrepreneurs." I walked away with more questions than answers. And I realized that these problems weren’t going to be solved within a day. But it was a start.

Day 5: I realized that as I travel the world for business, I am usually eager and ready to head home as the engagement winds down. In Egypt, I find myself missing what I haven’t even left yet. This past week the delegates and the Egyptian entrepreneurs have bonded. We’ve taught them how to build a solid business, and they’ve reciprocated by sharing their culture and reflecting a sense of wanting to give back themselves.

For more about the Egyptian trip, check out this account by Ryan Allis, CEO of email marketing firm iContact, and read Portfolio.com's preview.