Building a collaborative startup community is not easy; there is no particular rule you can set. It is a community ideology, mindset, and shared dreams between all of its players. But where do you start? What is important? Here are three important things you should keep in mind.
Kuala Lumpur becomes one of the top cities to launch your startups in, and here are six Insights on Malaysia startup ecosystem.
1 ) The cheap cost of living in Kuala Lumpur makes the city an attractive destination for startups that move here even though they are still incorporated and mainly operated elsewhere in Southeast Asia like Singapore, where there are a lot of investing money for a startup. Also, the diverse demographic of the Kuala Lumpur population (Chinese, Malay, and Indian) made the city a significant market test for earlier stage startups in different potential Asian markets.
2) Starting in 2013, the Malaysian government formed a $100 million fund to invest in startups as part of a broader 10-year plan to develop high-tech industries.
3) 2014 marked the launch of the Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre (MaGIC), an innovation and creativity center that works to support the local, and to some extent regional, entrepreneurial community and enhance the startup ecosystem with many initiatives, most importantly:
During my attendance of Techstars Community Program Summit, Startup Weekend MENA, and Startup Istanbul I got the chance to witness what Turkey offers as an entrepreneurial ecosystem. Here are 7 interesting facts I have put together:
1) The excellent location of Turkey in the middle of East and West, and the stability that the country has compared to its neighbors makes Turkey a platform for both regional and global startups.
2) Delivery Hero, Berlin Based food delivery has acquired Turkey’s Yemeksepeti for $589 million which considered to be the biggest exit in the Turkish ecosystem, and probably MENA.
3) Iyzico, a Turkish online payment system that raised the largest investment fund in the country in Series A and B, with more than $9 Million in total since it was founded in 2012.
Interesting facts I learned about the Iranian startup ecosystem: I’ve collected up some thoughts of this emerging ecosystem that I was able to explore.
1) It’s a startup clone market! Because of the sanctions Iranian entrepreneurs start setting up Iranian versions of the international successful startups like: YouTube (Aparat), Groupon (Takhfifan), eBay (Mozando), Amazon (Bamilo), and Uber (Taxi Yaab).
2) It worked: Digikala, is an online Iranian e-commerce site similar to Amazon, is estimated to be worth $150 Million which has around 750,000 unique visitors per day!