The Journal - Sixth Issue - En by The Station Foundation for Entrepreneurship

4 Chief Editor Adam Hasan Chief Producer Mohammed Fox Editor Lubna Salam Producer Momen Firas Proofreader Blnd Othman Proofreader Zainab Qasim

5 Interviews Marwan Jabbar: A Journey Through Iraq’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Articles Team Development for Start-ups 101 Maryam Allami Mosul’s Promising Business Ecosystem Athir Babat What Motivates The Iraqi Market? Mohamed Ameen 41 47 .................. 5351 What’s Next? ........................ 59The upcoStation’smingplans News The Opening of The Station in Erbil News from The Station Highlights from the Coworking Space 05 .................................. 1123 Introduction Welcome to the JOURNAL’s 6th issue! 01 Programs Yanhad: The Revitalization of the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Iraq theAcademy: Developing and Training Your creativeSpace:EmployeesCreative Industries Between the Local and International Community theMetro: A Long Career Road Ahead 3329 ......................... 35 .................... 39

WELCOMETOTHEJOURNAL’S6THISSUE!

In February, The Station celebrated its 4th anniversary! It was a moment of reflection for all the team to look back on the foundation and its achievements, challenges, and direction for the future. We were delighted to host our friends and partners during the event, which culminated at the end of The Station Week, a celebration of free workshops, events, and exhibitions to anyone who was interested. It was where we announced that The Station’s mission and vision has no geographical limits, and that 2022 would be a key year in the expansion of our work.

2022 has been quite the year so far! Not only for all of us at The Station, but wider developments in the Iraqi ecosystem that are offering promising signs for the future.

ANNIVERSARY

The first expansion of the year was to Erbil, a city with a growing start-up scene and a base for our services in Kurdistan. The opening of our new branch in Erbil was made possible due to the shared commitment to youth with our partners: Al-Handal International Group and GIZ ICT. We are delighted to arrive in Erbil, where we will serve the community wherever we need to through our incubation programs, coding bootcamps, MakerSpace activities, and creative industry sessions. Of course, all of this requires an environment that fosters productivity and collaboration.

Start-ups in our coworking space have continued to grow, with a number receiving investment and moving into their own spaces, a sign that incubators can offer the potential platform for growth in Iraq. We are delighted to see that our coworking space in Mosul is now hosting lots of exciting new projects, making their way into the ecosystem. We will continue to support new start-up ideas with the next generation of entrepreneurs through our incubator programs and mentorship support.

Only days after the opening in Erbil, we were invited to the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the biggest global gathering of entrepreneurs, policymakers, ecosystem builders, and investors. It was during this event that we received the Compass Award for ‘Ecosystem Champion’, a huge surprise to us and to many around us!

Of course we were honored and proud to receive the award, but it is the acknowledgement of a new Iraq being built on the foundation of the achievement of youth that brought us the most joy. The day after, we were congratulated by so many people who were genuinely excited to discover what was going on in Iraq!

Our spaces have also been full of color and music as we continue to draw focus to the creative and cultural life of the country, bringing a spotlight to Iraqi film, music, and artists. Our programs continue to support the future generation who will highlight the creativity of the youth and lend a fresh voice to the Iraqi cultural scene.

In the coming months, we are excited to bring more programs with our partners that will build on our previous successes, further connecting the ecosystem in areas where opportunities were previously limited.

Keep your eyes peeled, stay connected, and connect with us as our journey continues.

THE STATION IS THE FIRST IRAQI ORGANIZATION TO WIN THE GLOBAL ECOSYSTEM CHAMPION AWARD

Jonathan Ortmans

The Station Foundation has proven itself to be building an ecosystem that advocates for young entrepreneurs and innovators despite the challenges that the country has faced.

The president of GEN

by Raniyah Fares

The Station’s expansion to the Kurdistan region is a monumental move for The Station’s growth across Iraq in order to expand the ecosystem of entrepreneurs, professionals, and creatives. By doing so, it bridges the gap between individuals that may not have been in contact prior to that. By opening the communication channels, it allows for growth to continue that may not have been possible before through the sharing of knowledge, experience, and ideas. The Station achieves this through training programs, networking events, and incubation programs, in addition to the rental of the coworking space by start-up companies.

THE OPENING OF THE STATION IN ERBIL

In the two months since the opening of the branch, two Ramadan Meetups (involving Kurdish culture and tech start-ups) with an accompanying bazaar were held. In addition to “Hustle Night”, a gathering of freelancers to share their experiences and build a community amongst themselves. Furthermore, a networking event was held in partnership with Startups Without Borders. We are so excited to now expand this vision through the opening of The Station Erbil.

NEWS

Ashley Barlow, Executive Director of The Station

The Iraqi ecosystem is at a crucial point in its evolution, and developments in Kurdistan are an indicator of the great deal of potential that can take root in the entrepreneurial scene. With investment in start-ups growing, attempts to address registration issues, and a growing commitment to advocating for youth to enter the private sector, now is the time that The Station lends its four years of experience to the city of Erbil. We will continue to offer all of our services and programs in our latest branch that has made The Station a center for youth innovation across the country. We are delighted to be increasing our community of leaders, creatives, and innovators, in this incredible city.

We are delighted to open The Station’s coworking space in Erbil, which is now fully open for start-ups, MSMEs, and freelancers to rent. The perks you get with renting a space with us are access to free internet, refreshments, and our meeting rooms. Additional benefits, depending on the type of membership, are advertisements on The Station’s various social media platforms and linkage with a mentor to help grow their businesses. Currently, we have one company in the coworking space, and we hope to see more soon.

COWORKING SPACE

MADE IN IRAQ - ERBIL

The Kurdistan region is heavily influenced by international brands and products, which is why it is important to promote locally produced goods in our Made in Iraq section. The Station partners with various brands and sells their products at various locations. In Erbil, we are partnered with the following brands that sell their items independently and at our office locations. The items range from jewelry to clothing to souvenirs.

Tricot takes pride in your experience of owning handicrafts made by skilled craftsmen in Iraq. They want you to have a hand-made masterpiece that you will treat as a treasure for years to come. Their pieces range from carpets to pillowcases and small souvenir pieces.

Urbillium is the first Iraqi game brand with the mission of creating entertaining and fun products with a local identity. There are currently two games available: “The Assyrian Empire”, a two-player strategy board game, and “Ditim”, a fast card game for up to eight players.The two games are very different compared to each other, but they have one fundamental element in common: local identity! Urbilum’s games are based on Iraq’s rich culture and heritage and are provided in 4 languages: Kurdish, Arabic, Syriac, and English.

ERBILLIAN

NAMO

URBILUM

ECO LIFE

NAKHSH

Eco Life is an online shopping store whose goal is to simplify the shopping of consumers through an online platform. You can choose from among the list of products that are sourced from Iraq’s natural sources and manufactured into environmentally friendly products. All the products made do not contain any plastic or chemicals, and they are also only made by Iraqi hands.

Nakhsh was founded to show uniqueness through fashion. The brand combines the latest trends with the Kurdish culture. In a very short time, Nakhsh attracted the attention of people in Kurdistan because of our mission to turn Kurdish art’s uniqueness into a part of the modern lifestyle. The original idea was to design one piece for each customer to intensify the uniqueness, but because of customer demands, we decided to offer the pieces in a limited quantity instead.

“Namosocks” is a Kurdish brand of socks that was founded in 2021 to address universal issues with socks such as bad odor, sliding, incorrect size, and sweating. Most notably, the “different weather, different socks” problem that we all face as a result of living in a hot country. The socks are long-lasting and keep their shape.

This self-taught digital artist started sketching during quarantine time in 2022. The pieces began as black and white, simple yet modern sketches to tell stories and bring attention to the diversity of Kurdish and Arab cultures in Iraq through symbolic items and ancient and historical places.

NASKTRICOT

Nask is a jewelry brand that combines nature, history, art, and culture into their products to produce elegant pieces that can be worn casually or formally.

The Station, like all of its partners, is committed to providing real-world solutions and will focus on developing a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem through business incubator programs and many other upcoming programs in various fields.

The Station in Erbil has partners who share its mission and vision: Al Handal International Group, who have been there since the start, ensuring that The Station serves the community, and GIZ, one of the earliest collaborators, who believed in The Station mission.

THE STATION IN ERBIL HAS PARTNERS WHO SHARE ITS MISSION AND VISION

by Lubna Salam

This hackathon was designed specifically to enable and promote technological innovation as a means to improve the internet space in Iraq and support young innovators in finding solutions to critical problems they face as part of the Innovation for Change-Middle East and North Africa program that is implemented by their national partner in Iraq, The Station. The hackathon brought together more than 60 community entrepreneurs, human rights activists, security and digital activism workers, students, and programmers from Iraq over two days in January to exchange ideas and prototypes on how to improve the internet space in Iraq, including issues related to fake news and bullying.

NEWS FROM THE STATION

TATHEER SOCIAL HACKATHON WITH A $2000 PRIZE

THE STATION WEEK: CELEBRATING OUR 4 YEAR ANNIVERSARY WITH FREE OFFERS

6 START-UPS FROM THE STATION WON THE FIRST PLACES IN THE ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUSINESS AWARD

ANA TURATH APP HAS BEEN LAUNCHED TO START PUBLISHING IRAQ’S HERITAGE ARCHIVE

FREE DESKS FOR START-UPS IN MOSUL

1- Green Gold for Sustainable Development Teami Mosul Solar for Solar Energy Systems Nakhla A.J.A Company Eco Life

As a lead-up to The Station’s fourth anniversary on February 8th, The Station launched a week of free activities, events, and training workshops to express gratitude and happiness to the audience for their active participation over the past four years. The Station Week featured a free art exhibition, bazaar, and music concert, as well as free training workshops in interior design, market research, content creation, and academic writing for over 120 trainees.

10-

For six months, starting in January, Al-Handal International Group, one of The Station’s strategic partners, offered more than 30 free desks for Mosul’s start-ups. This initiative aimed to encourage start-ups and youth to become a part of The Station’s community and to benefit from the opportunities provided by The Station and its partners.

The Baghdad Chamber of Commerce, in collaboration with the Association of Excellence for Young Entrepreneurs, organized the EBA Ceremony in January, during which 100 projects were nominated and ten qualified for the final stage, six of which were start-ups from The Station in Baghdad and Mosul, and three start-ups won the first three places:

The Station, in collaboration with UNESCO and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), launched the Ana Turath app in Mosul at the end of January. Ana Turath is an application that serves as a photo archive for digital heritage and makes it accessible to all.

The Station in Mosul sponsored and implemented the Hult Prize annual global competition, which targeted Mosul University’s bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral students. The training included an overview of the human-centered thinking methodology, which participants can use to develop their project ideas, as well as design thinking. The global competition’s winning team will receive a $1 million prize, funded by a donation from the Hult family, as seed capital to help them launch a community project, as well as a certificate from the Hult Prize, the United Nations, and Hult Business School, as well as the opportunity to train and present ideas to an elite group of entrepreneurs and present the project to local and international experts in innovation, marketing, and finance.

HULT PRIZE: THE GLOBAL UNIVERSITY STUDENT COMPETITION IN MOSUL

This year’s International Women’s Day theme was “Break the Bias,” with the goal of creating a world of equality that values and cherishes diversity. And, because the entire world is encouraging strong steps to achieve equality and recognize the achievements of women and their important role, The Station created a one-week campaign to highlight the achievements and stories of more than 25 Iraqi business and creative women from Baghdad, Mosul, and Basra. This campaign was followed by a celebration of Iraqi women’s achievements in various fields at The Station.

THRIVING IRAQI WOMEN: CELEBRATE. INSPIRE. CONNECT.

RAMADAN MEETUPS 2022

The Station received the Global Entrepreneurship Network’s The Compass Award for Ecosystem Champions for driving positive, long-term, and inclusive growth in their local ecosystem through programs and education that advance innovation and support start-ups. The winners were celebrated at the Compass Awards ceremony as part of the Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC), a gathering of start-up champions who are working together to build one global entrepreneurship ecosystem through a shared engine of innovation and economic growth in cities and countries everywhere.

THE STATION IS GLOBALLY RECOGNIZED FOR ECOSYSTEM CHAMPION AWARD

Over the past four years, The Station has hosted two offline and two online Ramadan Meetups in Baghdad and Mosul. This year, we organized the fifth edition of Ramadan Meetups in Baghdad, Mosul, and Erbil, which brought us back together with our community and were on various topics, including those that brought us back to our popular Ramadan habits and those that fascinated us with their atmosphere and vitality, taking us to different worlds of music, as well as cinema, photography, technology, mental health, video games, scholarships, and the role of major companies in privatization. The audience benefited from the information provided by the distinguished speakers who participated in the Meetups.

3. Coffee Sticker: A store that introduces coffee hospitality products in a new way.

Followingdesigns.a

discussion of the program’s stages, the four best businesses were chosen to advance to the national competition stage in France in

5. Athar: An online store that provides mandala

4. Elixir: Manufacturing men’s accessories and women’s jewelry with a conductive handicraft.

RAA’IDAAT’S LOCAL COMPETITION

2. Visit Mosul: Offers tourism services to foreign visitors within Mosul.

BUSINESSES THAT TOOK PART IN THE MOSUL LOCAL COMPETITION

Following ten months of intensive training and mentorship in various fields through Ra’aidaat Program, which is funded by the French Embassy in Iraq, implemented by The Station, and supported by Zain Iraq, ten businesses in Mosul and Baghdad advanced to the local competition on May 22nd, which included 16 businesses from various governorates of Iraq, to choose the best two businesses

1. AS_U: Produces customized home decorations and accessories.

The Station, in collaboration with the Iraqi Private Banks League and the Baghdad Chamber of Commerce, organized the first event of its kind in Baghdad, “Meet and Greet” event, with the goal of bringing together all partners, international and governmental organizations, major companies, as well as start-ups from our Coworking Space, with a diverse and valuable network of experience, to link them, build strong and valuable relationships, and encourage them to meet and exchange ideas and news, as well as to establish links, opportunities, and business partnerships in order to expand their business.

The Station, Five One Labs, KAPITA, and Takween participated in a panel discussion to discuss the current entrepreneurial landscape in Iraq, access to finance, investment, and Iraqi startup success stories. This was followed by a pitch presentation for the five Iraqi startups involved in the program.

Startups On The Move was held in June at The Station in Erbil by Startups Without Borders, in collaboration with Google, SPARK, and The Station. Startups on The Move is an incubation program for 130 entrepreneurs that will take place in Palestine, Lebanon, and Iraq.

NETWORKING EVENT:

STARTUPS ON THE MOVE

NETWORKING EVENT IN ERBIL

MEET AND GREET

NEW COLLABORATION WITH HABIBI COLLECTIVE AND THE INDEPENDENT IRAQI FILM FESTIVAL

CREATIVESPACE

A series of five films were screened within three days as part of The Station’s new collaboration with the British Council, Habibi Collective, and the Independent Iraqi Film Festival, with the goal of supporting the creativeSpace by opening up its Film Club to the wider world of cinema.

The second edition of the Women’s Film Festival, sponsored by The Station and held as part of the creativeSpace activities, took place in March in collaboration with the Iraqi Artists Syndicate. It is a two-day festival aimed at uniting the energies of Iraqi women, and it included the screening of a documentary film, followed by the screening of a group of short films, in order to create a suitable space for women working in the field of cinema to present their film productions and compete for festival prizes.

NEWS

WOMEN’S FILM FESTIVAL IN COOPERATION WITH THE IRAQI ARTISTS SYNDICATE

Interviews With painters, musicians, sculptors, and more...

In May, we hosted Haneen Hadi, an Iraqi contemporary artist who has performed in many countries, including Scotland, London, New York, and Los Angeles, revealing the unseen attractions in her mother country.

This exhibition, organized in collaboration with the Karbala Photography Club, was to showcase the illustrated history of Iraq and its most significant historical events, as documented by a group of the most important Iraqi photojournalists from across the country.

MEET THE ARTIST

DOCUMENTARY AND PHOTOJOURNALISM EXHIBITION

The exhibition featured over 40 works by photographers that archived many important life, societal, and historical issues for the country and conveyed these images to the entire world, with the goal of shedding light on photojournalists, approaching the visual vision among multiple generations of photographers, and emphasizing the importance and continuity of historical documentation in Iraq.

A series that began in April includes a number of interviews with famous and talented Iraqi artists, with the goal of allowing their audience to meet them, as well as introducing them to the larger community and highlighting their achievements and artworks.

The Station’s first artist, Ahmed Al-Bahrani, a Doha-based Iraqi and international sculptor, was our first guest, where he discussed his career and the artistic works that he has implemented around the world.

FIVE ONE LABS

The Station and Five One Labs announced a partnership on January 24th that will allow both organizations to share spaces for start-ups to access their facilities, and it represents a commitment to integrating the larger ecosystem, ensuring that start-ups have access to spaces across the country for meetings and engaging with the larger community. Start-ups from both organizations will have free access to the coworking spaces seven days a week, as well as a set number of free meeting room hours and a 50% discount on training room use.

PARTNERSHIPS

On June 20th, The Station and Startups Without Borders announced a strategic partnership to implement the “Startups on the Move” program, which is organized by Startups Without Borders in collaboration with SPARK, supported by Google and hosted by The Station. This partnership will expand opportunities for young entrepreneurs in Iraq, strengthen their skills with experts from around the world, help them advance their startups, and provide them with opportunities and support. Additionally, we provide mentorship, training, and scholarship opportunities to entrepreneurs throughout Iraq.

STARTUPS WITHOUT BORDERS

ARTS CANTEEN

FOUNDER INSTITUTE

The Station and Founder Institute, the largest accelerator of pre-seed start-ups in the world, have announced a partnership that will provide start-ups from The Station’s coworking space and start-ups graduating from The Station’s programs with access to international experts and participation in one of the world’s most well-known business accelerators. When possible or relevant, Founder Institute will provide business experts to deliver virtual coaching sessions for The Station start-ups. As a result, start-ups chosen by The Station will receive a 25% discount on Founder Institute’s programs.

The Station and Arts Canteen, a UK-based art organization, have announced a new collaboration that will allow them to implement and support The Station’s creative programs for emerging and professional artists as well as the Iraqi cultural movement, while also highlighting real innovations and creativity in Iraq through The Station’s creativeSpaces.

VIP VISITS

DURING THE FIRST HALF OF THE YEAR, MANY INTERNATIONAL DELEGATIONS VISITED THE STATION IN BAGHDAD AND MOSUL.

Later in March, the Turkish Ambassador, Mr. Ali Rza Güney, and the Political Adviser to the European Union Mission in Iraq, Mr. Guillaume Décot, visited The Station.

Mr. Peter Felten, Chargé d’Affaires at the German Embassy, and Christoph Feldkötter, Country Director of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), visited The Station in Baghdad in February.

Members of the US government from Washington, as well as representatives from the US Embassy and the US Agency for International Development, attended the visit, as follows: Jennifer GavitoDeputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iran and Iraq (DAS), Zahra Bell - Director of Iraq and Syria Affairs at the National Security Council (NSC), and Gregory DeLogervo - Deputy Chief of Mission at US Embassy (DCM), and John Cardenas - USAID Mission Director.

Mr. Stig Paulo, the Danish Ambassador to Iraq, visited The Station Baghdad in June, and we had an interesting discussion about the Iraqi ecosystem, as well as some examples and success stories from Iraq and Denmark.

The Station in Mosul has received many important visits, the most notable of which was the visit of UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Culture, Mr. Ernesto Ottone Ramirez, in February.

Later that month, Mr. Prashant Pise, Indian Ambassador, and Mr. Subhash Kain, Consul General, paid a visit to the branch.

US EMBASSY MEETING WITH IRAQI WOMEN BUSINESS OWNERS

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, 10 Iraqi women business owners were invited to an event at The Station, in collaboration with the US Embassy, to celebrate a number of SMEs owned by Iraqi women from various cities, such as Baghdad, Anbar, Basra, and Erbil, working in various fields.

The Station’s Coworking Space was the first to be established in Baghdad in 2018. It provides the entrepreneurs a lot of benefits, such as offices at nominal prices, free internet, free access to office appliances, complimentary drinks and pastries, and use of other spaces in The Station at discounted and free prices. Another service that The Station provides in the coworking space is an atmosphere of collaboration, cooperation, and Oversupport.the

In recent years, the concept of coworking space has become a buzzword in the business world, so what is a coworking space? It’s a shared space designed in a unique way to serve entrepreneurs and freelancers. Because traditional offices can be expensive for earlystage start-up founders, and because it’s very difficult to predict when they will be able to grow and have their own space, or whether they will still be in business after a few months, a coworking space is the best choice for an early-stage start-up, MSME, or freelancer.

In this article, we will look at a few examples of Iraqi start-ups in The Station’s Coworking Space that have faced a variety of challenges and how they were able to solve them in their own creative and innovative ways.

ENTREPRENEURIAL CHALLENGES AND INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE COWORKING SPACE

by Sama Abbas and Abdullah Amjed

last four years, the Coworking Space hosted over 97 start-ups and MSMEs in Baghdad, and over 25 startups and MSMEs in Mosul.

Green Gold (GG) is a start-up founded in 2018 that specializes in reducing and recycling all types of organic waste (food waste, cloth, cardboard, animal waste, and vegetable waste) into environmentally friendly products free of chemicals. To keep up with population growth and production, Iraq is struggling to achieve adequate waste management and waste disposal practices.

Marwa Al-Nuaimi, GG’s founder, created an innovative solution to this problem by combining worms and food waste for 3 to 4 months and creating an organic fertilizer made in a 100 percent eco-friendly method without any machines.

“We are a social enterprise, not so much for the money as for our mission and goal for the planet, people, and nature of not harming and preserving this planet to the greatest extent possible.”

Marwa Al-Nuaimi Founder of GG

GG faced many challenges in the past few years regarding how to make fertilizers because the machines that convert waste food into fertilizers are expensive, harmful to the environment due to gas emissions, and waste energy.

24 GREEN1 GOLD

SAFR is a registered travel and tourism company that aims to develop travel to and from Iraq by developing a fully interactive system for electronic reservations that combines all travel requirements into one convenient place. Their vision is to be the leading travel agency in Iraq and consistently provide the best available service and offers to their customers by streamlining the process of organizing individual and corporate travel, providing a unique travel experience for individuals and developing a plan to reduce corporate expenses.

SAFR now has the experience and access to create custom travel apps for companies thanks to their work on the Travel API and how it relates to travel apps and websites.

“Success is achieved through a series of failed experiments.”

SAFR suffered greatly from the lack of human resources in the travel and tourism field. The majority of young people graduated without any experience or knowledge of aviation systems. So instead of searching and trying to find the best candidates for their job position, they decided to train young people by exploring their talents and passions and then hiring them. SAFR now has more than 16 employees

SAFR2

After dealing with over 100 hotels in Iraq, it has now become necessary for SAFR to connect several of them to the outside world. After months of hard work in locating Iraq’s best accommodation service providers and connecting these hotels to them, SAFR will be able to reach all hotels in Iraq within a few weeks.

Ahmed Qassim Founder of SAFR

Eco Life is a green tech start-up founded in 2020 with the vision of being the hub of all eco-friendly products and providing customers with the best shopping experience for eco-friendly products, with the goal of spreading the culture of an eco-friendly lifestyle, reducing plastics and chemicals, and strengthening the Iraqi product industry, as all Eco-products are locally manufactured using local raw materials, expertise, and 100% Iraqi hands. Eco Life faced an issue when first entering the market: the culture for eco-friendly products is practically nonexistent in Iraq. In addition to that, the concept of an eco friendly lifestyle was still unheard of at that time.

They began addressing this issue by devoting all their offerings for about 6 to 7 months to raising awareness among people about what an eco-friendly lifestyle entails via their social media channels (posts, videos, live sessions, and so on). They then had to build trust in their products because they are locally made and many customers were hesitant to use them.

But Abdulrahman Abdulkareem, founder of Eco Life, and the entire Eco Life team worked on the quality of their products and the raw materials, as well as taking advice from experts in this field from inside and outside Iraq. The other challenge they faced was finding a place for their machinery, but with the help of their partners, like Soft Touch, they were able to get a wider workplace for the Eco Life team to produce their products.

“Before you begin developing products for your start-up, consider how to target and understand consumer behaviors, as well as how to reach your target audience. Understanding target audience behaviors is a continuous process for us throughout all stages of the Eco life cycle.”

Abdulrahman Abdulkareem Founder of Eco Life

ECO3 LIFE

PROFESSIONS

Seven Professions’ main challenge was the need to create a culture for customers and service providers for the services they are offering in order for them to be trusted and accepted in the market. This was achieved through Seven Professions’ incredible marketing campaign which included social media posts (focusing on Instagram Reels) and sponsored competitions for cash prizes. The Seven Professions promo video attracted close to 11K views on Instagram.

Seven Professions is a general services company that acts as a one-stop-shop platform and enables households and SMEs to get the essential services they need, such as: maintenance, plumbing, electricity, welding, carpentry, construction and decoration, handymen, and nursing. via mobile apps and social media platforms. Their vision is to become the go to way when it comes to ordering such services by changing the reality of obtaining such services in Iraq to make people’s lives easier by taking care of all the processes for them.

27 SEVEN4

Our Start-ups

1. Supporting the students of Mosul and Nineveh Universities

YANHAD: THE REVITALIZATION OF THE ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEM IN IRAQ

To implement the third component of Yanhad, Expertise France partnered with The Station Foundation for Entrepreneurship, opening its second branch in Mosul.

by Mustafa Dawood PROGRAMS

On December 9, 2019 , Iraq’s former prime minister, Haider Al Abadi, announced the defeat of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and the liberation of Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq. The four-year domination of ISIS has resulted in massive destruction in the infrastructure, and acute economical damage, driving thousands out of their jobs. Expertise France, funded by the European Union and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, designed a twoyear program aligned with Iraq’s Reconstruction and Development Framework to support the Iraqi authorities in tackling some of the underlying social and economic drivers, starting with youth unemployment. The program consists of three main components:

2. Empowering Iraqi Civil Society Organizations

3. Encouraging Youth entrepreneurship through a network of accessible business incubators/accelerators programs for enterprises.

The second phase was the Incubator, which was more specific to the 10 start-ups selected out of the PreIncubation. Each of these start-ups had a dedicated mentor providing them with one-to-one consultation over six months to help them develop their Go to Market strategy and generate revenue.

Mustafa Basil Co-Founder of Wasla

Iman Al EntrepreneurshipJaff and Communicatio Expert at Expertise France

The integration between The Station and Takween was pretty good, at The Station we designed the idea, established the basis of the business, and launched the first operation until we needed more advanced training and financing, and this is what Takween provided.

Yanhad is designed to facilitate start-up transition from ideation to growth stage through designing a pre-accelerator program to work with early-stage start-ups, providing tailored support services to facilitate business creation, The primary function of incubator and accelerator in the Yanhad program is to provide tailored and integrated business development support to entrepreneurs and young businesses in a ‘one-stopshop’ modality

In April 2020, The Station and Expertise France signed the contract to initiate the implementation of Component Three. The Station, as the biggest youth hub in Iraq, with a widespread community of youth, has focused more on helping youth with ideas to establish their businesses. The Station has designed six projects with two phases: A three months Pre-Incubation starting with an Ideation phase, where 60 – 80 young graduates/students get selected based on the feasibility of their ideas, to go through a three days’ bootcamp to refine and rearticulate their business ideas in preparation for the market study, where they will conduct a quantitative and qualitative assessment on the target market of their business concept, and modify their business models accordingly. This will be followed by a workshop on B2B/B2C marketing, CRM, social media marketing, finance of start-ups, and presentation skills.

In addition to that, in June 2020, the American University in Sulaymaniyah (AUIS) started the Takween Accelerator, with a board of international experts. The accelerator targeted mature start-ups that were generating revenue, taking them through two phases, the 6 weeks preaccelerator was designed as a filter, to address the issue of lack of start-ups with steady revenue, through working with 10 to 20 start-ups with signs of revenue to assess their potential and help them stabilize their revenue stream. The accelerator is 12 weeks long, targeting 5 to 10 from the pre-accelerator start-ups. Through international and local mentors, Takween Accelerator aims to develop their capacity in business management, active problem solving, operations, marketing, and finance through oneon-one mentoring and several coaching sessions. Takween Accelerator aims to generate growth-ready start-ups, and then support the best three with grants ranging from 15 to 30 thousand dollars.

of the Yanhad program happened to start at the same time as COVID-19 broke out in Iraq, this has limited The Station from conducting physical events, resulting in delays in implementation, and postponing the opening of the Mosul Branch till September of the same year. Nevertheless, during the curfew, The Station conducted two online live sessions with local and international business experts, reaching more than 64 thousand views in one month. This served as the perfect teaser for the pre-incubation, which started in Baghdad in July 2020. The same social media campaign before opening the Mosul branch played a crucial role in establishing the community. Through the six pre-incubation cohorts in both Baghdad and Mosul, 475 youth enrolled in the program, and 167 completed the pre-incubation cohorts. These cohorts helped in creating 32 start-ups that remain in business to this day.

Yanhad was a remarkable impact on the growth of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Iraq, in terms of reach and accessibility, Yanhad has offered an opportunity for growth to hundreds of Iraqi youth in different areas of the country, and in terms of start-up diversity, Yanhad has helped in enriching the ecosystem with new multi-sector start-ups, and in terms of integration, Yanhad was the first program with an incubator and an accelerator, sponsoring the journey of an entrepreneur from awareness to growth.

Ali Al Hilli Marketing and Communication Director at Miswag Ahmed Qassim was only 17 years old when he joined the Yanhad Pre-Incubation at The Station in 2020, Ahmed had a brief experience working with travel agencies, which has equipped him with knowledge and skills in the sector. Later on, he worked as a freelancer, providing ticketing services to different agencies in Baghdad. COVID-19 has impacted Ahmed’s work, putting him out of business for almost three months. Before joining Yanhad, Ahmed did not know entrepreneurship and did not know how to establish a startup. Through a Facebook sponsored advert, Ahmed applied for the Pre-Incubation at The Station, he was accepted, and was one of the most committed and fastest learning participants. In his proof of concept, Ahmed achieved a 1 million dinars’ sales, which qualified his start-up (Safr Agency) to win the third position on the final pitching day. Now, Safr Agency has 23 employees and is seeking seed funding.

Implementation31

Following the pre-incubation, The Station has launched the mentorship, with 9 local experts delivering business, marketing, and financial consultation not only to the graduates of the pre-incubation but to 81 start-ups from both Baghdad and Mosul The mentorship has had a remarkable impact on the start-ups It enabled 35 startups to achieve a significant increase in revenue, especially through helping them conduct better market analysis, and securing long-term contracts.

The Mentorship program benefited a wide range of different sectors of start-ups in the country by having professional mentors supervise the development of these start-ups on a one-to-one basis. This direct focused approach helped in customizing the mentorship process Customization helped start-ups acquire only the needed skills and superpowers they needed without the generalization that takes place in other wider ranged programs. The outcomes were clear and measured.

Before Yanhad’s pre-incubation, I didn’t know anything about entrepreneurship, and I didn’t know how to establish my business, Yanhad didn’t only introduce me to entrepreneurship and helped me build the basis for my business, it helped me to become part of a community that enabled me and my business.

Ahmed FounderQassimofSafr Agency

For The Station, Yanhad has presented a different opportunity to learn and improve the design of its programs and the services that we provide to start-ups and SMEs. First, The Station has been able to significantly develop the design of its pre-incubation program to be more aligned with the needs of Iraqi youth, based on the experience and lessons learned collected from Yanhad, the new design for theIncubator, The Station’s new incubation program, has more research in the ideation phase, more focus on prototyping and product/service development, and more sector-specific mentorship. Working with a large number of start-ups and SMEs has helped The Station to define the main characteristic difference between the two, helping The Station develop tailor-made programs for each. Moreover, Yanhad helped The Station to define its outreach strategy, and how to build new communities with specific attention to their unique culture and entirely different Yanhadneeds.

was the largest program implemented in Iraq so far on entrepreneurship, and it helped to vitalize and expand the entrepreneurial community in Iraq across new cities, helping new start-ups to emerge, and thousands of people started working on their business ideas. The lessons learned from Yanhad will shape the new phase of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Iraq.

1. By continuously training your employees, you can increase their performance and productivity, which will in turn increase the profit and efficiency of the company. According to a study conducted by Dimension Data, companies that invest in employee training have highly engaged employees and see 24% higher profits than companies that don’t focus on training.

by Sarah BusinessDhaferowners

2. With specific training workshops, you can ensure that your employees are prepared for higher levels of responsibility and new roles by equipping them with the skills they will need to thrive in the workplace. In addition to that, it can also provide an alternative to hiring new professionals by developing existing employees to the new roles.

3. Technology is always advancing and new industryspecific software is constantly being updated. It’s essential for employees to be trained in these skills to keep up with the competition and industry standards.

WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF EMPLOYEE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT?

4. Soft skills are one of the most important, but often overlooked, part of employee development. While technical skills are very important, soft skills can be critical to the sustainability and success of any team and company. By developing soft skills in your employees, you can make certain that they are able to clearly communicate, think critically, etc.

5. Developing and training your employees will boost morale in the office and increase employee engagement by creating a supportive environment and atmosphere that prioritizes the growth of the employees.

DEVELOPING AND TRAINING YOUR EMPLOYEES

and human resources specialists often place high importance on recruitment and finding a “star employee” that checks all the boxes and generates more profit for the company. But recruitment is only half of the equation, the other half is training and development. It’s something that’s often neglected by management due to a lack of expertise, lack of time, and a myriad of other reasons. Unfortunately, in Iraq’s nascent private sector, this practice is still uncommon, especially with mediumsized companies.

Furthermore, The Station will work closely with private sector companies by contacting the HR departments of said companies to provide them with tailored training programs for their employees in partnership with theAcademy’s wide network of trainers that are the best in their fields. So, what are you waiting for? If you are a business owner or an HR staff member that’s interested in training and developing your employees, contact us and join theAcademy to get the best results and the best trainers for your company.

The Station started the process of conducting an assessment on the Iraqi private sector to better understand and identify the skills that companies need the most in their employees and to provide more suitable training sessions and workshops for all the different sectors through the newly launched Business-pillar in theAcademy program.

by Ashley Barlow

“Creativegraduates?industries”

can mean a lot of things to lots of people, it is incredibly broad and varied, and for that reason, it can often be difficult to pin down what is exactly meant. Generally speaking, creative industries encompass anybody who works in the following sectors: advertising, architecture, arts and traditional crafts, graphic design, fashion, film, video, photography, music, performing arts, research and development, game design, computer games, television, and radio. Of course, there are many other areas that overlap, but the list above highlights the great depth of the sector.

There is generally an assumption in Iraq that the creative industries are limited to those operating in the arts scene, one that has heavily suffered from a lack of innovation, a mass exodus of leading artists, and an overarching concept that art is for art’s sake, rather than for economic empowerment. But if you visit any coworking space in the country, you are likely to find a start-up or group of freelancers working in this field, perhaps they just don’t know they are working in a creative industry.

Is that necessary though? Do such labels need to be understood to operate? In Iraq, perhaps not right now. The scene is being driven by the youth - graphic designers working with companies to push their products in a fresh and innovative way, filmmakers who are providing training to the next generation of professionals to ensure that they have the skills to tell their own stories, fashion designers that can reimagine traditional dress in a way that is a viable product on the market today. What is necessary though, is to identify these early sector leaders to position support mechanisms in a targeted response; their knowledge of copyright challenges, supply chain issues, and company registration is critical to making change. These young creative industry leaders already exist, what is more critical is changing the mindset of the more ‘traditional thinkers.’ A cultural scene, and all of the added holistic benefits, can not be sustainable without economic mechanisms, be that through the support of the state or the private sector. The attitude that “art is for art” will not support the next generation - something that donor-led initiatives also need to understand - when the sponsored project is over, where is the benefit for the participant?

The term “creative industries” is gaining a bit of a hype in Iraq these days, with numerous international partners seeking to offer opportunities for Iraq youth to develop their skills. But just what exactly is it? What is the potential for youth to develop their skills, and in which fields? And can it truly have an impact on the economic growth of

THE DIFFERENCE IN THE PERCEPTION OF CREATIVE INDUSTRIES BETWEEN THE LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

Founded by Jaafar H. Alsaadi in 2020, XO Center was created as a means to build a creative platform for graphic designers and artists whose work can be utilised in the production of accessories such as: posters, clothes, tote bags, pins, notebooks, and other merchandise. XO believes in democratising art and allowing the artists to express themselves freely through products available in the market, and this belief is reflected in the variety and diversity of their designs.

Founded by Huda Khadimi, Ishtar Film Production is one of the growing powerhouses of Iraqi cinema. Their extensive network of filmmakers, both inside and outside Iraq, allows them to develop incredibly powerful movies that are now getting international recognition! Recently, Hanging Gardens was shortlisted at the Cannes Film Festival, building on previous successes at the Busan Film Festival, and becoming the Iraqi nomination for the Oscars for their short movie Mosul 980. They also provide training support services for other filmmakers around the country, most notably supporting 24 Frame, a new and upcoming film production start-up in Mosul working on short, powerful documentaries offering fresh insights into Mosul.

SO WHO ARE THESE YOUNG CREATIVE

Founded by Hussein Abul Ma’ali in 2017. Coming from a creative background working as a graphic designer, Hussein founded Zuqaq13 to become a window for creatives to showcase their artworks. Zuqaq13 is an Iraqi streetwear brand based in Baghdad. The brand’s visual elements and designs are used in its high-quality T-shirts and other apparel and are inspired by Iraqi and Arabic culture and heritage. It is heavily influenced by the contemporary scene and the daily events. Zuqaq13 works in collaboration with a group of local and international designers to deliver diverse collections of artistic, highend designs, reinforcing a positive identity.

ISHTAR IRAQ FILM PRODUCTION

ZUQAQ13LEADERS?

JAMANA

form that defies traditional gender-based fashion norms.

Founded by Sarah Abdulwahid and Huda Hassan in 2020, Jamana is a designer who blends traditional designs into her modern clothing. Her work reflects her passion and values in promoting a positive identity amongst the Kurdish community by utilising motifs and materials that represent the history, tribal origins, and the diversity of the Kurdish community. Jamana represents a start-up that is keen to keep Kurdish culture alive, in a reimagined

As-U

Founded by Esraa Talib in August 2020, As-U was built around the belief that the art of resin is an important modern art form and has a promising future in Iraq in terms of product design. Not only can it be used to create modern designs for furniture and decoration, but the process helps to preserve objects, reducing the need for waste. Her current product lines range from small decorative pieces to kitchen furniture, and everything in between. Esraa aims to make her start-up the first company in Iraq to provide resin art products.

Founded in April 2018 by Hussein Ali, this start-up aims to fix the mistakes of the sculptures manufactured abroad to truly reflect Iraqi heritage from across the country, and also ensure that locally made souvenirs are available in the market. Hussein has constantly been working to enhance his designs to match the needs of the market and used the COVID-19 lockdown to work on new designs that reflect the diversity of the country through souvenirs relating to heritage. You can now find his products in the markets across the country.

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WE ARE LEFT WITH TWO CHOICES

Or alternatively, see what’s there in life, and explore what the private sector is and what this sector can do. Many other things to consider: how to be there, what roles to have, and what opportunities to take.

jobs don’t have deep and vertical specializations; much of the work is set to be “paperwork” to perform certain tasks, which creates an evenly distributed quality and that leads to underemployment.

Although public sector salaries and pay are much less than in the private sector, the mentioned issues and many more, put the public sector in a preferable situation.

It’s known that in Iraq, societal traditions and family pressure state that if you don’t have a public sector job, your life will be worse, you will not be independent, you won’t get married and support your family.

On the other hand, the current workforce situation in Iraq is far from ideal. According to the World Bank, the total unemployment rate (% as a percentage of the total labor force) in Iraq was 14.2% in 2021. The majority of the unemployed are young people; in comparison to the international unemployment rate of 16%, youth unemployment is approximately 36% (2016).

This has killed any other career and future perspectives. The majority of college students, even if they don’t like the medical field, will look at it as a priority. They will then justify their choice as “I do like being a doctor.” after years of instilling the concept of “if you are not a doctor, you won’t be successful.”

Public sector job is a waiting game. You spend your time waiting to get employed in a certain ministry or department. While in the private sector, you need to develop soft and hard skills, build a personal resume, apply to many jobs, and be proactive.

Iraq has one of the youngest populations in the world. Nearly 50% of Iraqis are younger than 19 years old, and 60% are below 25 years old. The majority of those people are seeking public sector jobs.

In addition to that, the north star metric for families is becoming a doctor or having a job in the medical field because that’s where you will make the most money.

Firstly, forcing the government to deliver public sector jobs to everyone and having widespread underemployment where everyone will work for a few minutes a day, finishing around 2-3 pm, waiting until they hit the age of retirement and waiting for paychecks from social security.

It’s almost impossible to get fired from a public sector job, and that creates an atmosphere of self-relief no matter what happens. While in the private sector, self-discipline and continuous development are required to climb the ladder and to keep the atmosphere green as much as Publicpossible.sector

Furthermore, a public sector job, even if it’s not in the medical field, is set to be a lifetime achievement in Iraq. There is a myriad of reasons why people are prefer public sector jobs over private-sector ones, such as: Job security is one of the main reasons for preferring the public sector because employees will have a pension plan related to their years of service and their careers. While the private sector has foggy and unused terms, the guarantee is not the same as the public sector job.

A LONG CAREER ROAD AHEAD

by Mohamed Ameen

Building a collaborative network and empowering the students to start their early life of private sector engagement during college. By learning the principles of private sector roles, skills, knowledge, and requirements. And how to prepare themselves to devise their passion and look forward to more opportunities.

theMetro is the first project from The Station that focuses solely on university students to mitigate the impact of a few problems that the youth and college students face with three main pillars: Spreading awareness about the private sector, career readiness, building capacities through continuous workshops, events, and training, and building a network of students. With a vision to inspire the students to turn their passions, abilities, skills, and strengths into successful careers and lives.

The youth must look at the other opportunities regarding their work, and seize the opportunity of the growth that’s happening in the private sector and private businesses because many job opportunities are in demand every day. Their turn now is to learn during their college life what they can do to pursue certain jobs and careers and build their blocks to be ready for the opportunities that they encounter during their early life.

The next stop for theMetro is preparing the youth for a healthy private sector career.

MARWAN JABBAR

A JOURNEY THROUGH IRAQ’S ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEM

INTERVIEWS

I think I will start with my current position. I’m currently working as Vice President of Commercial Development and People and also responsible for HR within Miswag. I’m also responsible for building the company itself and transferring it from a start-up to a large enterprise. Most people know me as the former Operations Director of Careem in Iraq, and some people know me before that from Mishwar, the vegetables and fruits delivery company that my friends and I started before Careem. There are some people who knew me even before that, where they had me on their phones saved as “Marwan TOEFL” when I was in charge of the TOEFL exams in Iraq, where I used to work in higher education.

This interview was originally published as a podcast episode via Tajarib and has been edited for clarity and length.

Marwan Jabbar is Miswag’s VP of Commercial Development and People. A self-described “avid life-time learner with a proven track record of problem solving and entrepreneurial mindset.”, he is most well known for organizing Startup Weekend and serving as Careem’s Director of Operations, before joining Miswag, with a goal of building the most innovative and efficient tech organization in Iraq.

My first job was in higher education in general. I’m a science graduate, and my work in higher education was honestly by chance. There was an organization looking for a fresh graduate who has good English. I think this is a constant theme in my life that I would like to point out from the start. Most of the things I have in my life aren’t because I am special, and people wonder what’s the secret behind this success. It is not a secret or

Marwan is now a key pillar of Iraq’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. This is how he started his journey:

CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF?

WHERE CAN WE SAY THE STARTINGPOINT WAS ? WHAT WAS THE FIRST THING THAT GOT YOU INSIDE THE WHOLE FIELD?

WHAT WAS IT LIKE WORKING WITH YOUNG PEOPLE FROM DIFFERENT BACKGROUNDS? ESPECIALLY SINCE YOU CAME FROM HIGHER EDUCATION.

I was very curious at that point. I started to go out day and night, trying to read, learn, and contact people and ask them how to do certain things. I wanted to deliver those thoughts that were happening abroad and bring them here in Iraq. Especially when I realized that these were not stories happening in America, Britain, and such places,

but even in developing countries in the region.

I started reading more and connecting with the people I had in my network and people from outside Iraq. Those people gave me the inspiration and the motive to work in this direction.

YOU STARTED MAKING CONNECTIONS IN THIS ENVIRONMENT. WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

I saw that people were interested, which made these workshops happen more and more. We loved doing it. We liked that it was eye opening for the people who were attending. They also made great connections. We started to push young people to go to these places even though there were very difficult circumstances happening in Iraq, including the ISIS crisis.

I think this was the beginning. I liked history and how changes would take place in countries, and then I wanted to know the impact of the economy on these countries, which is called “Macroeconomics”, the economy that affects countries, conflicts between countries, agreements and alliances, and such. Then, as I got deeper into this field, I learned the impact of start-ups and new companies (like Facebook and Google, and before that, Microsoft, and even before that Dell and HP) on the world and the economy in general. I remember a statistic that showed that in the last ten years, almost 80% of the new jobs in America were from companies that were less than five years old! I was like, wow, the solution is right here.

I quickly got into this field, and realized there was a gap between higher education and the labor market. During that time, I started to look at these small projects and technologies that started appearing on the Internet and so on. I liked to educate people about this subject through my work in higher education because I thought I would be able to make an impact on higher education and its Bydevelopment.chance,and

I went abroad for a year, outside Iraq, and I connected with some start-ups and the tech community there. I wanted to do something when I got back to Iraq, so I started to invite people, design content, and give courses. During that time, I saw an opportunity for e-commerce on Facebook pages.

anything, sometimes honestly, coincidence plays a role, but coincidence doesn’t come out of nowhere, of course. One must have certain things to get the chance like skills, in my case, it was only English and curiosity.

because I was connected to a lot of the universities, I worked on setting up the first event in Iraq about small projects, technology, and Internet-enabled businesses, which was Startup Weekend Baghdad in 2013. I worked alongside Murtadha Al-Tamimi, a software engineer at Facebook, Ali Ismail, who, at the time, started with Fikra Space, and a group of other young people like Saleh Zain, Ali Al-Hilli, and a few others.

All of those people are very young. The experts that came from abroad at that time worked at places such as Microsoft. They were people full of energy, talking about new and innovative ideas. I was very impressed with this world. I wanted to know more and more, and I think that’s where I got inspired.

My favorite word is curiosity, I always like to know, look at things, and have a good relationship with people. Sometimes it is as simple as that. I try to tell people, as we were told when we were kids, “Listen to mom and dad and be a good boy.” With people, it is almost like that too. This is one of the secrets: when one becomes a good person to other people, opportunities start coming to them and people nominate them.

WHEN WAS THIS?

I thought let me devise a solution for these people, since, for example, one might have 50K followers and another might have 50K followers that are different from the first. I wanted to introduce one to the other. I set up a platform that is similar to Etsy, the American website for handmade items.

A little less than a year before Careem came up, a foreigner who had invested in Mishwar asked me, “If Uber came to Iraq, would they succeed?” I remember the moment he asked me because I didn’t know how to answer, and I felt like I failed because I didn’t know the answer to this question. I mean, if Uber came to Iraq, would they succeed or not? And why would they succeed and why would they

delivery. And honestly, when I look back at my decision and how I got into it, it was a very hasty decision, but at that time I saw a golden opportunity, and it is normal. I mean, we did not succeed in it as we were expecting, and it is a very difficult area to make an investment in, especially in a country that does not have a postal address or a delivery company.

I started from home. I was the delivery guy. I was the one who answered. I wrote the content and everything. Of course, it was very difficult to discover some more gaps in the market and in my own field, and at the same time, me and my friend Ali made something called The Week. This may be the first bootcamp in Iraq. I went on to teach courses on “lean start-ups,” a new and fast way of starting projects that ensures you don’t waste a lot of time and money before determining whether your idea works or not. Ali taught, at the time, the tech side of things. We wanted to give the youth something that is Iraqi, something that was like Startup Weekend, but more advanced. So that was the Fikra Store. Afterwards, I saw that there was something called “frequency”, which is the frequency of the number of orders. How many times does the customer buy handmade items from me during the year? It could be one time, like a gift. I wanted something with more frequency. So I came up with the idea of delivering food, vegetables and fruits in particular. For dealing with fruits and vegetables, you must offer excellent quality that is better than the rest and speed of

Yes, the companies that sell vegetables and fruits are not the ones who buy everything and fold it in their stores, I mean, we were putting it in our stores and dealing with the issues of electricity and canning. That was the issue with Mishwar, but I was passionate, I didn’t know that it was a matter of time until this market emerged and its potential came out. It was only a matter of time, no more, no less, that it happened in all countries [during the COVID-19 Laterpandemic].on, coincidence played a role again with my opportunity with Careem. A friend of mine approached me out of nowhere and told me that I had to join this company.

Exactly. I’m not a technical person; I can’t write code by myself to create a website, so I used a simple service available in the Arab region. I subscribed to it and I started to learn how to do SEO for the website, how to conduct proper promotion, how to deal with customers and so on.

From 2014-2015, this was the outburst of TV ads, digital ads, and promotion via Facebook. At its beginning, even payment cards were very few and most people didn’t know how to use them.

Inot?was indifferent when Careem came up. I mean, I wasn’t interested, but I applied and when the interviews started, I met very smart people.

WHICH IS A PLATFORM THAT BRINGS TOGETHER ALL THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE HANDMADE ITEMS.

The majority of people promoting their pages were women, who were working on handmade items, or paintings, or other things related to handcrafts. At that time, the “Iraqi Touch” was at its peak.

YOU ARE BUILDING THE INFRASTRUCTURE YOURSELF.

DID YOU HAVE FAITH IN CAREEM AT THE TIME?

that fill the process of operations inside Careem I mean, everything within the company except marketing and finance.

Exactly, then they all go out before Iftar because they want to kill some time while they are fasting, but people don’t go out before Iftar because why would you go out before Iftar when you just came back from work?

YOU HAVE TO GIVE THEM SOME KIND OF INCENTIVE.

In addition to that, With Mishwar, like all start-ups in Iraq, I had limited resources, whether in the form of human resources, financial resources, and/or expertise. The question was, if the money came in and the right technology was available, would it work? Let’s try and take the risk.

CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCES, STORIES, AND THINGS YOU GOT FROM CAREEM AS THE OPERATIONS DIRECTOR?

There was a little resentment from the captains that there was no work. So, balancing these things, planning what’s next, like, for example, opening up in new cities, if you want to launch the service. We started in Baghdad, then we went to other cities, attracting captains in those cities and building a fleet of captains, making sure that they are offering the same quality of service we are offering to the Otherpeople.things

Careem is called a marketplace. In the framework of start-ups, a marketplace is a platform that connects the service provider to the service customer, both of whom are considered customers of Careem.

What we, as a platform, offer is to bring them trained and technologically equipped captains and to ensure the tech is working smoothly, the map is accurate, and the time that the customer is going out is the same as the captain’s arrival, etc.

It’s a very difficult decision that took me a month to make. I was very stressed during the process of making that decision. I thought I had to see if this thing would work because curiosity was killing me, I wanted to know, and because time is the most precious thing, I wanted to rush it and see if this is something that would work or not, so I joined Careem.

The interviewing method was nice, and the test that I had was very challenging. I realized I could gain experience from those people that I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.

We balanced the supply with the demand among people. You have to calculate how much growth there will be in the number of customers and the number of trips, so you have to prepare for the number of captains needed. The challenges that we faced were many. Let’s say in Ramadan, for example, people went to work in the morning but the captains were fasting, so no one was up in the morning.

I didn’t start the culture. It is not like I brought a new religion to the company. I just focused on the strengths. I mean I can’t go and put something new just because I believe in it and no one else believes in it. For example, we all agree on teamwork, so let’s see how we can make teamwork work between us and develop it so that everyone is satisfied with it.

To be honest, we had good support in Careem. It’s true that we had to do everything by ourselves, but there were always those little things that one doesn’t feel but when they look back they think, “Oh how lucky I was!”.

YOUR JOB IN MISWAG WAS TO MANAGE HUMAN RESOURCES, BUILD A TEAM, AND CREATE A CULTURE THAT REPRESENTS MISWAG. WE CAN SAY THAT YOU HAVE SOME EXPERIENCE WITH THAT FROM CAREEM. HOW DID YOU START THE CULTURE OF MISWAG?

The Iraqi market emerged after Careem made a turning point. Even the applications for ordering food emerged and became a thing because of Careem. Careem has created a whole new culture for applications. Iraqi people have become aware of applications as it wasn’t like that before.

Iraqi people used to think that doing things through applications was hard. I remember a time where you’d tell someone to install an application and they’d say no. Or, for example, the promo code. The promo code has become a very ordinary term, but it didn’t come out of nowhere. It came after years of talking about it, marketing, educating, and raising awareness.

Whenever45

This was a small part of my role. I sometimes try to explain to people that I was doing HR things this way. They call it “articulating”, which means trying to find practices or exercises or things that help people to remember the values. It is always necessary to repeat the values over and over again. This is something that I saw in Careem, because if they hadn’t done this, no one would have remembered what the values were.

The other role is commercial. I was very excited about doing this. I had to build this e-commerce and make it grow as soon as possible, and it must be done in a way that contributes to the success of the business and what suits the Iraqi market right now.

you reach a new level, you ask, “What’s next?”. This question is always there. What is next? Why did I join Careem? The question I answered was that start-ups can succeed in Iraq if the right money comes. Our budget was nice, so we were allowed to spend good money to build the company. Would an Iraqi start-up succeed if it was established and provided with resources for marketing, for hiring the right people to scale up and become a real Thiscompany?question

is even harder than the first, and I consider it to be my current challenge and the real challenge and ‘do or die’ mission which I must succeed in, or I consider all of this to be just a waste. That’s the real task.

and organize our work accordingly.

So here’s the question: can I start something from scratch and build it? Miswag is not from scratch, but it represents something that I love; it represents this story that I have told you; it represents me. My passion was to do an Iraqi thing, which is not difficult, it is not impossible as some people make it seem.

Our management is mostly about making plans and developing processes or ways of working and communication channels, so let us improve the channels of communication because 99% of the disagreements are the result of miscommunication. Let’s all agree that we understand that our dealings are going fast, the market is new and all the things that we are doing are all new and we have different departments, so there will definitely be misunderstandings, so let us agree that we have one goal

LET’S SAY I AM A YOUNG PERSON WHO’S A UNIVERSITY STUDENT OR A FRESH GRADUATE. I WANT TO ENTER OR I’M THINKING ABOUT ENTERING THE PRIVATE SECTOR. I THINK I MIGHT GO TO A COMPANY TO WORK IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR OR START MY OWN COMPANY. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

WHEN YOU WORK TWO JOBS, DO YOU INVEST IN YOURSELF?

Education 100%. When COVID-19 came, some companies started a few things. I mean, like private lessons and such. Education will be one of the most important sectors that will be affected by this technological revolution that is now taking place with all those applications and websites.

an exaggeration. You must sacrifice. This is part of the sacrifice. If you sacrifice that amount for certain things to take advantage of it, then you’ll be different from the Investingrest.

SINCE 2013, YOU’VE SEEN A LOT OF START-UPS THAT HAVE EMERGED. THE QUESTION I HAVE IN MIND IS, WHAT SECTOR DO YOU THINK WILL GROW IN THE UPCOMING FIVE YEARS, OTHER THAN E-COMMERCE?

simple things. For example, if you are a cashier in the morning and a cashier at night, or even if you are a photographer, a photographer in the morning and a photographer at night, or you are a presenter, or anything. You’re doing the same thing. You’ll get better at it, but not when you go to another field or try to learn something else. If you don’t have to work two jobs as a young person, try to invest in yourself. Even if you are a student, try to invest in yourself through other things. This is an investment that you put in yourself so that you get X amount of money. Even if it seems nice now, you can have it 10 times more later if you invest yourself in the right places and learn to develop Thisyourself.isnot

There is this obsession that I am now starting to work on. I want to depend on myself, so I work on two things. Well, you work two things. If you do a simple job at night and a simple thing in the day, what will you learn? This is not something to be proud of. There are people whose families depend on them, and they need the income from two jobs. But there are people who feel that they need money, but if they think it through, do they really need this money? If they invest in themselves-

in courses and workshops, there are a lot of people that will say “Why is this course that much?” This course is the best place to put your money if you want to gain something. It is necessary to know the trainer and the value of the course.

Tajarib is an Iraqi podcast that aims to document the experiences and stories of Iraqi entrepreneurs, founders, and changemakers. You can listen to the original podcast episode here.

Whatever field you enter, don’t overthink everything. I think you should just start, enter the field, and don’t worry about failure. Failure is very normal.

No, because you are working two jobs that don’t teach you. They might teach you very classical and

Since higher education doesn’t give any advantages, the person must invest all their time and learn something. This is a curiosity. I have seen a lot of interviews, small pieces of information, and simple things that settle the interview for work.

However, building a team takes time and resources. Don’t expect a group of newly assembled strangers to magically get along, achieve desired results, and perform at high Butlevels.what is a team, and how can the process of team development be hacked?

ARTICLES

Teams are usually limited in size and have common goals or a specific task to accomplish. They are key to the success of start-ups. Diverse perspectives working toward a common goal can lead to innovation and creativity in achieving the start-up’s goals.

Working in a team is not only beneficial to the venture but also fosters a learning environment where you learn from the skills and knowledge of other team members, not to mention the emotional support you receive from your team as they understand your workload and share the same problems as you.

TEAM DEVELOPMENT FOR START-UPS 101

Maryam Allami, MBA Candidate at Heriot-Watt University

Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.

Entrepreneurs are extremely motivated individuals who usually have multiple talents, but a single person can only go so far; great ideas cannot be turned into successful businesses without the right team.

A work team can be defined as a group of two people working together to achieve a common goal or complete a task in the most effective and efficient manner.

- Michael Jordan

- A high degree of autonomy

Certain characteristics must be present for a team to work effectively:

- The right skills

This is especially true for start-up companies, which require a lot of dedication, commitment, and a sense of belonging to the team and the idea in the early years.

Not to mention that venture capitalists, when reviewing and evaluating potential investment opportunities, pay close attention to how the team functions and performs as a unit, and whether that team will be able to make the start-up grow or fail.

- Clear goals

- Effective conflict management

- Appropriate size

- Supportive internal culture

There are different types of teams: traditional work teams, self-managed teams, and virtual teams, to name a few. All of these teams, in one way or another, go through the same steps to go from strangers with different perspectives to a unified, cohesive group working toward common goals. Psychologist Bruce Tuckman coined the memorable term “forming, storming, norming, and performing” in his 1965 essay “Developmental Sequence in Small Groups.”

- Regular feedback

1- THE FORMING STAGE

Many tend to ignore conflicts in hopes that they will resolve themselves, but this only causes the problems to grow and become undesirable in the future.

At this stage, conflicts are resolved, the team learns to accept differences, focus its energies on tasks, develop team routines, and individuals can accept and give constructive criticism. Productivity is high at this stage, both in individual and collective work.

3- THE NORMING STAGE

The team will look like a cohesive unit to the outside world. But this doesn’t mean you will like Taylor Swift’s music in the morning, but you will either tolerate that your colleague likes it and that they are a great app developer and appreciates what they bring to the table, or you feel comfortable enough to tell them to change the channel.

In addition, the leader should establish communication channels (e.g., jour fixes and recurring meetings), set ground rules, and focus on the team’s operational guidelines.

2- THE STORMING STAGE

You then have to figure out how to accept the differences, or the relationship will eventually fail.

more prominent, people tend to be less polite, differences in views and personal styles are evident, increased tension, fluctuations in attitude, and lack of role clarity, all of which can lead to personality clashes.

At this stage, building a team can be compared to a relationship: In the beginning, you think someone is perfect, but as soon as their flaws become apparent, you know they’re not.

The role of the leader at this stage is to grant autonomy and encourage ownership, allow less

In the Forming stage, the team is newly “formed,” and team members are eager to showcase their experience, demonstrate dominance, and exhibit their strengths. Uncertainty and anxiety are the main characteristics of this stage; the team shows cautious body language and polite speech and avoids controversy. During formation, the team looks for guidance and instructions from the Noleadership.successes

are expected in this stage, but the leader is responsible for watching for the signs to prepare the right interventions and provide guidance and support when needed. A good orientation session/kick-off at the beginning, explaining the mission and vision and assigning the various roles and responsibilities, will provide clarity and reinforce the team’s expectations.

Leaders need to be transparent and work with the team through conflict resolution methods and actively work to keep employees’ attention on the task and goal.

Have you ever felt like you can’t stand it when your partner only listens to Taylor Swift in the morning? Well then, congratulations.Youarenowinthe storming stage.

This is the most difficult stage because it determines the way forward for the team and sets the direction for the rest of the project. This stage is characterized by conflict; as personalities are

WHAT HAPPENS IN THESE DIFFERENT STAGES OF TEAM DEVELOPMENT?

The team should work together to overcome individual differences and build trust between team members. They should also practice effective listening; the team needs to flexibly reshape tasks and balance the strengths and weaknesses of each individual.

In addition, collusion and cliques form at this stage, and power struggles occur.

5- THE ADJOURNING STAGE

The farewell phase is characterized by significant changes in the team structure, the dynamics slow down, and the team begins to express various emotions, including sadness, relief, and hidden humor.

top-down structure, and create a collaborative environment where each individual on the team can contribute and Mostinteract.businesses,

In the final stage, leaders are left to evaluate the team’s performance, tie up loose ends, and reflect on good outcomes, memories, and lessons learned.

especially start-ups, don’t reach this stage. So rejoice and plan a team gathering to celebrate your success!

4- THE PERFORMING STAGE

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, most teams have morphed into virtual teams. One might wonder if the above phase works for virtual teams as well. The answer is: absolutely!

At this stage, teams develop interdependence, understand each other better, and are able to organize themselves. The main characteristic of this phase is satisfaction with progress; the team is confident in its own individual abilities and those of its teammates.

The fifth and final stage is not part of Tuckman’s original model; Tuckman added this final stage 10 years after his initial publications; it is the stage where success is celebrated on the one hand, but visible signs of sadness appear on the other.

Leaders are expected to observe and meet the needs of the team. They understand that this is a fully functioning team that can do its own thing. Offering positive reinforcement and support is the answer.

We can apply these phases to virtual teams, but always keep in mind that there is no onesize-fits-all for start-ups and fast-growing companies. You need to take the model and tailor your actions to fit your own team and start-ups.

Good luck, dear Iraqi entrepreneur!

Entrepreneurship51

1. Negative social and cultural attitudes towards entrepreneurship are a major barrier to entrepreneurs. The majority of people in Mosul don’t consider entrepreneurship as a viable career option, often thinking that a job in the public sector is the only true viable career option. While the youth in Mosul often have the resilience needed in start-ups, they lack the risk-hungry mindset of entrepreneurship.

The world is witnessing a remarkable improvement in the entrepreneurship field, which shares a huge value in the global market, and there has been a marked growth in Iraqi start-ups, yet entrepreneurship in Mosul is still nascent for a variety of reasons.

2. While the globe is in a rush to promote entrepreneurial activity, decent work, and economic growth as well as innovation and industrial development, the Iraqi government still uses outdated economic frameworks and regulations, causing start-ups to encounter difficulty in obtaining government approvals and being faced with legal barriers, especially in regards to company registration and obtaining security approvals for operations.

In addition to that, other following issues made it difficult for entrepreneurs to sustain their businesses and thrive:

Because of the three-year occupation by ISIS, from 2014 to 2017, Mosul suffered from widespread destruction of its infrastructure and negatively impacted the services, market, and economy overall. Even after its liberation, the city’s business environment was put under increasing pressure due to disruptions in the supply chain and an already weak financial system.

MOSUL’S ENTREPRENEURIALPROMISINGECOSYSTEM

is about creating new value, it’s about individuals identifying and pursuing possibilities to achieve the best possible outcomes. An entrepreneurial ecosystem explains how several variables and actors interact and how they work together to guide entrepreneurship in a specific region, city, or country.

Athir Babat, Public Relations Senior Expert at Asiacell

3. Access to Finance remains a big issue for entrepreneurs in Mosul. Start-ups are often considered high-risk, and banks utilize asset-based lending when conducting loans for businesses. Alternatively, banks use the “guarantee” system, where business owners have to get two government employees to guarantee them. In addition to high interest rates and mistrust between banks and individuals, this has created an obstacle in the way of entrepreneurs trying to finance their businesses.

Entrepreneurs, like any other people or entities, will be impacted by the institutional framework in which they operate, and their tactics will reflect the opportunities and constraints outlined by this setting. While Mosul has

Furthermore, to address the regulator issues, The Station conducted meetings with the Mosul Chamber of Commerce to discuss how to best facilitate start-up incorporation. In addition to implementing Isnad, a project focusing on policy reform, funded by CIPE, to advocate for legislative actions that support MSMEs and start-ups by reforming the legal framework and definition of what a “small business” is.

faced many challenges, there are also an equal amount of opportunities. Mosul is a blue ocean with many market options and opportunities, and the youth in Mosul have shown great potential and resilience in the past couple of

The Station opened its branch in Mosul in 2019 with the support of Al-Handal International Group, the European Union, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (CDSC), and Expertise France. The Station then began to address the gap in the support for entrepreneurship in Mosul by first working on changing the mindset of youth and sensitizing them to entrepreneurship and the private sector through university sessions conducted under the Yanhad program. In addition to I’dad, a project supported by Asiacell that prepared trainers in Mosul in the field of entrepreneurship, who then went on to conduct five university sessions attended by 455 college students. I’dad fostered an entrepreneurial culture that positively supports entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship, which is critical in transforming Mosul.

is yet to come for Mosul, and The Station will be there every step of the way.

Theyears.best

Moreover, The Station focused on job creation and startup incubation through the Yanhad program. The Station helped turn young people with ideas into sustainable and profitable businesses. In addition to using the creativeSpace to revive the long-dormant creative and art sectors in Mosul with the support of UNESCO.

Pink, in his famous book, Drive, talks about motivation and what really motivates us. He mentions that we do have a motivation #1, which is a primitive survival drive that makes us strive to cover our basic life needs such as food, air, water, etc. and motivation #2, (Stick and Carrot) as the extrinsic motivations, where the more we do a certain type of thing, the more we will get rewarded (Carrot) and doing the opposite you get punished (Stick).

Back to our citation from Daniel Pink’s lovely explanation of human nature. Can we turn the tables by saying that companies who play on the pricing side may be the extrinsic motivators? Getting that endless number of customers on a tight schedule without building a long-term relationship with their end-users.

about the market? How can we translate what we said above into the nature of the Iraqi market? How does it motivate the consumer?

WHAT MOTIVATES THE IRAQI MARKET?

Mohamed Ameen, Founder of TransPi

And how will it affect businesses that take certain approaches to marketing their product or service? Before we start analyzing and mentioning a few aspects, we will be talking about companies in competitive industries, not small and medium-sized businesses that aim for sustainability and self-fulfillment. To give you a glimpse about what are the main and most noticeable competitive industries, take into consideration industries like food delivery, ride-sharing technologies,

Now,results.what

Buy now and get a 50% discount, buy this product and get the other one for free. In the past two years, we have seen a huge jump in the Iraqi market in certain industries and a wild competition between the companies.

telecommunications, commerce, and others.

Daniel53

Meanwhile, the new motivation #3 is all about intrinsic motivators, which is what makes us feel good inside to give us the desired push (leadership, confidence, communication, trust, etc.).

The difference between the #2 and #3 motivations is that the former pays off in the short term, but it will backfire in the long run. Unlike the latter, you might struggle to keep it at the beginning, but eventually, it will pay off with good

We know that when certain start-ups or companies first introduce themselves to the market, the “Market penetration” approach is their best method where they tend to capture the most available customers in the least amount of time by dominating the market with many discounts that can reach 100% discount! But is it worthy to offer a 100% discount while leaving behind the Blue Ocean or the added value they can capture without this much cash burning? Or even leaving behind the unfixed features in their service/product? Why do they do this? What is behind the mask? And how do the customers feel about it?

When company A entered the market and had a certain amount of cash that was way more than their actual expenditures, “market penetration” entered the game. This is for the following reasons:

• The company only mimics the existing companies since they know they are sustainable now and the market is profitable. This answer can’t be relied on because the Iraqi market is tightly closed (uncertain in its sustainability) and in its early stages of growth.

• The company is using this technique for its own greater good. As the Iraqi market is being exposed to the investment thoughts of many VCs (Venture Capitals), angel investors, and investment firms are putting their money in Iraq. The companies now tend to penetrate the market with the lowest price available and might reach 0 IQD. Their goal is not only to capture a greater market share in less time, but also to build a massive database of customers where the company will use this traction to seek another investment round! Their goal can be defined as “capture more customers now even with low-quality product/service, get the next investment round, and ???” We still don’t know what their intentions are since we still haven’t seen what the start-ups and companies are doing in this phase. We know that rapid growth is essential in such startups, but rapid growth left with product/service flaws is highly unpreferable.

• The most recently discovered answer may not be representative of most, if not all, of us, but it may be the truth.We are only motivated by price! Yes. We always say that we look for quality, but our actions are the opposite. Being relatively new to this experience might affect our prioritization. Many start-ups are utilizing this technique and we have been bombarded and spoon-fed with the lowest prices, but is it with reasonable quality and the experience that we really demanded? The answer will be a definite no.

LET’S BREAKDOWN THIS NATURE AND THE UNMINED INTENTIONS:

Once the start-up acquires the customer with the lower price, the next one will capture the customer with a lower price too.

5. It will make the start-up’s life harder in the long run. When many discounted push strategies are done, it narrows the profit margin, and that requires a massive sales effort in the future at higher prices to recover.

3. Choosing the lower price over the user experience will make your customer dislike you. Because even if the customer is benefiting from the discounts, the customer will always criticize the user experience. Once the customer has jumped into another solution or left you because of a bad user experience, they will not be retained back and will be considered as -1 in the database you showed to seek for the next round. It will require a huge effort to get them back into the funnel.

While taking into consideration the user experience and the story behind every single purchase, the customer has bought the product/service and is not only thinking about having a 50% discount. It’s the #3 motivator. Not all people are your customers, and anyone showing interest in your product/service is not going to buy it from you. It looks hard initially, but it will build an army that will never leave its beloved ones behind.

Any55start-up

2. Over spoiling your child in the early years will result in a stubborn and more demanding child. Also here, spoiling the customer in a very short period of time with tons of discounts, prizes, coupons, or any other kind of discount strategy will lead the start-up to be buzzed with many questions like “Why haven’t you given me any discounts lately?” and “Why is there a discount for those people and I’m not getting one?”. When your customers open their eyes to see you spoiling them, they will never forgetthis first impression of you.

4. Not evaluating the importance of user experience from the very beginning will lead to two major issues: Getting a lot of negative reactions to the service/product and with a great chance of losing the customer no matter what discounts are made and leaving these

-unfixed features is a great door for other competitors to capture this in their favor.

is a tool to either fulfill a “need” or enhance a “want”, and in the end, who are they selling to? A human being, and humans are influenced by plenty of daily actions and thoughts that, in the end, will affect their purchasing Whendecisions.start-ups in certain industries always play a market penetration technique, it will eventually lead to many 1.consequences:Lackofloyalty.

It’s not about the actions that you take, but the influence that you leave.

Playing on the price side and going as low as possible can be called the #2 motivator in the market. When seeing the huge usage of certain products/services now, but then? making an unwelcome influence where customers lose sight of the meaning of quality and their love for that product/ service And if this is done while there are numerous issues with the user experience, the consequences are even worse.

57 2022 IN REVIEW

Throughout the past four years, The Station has collected numerous lessons learned from its vast experience with different types of programs, from capacity building to MSMEs support and start-up incubation, to building communities, and supporting creatives and artists. This has given The Station a broader insight on the challenges facing Iraq in the context of economic development and public policies, as well as a better understanding of the needs of Iraqi youth.

Working with a large number of MSMEs across the country, The Station has identified the key differences that make a business a start-up, which is an MSME with a possibility to grow and scale exponentially in a short time and has a potentially large market size, this has enabled The Station to design tailor-made programs for start-ups and for regular MSMEs, the first focusing on fast-base growth, and the second focuses more on sustainability and linear growth.

Iraq has a major legislation challenges in all sectors, due to the constant change in government since the 50s, this has not only resulted in public policies that do not align with the best interest of civic development, but also conflict with other policies, making it very difficult for business, media, civic actors, and even government to operate. The Station has understood the importance of working on policy reform for private sector growth and youth development.

THE SECOND PILLAR is business development, and it consists of three separate programs, theIncubator is a program designed for startups, covering their journey from the idea stage to the growth stage, yet, The Station does not plan to implement an accelerator anytime soon to focus more on youth, that is why The Station will refer the growth stage start-ups to international and local partners like Takween, The Founder Institute, GEN, and Start-ups Without Borders to accommodate The Station’s start-ups toward expansion. Furthermore, theEntreprise is a program comes with different names, like Isnad or Absher, it focuses on a wider spectrum of MSMEs, all the business who do not have the start-ups traitstreats, The Station will help them in sustaining their businesses, and with their linearleaner growth, it also focuses on helping them in access to finance. Moreover, there is the Coworking Space, which is

THE FIRST PILLAR

THE THIRD PILLAR is the creativeSpace, which the similar to the Coworking Space in being a space in The Station, and a program dedicated to creatives and artists a historical community in Iraq that The Station is working to maintain and rebuild, through empowering young artists to build their skills, network locally and internationally, showcase their art, and further develop their skills into a career. The creativeSpace is very vibrant with its art, community as well as activities, from workshops, exhibitions, full programs, initiatives, and clubsthe creativeSpace envision itself to be the center of the Iraqi creative industries in Iraq.

a space in The Station for MSMEs (focusing on start-ups) as well as freelancers, and it is a program dedicated to the MSMEs, that includes incubation, mentorship, coaching sessions, and networking.

is career readiness, based on the fact that the vast majority of youth are not entrepreneurs, and do not have the financial capabilities to start their own businesses, adding to it the inefficient higher education that does not prepare students for the job market, this has made The Station put job readiness as its top priorities through theMetro project, which focuses on college students to raise their awareness and sensitize them to the job market and start-up culture, through career-building training, tours in companies, and awareness events, while theAcademy program focuses on the graduates, delivering high quality, sector-specific, and skill-based training sessions, workshop, and internships equipping young graduates with specific skills needed in the job market.

The fourth pillar is Civic Engagement through the Himma program, through it, The Station plans to revitalize the Iraqi civic society’s role in addressing the challenges, shaping government policies, and leading social movement, by working with CSOs across the country, building their capacity, helping them with sustainability, and getting them to work together for a greater impact, Himma will also act as a fundraiser for Iraqi CSOs, providing them with grants to implement different projects within a unified vision. This program will establish a link between Iraqi CSOs, the Iraqi government, and the international community, retaining the role of Iraq in the civic society of the MENA region.

This process will not be free of challenges, The Station needs to go through a lot of trial and error to design a successful local fundraising model, but once it is achieved, it will create a new equation in Iraq, building a very effective and sustainable civic society in Iraq to correct, support, and monitor the government, illustrating a success story for the whole MENA region.

THE FOURTH PILLAR

The four pillars mentioned above, and the countrywide reach, is putting The Station as one of the leading Iraqi non-profit organizations, playing an important role in building the future of Iraq, which put the responsibility on The Station to build a sustainable locally funded nonprofit ecosystem in Iraq, shifting the focus away from international funding for sustainability, this won’t be easy, and The Station is taking the first step by creating a model for itself, making alliances with Iraqi business groups, building connections with local individual donors, and partnering with big local corporates to secure funding.

To achieve this goal, The Station will need collaboration and support, if you want to support The Station, or to be part of this vision, contact us at: Info@the-station.iq

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64 OUR PARTNERS

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66 If you have any requests for articles involving entrepreneurship and art, please send your request to programs@the-station.iq and we will do our best to include them in our next issue.

The Station Foundation for Entrepreneurship www.the-station.iq Baghdad +964 781 666 Dist.Al-Wahda,info@the-station.iq9999Al-Karadah903,St.38,Villa.7 Mosul +964 7807 666 Dist.Al-Dhubatmosul@the-station.iq999Quarter,42,St80,Building 30/357 Erbil +964 783 666 NirgizGulanerbil@the-station.iq9999Palaza,3rdFloor

The Journal - Sixth Issue - En

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