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There are a lot of details and all of them are on the website
But let me tell before the competition
about something we are really passionate about in the company
We love .. startups and fresh ideas
We love .. the new ideas
We love the brave youth who are able to do new things
and we are very interested in the Middle East and Egypt
and we invest heavily within it
3, we are very interested in Technology
We think that technology can solve a lot of problems
Technology can solve economic problems ..
social problems ..
cultural problems ..
and maybe political ones as well
It solves a lot of problems
These are the 3 things that we are passionate about
and the 4th thing is entrepreneurship
because Google as a company started with 100,000 dollars
and today someone was telling me: "200,000 dollars are not enough"
So, I told him: "Did you know that in 1998, Google's 1st check ..
was for 100,000 dollars"
and now the market evaluation of it is over 200 billion dollars
These 4 things ..
were the core of what made us remember what we want to do
we want to do something in Egypt ..
that has value ..
Honestly, we don't want to do a press conference and go home
I told the press who are present here today
that it is not about what you write
We want to roll up our sleeves ..
and all the community to work together ..
the technology people and our competitors ..
universities, NGOs, the government, community centers ..
All the people to come together
and try to find the talented boy or girl ..
and try to place him under the spotlight
and put him in a 7-month intensive period
this period will turn his idea into a company
A functioning company. I don't need anything from anyone
but I want him to learn 3 main things ..
How to talk with investors ..
How to create a fully functional prototype
and how to have a business plan
If I can do that, I would be successful ..
My dream within "Start With Google"
is to produce 50 companies through this platform
and have those three things ..
if I can do that ..
whoever got the 200,000 dollars doesn't matter that much to us ..
This is not something that important ..
Good for him ..
The idea that you bring your dream to reality ..
The dream with the details ..
that got the data, colors, visuals, numbers
A dream without any of these, is not a dream ..
We have different views within the company, and that's a good thing ..
I say that we won't get around 1000 serious applicants ..
The application is tough ..
The application for you to write is tough ..
10,000 people might apply ..
but at the end, the idea of the details ..
because I can't write an application saying that I want to compete with Google and do this and that ..
Alright, who are you? You've got a PhD in what? Do you understand mathematics or not?
All what he said might not be valid
If we got 700 - 800 serious applications that would be a huge success
and if we take the best 200 out of those and trained them it would be a good thing
Other colleagues of mine say that this competition would be much bigger
I hope so ..
If we find 10,000 serious applicants, we can do things that are much bigger
We can do a "Start With Google" in each and every governorate
We can do a lot of things ..
We can bring in business partners from banks or tech companies ..
I couldn't believe the amount of people who called me wanting to join
That's a very good thing
The idea is to dream with details and implement that dream
In 2009, we signed a deal with the Egyptian government to invest a sum of money in Egypt
Our team thought about how we can do something influential for the people
We could've placed this amount of money in a fund or a training center
and people come to train and get certificates
I want to do something real ..
50 companies might be a big number but I want to do something real …
All of us will roll up our sleeves and go meet people everywhere in Egypt
The people who are talented but afraid of quitting their jobs
How many of your friends or mine got skills but afraid of quitting their jobs because of family?
or a young man with dreams but needs some support or a lecture
These are the times we are looking for ..
and once we find and support him
I think in a few months he could be known internationally
Maybe I'm dreaming big, but that's what I'm dreaming of ..
The support we got from government, civil society, or the people who showed up today
Makes me hope that we do something big in the future
We want the idea to be related to technology
but solves the problem of anything else
We think that technology does two things
One, solves a lot of problems from different aspects
There are people here in Egypt sitting at home starting ad campaigns in Finland and make money out of it
That solves an economic problem Instead of leaving home doing nothing
There are others who make money out of blogging
and there are others who make money out of photography and video
This solves a lot of problems and entertains
That's the first thing technology does
Second thing is that technology and the world are not distant by years
Technology shortens the distances
Today, think about it, you don't' need an e-mail system to start a company
You don't need an IT department to start a company
You can start a company without goods
without a storage place
with just a good idea ..
There are young Egyptians who made things for the country
If it's crowded, they make an application for the traffic
If we love movies, they put their movies on YouTube for us to watch
All the youth needs is a platform and let them become creative while using it
Because we know what our problems are ..
We know the problems in our daily lives and how technology will solve it
Not everyone will think that way, but we need the 5 or 6 who can solve these issues in agriculture, industry, etc.
If someone is not a businessman and got issues starting a business
but got a good prototype but can't start that business
He got two options ..
He can either cooperate with a family member or a friend who's good in business
The other option is to sign up for "Start With Google"
because the Internet's business model is not built on making money at the beginning
It's built on making a user base, viewership
Imagine if someone can make an application that influence all the university students in the Middle East
An application that influence students from Morocco to Dubai
The investors would run towards that person because he got accesss to 47 million students
If I got 47 million students using my application doing anything .. exchanging jokes, files, etc., that's success
The direction is different in a sense that you don't need to make money at the beginning ..
You need value-added .. A value that allows you to connect with people and gather them
A lot of companies - YouTube was among them - wasn't making money at the beginning
Twitter, I don't think that they are making that much money nowadays and see their impact on the world
The Internet is a bit different and we need a new way of thinking
Hesham Wahby said that traditional ideas by traditional companies disappeared from the world
Today, you think about how to solve problems that millions face with simple tools that are easy to use
We have a relationship with SAS since October 2010
and at the same time, we held a bid among 3 governmental associations, our sales dept and the relationships with suppliers
and we got SAS and Innoventures because their offer was good and they understood the project differently
They came back with proposals which were good and they modified them pretty fast
We are glad that we are cooperating with them
and the upcoming days will show how we will go ..
Just start .. nothing will happen
The job will always be here
If you are between 17 and 30, believe me .. don't get employed
If you are talented and you've the abilities don't get employed
Try to do something and if you fail work somewhere else when you are 28 or 29
Just start ...