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First of all, I love such perspectives. Could anyone point me to more similar things (describing the business worlds elsewhere)? Aside from corruption, funding

by mighmi 3y ago

First of all, I love such perspectives. Could anyone point me to more similar things (describing the business worlds elsewhere)? Aside from corruption, funding etc. the author is in a veritable smorgasbord. There are countless unsolved problems in the local market because few seek to address them. Instead of competing with a thousand other startups for a reddit clone or some sort of dev tooling, he could concentrate on solving day to day struggles of the average Tunisian, transforming people's lives through tech. Indeed, that's what the startups in the incubator were doing! But instead of embracing that, he seems to complain that they don't want VC funding, they don't want to scale to the whole world? And then complains about how it's difficult for them to get VC funding... How strange and circular this logic! In Eastern Europe or Latin America, many companies grew quickly doing this a few decades ago - developing alternative payment systems etc. to bank the unbanked as aogaili alludes to. How amazing it would be if today we had the chance to develop new infrastructure on which future products would be built! Alas, everything seems done and ossified. How green the grass on the other side is...

jonnycomputer 3y ago
While I don't think you should have been DVd, I think that you are ignoring his argument that the Tunisian market is just not there. And, frankly, if you can compete, with local talent, on a global scale, you have a lot going for you, and, it will inevitably lead to more at-home investment to support all the money you are bringing into the local economy. I also find it hard to justify criticizing someone's decision with years of experience in that market.
- mighmi 3y ago
  I say the above out of nostalgia for my past, when I was working in the Romanian and Russian speaking markets. In those days, charging people for software was a no go as you would just invite warz people to break them but infrastructure and business services were valid as were assisting companies who wanted to enter the markets for whatever reason. The goal was to make a self-profitable company and build it from the ground up which is how the Eastern tech hubs grew. I believe this is a better model than chasing after VC money a la San Francisco, especially when the VC pipelines have dried up even in those areas.
- aogaili 3y ago
  Market is small but these counties have tons of issues that need to be fixed instead offshoring and mind drain their resources Middle eastern mindset is either to migrate, work remotely for foreign company or at best get VC, copy foreign startu0p, and try to get some regional market share to be acquired later by western companies. You can't have a society that produces global unicorns when ahmf of it doesn't have banking, name one country that managed to do this.

by mighmi 3y ago

jonnycomputer 3y ago

While I don't think you should have been DVd, I think that you are ignoring his argument that the Tunisian market is just not there. And, frankly, if you can compete, with local talent, on a global scale, you have a lot going for you, and, it will inevitably lead to more at-home investment to support all the money you are bringing into the local economy. I also find it hard to justify criticizing someone's decision with years of experience in that market.

mighmi 3y ago
I say the above out of nostalgia for my past, when I was working in the Romanian and Russian speaking markets. In those days, charging people for software was a no go as you would just invite warz people to break them but infrastructure and business services were valid as were assisting companies who wanted to enter the markets for whatever reason. The goal was to make a self-profitable company and build it from the ground up which is how the Eastern tech hubs grew. I believe this is a better model than chasing after VC money a la San Francisco, especially when the VC pipelines have dried up even in those areas.
aogaili 3y ago
Market is small but these counties have tons of issues that need to be fixed instead offshoring and mind drain their resources Middle eastern mindset is either to migrate, work remotely for foreign company or at best get VC, copy foreign startu0p, and try to get some regional market share to be acquired later by western companies. You can't have a society that produces global unicorns when ahmf of it doesn't have banking, name one country that managed to do this.