Ecosystem Arabia - Episode 6 of 6 - In the sixth and final episode of our 6 week community activation, host Andrew Berkowitz dives into how ecosystem builders in the region can better engage their diaspora and incentivize talented expats to move to the region to start and invest in startups. This community activation is an interactive digital gathering of the Middle East and North African startup ecosystems it consists of a 6 episode podcast mini-series and a 6 week live-streamed startup pi...
Feb 09, 2021•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ecosystem Arabia - Episode 5 of 6 - In the fifth episode of our 6 week community activation, host Andrew Berkowitz dives into the different types of capital available to entrepreneurs in the MENA region. This community activation is an interactive digital gathering of the Middle East and North African startup ecosystems it consists of a 6 episode podcast mini-series and a 6 week live-streamed startup pitch competition, which will both culminate in an interactive virtual summit on February 16th. ...
Feb 02, 2021•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ecosystem Arabia - Episode 4 of 6 - In the fourth episode of our 6 week community activation, host Andrew Berkowitz dives into the Israel and UAE economic normalization, what it means for the country's startup ecosystems, and how tech can be a force for connection between Israelis, Palestinians, Arabs, and Jews. This community activation is an interactive digital gathering of the Middle East and North African startup ecosystems it consists of a 6 episode podcast mini-series and a 6 week live-str...
Jan 26, 2021•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ecosystem Arabia - Episode 3 of 6 - In the third episode of our 6 week community activation, host Andrew Berkowitz hands the mic over to Joy Ajlouny, the Cofounder of Fetchr in Dubai and Viola Llewelyn, the Cofounder of Ovamba Solutions in Cameroon for a candid discussion on what it's like being a woman leader building a tech scaleup in the Gulf region and in Africa. This community activation is an interactive digital gathering of the Middle East and North African startup ecosystems it consists ...
Jan 19, 2021•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ecosystem Arabia - Episode 2 of 6 - In the second episode of our 6 week community activation, we tell the inside stories of the entrepreneurs laying down the foundation for the payments, logistics, and artificial intelligence industries in the region. This community activation is an interactive digital gathering of the Middle East and North African startup ecosystems it consists of a 6 episode podcast mini-series and a 6 week live-streamed startup pitch competition, which will both culminate in ...
Jan 12, 2021•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ecosystem Arabia - Episode 1 of 6 - In the first episode of our 6 week community activation, we tell the inside stories of Yahoo's acquisition of Maktoob.com, Amazon's acquisition of Souq, and dive into how technology inspired the Arab Spring uprising. This community activation is an interactive digital gathering of the Middle East and North African startup ecosystems it consists of a 6 episode podcast mini-series and a 6 week live-streamed startup pitch competition, which will both culminate in...
Jan 05, 2021•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Global Startup Movement is launching the Ecosystem Arabia mini-series on January 5th, 2021. With this mini-series, we will dive into key themes and topics relevant in the Middle East and North Africa startup ecosystems through key industry stakeholders in an engaging, narrative-driven format. In addition to a weekly podcast, we will broadcast Pitch MENA Live! on The Global Startup Movement's Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn channels. This will be a live pitch competition featuring 16...
Dec 15, 2020•2 min•Transcript available on Metacast David Casey catalyzes ecosystems to engineer systemic change and has co-founded four companies and helped scale another to 8 digits revenue. His work has centered around movement-building, and leveraging blockchain technology for socioeconomic transformation. His current focus is redirecting flows of capital towards the regenerative economy of 2100, and addressing the tragedy of the commons inherent in the 21st century transnational economy. He has spoken publicly in over 20 countries on the fut...
Dec 08, 2020•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kago Kagichiri is the Global Head of Innovation for Sokowatch a tech company that revolutionizes access to essential goods and services by connecting small shops to the digital economy. It enables informal retailers to order products at any time via SMS ormobile app, and receive free same-day delivery to their store. This makes it easier for shopkeepers to source goods and helps manufacturers ensure that their products are consistently available to consumers. He was previously the cofounder of E...
Nov 30, 2020•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Aviv Shalgi is the CEO of energy tech startup, Solar Simplified, a platform that matches renters and homeowners who care about the environment and want to save money on the electricity bill with local solar farms. For 6+ years he's been a Board Member, Mentor and Advisor for multiple startups and not-for-profit organizations. He previously led Dormigo’s business and corporate development efforts (until its acquisition), driving organic and inorganic growth, and was responsible for partnersh...
Nov 17, 2020•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Nicolas Brien is the CEO of France Digitale, the largest startup lobbying organization in Europe, with 1,500 startups and 100 VCs as its members, as well as the newly appointed President of the European Startup Network, a common voice for European startups composed of 24 national startup associations from across Europe. He previously was the Director of Studies of Kantar-TNS Sofres (WPP) and a senior advisor to Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, the Spokeswoman of the French Government. On this episode you...
Nov 10, 2020•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Inbal Arieli is a founder of Synthesis, a global leadership assessment rm, and author of Chutzpah: Why Israel Is a Hub of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Born in Israel and raised on hummus and chutzpah, Arieli fostered her entrepreneurial skills during her mandatory military service, serving as lieutenant in unit 8200, the Israel Defense Forces’ elite intelligence corps. After completing her military duties, and for the past twenty years, she embraced leading executive roles in the flourishing...
Nov 03, 2020•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Host Andrew Berkowitz highlights the 5 digital nomad visas that are available from Caribbean countries as we head into Winter.
Oct 27, 2020•5 min•Transcript available on Metacast Justin Bannon, CEO and Co-founder of Boson Protocol, a decentralized infrastructure connecting smart contracts to real world commerce and its data. Boson Protocol aims to change the world of commerce by enabling enterprises, organizations, and customers to bridge the divide between digital decentralized technologies and the transfer and trade of physical goods. Creating the de facto infrastructure to achieve this with minimized arbitration, cost, and trust, Boson Protocol is taking eCommerce to ...
Oct 20, 2020•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast In 2021, The GSM will transition away from our weekly flagship episode to a recurring mini-series format. Our first mini-series, Ecosystem Arabia, will launch in January 2021 and feature stories, candid insights, and conversation with some of the MENA region's leading startup ecosystem stakeholders. On this episode we go back 3 years to revisit one of our first podcast mini-series, breaking down the pillars that make up a thriving startup ecosystem.
Oct 13, 2020•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Tsolmondorj Natsagdorj is the Cofounder and CEO of YungBet is a blockchain decentralized social gaming platform that provides a secure, reliable, borderless ecosystem. He was born in Mongolian. and grew up in the US, while a student at George Mason he started Tokenplay, a blockchain gaming distribution platform in 2017 that was acquired within a year for $2.4M. He then traveled back to Ulaandbaatar, Mongolia where he helped to build up the nascent blockchain and cryptocurrency ecosystem there an...
Sep 29, 2020•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Jeroen Corthout is the co-founder and CEO of Salesflare, a simply powerful CRM that automates data to build better relationships and make more sales. It's a fast, visual and easy-to-use sales machine. Salesflare is the most popular CRM ever on both Product Hunt and AppSumo. It also got featured on TechCrunch and Entrepreneur.com. Prior to Salesflare, Jeroen was helping companies to implement their new CRM, marketing and sales. Jeroen is also a founder of Doctura that works with tech startups and...
Sep 22, 2020•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Host Andrew Berkowitz covers 4 key macro trends that have been greatly accelerated by COVID-19 in 2020 and are opening up new and exciting opportunities in the global startup ecosystem.
Sep 15, 2020•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Douglas Ogeto is the coFounder and CEO at LudiqueWorks and has built the largest community of game developers on the continent. He is an entrepreneur with 8+ years of experience in Technology, Branding & Community Building. He has co-founded 4 startups in Game development, Education, Advisory & Branding and has played a key role in designing, planning and execution of entrepreneurship & impact related projects in Sub-Saharan & West Africa, having worked both in the private a...
Sep 08, 2020•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Part 2 of a 2 part miniseries on the topic of innovation in infrastructure in emerging economies. As a result of the twin crises in public health and the global economy, inequities in the current economic paradigm have been laid bare, as have debilitating weaknesses in global supply chains delivering critical goods. Decisions made today shape the built environment of tomorrow. The continent with the fastest growing economy today is Africa, and this will continue to increase. This week's speakers...
Sep 01, 2020•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Part 1 of a 2 part miniseries on the topic of innovation in infrastructure in emerging economies. As a result of the twin crises in public health and the global economy, inequities in the current economic paradigm have been laid bare, as have debilitating weaknesses in global supply chains delivering critical goods. Decisions made today shape the built environment of tomorrow. The continent with the fastest growing economy today is Africa, and this will continue to increase. This week's speakers...
Aug 25, 2020•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Franco Goytia is a serial entrepreneur; currently the CEO of Caspr Biotech, a startup he co-founded at the age of 23. Caspr is using Crispr technology to make better and more accessible molecular diagnostics solutions. Prior to this, at the age of 21, he founded Ando a B2B last-mile logistics solution in LATAM. He did this while studying Economics at Universidad de San Andres in Argentina. Ando was acquired by Moova in 2018. Some of his notable achievements include being selected for the US Dept...
Aug 18, 2020•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast Akin Sawyerr is the Strategy lead for Decred, where he leads strategy and governance functions, and supports the proliferation of Decred across Africa. Decred is an open and progressive cryptocurrency with an system of community-based governance integrated into its blockchain. He's also an early investor and director of Splash Mobile Money, the largest mobile payments company in Sierra Leone. Akin is a long time executive and entrepreneur operating in mobile money, remittances, and payments...
Aug 11, 2020•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ian Hathaway is co-author of the new book The Startup Community Way, on entrepreneurial ecosystems published in July 2020 and has published for prominent research institutions, universities, businesses, and periodicals. He is a frequent contributor for outlets such as the Harvard Business Review and The Wall Street Journal. Currently, he leads product development for ecosystem advisory at Techstars, where he works with entrepreneurs and community leaders around the world to support their path to...
Jul 28, 2020•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Bill Ottman is an American Internet entrepreneur and freedom of information activist based in New York City best known as the CEO and co-founder of Minds. Minds is a free and open source distributed social networking service that uses the blockchain to reward the community with ERC20 tokens. On this episode you'll learn: A comparison between the geopolitical implications of Google investing large amounts in a country versus Huawei investing [7:01] How...
Jul 21, 2020•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Host Andrew Berkowitz breaks down the recent drama surrounding the rapid rise and fall of Chinese coffee startup Luckin Coffee from it's founding 3.5 years ago through it's widely successful IPO and eventual collapse on April 2, 2020 when Luckin disclosed that an internal probe found that its chief operating officer had fabricated 2019 sales by about 2.2 billion yuan ($310 million). Additionally, Andrew discusses the next in line to become Asia's coffee unicorn and most serious competi...
Jul 14, 2020•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast Ashish Singal is the Founder and CEO at CoinSwitch.co and Sequoia-backed CRUXPay, an open protocol simplifying the way people use crypto. It enables users to create a human readable CRUX ID which can be used to send and receive payment request, connect to dApps with a single click while ensuring an experience matching that of online fiat payments platforms like Paypal/Venmo or ApplePay. Ashish is a former Amazon developer and a leader of the team that built Amazon Prime's 1-hour delivery model. ...
Jul 07, 2020•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast In part 2 of our podcast mini-series we look at the investor perspective of the current state of the global seed and growth stage investing environment. Our 2 guests today include Sean O'Sullivan the Managing General Partner at SOSV, a global venture capital firm providing multi-stage investment and investing in 150 companies, and Tien Wong CEO at Opus 8, where he provides strategy and fundraising advice to technology companies and investors. Opus8 organizes tech networking events as w...
Jul 01, 2020•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast In part 1 of our 2 part mini-series we dive into 3 different sectors ranging from delivery startups to CRISPR-based diagnostics as well as 3 geographies including Pakistan, Sierra Leone, and Argentina. Our 3 guests today include Syed Sair Ali, Cofounder and CEO at Lahore, Pakistan based Eat Mubarak, Jurgen Descamps, the General Manager for Securiport based in Sierra Leone, as well as Franco Goytia, cofounder at CASPR Biotech based in Buenos Aires, Argentia and Silicon Valley. On this episode you...
Jun 23, 2020•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Abdulaziz B. Al Loughani is co-founder & Managing Partner at Faith Capital, a venture capital practice that is focused on the GCC. He is also co-founder & CEO of Floward, a full-fledged flowers & gifts e-commerce platform. Previously, Abdulaziz was the founding Executive Vice Chairman of the Kuwait National Fund for SMEs Development, a USD 7bn independent public institution responsible for developing the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Kuwait (2013-2017). Prior to this role, he was a co-founder and...
Jun 16, 2020•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
