The following article was originally published in Rudaw on August 15, 2016.
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A young Kurdish startup has a vision to enable budding entrepreneurs fulfill their dreams.
Founder Rebeen Pasha says that “My Entrepreneurial Dream” — or MyeDream — is a startup incubator designed to “focus on the Dreams, Dialogue, and Development” of young entrepreneurs in Kurdistan.
“In light of the economic crisis,” Pasha says, “we want to revive the role of young people and enable them to realize potential and dreams to create solutions to everyday problems and supply chain challenges.”
He says this is a team effort and he is joined by former organizers of Startup Weekend, HackaErbil and entrepreneurs throughout Kurdistan and rest of Iraq.
MyeDream hopes to facilitate local entrepreneurs’ ambitions by encouraging innovations in order to bring about resolution to many of the issues currently plaguing the Kurdistan region. The model is built with extensive partnerships with regional and global incubators.
“It’s about time we refocus on engaging youth in the economy to rebuild the country,” Pasha says, “and it takes all of us working in partnership to make it happen.”
This coming Friday, Pasha and the collaborators of MyeDream are launching their event for “MyeDream Lab” at the Rotana Hotel in Erbil to bring local entrepreneurs and volunteers together — ranging in age between 16-34 — for training, coaching, and connecting with the rest of the Kurdistan region’s ecosystem.
At the end of the event, there will be a “competitive” component: The best entrepreneurial ideas for providing solutions and going to scale will be selected for a two-week “boot-camp,” as Pasha refers to it, taking entrepreneurs through all the steps on how to launch a successful business.
The workshop will provide skills development, local and global mentorship and the logistical know-how needed to create sustainable and long-lasting businesses.
MyeDream’s initiatives also extend to the public sector, particularly by working with the government to reduce bureaucracy and to empower private businesses.
“The public sector needs to create space for SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) and start-ups,” Pasha says. “How could our youth — with 70 percent of the population under 30 — become a positive force in building the economy if neither the government nor private sector supports them in their ideas to grow the pie and create jobs?”
Pasha hopes that, through MyeDream (www.myedream.me), entrepreneurs will be guided to pursue ideas that could “allow this place to fulfill its full potential” and solve many of the regional problems through innovative means beyond just technology, such as agriculture, supply chains and the services industry, and especially engage women and people from all backgrounds.
“Working together rebuilds society,” Pasha says. “This is a global best practice we can do here as well.”
Access the article above in Rudaw here.
