By Kerning Cultures Opinions differ as to whether the revolutions in Egypt precipitated a culture of entrepreneurship: Some say that gives the revolutions too much credit over the already-growing sentiment among the youth; others believe it directly stimulated a new mentality. “January 25 [2011] was all about, we can change our destiny,” reflects Con O’ Donnell, angel investor, Sarmady co-founder, and Co-Founder and Business Development Lead at Rise Up. “It gave the youth an enormous amount of confidence to break out of a system that made them apathetic: there’s no point doing it, it won’t work. No point doing it because it’s too bureaucratic.” What is certain, however, is the startup scene in Egypt has grown substantially in the past five years. New institutions and players emerge onto the scene, including the Cairo Angels, Flat 6 Labs, and The Greek Campus (leased from the American University of Cairo), which houses many startups’ and mentors’ offices as well as entrepreneurship events. Of the nearly 50% growth in ecosystem stakeholders since 2010 across the Middle East, Egypt claims a quarter of these new institutions supporting entrepreneurship [1]. It used to be that “the…
