Silicon Valley mentors help Middle Eastern entrepreneurs win MIT Business Plan Competition

June 20, 2011 - PRLog -- Two entrepreneurs chosen for the TechWadi mentorship program have been selected as the winners of the MIT Arab Business Plan Competition in Tunis, Tunisia.

The first prize was awarded to Cherif Algreatly, founder of TalkCloud, a highly advanced technology for facilitating real-time social chat between internet users performing similar computer tasks. TalkCloud has launched a public beta and is currently inviting its first users to test the platform.

Second place was won by Dr. Hossam Mahgoub of AlKhawarizmy Software, the most advanced provider of Arabic natural language processing technologies including KSearch, the de-facto standard in Arabic internet search, as well as advanced text-to-speech and e-learning solutions and technologies deployed in partnership with leading Arabic newspapers in the region.

Visit http://www.techwadi.org/mit2 for details

TalkCloud and AlKhawarizmy had attracted the attention of TechWadi’s team of Silicon Valley technologists prior to their selection as MIT Arab Business Plan Competition finalists in May – a selection round that whi­­­ttled the field down to the top 12 contestants out of an initial pool of 3800. The companies were chosen by TechWadi to take part in the new Startup Coach Program, where teams of Silicon Valley technologists of varying backgrounds are matched with rising entrepreneurs in the MENA region.

“The fun is yet to come.” said Nancy Zayed, a TechWadi mentor who spent time with both founders, “there is only one word for how we all feel: ecstatic.” Joining Nancy as coaches for AlKhawarizmy and TalkCloud were Michael Abdelmalek of Google, Yasi Baiani of Vantage Point Venture Partners, and Roham Gharegozlou of Newbury Ventures. Cherif was also among the delegation of MENA CEOs that took part in TechWadi's roundtable event with Stanford Graduate School of Business on May 25, 2011.

The Startup Coach Program represents a new model for TechWadi: “we are seeking to connect youth leaders in Silicon Valley with MENA entrepreneurs to allow a more flexible and dynamic exchange of ideas to take place – at the grass roots level” said Ossama Hassanein, Chairman of TechWadi. “Each multi-national team is also paired with a TechWadi 100 Charter Member who acts as a senior mentor.” While Dr. Hassanein himself currently serves in this role for most of the initial engagements, other members are being drawn into the fold as the program matures.

For Cherif and Hossam, the days are bright ahead. “Thank God – winning first prize at the MIT competition is a sign for me that I’m going in the right business direction,” said Cherif after winners were announced in Tunis, “having access to the great and sincere mentors of TechWadi makes me confident that growing my company bigger than my own business know-how will not be a problem at all.”

Cherif –a uniquely humble entrepreneur despite more than 40 patents to his name– had prepared himself against winning so thoroughly that announcers had to repeat his company name multiple times before he realized he had won the prize and was being asked to rise to the stage.

Hossam was equally excited about the news: “I fervently believe that the support and mentorship we received from TechWadi were instrumental in our success in the MIT Arab Business Plan Competition” he asserted: “during our first day in Tunisia, after test pitching to Booz & Co., they couldn't find anything that needed to be changed in our presentation and told us that we have all the information there.” Hossam attributes this to the coaches that worked with him prior to the competition: “the support we obtained from TechWadi had a clear impact on the future of our company- we thank them and highly appreciate their highly professional assistance.”

Other startup companies currently being piloted through the Startup Coach Program are human resource experts BasharSoft, also among the 12 finalists at the MIT competition; mobile app developer EME International, currently in the midst of a US expansion effort; social gaming startup VuFind, angel-funded and based in Sunnyvale; location-based social platform developer Wireless Stars; video-streaming innovator SharedLife; and the inventor of ‘Social IQ’, San Diego-based Soovox.

For the other companies in the MIT Arab Business Plan Competition, their achievement thus far is remarkable itself: selected by MIT judges as the top 12 out of over 3800 applicants, each team has the potential to generate real value in the MENA region and throughout the world. In the Semi-Finals ceremony last March in Beirut, the quality of the companies was so high that the target for number of finalist teams was raised to 12 from an original 9. Besides TalkCloud, AlKhawarizmy, and BasharSoft, the other finalists were: BitBait (Agriculture, Algeria); Buffle.com (Telecom, Jordan); CardioDiagnostics (Healthcare, Lebanon); Diabetes Healthcare (Healthcare, Jordan); iNavigator (Telecom, Egypt); Marhaba (Travel, Lebanon); Presto Wireless (Telecom, Egypt); TalebTech (Education, Jordan); Wild Guanabana (Travel, Egypt). Congratulations to all.

Visit TalkCloud on http://www.talkcloud.me
Visit AlKhawarizmy on http://www.alkhawarizmy.com

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TechWadi is a Silicon Valley-based non-profit organization building bridges between the United States and the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region to promote entrepreneurship, support innovation, and foster economic development. From its early beginnings as a gathering of Arab American technology professionals in Silicon Valley, TechWadi has evolved into a powerful global platform for cooperation and collaboration – with members and events spanning across the US and MENA. With deep roots in California’s technology community, TechWadi plays a unique role in the entrepreneurial ecosystem: in Silicon Valley, TechWadi brings together the technology community through conferences, networking events, workshops, and mentorship programs. In the MENA region, TechWadi works with leading regional and international organizations to empower high impact entrepreneurs and help build a sustainable infrastructure for entrepreneurship to thrive and succeed.