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Nima Adelkhani Uses Silicon Valley Knowledge To Improve Middle Eastern Entrepreneurship

 

Previously on Killerstartups, I wrote about a program with Silicon Valley connections aimed at businesses interested the Sub-Saharan Africa market. Now, another Silicon Valley alum, Nima Adelkhani, is interested in bringing business talent fro the Arab world to the Valley to learn from the best and brightest.

 

Adelkhani’s PITME (Progress In Technology Middle East) is a training and networking program which will expose selected entrepreneurs from the Middle East to some of the more innovative ways of planning and monetization Silicon Valley style.

 

 

 

 

The Middle East Focus

As of now, Adelkhani aims to develop and train entrepreneurs from Lebanon, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia. After working for the incubator The Founder Institute, Adelkhani decided to concentrate on his own interests after realizing he enjoyed being involved with several different companies at once. The 35-year experience in the Valley now has him interested in wanting to share a bit of this vision with his Middle Eastern counterparts.

 

On a recent visit to the Middle East, Adelkhani took note of the many excellent ideas that he says were neither, copycats nor clones. Born in Germany to an Iranian father, Adelkhani has been exposed, from a young age, to diversity and seeing how cultures can work together. This, it seems, is included in his vision for business.

 

 

In addition to having a German mother, Adelkhani also notes that his wide view on culture was impacted by also having close to him Palestinians as a child. Eventually moving to the United States, this idea permeates his vision of what business and entrepreneurship can be despite the well-known conflicts in the Middle East.

 

Helping Business Grow

Not only satisfied with wanting to show Middle Eastern entrepreneurs how to monotize their startups, Adelkhani is also interested in giving the entrepreneurs the necessary tools to return to their communities to help further develop business and act as angel investors. It’s a healthy approach to business and it should prove a fruitful pursuit.

 

The Incubation

Part of Adelkhani’s vision includes connecting these entrepreneurs directly with the Silicon Valley mentorship of Arad Rostampour, Brian Wong, and Mona DeFrawi. This, he believes, will not only put these entrepreneurs in a better position to make their companies more successful, but it will also expand their network into important thinkers and doers in Silicon Valley for future connections and ventures.

 

Israel is already well known in the startup world as being the country with the highest startup volume per capita although the parts of the Middle East Adelkhani is interested in concentrating on haven’t been covered as well.

 

 

 

Critics of Adelkhani’s idea say that what he aims to create in the Middle East in terms of business knowledge and infrastructure may well take up to two decades. Adelkhani is much more optimistic regarding his plan and sees the seeds of his ideas beginning to grow results as quickly as one fourth of that time frame.

 

Adelkhani is aiming high with this particular project but it seems as if he’s got the knowledge and the experience to make it happen. He knows better than anyone that if it’s worth doing, it’s only worth doing with engines at full power.

 

 Photo Credits

PITME

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