{"id":1573,"date":"2014-12-22T20:25:16","date_gmt":"2014-12-22T12:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.www.innovationiseverywhere.com\/?p=1573"},"modified":"2014-12-22T20:25:16","modified_gmt":"2014-12-22T12:25:16","slug":"iran-startup-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/iran-startup-scene\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran Startup scene"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Just like so many other things, the tech scene in Iran is synchronizing with the tensions arousing from, or gravitating around the political regime. Every 10 years or so, it seems a new hardline or conversely, a new reformist movement will change the situation.<\/p>\n

It’s fair to say that in 2014, though, the trend was mostly positive, with foreign, expatriates Iranians around the world beginning to look back home. A big, 120-130 million Farsi speakers market could be opening soon, and there’s barely any online marketplace or innovative digital service to monetize it.<\/p>\n

Iran has a strong tradition of engineering education, made possible first by the US \u00ab\u00a0teachers\u00a0\u00bb of the Shah, then by a long decade of war and then embargo, which pushed the country to develop its own engineering capabilities. Mostly for weaponry and energy, but the heritage is strong, and as a result, you can find many Iranians top engineers in some of the world’s best startups.<\/p>\n

Did you know? From eBay to Dropbox to Zoosk to Google\/Youtube, Iranians have been within the very first or among the ten first employees of a long list of success stories from the US (not without reminding us of Indians). The diaspora (4-6m people) has other high-level positions in banking, IT within the English speaking world and the Middle-East.<\/p>\n

Back home, the country has the strongest mobile penetration of the MENA area, as well as 55% Internet users.<\/p>\n

A lot of challenges are still on the road of entrepreneurial success in Iran. Talent outside the government & military industry is not recognized ($2k monthly salary in startups vs $10k in government for engineers). Visa policy and financial insulation with the embargoes make it uneasy to pay online. And the cost of living is pretty high too in Tehran.<\/p>\n

Still, while visiting Iran back in 2013, we rarely saw such an energy, level of women participation and sheer volume of teams in a Startup Weekend (Shiraz).<\/p>\n

Most of the future of Iran as a startup scene depends on politics. But when it’s solved, then, a strong hub for the Middle-East, UAE and Central Asia might be open for the braves.<\/p>\n

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PROS<\/strong><\/h3>\n