DOHA, QATAR – Twenty students from universities across Doha recently competed in Quick Startup 2014, a business-training program launched this year by Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar. The program coaches budding entrepreneurs as they develop a concept into a business plan and present an investor pitch to a panel of industry experts in just 72 hours.
‘Memzy,’ an application-based start-up composed of Carnegie Mellon students took home first place, followed by ‘Tarweej,’ a start-up aimed at helping high school students choose a university and fill out application forms. Qatar Arabian Theme Park, a venture to set up the region’s first theme park came in third place.
The winning team ‘Memzy’ developed a business plan for a social platform mobile application and were keen on having seasoned professionals analyze their venture before moving forward.
“We signed up for Quick Startup because we wanted to understand the process of how you start a venture. More importantly, having a panel of judges with industry experience was the perfect opportunity for us to gather feedback,” said winning team member Afrah Hassan, an information systems senior at Carnegie Mellon. She added: “The start-up community in Qatar is growing. It is a risky industry but this is changing due in part to people being more motivated to develop their own projects rather than working for the government or big organizations.”
The six participating teams that competed over the weekend included students from Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, Qatar University, College of the North Atlantic-Qatar, Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, Texas A&M University at Qatar and the Gulf English School.
The Carnegie Mellon Qatar program contributes to the country’s increasing focus on developing a culture of entrepreneurship. As part of this national drive, Qatar has begun pushing forward several initiatives to nurture local business development, especially amongst the younger generation. Thomas Emerson, distinguished career professor of entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon Qatar emphasized the importance of exposing students to entrepreneurship, providing opportunities to interact with local business leaders, which opens up pathways for them to further their ventures.
“Qatar is keen to see indigenous entrepreneurial business growth and the country is taking steps to ensure it is ready to support these young entrepreneurs effectively. It is a great way to feed back the talent that the overall investment in university education in Qatar is making,” Emerson said.
“Many students aspire to become entrepreneurs once they graduate and Carnegie Mellon Qatar is dedicated to providing them with the necessary support and advice. Along with our university entrepreneurship department, there are also organizations around the country such as Silatech, Bedaya Center and Enterprise Qatar available to provide support,” he added.
Industry experts participated on the judging panel and as mentors, imparting their knowledge to the students. Participants were classified based on their potential profits, feasibility and market research.
Dave Mawhinney, co-director of the Carnegie Mellon University Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship and executive director of the Donald H. Jones Center for Entrepreneurship said: “Entrepreneurship is an ongoing process, it can’t be learned in a classroom and is a ‘learn-by-doing’ experience. Through this program we provide an immersive experience for budding entrepreneurs to dip into the realm of entrepreneurship, meet potential customers, validate and debate ideas with teammates culminating in a cohesive presentation of their venture.”
Mawhinney is one of three experienced industry experts visiting from the Pittsburgh campus alongside Milton Cofield, executive director of Undergraduate Business Administration at Carnegie Mellon University and Peter Stern, a Carnegie Mellon University graduate who co-founded Datek Online, the 4th largest online brokerage firm. Stern is also a founding member of the CMU Open Field Entrepreneurs Fund, providing seed capital to help recent CMU alumni start their companies.
The judging panel comprised Cofield; Saleh Al Khulaifi, head of business development at Qatar Development Bank; Hala Al Misnad, junior associate from Enterprise Qatar; Peter J. Moore, entrepreneurial mentor at the College of the North Atlantic-Qatar; Mohamed Fathy Miligy, relationship manager at Qatar National Bank; and Juha Peralampi, manager at the Business Incubator Center for Entrepreneurship and lecturer for Entrepreneurship and International Business Marketing and Management Department at Qatar University.
