The Power of Entrepreneurship in Exile - Lessons and Opportunities From Syrians

Ahmad Sufian Bayram knows of what he speaks.

An entrepreneur in his own right, he founded JoyMakers -- an early play in digital gift giving. Unfortunately he was one of countless amazing entrepreneurs in Syria who launched and lost his company, daily existence and more in the unspeakable brutality since 2011.

Today, he is part of Techstars— one of the leading accelerators and mentor networks of tech companies globally — based in their Middle East operations. He is not only quite expert in the little-reported-upon remarkable talent and enterprises across the region, but has pattern recognition in the best of startups from Silicon Valley, to Berlin, to Capetown and beyond.

With this background, he has never left his roots and belief in the potential of Syrians, wherever they are. We can now download his free ebook, Entrepreneurship in Exile: Insights into Syria Refugees Startups in Host Countries. It is a wake up call to that potential, the barriers they face, and how governments, NGOs, businesses and more can unleash the potential pent up talent anywhere.

One of my favorite quotes in writing my book Startup Rising: The Entrepreneurial Revolution Remaking the Middle East came from the remarkable entrepreneur, now founder of Ahead of the Curve Dina Sherif. ATC is a social business dedicated to the promotion of sustainable management practice, inclusive market growth and social innovation. Dina brings years of experience in large institutions looking to make impact in the Middle East, Africa and beyond.

“The challenge,” she once told me, “Is that these large organizations are top-down. And top-down organizations look at people as problems to be solved — we sitting here in Washington or where ever will fix you poor people. Technology and entrepreneurship is by definition bottom-up. And the bottom-up thinks of people as assets to be unleashed.”

Bayram’s book is exhibit A on this point, and he's done the research and collected the data for the first time. We see displaced people from Syria and elsewhere on the news as powerless, but look at these sample stats:

           In Turkey, over 8,300 Syrian companies were founded in 2017, up from 157 in 2012.

           There are now over 800 Syrian built industrial companies in Jordan.

           There are over 4,500 Syrian refugee entrepreneurs in the Zaatari refugee camp there.

           Nearly a third are starting businesses in restaurants, grocery stores, bakeries etc.

           But nearly as many are creating IT enterprises across the spectrum.

The challenges, of course, are great — travel restrictions, unclear regulatory policies, access to banking, finance and investment are profound. But, he shows — especially in the concluding series of common sense and quite implementable recommendations — they are addressable. And in so doing not only is the impact great for those displaced, but massively so for their host countries figuring out how to handle the weight of mass migration.

This provocative, brief book originated as a follow-up to his previous report Entrepreneurship in Conflict Zones which is broader and foundational read that partners perfectly with this one. My friend and great venture capitalist and mentor, Brad Feld, wrote the forward of that one, and asked if I might consider doing so here. I was honored to agree.

We live in one of the most remarkable times in world history, with great potential in talent, technology and tools to go after problems in ways we couldn’t have imagined even a few years ago. 

Equally so, very hard and brutal realities remain. We live in an era of #hashtag activism, where we too often generalize each other and easily turn our heads from such realities and move on.

There are no silver bullets, but change in practicality starts with change in outlook. Bayram pushes us to re-frame how we think of refugees, and offers a clear-eyed plan to unleash talent anywhere among those with the greatest stake in, and desire to, make their lives better.

Personal Addition: I have looked at and supported several remarkable groups helping displaced Syrians, wonderful all. But Karam Foundation does particularly impactful work for families and children on the Syrian Turkish border and now in Istanbul. Impossibly they have helped get aide in Syria itself. They spend every dime like it is their own, and their work helping kids learn basic tech skills and connect with entrepreneurs is among the best, and worth supporting.