I had no idea this stuff was going on in Beirut, but I'm excited to visit. If anyone from the Beirut tech community is reading this, I had two questions:
(1) Do you agree with the author that the startup community is primarily held back by internet speeds? (It's painful to Skype or share a YouTube video with friends in Lebanon, so I know it's a problem -- just wondering about how you'd rank it with other concerns.) Are there any gaps in desired engineering skills? Are people bringing experience with large-scale web architecture or hardware design from working outside of Lebanon?
(2) What's the competitive advantage for these companies? Some ideas -- like music streaming or health tracking or Hulu for the Middle East -- seem easily deflated if an already-at-scale competitor decides to focus on Arabic internationalization. What do Beirut's tech startups understand about Middle East consumers that Western tech companies are missing?
(1) Do you agree with the author that the startup community is primarily held back by internet speeds? (It's painful to Skype or share a YouTube video with friends in Lebanon, so I know it's a problem -- just wondering about how you'd rank it with other concerns.) Are there any gaps in desired engineering skills? Are people bringing experience with large-scale web architecture or hardware design from working outside of Lebanon?
(2) What's the competitive advantage for these companies? Some ideas -- like music streaming or health tracking or Hulu for the Middle East -- seem easily deflated if an already-at-scale competitor decides to focus on Arabic internationalization. What do Beirut's tech startups understand about Middle East consumers that Western tech companies are missing?