Startup Weekend Kuwait

Thursday, September 1 - 3, 2016

Overview
Schedule
Judges
Coaches and Mentors
Sponsors
Organizing Team

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Startup Weekend Kuwait

Thursday, September 1 - 3, 2016

Kuwait City
Startup Weekend
Events
Startup Weekend Kuwait

Thursday, September 1 - 3, 2016
Event starts at 4:00 pm

Contemporary Art Platform
Contemporary Art Platform, Shuwaikh Industrial 2
Kuwait City, Kuwait

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The Event is Free - Ever wondered what it takes to be an entrepreneur?

The professional and personal challenges, the high and lows, the failures and the success?

Startup Weekend is a global grassroots movement of active and empowered entrepreneurs who are learning the basics of founding startups and launching successful ventures. It is the largest community of passionate entrepreneurs with over 1800 past events in 120 countries around the world in 2014.

The non-profit organization is headquartered in Seattle, Washington but Startup Weekend organizers and facilitators can be found in over 200 cities around the world. From Mongolia to South Africa to London to Brazil, people around the globe are coming together for weekend long workshops to pitch ideas, form teams, and start companies.

All Startup Weekend events follow the same basic model: anyone is welcome to pitch their startup idea and receive feedback from their peers. Teams organically form around the top ideas (as determined by popular vote) and then it’s a 54 hour frenzy of business model creation, coding, designing, and market validation. The weekends culminate with presentations in front of local entrepreneurial leaders with another opportunity for critical feedback.

Whether entrepreneurs found companies, find a co-founder, meet someone new, or learn a skill far outside their usual 9-to-5, everyone is guaranteed to leave the event better prepared to navigate the chaotic but fun world of startups. If you want to put yourself in the shoes of an entrepreneur, register now for the best weekend of your life!

التحديات المهنية و الشخصية، لحظات الارتقاء و الهبوط، الفشل و النجاح؟

ستارت-أب ويكند هو حركة للمبادرين الناشطين الّذين يتعلمون مبادىء انشاء المشاريع الناشئة و اطلاق الرحلات الناجحة. انه المجتمع الأكبر من المبادرين الشغوفين مع حصيلة أكثر من ١٨٠٠ حدث في ١٢٠ دولة مع حلول العام ٢٠١٤

تتمركز المنظمة الغير ربحية في سياتل، واشنطن، لكن منظمين ستارت-اب ويكند متواجدون بأكثر من ٢٠٠ مدينة حول العالم. من منغوليا، مروراً بجنوب افريقيا، الى لندن، و البرازيل، يجتمع المبادرون من جميع اقطاب العالم لورشة عمل تمتد على مدى عطلة نهاية اسبوع كاملة لصنع الافكار، تكوين الفرق، و انشاء الشركات.

جميع احداث ستارت-اب ويكند تتبع نفس النمط الاساسي: الجميع مرحب به لصنع الافكار و استقبال ردات الفعل من الزملاء. بعدها يتم تشكيل افضل الافكار من قبل الفرق (و التي يتم اختيارها بناءً على التصويت) ثم تتم مرحلة تكوين عرض الأعمال، البرمجة، التصميم، و كفاءة التسويق. تتضمن نهايات الاسبوع عروض تقديمية امام زعماء المبادرة المحليين مع فرصة أخرى لردود الفعل الضرورية.

سواء عثر المبادرون على شركات، شركاء، مقابلة اشخاص جدد، او تعلم مهارة جديدة بعيدة كل البعد عن نطاق العمل. نضمن للجميع مغادرة الحدث و هم متأهبين للخوض في نطاق البادرة. اذا كنت تريد معرفة ما هو شعور ان تكون مبادر، سارع بالتسجيل الآن لأفضل نهاية اسبوع في حياتك!

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EVENT SCHEDULE

Thursday September 1st

4:00 pm

Registration & networking

5:30 pm

Event kick off

6:00 pm

Thursday keynote speech

6:30 pm

Pitches start

7:00 pm

Snacks & networking

Friday September 2nd

8:00 am

Arrival, coffee & tea

By Costa Coffee

8:15 am

Teams continue working

10:00 am

Breakfast

1:30 pm

Lunch

8:30 pm

Dinner

11:55 pm

Get some rest and see you on Saturday!

Saturday September 3rd

8:00 am

Arrival, coffee & tea

By Costa Coffee

8:15 am

Working & preparing final presentations

10:00 am

Breakfast

1:30 pm

Lunch

3:00 pm

Teams should be done with prototypes

4:30 pm

Snacks & networking

Event Judges

Bashar Al-Abdulhadi
CTO at KuwaitNET

Founder and CTO of KuwaitNET. Domainer and Open Source Enthusiast.

Dr. Mussaad Al-Razouki
Chief Business Development Officer At KLSC

Dr. Razouki is the current Chief Business Development Officer of Kuwait Life Sciences Company (KLSC) where he is part of a team that manages over 50 million dollars in local, regional and international investments on behalf of the Kuwait Investment Authority.
An Oral and Maxillofacial surgeon by training, Dr. Razouki is also a graduate of Columbia Business School,and the first ever Arab national to receive an MBA with a focus on Healthcare Management and Finance.

In 2007, Dr. Razouki joined the world’s largest and oldest strategic consulting firms, Booz Allen Hamilton. From 2011 to 2014, Dr. Razouki was the Chief Executive Officer of Kleos Healthcare, a Middle East focused healthcare consulting and development company. Dr. Razouki led the turnaround of Kleos from a docile shell company into a well respected and profitable firm that is widely recognized as a regional authority on Middle East healthcare.

Dr. Razouki and his team have invested and co-invested with some of the world’s top life science venture capital funds including, New Leaf Venture Partner in New York, Wellington Partners in Munich and Kearney Venture Partners and Presidio Partners both of which are based in San Francisco.

Tarek Trad, CFA
Business Development, Mergers & Acquistions, and Corporate Strategy Alghanim Industries

Tarek heads the Business Development and M&A team at Alghanim Industries. He worked on major acquisitions for the organization such as Costa, Wendy's and is currently leading the expansion of Alghanim Industries F&B and retail portfolio. He is a board member of Kuwait Syria Holding Company. Previously, He worked at Ernst & Young and NBK Capital.
Tarek holds a Masters in Finance degree from London Business School.

Coaches and Mentors

Burhan Khalid
Electronic Channels Development Manager, Ahli United Bank Kuwait

Burhan is a software developer and an active contributor to the open source community with more than 10 years of experience in software development and systems management. He specializes in transactional systems, electronic commerce and payments; backend development, infrastructure and capacity planning and mentoring and quality management of the software development process. In addition to his professional life - he works as the development manager at Ahli United Bank where he is responsible for the development and integration of electronic banking channels and systems; he volunteers his time mentoring startups and developers through initiatives such as Sirdab Lab and GDG Kuwait.

Omar Alothman

Omar Alothman is an entrepreneur and a Digital media consultant. He works with different sectors establishing media campaigns and Creating content. He founded his production house for digital Advertising. A TV and radio presenter and a social media activist. He is also an Alumni of the IVLP program.

Bader Al Essa

Bader Al Essa is the founder of Richter creative office and is a marketing guru that specializes in using out of the box thinking to set trends, influence, and cause intense impact. Richter aims to make a statement with each marketing campaign by finding the strengths of the clients, Richter uses carefully studied strategies to achieve immeasurable results. Having clients from various industries of Kuwait allows Richter to become creative and innovative with consultations, strategies and operational achievements, hence creating happy/happy situations for all parties involved in the process.

Abdullah Al-Khulaifi

Abdullah is a software engineer specializing in the design and development of consumer oriented software services and mobile apps. Over past years abdullah have launched many mobile services and applications varying from Value Added Services over SMS to mobile applications with over 3 million installs.Abdullah have work experience in private and public sector with regional and international work partnerships. Abdullah is an active GDG Kuwait member and enthusiasts open source advocate.

Hind Al-Nahedh
CEO at Socialobby.com, President of Social Media Club - Kuwait

Hind Al-Nahedh is a social entrepreneur. Digital & Social Media expert, Mastering communications and Smart PR Technology is her middle name. Launched 3rd to market VIVA telecom 2008 the peek of her career, ideas & genuine enthusiasm continues to produce landmarks in her professional life, she is the founder & CEO of Socialobby.com, President of Social Media Club - Kuwait chapter & Girls in Technology Communications team leader.

Abdullah Boftain

Abdullah Boftain is the Co-Founder and Managing partner of Local Flavor Marketing & PR. Boftain holds a bachelor's degree in Finance and Financial Institutions from the Faculty of Business Administration, Kuwait University.Started his carrier as an editor in Al Qabas newspaper and writer of a weekly column in Al Yaqaza magazine. He worked in the Public relations team and the press office of National Bank, was the Corporate communications manager in M. H. Al Shaya and the Market Communications & PR Manager in Quality Net. Beside his Marketing & PR career, Boftain was the presenter of ‘Liqa'a Al Rai’, a weekly political TV show broadcasted on Al Rai TV. He has hosted a number of public figures such as the President of the State of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas, the former Swiss President Micheline Calmy Rey, Khaled Mashal, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Saad Al Deen Al Hariri, Ismail Haniyeh, former Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al Mohammed, amongst others.

Mohammad Al-Meer
Founder and CEO at Q8 Software

Founder of Q8 Software a Kuwaiti SaaS company specializing, Software Engineer and GDG Kuwait Co-Founder.

Mohammad Al-Suraye

Graduate from Kuwait University, College of Engineering & Petroleum - Electrical Engineering Department - 2006. Working at Zain Telecommunication company as Innovation Specialist in Business Strategy department. Co-Founder of Dawrat.com an online marketplace for MENA region to search and find Training courses, Seminars and Workshops both in-person and online. Co-Founder of Eventat.com which is a self-service event management and online registration solution that helps event organizers successfully manage and sell out their events. As an Entrepreneur in 2016 he has been Awarded for the Excellence & Creativity Award which was held under the patronage of his highness The Prince of Kuwait Shaikh “Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah”.

Noora S. Al Askar
Director of Clinical Nutrition & Dietetics at Taiba Hospital, & Nutritional Consultant & Advisor for Talabat.com and Gastronomica ME

Being in the healthcare sector Noora has a strong passion for helping people. She is a US Board Certified clinical nutritionist by degree with postgraduate research in obesity prevention, and an avid passionate entrepreneur by nature.

Having successfully started the Nutrition Department at Taiba Hospital from scratch, and also co-founding an urban juice apothecary that provides tailor made recipes based on people's conditions, she has extensive experience in product ideation, as well as knowledge in the fundamentals of building a successful business.

One of the top finalists in the Innovation Challenge for the FIFA 2022 World Cup, competing against a think tank of multi industry innovators, scientists and global patent holders, Noora has a keen mind for out of the box innovative thinking, and experience in taking an innovative idea, developing it into proof of concept and launching.

Neda Aldaihani
Co-Founder of Brilliant Lab

Neda Aldaihani worked as business development and project manager for both educational and private sector in Kuwait and Qatar for almost 10 years, holds an MBA from IE Business School. In 2012, he co-founded Brilliant Lab, a startup accelerator service. His goal was to enhance the spirit of entrepreneurship among youth by matching the best startups with the potential investments community in Kuwait and throughout the Arabian Gulf. To date, Brilliant Lab has helped to accelerate more than 400 startups in various fields . It has also developed 5 different corporate acceleration programs: between Spain that is associated with IE Business School, and San Francisco, associated with Mind the Bridge, one of the top startup schools in the Silicon Valley.

Bader Alessa
he founder and CEO of myU app

Bader Alessa is the founder and CEO of myU app. myU is an internal social network inside any school or university, that allows students and educators communicate easier and collaborate better. myU won several local and regional awards, and is one of the region's fast growing startups.

Abdulaziz Al Loughani
Vice Chairman at Kuwait National Fund for SMEs Development

Mr. Abdulaziz Al-Loughani is currently the Vice Chairman of the Kuwait National Fund for SME Development. Prior to this role, he was Director at Global Capital Management responsible for establishing a venture capital practice at Global.Mr. Al-Loughani has served as a Member of Board on a number of companies within the MENA region in the banking, healthcare, manufacturing, consumer finance, food and beverage, and real estate sectors. Mr. Al-Loghani is also an active angel investor (mainly technology startups) and is an active member of regional entrepreneurial organizations; He was the Managing Partner of Talabat.com until late 2010 and is a member of the World Economic Forum Global Shapers Community - Kuwait chapter.Mr. Al-Loughani holds a Bachelor's degree in Information Systems and E-Commerce from University of Toledo and an MBA from London Business School.

Nizar Wannous
Founder & MD - Slingshot Digital Media, Founder & MD Dizly Corp LLC

Jumping the banking ship after a trip of 11 years, Nizar founded Slingshot Digital House slingshotsmc.com, an agency that services, tehnology content creation, web/app development, and digital media. Soon enough He founded "DizlyApp" Give great gifts, dizlyapp.com, the first app of its kind in the region aiming to change the way the world exchanges gifts.

With 7 years of business development, passion for technology, fund raising and entrepreneurship, Nizar has built his experience being a strong believer that passion, persevearance and knowledge sharing are the main drivers behind entrepreneurs, the tipping point of our culture and economy.

Ali Karam

Founder of the kuwait computer teachers society - founder and senior trainer of the G1 training center for the ministry of defense.
worked as a computer teacher for the middle and high school grades.
currently working as Managing director of IT, marketing and R&D for shehab regional group of companies.
owner and CEO for 7bits technology consulting and business development and training for small and medium enterprises.

Event Sponsors, and Partners

The Startup Weekend Kuwait team is grateful for the support of local community partners without whom this event would not be possible.
Learn how to become a sponsor here.