GeniusFlame

O the irony that the only other post here is taking about my start in Jordan. C’est la vie.

It will be 1 year since I arrived in Jordan on May 8th. I came here to build a new kind of technology company for the region, one that revels in its ability to bring transparency to the cumbersome process of university selection. Looking back at where we stand and all we have done, I’m proud to say to our users, the amazing Edufina team, and our fans, that we have accomplished just that. So now its time for me to move on to my next endeavor. I’ll be wrapping up my role as CEO of Edufina in the next two weeks and handing over a great team to the founders of Edufina, Lisa Kamal and Tamara Khadra.

Taking a look back at what we have accomplished, there are quite a few things I am proud of. Below, in no particular order, are a few:

• Building out a great technical team that took in my pushing for success and blew me away by what I got back, integrating several systems together to form a great platform to build from. Sounds vague? It should be, I can’t give away our secret sauce now can I?
• Launching our first iteration in less than 3 months. I love it when people are shocked and ask me how we did that.
• Forming partnerships with universities throughout Jordan to feature their data. Data is not an easy thing to acquire from traditionally staid industries. I’m proud to say we cracked that nut.
• The dozens of articles and commentaries with our launch, something that was really great with this being the first time I have met most of you.
• Putting together an amazing data acquisition process. Ahmad Adham, our Research guy, really rose to the challenge of sifting through hundreds of books, websites, brochures and others to put together the only database of its kind. No company in the world has the level of data we have on universities in the region.
• Being selected as a Finalist for Arabnet 2011. We were honored to be placed in the great company of all the startups there. The panels were great, and experiences even better.

I could keep going, but I should stop there for fear of my hand patting straight through our teams collective back. I’m extremely proud of Zakwan, Waleed, and Ahmad and all they have done, they have been the heart of the team.

Sadly though, Waleed Asender will also be moving on from Edufina. He was selected in Oasis500′s Wave 4 to be funded and launch his own startup. I’ve been asked if I was ok with Waleed even applying. I honestly couldn’t be happier for him. I have always tried to encourage our team to have an entrepreneurial mindset. Its been in the DNA of our company, and this has been the ultimate culmination of that thought process. Companies encouraging their employees to take the product as their own lead to happier employees and better products. It just works.

As for whats next, I’ve got a few projects I’ll be working on. While I can’t talk about them just yet, stay tuned.

In the words of Barney Stinson: It’s truly been…wait for it…legendary.

So it will be 6 months in Jordan on November 8th for me. I arrived at Queen Alia airport on May 8th, wondering about the adventure that lay ahead of me. and so far, it has been a good one.

To bring the story to the point of inception (that was a good movie), I was introduced by a mutual friend to Bassel Ojjeh, someone I had heard of through the grapevine, but had never met before. We talked about what I had been up to since leaving TechCrunch, and the interesting opportunities the Middle East presented for entrepreneurs looking to start companies. It seemed to be at the beginning of massive growth as an internet-on population. So after some discussion, I decided it was time for me to head out to Amman, and thus launched Edufina.

Startups have always been a passion of mine, the idea that a small company can offer services to millions and change the face of entire industries is an alluring thought. Yes, the story of David and Goliath comes to mind, but it’s more than that. It’s that we as a people, a worldwide people, have entered the internet age, and that nothing will ever be the same. It’s the dawn of a new era, and while the first influencers have established themselves, the next wave are rising. The Middle East offers a younger version of the startup scene in the west, with the (arguably) first major exit being the sale of Maktoob to Yahoo. So for startup aficionado’s, this is one of the best places to be.

I’ll go more into why Amman in another post, but suffice it to say, this place has a solid budding startup scene.  Yes, its not the Bay Area, but neither is Boston, Mass., Boulder, Colorado, Seattle, Washington, Europe, or dozens of other places. Major cities around the world are trying to be Silicon Valley, so it’s not fair to knock an emerging market to top tier technology cities. What Amman lacks in developed “startup infrastructure”, it offers a lot of opportunity for those willing to work that extra mile to build their own “startup infrastructure”.

With the building of Edufina, I’ve enjoyed the process thoroughly. And along the way I’ve met some great people, from Fouad Jeryes who is the main man about town, to Mohamed Marwen Meddah who is a walking encyclopedia of the Middle East tech scene. Some like Kamel Al-Asmar and Ahmad Fahad Al-Shagra are a couple I’ve conversed with but am looking forward to meeting. It’s these relationships that make a startup community what it is, and these entrepreneurs have set the bar high for the next batch of disruptors.

In post’s to come, I’ll dive further into some of the startup events I’ve attended, what is missing from the tech scene in the Middle East and how we can help build it, and hopefully some interviews with players in the scene. I look forward to meeting each and everyone one of you, don’t hesitate to say hello.