Zain’s entrepreneurs visit Google and Microsoft at Silicon Valley
KUWAIT: Zain, the leading digital service provider in Kuwait, announced the continuation of the third phase of Zain Great Idea 5 (ZGI 5) at San Francisco in the United States of America. The program’s finalists took part in field trips to the headquarters of Silicon Valley’s top technology leaders, most notably Google and Microsoft.
Throughout four successful past editions, ZGI empowered, trained, and invested in hundreds of creative and driven Kuwaiti youth, of which many now own thriving and active Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) to this day. Zain Great Idea has been one of the most successful initiatives Zain presented to the Kuwaiti market as part of its comprehensive innovation and entrepreneurship strategy, with the aim of offering Kuwait’s entrepreneurial community the chance to take their startups to entire new levels.
During the second week of their stay in San Francisco, Zain’s entrepreneurs gained invaluable experiences to develop and accelerate their tech startups by visiting the headquarters of the world’s biggest technology leaders. The trips featured visits to the main headquarters of Google, Microsoft, Pinterest, and venture capital firm 500 Startups in Silicon Valley. ZGI 5’s finalists also took part in a seminar presented by Tesla cofounder Marc Tarpenning, which took place at Stanford University, the world’s first-ranked university in entrepreneurship.
Zain’s entrepreneurs also presented their tech startups to a number of Silicon Valley investors and specialists, who provided valuable feedback and insights with the aim of developing and accelerating their startups. The presentations were supervised by Mind the Bridge’s consultants and mentors. Upon their arrival to San Francisco, the finalists presented their tech startups to Mind the Bridge’s top management, headed by Founder and CEO Marco Marinucci, who shared his strategic experience in business and entrepreneurship with them. Throughout an entire day, the finalists also met many local entrepreneurs in San Francisco, who shared their success stories and mentoring advice.
Zain’s finalists will stay in San Francisco (specifically Silicon Valley, the world’s capital of tech startups) throughout three weeks, guided by Mind the Bridge’s consultants and mentors. The San Francisco program will feature extensive seminars and workshops to develop and accelerate the ZGI 5 final tech startups, which were originally selected by the judging panel in Kuwait.
Zain recently concluded the second phase of ZGI 5 in Kuwait, where nearly 100 ambitious entrepreneurs pitched their projects and ideas to the judging panel, who in return selected 10 finalists that are now taking part in the third phase; the international accelerator program in collaboration with Brilliant Lab and Mind the Bridge. Zain’s 10 finalists are Faisal Al Basri - Mezan, Yousef Al Husaini - Baims, Abdulwahab Al Refaei - Cybersys, Reem Al Farhan - CTC, Rawan Al Sabah - The Capital, Mishari Amin - Touch point, Dalal Al Qattan - That Designs, Fahad Al Baghli - The Wish List, Majed Al Hamlan - Blue Outdoors, and Mohamed Al Raqem - WellbiiON.ZGI was first launched in 2010 as a Corporate Social Responsibility initiative designed to support the youth into making their entrepreneurial dreams come true. Zain was the first in the region to launch such a comprehensive program of this kind. Then, throughout nearly 10 wonderful years, the company embraced over 500 entrepreneurs, travelled to 4 countries, and helped nearly 70 of the brightest Kuwaiti minds accelerate their ideas into active and thriving SMEs in the market.
ZGI is established by Zain in association with Brilliant Lab, a startup Accelerator Service from Kuwait, and Mind the Bridge, a global organization bridging the world through entrepreneurship education for startups, enterprises and investors to succeed in global markets. Mind the Bridge is based in Silicon Valley with offices in US, London, Italy, and Spain.
The latest edition of the program features an all-new phase to the program: Co-developing. After Zain Great Idea is over, finalists will get full access to Zain’s cross-functional team to help them get the most out of their newly accelerated startup. ZGI’s entrepreneurs will be able to get consultations, mentoring, deals, tactics/strategies, and more from Zain specialists in various areas that are essential to any business, including sales, marketing, communications, legal, networks, IT, and more. Zain is well aware of the crucial role played by private sector organizations in supporting social and economic sustainability projects. Springing from its growing commitment towards practicing its social responsibility, the company is committed to printing a positive print through all its activities. This has led Zain to embrace the most influential issues in the community, including the support of youth, entrepreneurship, and innovation.