شواحن شايزر

I've coached 450+ Saudi Arabian startup founders w/ @McitGovSa over the past 2 months. Here's why I'm bullish on Saudi tech 🇸🇦 1/ Young demographics. 63% of Saudis under 30 years old. 19% of the population is between the ages of 15 and 24. They are hungry to learn new skills, prove themselves and transform their country. 2/ Frontier tech adoption. Riyadh Bank, Saudi Aramco and other pseudo government institutions are using blockchain for operational optimization. In a country driven by top-down decision making, that is a strong indication of a tech-friendly future. 3/ Government incentives. Growth stage and enterprise companies are opening offices in KSA to unlock the GCC's largest economy. Companies can get up to $1.5M in local talent wage subsidies, office space and relocation grants. Multinationals can get 30 year tax breaks. 4/ Venture Capital. Saudi Arabia was the MENA leader in VC funding in the first half of 2023 with $446M in VC funding deployed. That's 46% more than second place Egypt with $305M. Early stage KSA companies that I'm excited about: - @chaizerapp: hot swappable phone chargers with strong customer retention. - @qawam_info: posture monitoring hardware backed by @MiskKSA. - @mbshr_system: QR-based digital menu management software for restaurants growing at 18% MoM across the GCC. - @LazyWait: restaurant POS software that helps companies meet tax requirements backed by @500GlobalVC. There are headwinds, especially regarding crypto: 1/ Regulatory clarity. Since the FTX collapse, one cannot send money from a Saudi bank account to a crypto exchange. Cryptocurrency is in a undefined grey area. New regulations are expected in 2024, which should bring clarity to the industry. 2/ Skills gap. By the government's own stats, 63% of the degrees that Saudi students get are "not useful for private-sector jobs". In the short term that means international talent will fill gaps, as universities catch up with global peers. 3/ Company setup admin. Anecdotally, one of the biggest barriers to company setup is bureaucracy. The setup process requires many manual steps like attestation and stamping. It can takes months. There are multiple private and public sector initiatives tackling this issue. Vision 2030, the government's long term strategy document, shows where they will focus their energy in the rest of the decade. Some relevant goals: - Lower the rate of unemployment from 11.6% to 7% - Increase SME contribution to GDP from 20% to 35% - Increase women’s participation in the workforce from 22% to 30% - Increase the Public Investment Fund’s assets, from SAR 600 billion to over 7 trillion - Increase the private sector’s contribution from 40% to 65% of GDP