RiseUp Founder On This Year's Biggest-Yet Summit

This year's RiseUp Egypt, the region's biggest summit for entrepreneurs, is set to kick off on December 12th and bring together thousands for two days of workshops, discussions and networking with attendees from the world's top tech companies.

By Ahmed Mansour

RiseUp Summit is the region’s top annual event for connecting entrepreneurs and innovators to investors, media, support organizations, customers, mentors and partners.

We sit down with RiseUp CEO and founder Abdelhameed Sharara to get his thoughts on the success of the summit, the role of entrepreneurs and how this year's RiseUp will be better than ever.

[caption id="attachment_385939" align="alignnone" width="729"] Abdelhameed Sharara speaking at RiseUp in 2014.[/caption]

How did you get the idea of creating such a successful summit?

There was a gap in the ecosystem. Post the revolution, there was a lot of support for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship, however the ecosystem lacked one platform that connected everyone. And that was the main objective for the first RiseUp.

Do you consider yourself to be an entrepreneur?

I don’t care if I’m called an entrepreneur or not. I'm not a fan of titles. What I care about is creating a sustainable impact on the economy and the people. How important is entrepreneurship to a country’s economy?

It’s really essential. I think it is one of the most important activities of our era. Think of all the jobs that need to be created, but most importantly think of all the challenges we face. Entrepreneurship can solve many challenges through products and services.

What are the most successful fields an entrepreneur should concentrate on in Egypt?

There is no specific field. We have seen many successes in e-commerce, food and beverage, renewables and hardware. Yet Egypt’s economy is so diverse and virgin - it has potential for many successes.

What advice would you give to a start up?

Focus very much on the objective of the project, and do everything that needs to be done to achieve it.

How is this summit going to be different than previous years?

It will be totally different. The whole region's entrepreneurship enablers are coming. The biggest tech companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Uber and many others are sending their executives.

[caption id="attachment_385941" align="alignnone" width="721"] RiseUp in 2014.[/caption]

We will have more than 150 speakers, including Jared Friedman, partner at Y Combinator, Omar Alsahy, the general manager of Souq, Ali Faramawy, the president of Microsoft MEA, and Deena Fadel, Founder of Joud Home Accessories.

Who should attend, and what will they learn?

Everyone with an idea of a startup or who started something, or who has a startup that needs to be scaled can attend. They will learn everything that an entrepreneur needs, such as how to pitch, network, raise funds, lead a team, do product development and many other things.