Marketing Research About The Rise of Startups in Egypt

The Rise of Startups in Egypt
Section 2, Team 4:
Farida El Mahmoudy 900171515
Mariam Boktor 900170040
Rawan Zaky 900172900
Ali El Taher 900170246
Farid El Raheb 900160782
Submitted to Dr. Ahmed Tolba
MKTG 320102 - Marketing Research
Spring 2020
Table of Contents
a. Executive Summary……………………………………………………………….....2
b. Background…………………………………………………………………………..2
c. Problem & Research Questions……………………………………………………...2
d. Target Markets……………………………………………………………………….3
e. Research Design Methodology………………………………………………..……..5
f. Exploratory Research…………………………………………………………..…….6
i. Experts’ Interviews……………………………………………………...…...10
ii. Focus Groups Analysis…………………………………………………..…..19
iii. Entrepreneurs’ Interviews……………………………………………….…...27
g. Conclusive Research………………………………………………………..……..…40
i. Questionnaire Design………………………………………………………....41
ii. Sampling Plan………………………………………………………………...45
iii. Data Collection Process………………………………………………………46
iv. Data Analysis and Findings……………………………………………...……47
1. Sample Characteristics (Descriptive Statistics)....................................47
2. Hypothesis Testing (Inferential Statistics).............................................51
h. Conclusions & Strategic Recommendations……………………………………….….58
i. Appendices………………………………………………………..……………..……60
j. References………………………………………………………..……………...……106
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A. Executive Summary
In recent years, entrepreneurship in Egypt has gained popularity among young
enthusiasts. Being still considered an emerging market, Egypt presents promising responsiveness
to new ideas and implementations. Given the growth in the ecosystem and the increased support
provided by various enablers, more and more youth are considering taking their chances in
pursuing an entrepreneurial career, especially when youth-employment has been falling in the
last decade, reaching 32.4 % in 2019, as reported by the World Bank. This figure has driven
authorities and interest groups to start promoting the rise of startups. Additionally, promoting
entrepreneurship among youth has been starting to be recognized by the government officials.
This research investigates the exact drivers for this rise, and provides recommendations for the
Egyptian government on how to maintain that growth. This research starts at the exploratory
phase where various interviews with industry experts, entrepreneurs, and students were
conducted, and then the conclusive part was conducted on the students since they provide the
highest potential to being entrepreneurs.
Focus groups were conducted with eight students, and more than 230 students were
surveyed. Five industry experts covering various research elements, and nine entrepreneurs
spanning various industries were interviewed. Two of the experts interviewed were specifically
chosen for their experience as global leaders in entrepreneurship education through being part of
Babson College, the leading university worldwide for entrepreneurship education: the Dean of
Babson Academy for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurial Learning, Dr. Amir Reza, and
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the Director of International Services and Multicultural Education at Babson College, Mr. James
Kendrioski.
B. Background
“We always had entrepreneurs, you go as 100 years or even more, since the time of Talaat Harb,
but what we started having ten years ago is the modern Silicon-Valley-type of ecosystem of
entrepreneurship.” r emarked Dr. Ayman Ismail, Founding Director of AUC VLab, during our
interview with him as he described the influx of startups and entrepreneurs during the last
decade. Indeed, the rise in entrepreneurship in Egypt has been influenced by various factors,
however, the environment still has a long way to go in terms of improving the conditions for
entrepreneurs to start, grow and expand. That being said, the purpose of this research is
identifying the key policies, changes and reforms that should be introduced and initiated by the
Egyptian government so that entrepreneurship is further enhanced and promoted among youth.
The conducted initial research included a general scanning over the entrepreneurial ecosystem
where the prevalent issues were identified, as well as the areas where support is lacking the most.
The literature, along with the results of the experts’ interviews that were conducted, have
portrayed some potential key factors that ought to be quickly addressed by different key players
in the ecosystem, including government, educational leaders, enablers and policy makers.
C. Problem Identification & Research Questions

I. Management Problem:
How to further grow entrepreneurship among youth and what policies could be used to
support the current positive trends?
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II. Market Research Problem(s):
What are the reasons behind the increase in entrepreneurial activity among youth, and
what factors are still missing?
III. Research Questions:
1. What drivers (ecosystem-specific or not) support from the ecosystem do young
entrepreneurs need to start, succeed and grow their businesses?
2. What entrepreneurial traits/mindsets are needed to succeed?
3. What support from the ecosystem do young entrepreneurs need to start, succeed and grow
their businesses?
4. How can we improve entrepreneurship education to support entrepreneurship in Egypt?
5. What challenges do entrepreneurs face to start their business?
D. Target Market Description (Study Population)
In order to scope and reach a specific study population, we have decided to target two segments
between which we will later compare, after our qualitative fieldwork. The age group of
the whole study population is 18- 30. That being said, our first target market will be male
and female university students. This segment will help us explore how and why some of
the students would prefer to have their own startups and why some of them do not,
including questions about the challenges they face, if they perceive a high support from
the ecosystem, and the drivers and fears they have towards opening their businesses. The
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second segment will be entrepreneurs, whom we will reach through personal connections
or through the AUC Venture Lab. They will be within the same age range, who are in the
early stage of their startups. In addition to exploring their challenges, their progress, and
all kinds of help they still need, we aim at identifying their behavioral traits and
characteristics. Both segments will be gender agonistic, and both of them will be from
social classes A and B. In our social segmentation, youth of social class A are the ones
coming from families of high income, youth who have had and/ or still having high
quality education. Those of social class B may come from families that have lower
incomes, but more importantly, they get education quality a bit lower than those of
segment A, especially in their higher education. Generally, those two segments will
suffice since their education and social circles make them relatively aware of
entrepreneurship, have ability to take risks (access to funding from family and friends),
and well-connected enough with role models and previous successful entrepreneurs. It is
important to note that these two segments will also be easier to reach within the time
scope and budget of this research.
esearch Design Methodology

E. R
In the exploratory phase, w

e have used both primary and secondary research, both in
qualitative and quantitative measures/data, that have allowed us to deepen our information
about the problem, not for the sake of concluding, but for getting initial insights at this stage.
That being said, the quantitative research conducted was:
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- Secondary data in terms of reports and previous information that is already available on
the internet; such as the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor.
As for the qualitative research, we conducted:
I. Secondary research from previously written articles and book chapters that will
be discussed further in the analysis.
- Primary research:
a. Interviews with experts in the field. After getting initial insights about the topic,
we have interviewed experts in the field: Mr. Mohamed Rahmy, Managing
r. Youssef El Samaa, Managing Director of Falak

Director of Endeavor Egypt, M
Startups, a nd Dr. Ayman Ismail: Founder of AUC Venture Lab (Appendix 1). We
have also interviewed Dr. Amir Reza, Dean of the Babson Academy for the
Advancement of Global Entrepreneurial Learning as well as Dr. Jamie Kendroski,
Director of International Services and Multicultural Education in Babson College
(Appendix 4)
b. Two online focus groups with students from diverse backgrounds, age range
18-25 (Appendix 2)
c. Interviews with young entrepreneurs from various industries (Appendix 3)
As for the conclusive research, which is the last phase of the report and project,
statistics was measured by analyzing survey results, that was distributed to our target
market, aiming to induce conclusions, test our hypothesis and give final
recommendations to policy makers.
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F. Exploratory Research
I. Secondary Data Analysis
A. Drivers increasing the entrepreneurial activity in Egypt
There are various drivers behind the increase in entrepreneurial activity in Egypt.
Availability of funding and access to it, creation of various incubators and accelerators,
more startups being founded, more public interest (that can be traced in various
entrepreneurship-oriented events), and many other drivers could be part of the boom in
entrepreneurial activity in Egypt. According to the GEM report of Egypt of 2017-2018,
75.9% of Egyptians viewed entrepreneurship as a good career choice. It is worth noting
that the government’s efforts in increasing entrepreneurial activity in Egypt has been
noticeable in the support of governmental leadership and policy makers towards
prioritizing entrepreneurship, through launching support programs or initiating new laws
in their favor, such as investment and licensing (GEM Report, 2018).
B. Traits needed for an entrepreneur to succeed
Since entrepreneurship is not a lenient field; a person must possess certain
characteristics that will help him/her in hurdling any obstacles that could be thrown to
divert their paths. According to Bruce Barringer and Duane Ireland in their book
“Entrepreneurship: Successfully launching new ventures”; what they consider a
successful entrepreneur must possess each of the the four primary characteristics:
a. Passion for the business:
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The commonly found characteristic between entrepreneurs is the passion they
have for pursuing and building their start-up. This characteristic is usually backed by the
motive of influencing people’s lives with their businesses or having belief in that. Of
course, passion has to come with other traits that will be mentioned later.
b. Product/Customer focus:
Indeed, it goes without saying that an entrepreneur’s keen focus on products and
customers typically stems from the fact that most entrepreneurs are, at heart, craftspeople.
This can be also complimented by the ability to attract a talented team to build the
product, and finally good selling skills to sell it to the target market and to also sell the
idea to investors.
c. Tenacity despite failure:
Since entrepreneurship is usually a risky business; which is also known as an
irrational business since entrepreneurs usually know that the chances of establishing their
start ups and reaching the desired balance or stability is relatively low.. Thus, a defining
mindset entrepreneurs must have is to be able to persevere through setbacks and failures,
and the ability to bounce back.
d. Execution intelligence:
Execution intelligence is the ability to fashion a solid business idea into a viable
business.
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C. Ecosystem support needed to start and grow businesses
According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2017/2018 on Egypt’s
National Report, newly executed reforms across different aspects has positively
contributed to the rise of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Egypt. However, young
entrepreneurs still strive for further support from different stakeholders in the ecosystem
that would allow them to start and sustain their business in Egypt.
Entrepreneurs remain in need of support from government officials to abolish
bureaucracy and unclear taxation, in terms of endorsing understandable and constant means
of tax calculation, that is imposed on them and that creates barriers in venturing their
businesses (GEM Report, 2018). In support of this, Amal Mowafi, Regional Youth
Employment Technical Specialist for Africa at the ILO, asserted that entrepreneurs need
assistance from a strong regulatory framework, and legal support to acquire the know-how
on scaling their business to contribute to the economic growth of the country (ICSB, 2019).
With regards to other governmental support programs, it is evident that the
current programs do not efficiently serve young entrepreneurs, in terms of their number,
reachability and effectiveness in accelerating or enhancing new start-ups, especially to
non-tech or science related businesses. There is a lack of access in new technologies and
research facilities by private industries and government that is needed by technology-based
businesses. Newly established businesses also demand support in terms of regulations and
laws in accessing new markets without facing biases towards larger-established firms and
thus, increasing barriers to entry (GEM Report, 2018).
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D. Entrepreneurship Education in Universities
One must consider factors that go beyond the traditional classroom. Speaking of
which, a project fostering entrepreneurship among youth was made by the UNIDO -
United Nations Industrial Development Organization. In their report they claim that many
young people in developing countries grow up without opportunities to learn
entrepreneurial and industrial attitudes and skills. Putting emphasis on these two key
points, it is important to understand that in the eyes of the UNIDO, one does not work
without the other, which is why the UNIDO introduced the ECP - Entrepreneurial
Curriculum Program together with support in development of entrepreneurial culture.
Under the term Entrepreneurial Culture falls multiple concepts that need to be integrated,
in order to then have entrepreneurial skills come to show. As of this day the ECP
program hosts over hundreds of thousands of students across the Middle East and Africa
spreading and integrating an entrepreneurial school of thought among them. This backs
up Mr. Rahmy’s suggestion where he finds that exposing youth to successful
entrepreneurs, by hosting sessions and giving space for students to engage is a way of
endorsing entrepreneurship among them. Such opportunities will make students get more
exposed to role models and real entrepreneurs, which can further promote
entrepreneurship among youth.
II. Experts’ Interviews Findings (Appendices 1 & 4)
Four interviews were conducted with five experts as noted previously. Two
interviews were with experts managing two of the most prominent enablers; Mr. Youssef
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El Samaa, Managing Director of Falak Startups, w
ho was contacted and interviewed via
a phone call, which lasted for 30 minutes. We have met with Dr. Ayman Ismail, Founder
of AUC Venture Lab, on campus and agreed to have a 30-minute face-to-face interview
in the following week. We also interviewed Mr. Mohamed Rahmy, Managing Director of
Endeavor Egypt, which is a different type of enabler that mainly serves large-scale
businesses. Visiting campus as a guest speaker, Mr. Rahmy was approached in a quite
spontaneous manner where he kindly agreed to be interviewed afterwards for 20 minutes
on campus. As for the last interview, in the field of Entrepreneurship Education, we
interviewed Dr. Amir Reza, Dean of the Babson Academy for the Advancement of
Global Entrepreneurial Learning as well as Dr. Jamie Kendroski, Director of
International Services and Multicultural Education in Babson College, o ne of the top
leading entrepreneurship colleges worldwide. One of our team members was in contact
with Dr. Reza since he visited AUC last semester as part of an entrepreneurship
competition. An email was sent to him where he kindly agreed to have an interview with
us for 30 minutes via video call.
Having diverse expertise in the field of entrepreneurship, the views of the experts
allowed us to explore different perspectives of our research questions. For example, Mr.
Samaa is managing a government-powered incubator, therefore, he inferred the
governmental efforts more often in a deeper manner. While Dr. Ayman explained his
perspective more towards the ecosystem as a whole and entrepreneurship education as
well due to his expertise in Academia. Mr. Rahmy, on the other hand, has more
experience with large-scale businesses; so he referred to businesses who grew beyond the
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startup phase. Finally, the two professors at Babson College gave more insights regarding
their area of expertise: entrepreneurship education; because it was a common theme
between the experts that was still needed to be explored further.
A. Drivers increasing the entrepreneurial activity in Egypt
Mr. Mohamed Rahmy, Managing Director of Endeavor, mentioned in his
interview that what drove entrepreneurship is a general state of evolution. There is not a
single factor that triggered entrepreneurship in Egypt, he asserts, but the rise in good
quality startups, investors, players, investors covering different life cycles of startups,
enablers, venture capitalists and angel investors, all contributed to the rise of
entrepreneurship. So it is more of a cycle where one thing leads to the other. For
example, the initial cohort of startups paved the way for other entrepreneurs to open their
businesses and lead by their example, thus catalyzing this activity. That being said,
everything is growing simultaneously, as Rahmy outlines. Mr. Youssef El Samaa had
similar opinions, claiming that not only are we seeing more venture capitalists, awareness
and enablers, but we are also seeing a better pile of good startups. “This has led to an
increase in venture capitalists who know how and what to invest, along with the
increased exposure to global venture capitalists.” he added. In fact, during our interview
with Dr Ayman Ismail, Founding Director of AUC Venture Lab, he complimented the
claims stated above by outlining that entrepreneurship has been existing in Egypt for
hundreds of years. However, what started probably around ten years ago is the modern
silicon valley type ecosystem of tech-entrepreneurship. He even mentions that while the
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boom happened in the last decade, there were technological startups who grew and did
very successful exits long before this boom, such as LinkDotNet and Otlob.
This boost in entrepreneurship may have been triggered by macro level factors in
Egypt as Mr. Rahmy mentioned in his interview that the economic conditions post the
2011 revolution changed how governments react to entrepreneurs and startups. He
continues to claim that the government knew that being the traditional employer and
providing everything is no longer the solution. Instead, they had to push the agenda of
entrepreneurship. That is the reason why other players such as the Central Bank of Egypt
are also recognizing and dedicating their efforts to promote entrepreneurial activities. In
replying to whether the rise in entrepreneurship in the last decade is associated with the
political events that started at the beginning of the decade, Dr. Ismail asserted that
contrary to that thought, a lot of Egyptian talents were rather engaged with the political
events then, and that we started seeing more youth initiatives diverting from political and
civil work fields to entrepreneurship in the middle of the decade.
B. Traits needed for an entrepreneur to succeed
Dr. Ismail shared his views on how resilience and the ability to accept that an
idea may not work are vital traits that have to be adopted by any entrepreneur, which can
even sometimes reach levels of stubbornness to succeed Execution intelligence was
another trait that was supported by Mr. Rahmy, as he mentioned, one of the major factors
on which they decide whether or not to accept entrepreneurs to their program is their
competent ability to execute their model and scale it. He specifically mentioned that for
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them to invest in a startup, it is crucial to see that the business model had already been
tested, the revenue model already working, and there is already a clear timeline as to
when the startup will reach the inflection point of the famous hockey-stick growth curve.
Similar to his views, Mr. Samaa explained that after looking at the calibers of the team,
they look at the idea itself, “They have to be educated, they have to know their numbers,
and know what they are doing. They have to know the markets. It is very unlikely for a
e
fresh graduate to come and be able to navigate through this tough industry.” H
explained. Finally, Mr. Rahmy added that “Passion without execution is meaningless.”
C. Ecosystem support needed to start and grow businesses
Mr. Rahmy and Mr. Samaa added to this that Egypt should generally be more
investor-friendly, for when the investment environment is more friendly, investors will be
willing to explore more startups in Egypt and even invest bigger amounts with higher
confidence.He gave an example that the unclear regulations and taxations have already
resulted in the phenomena that whenever investors are interested in a certain startup in
Egypt, they demand from rom the founders to register their startups as off-shore businesses
to overcome the regulatory and taxation obstacles they face in Egypt. He thinks the
government is lagging behind on this point and that most of their efforts currently are only
directed towards recognition rather than real steps to solve regulatory problems faced by
entrepreneurs. However, he claims that entrepreneurs are actually not waiting for the
government to initiate new laws in their favor, as it is the entrepreneur's nature to overcome
challenges they face and still make things happen. On this point, Dr. Ismail believes that
such behavior cannot be generalized in all industries since there are some industries that are
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heavily regulated, making it in some cases impossible for entrepreneurs to start doing any
business, such as the case in some areas of Fintech as well as all agricultural startups that
need to have drones for advanced agricultural use.
With regards to the government’s support programs, Mr. Samaa asserted that,
“There are good positive steps from the government, Falak Startups is an example. The
government is putting in money to invest in startups and getting the right people to
manage it,” he said, “But there isn't a clear strategy from the government on how they
want to implement it. Laws and regulations are changing to support this. It is built on
individual support and effort from every entity or minister without a clear strategy.”
However, the Central Bank of Egypt’s SandBox program for tech-startups is a very
positive step, according to Mr. Samaa, while the intention behind it is supporting the
political agenda of achieving financial inclusion and not specifically supporting startups,
tech-startups are still benefiting.
As for the other support the government can give, both Mr. Rahmy and Dr. Ismail
asserted that the government ought to give entrepreneurs the space to innovate by easing
off the regulatory obstacles. Raising awareness is a good start for guidance to the right
steps, yet, giving a platform for entrepreneurs to innovate and to not limit or control their
innovation means supporting entrepreneurs more efficiently. While Mr. Samaa claimed
that the government is claiming that it wants to support startups but they are supporting
SMEs instead, “The government is not in line with the global term of entrepreneurship,”
he said.
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D. Entrepreneurship Education in Universities
A. Experiential Learning
Education is an extremely crucial factor for the success of youth startups.
Entrepreneurial education should not only be infused in high school and university, the
entrepreneurial mindset itself and the needed traits of entrepreneurs should be engraved
in children’s minds from a young age. Not only to guarantee their success later on by
having the needed entrepreneurial traits, but also to assure that the culture is more
friendly towards entrepreneurs and has more tolerance towards failure, which is an
important phase of many entrepreneurs’ journeys as Dr. Ismail explains. He adds that it
should not be only theoretically integrated in classrooms, but through experiential
learning that is officially supported by the educational institutions in Egypt, for he
observes that all what is being done with regards to experiential learning in most
universities in Egypt are just initiatives on the level of extra-curriculars, which in site of
having a progressive effect on the students, is still not enough Similarly, Dr. Samaa
agreed that providing summer internships to students in startups is more efficient than
teaching it in classrooms. Dr. Ismail explains that these efforts should go hand in hand
with improving the teaching of general business management and all business functions.
In our interview with Dr. Reza and Dr. Kendrioski, when asked about the
perceptions about entrepreneurship change over time among college students (Appendix
4), they claimed that their mandate of teaching entrepreneurship implies that, “In Babson,
they think that entrepreneurship is a certain set of skills and behaviors that can be
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applied whether you are a doctor, government official, or an entrepreneur; irrelevant of
the discipline. This is a thought that is being followed all over the world.” They
emphasized that the idea of being born as an entrepreneur with natural talent is shifting
since Babson decided 35 years ago that entrepreneurship is something that can be
researched, studied and taught. Their education pedagogy follows a multidisciplinary
approach entirely based on experiential learning; where they incorporate both
management disciplines: supply chain, marketing, forming a team in addition to idea
generation, pitching and testing. Students are given seed funding in order to actually start
their business at the end of the module.
ii. Formal Education
Mr. Rahmy has also agreed that entrepreneurial education should be integrated
more in the formal curricula to endorse traits as critical thinking and problem solving in
students at a young age. He set it clear how education in Egypt is a major structural
problem when it comes to increasing entrepreneurial activity. He believes that there is the
incentive, but no actual change on a systematic level, as the cohort of enablers, including
accelerators and incubators, are still dealing with the same problematic quality of human
resources. Similarly, Ms. Samaa agreed that the government is lacking behind when it
comes to education, “You can't teach it in classes. The whole educational program has to
be restructured to accommodate entrepreneurial thoughts and process in a practical way.
“ He mentioned.
Interestingly Dr. Reza stressed on the importance of liberal arts education in
entrepreneurship. He added that, “Even if the school does not have liberal arts offerings,
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if the educators are serious about teaching entrepreneurship, they have to embed some
form of education beyond the mechanics of startups.” he added, “Entrepreneurship
requires evaluating societal problems and finding solutions to those problems. Students
inally, when
need to understand those problems to be able to add value to the society.” F
asked about the education they give to teachers, both professors explained that they have
specialized programs for educators to become more like coaches to the students, rather
than lecturers.
iii. Entrepreneurial Events in Educating Youth
Dr. Ismail further builds up on this element of exposure by mentioning that with
the spread of entrepreneurial events, such as RiseUp, there is an overhype that youth are
exposed to. Dr. Ismail believes that while the exposure is good, it has to be logical and
true. He gives a very common example of people nowadays encouraging the youth to
believe that everyone is capable of being an entrepreneur, which is not true and is
misleading youth. He argues that you have to show the youth the tough parts of it as well;
it is very important to be transparent in regards to delivering such encouraging messages.
However, he expresses that it is not a very problematic issue because it is a natural part of
the increased awareness about entrepreneurship and the offering of entrepreneurship as a
good career option for youth.
E. Challenges that entrepreneurs encounter
“We need more of everything,” Dr. Ismail summarized. The lack of infrastructure
is a major challenge in Egypt for entrepreneurs and investors. A well-developed
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infrastructure is needed in most of today’s rising tech-savvy startups; structured
telecommunication, low cost electricity, roads and a lot more infrastructure is needed for
any startup to function and grow. As mentioned previously, there are a lot of
governmental regulations that need to be reformed to enable entrepreneurs to have
enough resources and frameworks to be able to operate. This should be accompanied by
the aforementioned improvements in the educational system to build a stronger culture of
entrepreneurship. Dr. Ismail also explained that we still need more VCs and more
funding to fill in the funding gaps in the different ticket sizes offered. At some stages, it
becomes harder for entrepreneurs to raise funds for there is no sufficient availability.
The experts’ interviews paved us a way to gain more insights regarding our
research questions, that also facilitated for us the process of developing questions for the
focus group guide; which will be discussed below.
III. Focus Groups’ Findings (Appendix 2)
After gaining some insights about our proposed research questions, we have
conducted two online focus groups, via Zoom, with our first target market: university
students coming from different educational backgrounds. Each focus group lasted for an
hour or 75 minutes and each consisted of four students, enrolled in different universities.
Two students from the American University in Cairo, one student from the German
University in Cairo, two students from the British University in Egypt, and three students
from Cairo University. We have set an initial quota at first to recruit students, with an
aim to have both private and public university students. Having that said, we reached out
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to our network of university students, through WhatsApp or phone calls, who would have
been interested to participate. Because online focus groups usually consist of fewer
students than face-to-face, we decided to recruit only four students per focus group
because it would have been less manageable otherwise.
The focus groups attempted to provide insights from students on our research
questions especially in regards to entrepreneurship education, how they evaluate their
respective educational institution and their needs for a more effective system. They were
also asked how they perceived entrepreneurship through different media exposures and
their perceptions towards the government in supporting startups. Because we decided to
give more focus to students in this research, their insights were crucial for making us
develop the hypothesis for the later phase in the data analysis.
A. Transition and Background Questions
Each of the two focus groups consisted of four students. In our analysis, we will
analyze the eight students’ opinions and views regarding our research. The profile of the
students are mentioned in Appendix 5.
We started the focus group by an opening question on their thoughts when they
hear the word “entrepreneurship.” The students’ impressions were somehow
complementary, mentioning creativity, risk taking, someone entering a market with an
innovative idea without knowing exactly what's the outcome, and innovation. Three
students mentioned that it is someone who sees the community's needs and creates an
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opportunity that fulfills a need. While another student said that an entrepreneur has to
have an outgoing character, claiming that, “I don’t think we ever saw a successful
entrepreneur who is shy.”
When asked about the difference between a small business and a startup, Ola
(Cairo University) mentioned that they are very close to each, but maybe the idea of a
startup is larger. Salma (BUE) claimed that, “In a startup, you have an innovative idea
and have a higher aim for profit on the long run, but a small business might not have a
thorough financial analysis.” While Ann (BUE) added that the main difference that for
startups, is the rate of growth, which is higher in startups than in small businesses. She
also agrees with Salma on the idea of innovation as the essence of a startup.
B. The Different Pursuits of Careers
As a student in Aerospace Engineering, Abdallah (Cairo University) claimed that
he would like to pursue his career in Aerospace, because “it is difficult for me to consider
entrepreneurship since the career I am in rarely has startups in it because it is very
costly,” h e said. Both Salma (Cairo University) and Darin (AUC) were hesitant when we
asked that question. Salma said it depends on whether she has an idea or not, “But once I
have an idea, I might track it for a while and will probably go for it. For me it is better
than working at a multinational,” Salma claimed, while Darin (AUC) was not decisive
yet, but she did say that she would not want to have a typical desk-job. On the other hand,
some students already made their choice on starting their own startup, like Nader (GUC).
Other students, like Doha (AUC), had a more specific plan of pursuing a job at a
21
multinational company, while having a business idea on the side that she can later work
on when she has sufficient experience to allow her to do so. She asserted that, “After
some time if I still like it [working in a multinational], I will continue, if not, I will
probably think of an idea and try to pursue it with the money I made from my previous
la (Cairo University) also wants to pursue a similar plan to Doha’s, working first
job.” O
in an established company, while simultaneously learning other things she needs to
acquire to start her own business.
On the other hand, Salma (BUE) was the only student who said that she does not
see herself as an entrepreneur, “I don’t think I have what it takes and that is not wrong. I
see myself working more in a multinational company,” Salma emphasized. Being the
only student entrepreneur in the focus group, Ann (BUE) agreed that, “The overhype on
Facebook and Instagram has made everyone want to start their own business once they
have an idea and a lot of them fail,” she claimed. Ann has a startup she has been working
on with her colleagues for two years, which will be launching soon.
C. The Perception of a Typical Entrepreneur
When asked about their perceptions on the typical persona of an entrepreneur, the
students’ expressed quite different opinions. Nader (GUC) claimed that, “An
entrepreneur does not always have to be seeking profit; it could be for a social impact.”
He also said that an entrepreneur does not have to be young, and that risk-taking is a main
common factor between entrepreneurs. Abdallah (Cairo University) indicated that an
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entrepreneur is someone who has an idea, and took the risk of investing his money in
implementing his idea, like Elon Musk, and Richard Branson.
Consistency and dedication was also added by Salma (BUE), who emphasized
that everything has to be backed up by scientific knowledge and social smartness: “They
have to be socially smart to be able to speak to the public,” she added. Darin (AUC)
agreed with Salma’s views and added that entrepreneurs do not mind facing failures, she
views them as bold, responsible and ambitious. Similarly, Ann (BUE) emphasized that
entrepreneurs are open-minded for failure, and also agreed with Salma’s views. “If an
entrepreneur does not know something, he has to be willing to learn everything he does
not know.”
D. Role of Media in Portraying Entrepreneurship
With regards to the question about the ways entrepreneurship is portrayed in the
media, half of the students were in favor and the other half were against the current way
of the media in portraying entrepreneurs. Nader (GUC) claimed that it is becoming a
trend. “Media is a double edged sword; it encourages people to pursue their ideas so
many people take the initiative with only 10% of them having legitimate ideas and [the
others] eventually crowd the market,” e mphasized Nader. Doha (AUC) agreed with his
opinion, claiming that, “The media romanticizes entrepreneurship and pictures it in a
way that everyone succeeds, but it is not true.” Ann (BUE) also had negative perceptions
23
towards the media, claiming that the existence of social media in specific paved a way for
many people to label themselves as entrepreneurs in an obsessive way.
Contrarily, Abdallah (Cairo University) had a different view, he claimed that the
media encourages people by reaching to people of different backgrounds which creates
diversity. Similar to what Abdallah mentioned, Salma (BUE) talked in favor of the
media, mentioning that even interviewers like Esaad Younis are contributing by hosting
youth who have small and medium enterprises. Darin (AUC) and Ann (BUE) both
attributed the media’s focus on entrepreneurship to the political scene in Egypt that
supports initiating programs for youth and highlighting them to the public.
E. Perception of Challenges that Entrepreneurs Face
Moving on to the challenges that the students claimed that entrepreneurs face,
Nader (GUC) identified both funding and finding people who understand and fully
believe in one’s idea. Abdallah (Cairo University) mentioned lack of experience and
implementation, as two main challenges that entrepreneurs face, along with advertising
and promoting the idea to the community. Darin (AUC) and Salma (Cairo University)
agreed with Abdallah's claims, mentioning that, “Marketing is a difficulty. I could launch
and keep losing for several years and not be able to withstand and tolerate loss and
failure,” Salma mentioned.
Talking from a personal experience, Ann (BUE) talked about the issue of cash
flow. Not only was funding difficult, but also she struggled with self-doubt along her
24
journey about her idea and capabilities. Adding to that, no prior experience is knowledge
is a huge problem, according to Ann.
F. Drivers Promoting Entrepreneurship?
a) Current Support given from Government
With regards to the question if the government is giving adequate current support,
most of the students claimed that they are not aware of what the government provides as
support to startups. However, Salma (Cairo University) said that the government is
facilitating loans for SMEs, that has been initiated by the Central Bank of Egypt, but
there is corruption when it comes to who takes these loans. Nader (GUC) added that the
government is facilitating licensing and doing one-stop shops in finishing required
documents. However, Ann (BUE) viewed it from another side, stating that, “The
government’s support is derived out of mere publicity, and not necessarily dedicating
their efforts especially for startups, however they are giving more awareness to
entrepreneurship.”
b) Current Support from Educational Institutions
When asked about if each of the students’ educational institutions they are
enrolled in provides entrepreneurship education, the students shared different views.
Nader (GUC) claimed that, “Education pushes students to achieve better grades rather
than focusing on what to do in real life,” He claimed, “Students will follow the rules to
get better grades.” Abdallah (Cairo University) mentioned that he was not satisfied with
25
the quality of entrepreneurship education provided by his university. Doha (AUC), on the
other hand, was in favor of the guest speakers that AUC hosts regularly to expose
students to real life-example of entrepreneurs. Darin (AUC) agreed with Doha’s claims,
she gave recognition to the university's efforts in raising awareness and educating
students on entrepreneurship. With regards to public universities, Ola (Cairo University)
said that her university is trying to enhance this mindset by supporting extracurricular
activities, such as Enactus. Ann (BUE) recently had an entrepreneurship module that
offered financial assistance to the students, “if they want to launch their idea after the
end of the module, the university would offer funding, so the university is exerting a lot of
efforts,” she added.
G. Recommendations for Government’s Role and Support
a) Government
Ola (Cairo University) mentioned the current initiative supported by the
government like Youth Leadership Forum (YLF), which aimed at creating competitions
and conferences that promote entrepreneurship for youth. “Such events should be
increased, more ideas will be created, and in that case, real startups who really have
potential will be promoted.” s he added. Salma (BUE) talked more about financial
support, including bank loans, and “providing financial assistance to back them up.”Ann
(BUE) asserted that there needs to be refined laws such as tax incentives for startups and
small businesses, yet, Salma (BUE) saw this change as ambitious because of the rigid
process of law execution.
26
b) Education
Considering that the students had different educational backgrounds, their views
were quite different with regards to what their educational institutions still needed to
tackle. Nader (GUC) claimed that, “Education should make us good calibers for the
market rather than testing us on theoretical parts. In Egypt, the education spoon-feeds
bdallah claimed that the educational system should incorporate basic

students.” A
knowledge on how to initiate an idea and endorse basic business and management
fundamentals. Salma (Cairo University) had another view on the theoretical takeaways of
the educational system, claiming that the curriculum must be application-based and
practical, shedding light on how everything is applied in the market. “Everything is
theoretical; Education has to show how it will fit in real life.” She added. She also
explained how mandatory entrepreneurship classes and general knowledge about running
a business while including intricate topics on how to study a market, should also be
endorsed in the curricula. Doha (AUC) added that schools and universities should include
and invite speakers that have succeeded in initiating their own business “to show students
that there are people with the same capabilities that have achieved what they wanted.”
Ola (Cairo University) and Salma (BUE) both argued that entrepreneurship education has
to be endorsed from early stages of education. Contrarily, Ann (BUE) believes that
entrepreneurs are born, not made. Having that said, she asserted that, “If someone wants
to be an entrepreneur, regardless of their environment and education, he will find a way
owever, she commented on the current

to become an entrepreneur and succeed.” H
educational system that is based on memorizing, which does not allow capable students
27
to flourish and be entrepreneurs, therefore, introducing introductory classes of
entrepreneurship might be both an advantage and a disadvantage in her opinion.
IV. In-depth Interviews with Entrepreneurs (Appendix 3)
Regarding our second target market, nine entrepreneurs were interviewed in
diverse industries including: furniture, education, blockchain, regtech (for the financial
sector specifically), fashion, digital recruitment and solar energy. The young
entrepreneurs have provided us with insightful remarks regarding our key themes of our
research questions, which also guided us in developing our hypothesis afterwards. A
unified WhatsApp message was sent to the nine entrepreneurs, explaining the purpose of
the research and asking if they would be willing to help, with an exception to Mr. Zahran,
who was contacted via Email. Afterwards, all interviews were conducted via Zoom,
except for Mr. Atallah who was interviewed via phone call. All interviews lasted for an
average of 40 minutes each.The names and profiles of the nine entrepreneurs is
mentioned in Appendix 6.
In the following section, the qualitative analysis of the entrepreneurs’ interviews
will be offered according to the questions that were asked to the interviewees.
I. Startups’ History and Background
Before outlining the key findings of the interviews held with the entrepreneurs, it
is worth noting the brief background of each startup and the story of their foundation.
Starting off with the solar industry, KarmSolar was founded in October 2011, right after
28
the revolution. It was formed out of necessity, for Mr. Zahran and some of his colleagues
were fired because of their political stances. The business is one of the oldest companies
in the solar energy industry.
While problem-solving and finding gaps in the market are the two most common
reasons for entrepreneurs to start their ventures, Mr. Basil Fateen explained that the idea
behind HireHunt struck him when he was working in Orascom Telecom. He was charged
with the responsibility of hiring a team for a specific project, and he was surprised how
problematic, hectic, and subjective the process is. He validated his idea by asking other
HR specialists who all confirmed his perception of how problematic the process is. While
most of his career was in corporates, his first job as an AUC Computer Science fresh
graduate was in a startup, so he actually knew how things work in a startup. “I never
actually liked the slow pace of innovation in corporates, I always compared it to the fast
pace of innovation in startups that I first encountered right after I graduated.”
Moving on to the fashion and lifestyle industry, Doodle Factory was founded in
2016, which started at first as a project under one of AUC’s student activities: Mashrou3
Kheir. Aiming to provide a better life for underprivileged children in aspects such as
education, shelter and health, those children would become the artists and inspiration of
the collection. Ms. Yasmeen Khamis explained that their primary motive was to do
something to support those children; they did not exactly know what they wanted to sell
or where they should start. However, when their unique products proved to successful,
29
and they were done helping the first girl who needed to do a critical operation, they
decided it could be a sustainable business through they can help more children.
Starting as a project for a course in AUC, Mr. Atallah’s business, Ariika, was
directed towards producing furniture. They focused specifically on producing bean bags,
which were very new products in the Egyptian market. Mr. Atallah graduated ten years
ago, worked in P&G for a while, and then went back to his AUC project to grow it and
seize the opportunity. By time, Ariika expanded to supplying “anything inside or outside
the house from bean bags to bed sheets” as Mr. Atallah stated.
Exploring the Ed-tech industry, we interviewed Ms. Dima Soury co-founder of
Explore Agora, where the term Agora means, “An open public place for people to gather
and gain education” as Ms. Soury mentioned. She added that they aim to revive this
trend in Egypt by not restricting children to sit only in the class to learn; but to also be
able to explore what's around them anywhere they go. It started in February 2018 and has
been struggling till now with their product-market-fit that could suit the Egyptian market.
Also in the Ed-tech industry, Mr. Hossam Taher, founder of Orcas, was
interviewed. Orcas is a startup that offers tutoring services for children of different ages
and different educational systems. The idea started from the parents’ discussions in
different sporting clubs where the mothers explained that it was very hard to find reliable
baby-sitters in Egypt. On the other hand, Orcas provided an opportunity to teenagers and
young adults to make money through babysitting around their neighbourhoods. The
product development for Orcas was actually consumer-driven; mothers would ask those
30
young adults not only to babysit their children, but also to help them with their
assignments, and this is when they expanded and included tutoring as one of their main
services. That service alone contributed to the impact of Orcas by helping 10,000 moms
and 20,000 students of different ages.
Moving on to hardware startups, Amr Saleh is an Electronics engineer who
graduated from the University of Helwan. His first startup was Integrate, which started as
his graduation project in 2011. Together with his colleagues, he created a smart-billboard
that would aid engineers while working on their experiments. However, they soon had to
shut down their project as it has deviated into becoming more of scientific research work
rather than a business opportunity. They later went further into home automation gadgets,
again without notable sales. Afterwards, they founded Elk, which was mainly focused on
blockchain technology, and although they received requests for their services, they had
to shut down here as well, as their service was ahead of its time and the amount of
requests was just not sufficient to cover the costs. The young entrepreneur currently
resides in Germany, and as of our interview with him, he is currently founding a new
startup.
Finally, the two youngest entrepreneurs were Mr. Ibrahim Eid and Mr. Baher
Abdallah, co-founders of Valify, a regulatory-tech startup that has been operating for a
year. They offer their electronic Know Your Customer (e-KYC) services to financial and
fintech businesses to make a more secure financial system in Egypt. Although e-KYC are
already well-known in a lot of international markets, Valify is the first Egyptian startup to
31
offer this service. Having a first-mover advantage, along with the government’s direction
towards increasing financial inclusion made Valify an important startup for the CBE to
support and benefit from its services. Hence, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) created
the sandbox to incubate such new startups which still do not have a clear regulatory
framework to work under. While they are being incubated in the sandbox, the CBE and
the government work together to regulate the operations of such startups. Valify is the
first startup to enter the CBE’s sandbox.
II. The Changes in the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in the Last Decade
According to Mr. Zahran, when KarmSolar was founded in 2011, the term
‘startup’ was not yet known. There were no venture capitalists, angel investors and
nobody imagined that they could start a company on their own. Complimenting his
views, Mr. Taher explained that when funding increased and founders started generating
money, the society started to accept them and applaud the concept of entrepreneurship.
He added another element of startups having impact on the society, for example, Orcas
helped 20,000 students last year.
Agreeing to what Mr. Zahran said, Mr. Atallah emphasized that, “Back in 2012
startups were not the hot topic, the dream was to work in a multinational company”.
From his point of view, the entrepreneurial activity has increased particularly after the
2016 devaluation as more opportunities started to arise. He also stated,“After the Arab
world destruction in Syria and other countries, most of arab world opportunities shifted
to be situated in Egypt.” Adding to Zahran’s claims, Ms. Soury mentioned the small
32
steps the government is taking such as providing initiatives to power startups was a
relatively new direction they took. Mr. Taher agreed, stating that, “Government’s view of
SMEs changed; they are not viewed as kiosks anymore.”
III. Drivers of Becoming an Entrepreneur
The “drivers” that pushed Mr. Zahran were somehow unusual, it was not
intentional for him to “become an entrepreneur,” but after getting fired from his previous
job, the circumstances led him to start his own company. On the other hand, Mr. Atallah
always wanted to take the risk and be his own boss. He travelled abroad, saw how weird
the idea of bean bags was, and this motivated him more to take the risk and open Ariika,
and a bit by bit the society became familiar with the idea. It was a whole different story
for Ms. Soury , she did not even know what a startup really meant back then, she was a
teacher who wanted to impact her students more by changing their way of learning. The
project started from schools, but investors became greedy; thus, they shifted the idea to
be away from schools and everything started unfolding until they came up with the
application. While the co-founders of Valify had a different view on why they started
their own business, underlying that, “Because I can. We have received good education
and currently in a good position in our lives to take the risk.”
IV. Entrepreneurial Events and Media: A Trend or Market Opportunity?
Speaking about how media portrays entrepreneurship in Egypt and its impact on
the society, Ms. Khamis claimed the huge exposure that entrepreneurial events give, such
as RiseUp, “and as Doodle Factory, we try to capitalize on the people we met to send
33
them presentations, or try to network with them,” She added. On the contrary, Ms. Soury
asserted that,“In Silicon Valley, the average age of successful entrepreneurs is 45, and
this reflects how entrepreneurs need a lot of elements to be successful like experience.”
From her point of view, she believes that events such as RiseUp fantasized the
entrepreneurial idea for them.
With regards to the impact of media on promoting entrepreneurship, Ms. Soury
claimed that the media only portrays startups as the “glamours success story” instead of
portraying it with its challenges and potential failures. Mr. Saleh shared similar views,
claiming that he is against the concept of fictionally simplifying matters, with no regards
to the personality that needs to back every entrepreneur. Digging deeper into the matter,
Mr. Atallah’s opinion was that the majority of people are being entrepreneurs because it
is a “cool trend nowadays,” and the media motivates these people is a way or another;
because, “In my opinion media is deceiving us,” But still there are some people who see
a gap in the market and really want to fulfill it. Mr. Taher seemed to agree with the
previous statements, underlying the “glory and prestige” the media showcases when
exposing startups. Mr. Eid and Mr. Abdallah had a different view; they said it is
inevitable to see it as both a trend and a market opportunity. However, people do not
think of the market, according to the two co-founders, instead, “they say that they will
create a demand in a market, which is wrong,”
V. The Role of Education
34
As a graduate of the American University in Cairo, Mr. Zahran emphasized the
importance of extracurricular activities and summer internships in imparting the skills
and experience that helped him in establishing his business. “The rise of
entrepreneurship in Egypt was, to an extent, because of the failure of the educational
system,” Mr. Zahran mentioned, adding that this led to students going online and learning
skills and knowledge. Similar to his view, as mentioned before, Doodle Factory was
firstly initiated as a project under an extracurricular activity in the American University
in Cairo.“Clubs are the closest thing that can get you to know what it’s like in the real
life,” Ms. Khamis emphasized on the importance of joining clubs and organizations that
are responsible for organizing events and projects. Similar to Mr. Zahran’s opinion, she
added great emphasis on the importance of summer internships and extracurriculars.
Agreeing with both of the entrepreneurs, Mr. Atallah emphasized that schools and
universities should increase simulation and hands-on experiences.
As for formal education in the sense of classroom material, Mr. Atallah stated that
most of his professors were not keen to connect the material with real life, which is
lacking nowadays in education. Adding to this, Ms. Soury said there should be more
awareness on the different types of enablers in Egypt that could help students if they plan
to open their own startups. On the contrary, Mr. Zahran claimed that formal education in
a sense of teaching entrepreneurship in classes and creating theories around it destroys
the whole idea and becomes invaluable. Mr. Eid and Mr. Abdalla also agreed that
universities are teaching curriculums rather than approaches. However, he indicated the
impact of the liberal arts education that AUC provides as an eye-opener that enriched him
35
with crucial knowledge that helped him in his journey. Mr. Taher agreed with Mr.
Zahran’s view, emphasizing that he does not believe in formal education, but he thinks
that universities should host entrepreneurs for talks and panel discussions.
With regards to the national educational system, Ms. Khamis endorsed the lack of
know-how and expertise on running a business when it comes to students from national
universities. Mr. Saleh agreed with similar claims, pointing out that entrepreneurial basics
must be implemented in schools, in order to encourage those who have a good potential
in that field. Ms. Khamis added to that implying that, “The difference between reality and
textbooks is huge,”
VI. Challenges Encountered as an Entrepreneur
Adding to the typical challenges that entrepreneurs face including funding, Mr.
Zahran added that awareness was a major challenge. Not only were the older generations
close-minded when it came to starting one’s own thing, but also, in specific to his
industry, people were skeptical and doubtful of the usefulness and necessity of solar
energy. Perhaps the cultural and social awareness still partially exists, as Saleh mentioned
that only when this culture is embedded, one can proceed in this career. Also agreeing
with Mr. Zahran on the issue of funding, Ms. Dima’s greatest challenge was when the
funds started to run out and they needed more funding.
Viewing the topic from a more general form, one of the challenges Mr. Atallah
mentioned is finding the right team with the right talent that completes you, which was
comparable to what Ms. Soury said, as disagreement between partners could be a major
36
problem in any business. Mr. Eid and Mr. Abdallah also agreed as finding the right
calibers was their greatest challenge. Moreover, Mr. Attalah claimed that “Business that
lacks agility could easily shut down,” as governmental policies are changed unexpectedly
and this could alter all business future plans. In addition, Ms. Soury added that another
challenge is, “Seeing when to pivot, and if to pivot,” is also one important challenge that
you need to have the sense and the right team to overcome it.
VII. Support Received as an Entrepreneur
A. Enablers
Mr. Saleh received funding and support from TIEC, an enabler powered by the
government, and Flat6Labs. They also travelled to the United States in a program under
an initiative by the government and received funding. Mr. Taher greatly emphasized the
huge assistance Orcas has received from enablers, “Without them, I do not know if I
would be here or not,” h e commented.He claimed three main benefits he received from
enablers; “Equity-free investment, educational curriculum to gain business acumen,
connecting us with investors and potential investors.” Similarly, Mr. Eid and Mr.
Abdallah asserted the great pile of networks that the AUC Venture Lab and the
competition of Entrepreneurs’ Society gave them access to.
B. Government
Mr. Zahran was one of the few entrepreneurs who claimed that they did not face
any challenges from the government, except for the “usual problems” such as
bureaucracy, however, it was not big enough to stop them. On the other hand, Ms.
37
Khamis mentioned the difficulty of gaining support for social enterprises in Egypt from
the government. While Mr. Eid and Mr. Abdallah claimed that, “The biggest support we
received was from the Central Bank of Egypt. Our business is not yet regulatory
approved. Without their support, we could not have reached the objectives we have
currently achieved.” They have accessed the SandBox program offered by the
government and they were allowed to test their business and operate without closing their
business for regulatory reasons.
C. Investors
“I called some young professionals who had some savings, I found they were
interested in investing in KarmSolar. Their investments continued to support the company
until 2019,” claimed Mr. Zahran about the financial support he received. Mr. Atallah did
not receive any support from the government nor the investors; because, he started his
project online and his initial investment was only creating the website.“Mainly the
support came from professors in AUC.'' as he mentioned. Similarly, Ms. Dima did not
receive any support from investors or the government, but what really helped her was
winning several awards in Egypt and Africa in general.
VIII. Progression in Government’s Support
“So far, I have not seen anything, I think this period will be the hardest for social
startups... [given the pandemic outbreak]” claimed Ms. Khamis, on whether the
government’s support has been progressing in the last period. Contrarily, Ms. Soury
mentioned that there is a minor progression in the government support, for example, the
38
Ministry of Communications started initiating and developing competitions, where Agora
recently won the African apps LaunchPad competition. She added that they started
offering courses to startup founders that are worth around $400. Mr. Taher talked more
about the attention that the government is giving to startups, implying that, “It is a public
benefit for them to expose young people with small businesses or projects because the
e added
number of young people is increasing and they will need to find them jobs.” H
that the government is endorsing new initiatives like Falak Startups and Egypt Ventures
that are highly supporting startups. Mr. Eid and Mr. Abdallah agreed with Mr. Taher’s
views and also claimed that the government is trying to promote financial inclusion,
rather than directly trying to support entrepreneurship. However, “It’s a win win,”
according to the young entrepreneurs.
IX. Support Still Needed from the Government
Mr. Zahran commented that the idea of entrepreneurship is dealing with reality,
offering solutions and not needing anything from anyone, including the government.
“You don’t need support, you need to convince them with your idea, if you need certain
laws or regulations for your business, then you need to lobby,” he added. Regulations,
according to Mr. Zahran, do not stop startups from regulations, and he does not think that
startups should need or demand support from the government.
However, most of the other entrepreneurs interviewed claimed otherwise, stating
that they do need specific support from the government. That being said, Ms. Khamis
indicated that social startups need more support for policy related legal issues such as
39
taxes and regulations.“Maneuvering how to do things on the legal level, a lot of times we
get confused from these things and at times we don’t know,' ' She added, “should we do
this or shouldn’t we do this? These things have to be clear for us, like taxes.” Mr. Taher
said similar claims on the difficulty of finding specific laws and policies that startups
need, stating that “It is hard to find and it is very hard to be correct”. Similarly, Ms.
Dima added that giving access to startups to several resources such as tax exemption and
supplying the startup with working space can further promote entrepreneurship.
Taking it from another angle, Mr. Atallah asserted that,“Increasing incentives in
ith
the manufacturing industry to increase exports and help the economy flourish,” w
regards to the government support needed, aside from increasing the facilities
accessibility, like bank loans. Furthermore, he emphasized that the government should
involve young entrepreneurs in voting for decisions in different institutions, because what
usually happens is that investors over 60 years old make the decisions and judge it from
one perspective, unlike the young, fresh minds. Mr. Eid and Mr. Abdallah emphasized
the need for the government to facilitate the procedures that startups need to do their
work.
Talking from his long entrepreneurial journey, Mr.Saleh mentioned regarding the
government regulations some key points that limit investors,each time they fund a startup
in Egypt. The simplest and most obvious point was that there are no regulations in Egypt
to ensure equal work from all partners, taking contribution as a factor. Therefore,
investors are left with no other option than to have to open two companies; one for the
40
startup and one outside the nation that acquires the startup, in order to ensure security of
the contract.
The qualitative results from the focus groups and interviews with entrepreneurs
were the basis for developing research hypotheses and designing the questionnaire to be
used in the Conclusive Quantitative phase, which will be discussed in the following
section.
Conclusive Research
After analyzing the exploratory research, we started with developing the questionnaire
design to be distributed among students, which will be further discussed in the sampling plan.
When enough responses were collected, we proceeded with data collection where we cleaned the
data then began the data analysis and hypothesis testing which we used IBM’s SPSS Statistics
Software as the last phase of our conclusive results; in which the recommendations were derived
from.
I. Questionnaire Design
The questionnaire design and questions were derived from the hypothesis that we have
developed after our exploratory research. At this stage, we decided to design a questionnaire for
university students only; since there was a greater chance to collect a large number of responses,
unlike if we had chosen to develop a questionnaire for entrepreneurs as well. Having that said, a
41
filter question was added in the questionnaire for respondents to identify if they were students or
student entrepreneurs.
The aim was to ask the questions to the students that stemmed from our five main
research questions; with an objective to conclude from these responses after conducting data
analysis. To elaborate, students were asked about their intentions to start their own business and
other related factors that might affect their decisions, which referred to the first and second
research question illustrating the drivers that affect youth to become entrepreneurs and traits that
are required to succeed. Based on the third research question conveying the support needed for
youth to succeed, questions regarding the governmental efforts and initiatives were also asked in
the questionnaire. Also, students were asked to evaluate and give importance to four educational
pillars, that we chose according to the students’ views in the focus groups, that their respective
universities provide. Having that said, these set of questions were derived from the fourth
research question on enhancing entrepreneurship education. As for the last research question,
students were asked a set of statement questions in which they identify their concerns regarding
being an entrepreneur, such as risk and marketing.
As noted, the hypotheses were developed at the end of the exploratory research stage;
where we inferred some hypotheses based on our expectations from the interviews and focus
groups. Thus, the proposed hypotheses are:
Hypothesis 1
H0: Students are inclined into pursuing a career in entrepreneurship more than MNC.
42
Ha: Students are inclined into pursuing a career in MNC more than entrepreneurship.
Hypothesis 2
H0: Students who wish to open their own startups wish to do so upon graduation.
Ha: Students who wish to open their own startups wish to do so not directly after grad.
Hypothesis 3:
H0: Parents’ support to the student’s decision of becoming an entrepreneur has no effect on the
student’s tendency to do so.
Ha: Parents’ support to the student’s decision of becoming an entrepreneur affects the student’s
tendency to do so.
Hypothesis 4:
H0: Being one's own boss has no effect on the student’s tendency to become entrepreneurs.
Ha: Being one's own boss affects the student’s tendency to become entrepreneurs.
Hypothesis 5:
H0: Perception of personal experience has no effect on the student’s tendency to become
entrepreneurs
Ha: Perception of personal experience affects the student’s tendency to become entrepreneurs.
Hypothesis 6:
H0: Students’ perception of their capabilities does not affect their tendency to become
entrepreneurs.
Ha: Students’ perception of their capabilities affects their tendency to become entrepreneurs.
43
Hypothesis 7:
H0: The less exposure on entrepreneurship that social media provides the students with, the lower
their tendency to become entrepreneurs.
Ha: The more exposure on entrepreneurship that social media provides the students with, the
higher their tendency to become entrepreneurs.
Hypothesis 8:
H0: Students who believe that currently there are no market opportunities have a lower tendency
to become entrepreneurs.
Ha: Students who believe that currently there are market opportunities have a higher tendency to
become entrepreneurs.
Hypothesis 9:
H0: Students are not getting more exposed to startups and entrepreneurs from social media.
Ha: Students are getting more exposed to startups and entrepreneurs from social media.
Hypothesis 10:
H0: Students do not think social media portrays entrepreneurship as a “trend” .
Ha: Students think social media portrays entrepreneurship as a “trend” .
Hypothesis 11:
H0: Students are aware of the government support.
Ha: Students are unaware of the support of the government.
Hypothesis 12:
44
H0: Students do not think the government is making initiatives in favor of entrepreneurs.
Ha: Students think the government is making initiatives in favor of entrepreneurs.
Hypothesis 13:
H0: Government support is not one of the detrimental factors for entrepreneurs to succeed.
Ha: Government support is one of the detrimental factors for entrepreneurs to succeed.
Hypothesis 14:
H0: Students don’t think that educational institutions should incorporate mandatory basic
entrepreneurship classes that include application-based-knowledge.
Ha: Students think that educational institutions should incorporate mandatory basic
Hypothesis 15:
H0: There is no difference between practical and theoretical education in teaching

entrepreneurship for students.
Ha: Practical experience impacts entrepreneurial knowledge more than teaching theoretical
entrepreneurial modules in classrooms.
II. Sampling Plan
Due to our lack of access to a database for university students to randomly send
the questionnaire to respondents, a non-probability sampling technique was chosen
instead. We utilized snowball sampling by sending the questionnaire to our network of
university students, the target market we have chosen to focus on, via social media such
45
as WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook. Our personal networks were also asked to send
the questionnaire to their personal networks.
III. Data Collection Process
After collecting 234 responses from both private and public university students,
we started with the data collection process by cleaning the data on Excel and
transforming the nominal and ordinal scale questions into codes as per our codebook, so
that it is suitable to be exported into SPSS. Following that, the wordings of the questions
were changed into short worded variables for each question. After exporting the data file
into SPSS, we have added three new variables that would produce deeper data analysis.
Firstly, we have added a new variable to distinguish between students who want to start
their business upon or before graduation into two categories: high intention and low
intention students. Secondly, we have done the same technique for the students who want
to open their business sometime in the future, after five years. We have done this by
grouping students who responded (1), (2) and (3) as low intention students, and those
who answered by (4) or (5) were labeled as high intention students. This was done in
both variables: starting in five years and upon/before graduation; so two new variables
were formed: StartBus(2) and BusGrad(2).
Lastly, we have grouped some universities together into AUC, Private
Universities and Public Universities, due to the low responses we collected from some
university students that have produced insignificant results. That being said, students
46
from MIU, BUE & GUC were grouped together in Private Universities, and Ain
Shams and Cairo University were grouped together in Public Universities.
IV. Data Analysis & Findings
A. Descriptive Statistics, Frequencies and Sampling Characteristics (Appendix 8)
1. Frequencies
As shown in Appendix 8, our sample size was 234 responses, out of which 17.1%
of them were student entrepreneurs, and the larger majority, 82.9%, were university
students. Almost half of our sample were students from AUC (48.7%) while 29.5% were
private university students and the minority were public university students (17.1%). As
noted earlier, students who wanted to start their business in 5 years or upon graduation
were divided into two categories: low intention and high intention. Having that said,
students having high intentions to start their business in 5 years were 43.1% while 52.1%
had low intentions of starting a business in the future. As expected, students with high
intentions to start their own business upon or before graduation were only 22.6%, while
the larger majority had lower intentions to do so (72.6%). Regarding their fields of study,
36.3% of the students were Business majors, followed by other majors, Engineering
Economics, Medicine and finally, Political Science. Also, 52.7% of the students claimed
that they have previously attended an entrepreneurial event, while 43.2% did not attend
such seminars before.
2. Descriptive Statistics
47
Generally speaking, looking at the simple means (Appendix 9), students’
tendency to start a business in five years is higher than students who want to start upon
graduating. Even though having one’s own business is on the rise, students expressed that
they are more likely to work in multinationals than starting their own business in general.
Regarding some factors that could affect their decisions on becoming entrepreneurs, the
support of their parents to their decision of becoming entrepreneurs was above average
(3.89). Students also expressed that they want to become their own boss and do not want
a desk job, which also had means above average. As expected in a culture that does not
quite tolerate failure, their perceived risk in opening a business was high (3.92). It was
also expressed that their perceived personal experience is not adequate for them to
venture their own business. Students are generally not aware of the governmental efforts
towards helping startups in the market with a below average mean (2.58); and they also
seem to believe that startups can succeed regardless of the government’s support (3.58).
When it came to allocating importances to the four educational pillars; Internships (4.31)
came first, followed by entrepreneurship classes (4.14), talks (4.10) and finally
extracurricular activities (3.94). As per the evaluation of each pillar, extracurricular
activities had the highest evaluation, followed by talks, classes and finally, internships.
3. Sampling Characteristics
It is also crucial to compare the persona of the students with different behaviors to
identify the profile of students with high intentions to start their own business with the
profile of students with lower intentions. That being said, Appendix 10, c ompares both
48
types of students, with high and low intentions, in two variables which are: starting a
business in 5 years and starting a business upon/before graduation.
First, the behavior and characteristics of students having high and low intentions
to start their own business upon or before graduation was analyzed. Starting with their
educational background, it is shown in appendix 10.1 with almost 90% confidence that
52.8% of the students with higher intentions are from AUC, 24.5% of them are public
university students and 22.8% are public university students. As for the students who had
lower intentions, 50.6% of them were AUC Students, 33.5% of them are private
university students and only 15.9% are public university students. While in appendix
10.2, 62.3% of the students with high intentions attended entrepreneurial events as
opposed to those with lower intentions in which 52.4%.
With an attempt to describe the profile and behaviors of the two types of students,
by using an Independent Samples T-Test, in Appendix 10.3, several variables were tested
and only the variables showing a confidence level higher than 95% were included in the
table in Appendix 10. Firstly, students who want to pursue starting a business before or
upon graduation have parents who support their decision (4.43), more than students with
lower intentions (3.73) with a p-value of 0.000, meaning that the confidence level is
above 99.99%. Relative to each other, students with higher intentions expressed a higher
desire of becoming their own boss than the other group, with high levels of confidence
(99.98%). Students having high intentions also seemed to have higher confidence
regarding their capabilities and personal experience, as opposed to the students who had
49
lower intentions and believing less in their perceived capabilities and experience, both
having a confidence level of 99.99%. Surprisingly, students with high intentions believed
less in the importance of funding as an important factor for a startup to succeed (4.34),
compared to students with lower intentions (4.13) so this entails the difference in
perceptions on how certain factors seem more important according to their effect on the
students’ intentions. Believing startups can succeed without the support of the
government, students with high intentions to start a business upon graduation had a
higher perception than students with lower intentions with regards to this variable (3.92
and 3.47 respectively) also showing a confidence level of 99%.
As for the students who want to start their business sometime in the future, and
not necessarily after or upon graduation, tend to have different profiles and backgrounds
as well. According to appendix 10.4: 48.5% of the students having high intentions are
from AUC, 31.7% of the students are private university students and only 19.8% of them
are public university students. As for the students with lower intentions, 53.3% are AUC
Students, 30.3% of the students are from private universities and 16.4% are from public
universities. In appendix 10.5, i t is evident that students who desire to be entrepreneurs
with high intentions attend more entrepreneurial events than students with lower
perceptions (57.4% and 52.5% respectively). This data might not be skewed like the
students wanting to open their business upon graduation, because perhaps they have less
urgency to start soon.
50
Testing several variables to compare the difference in behaviors of students with
high and low intentions, the variables showing the highest confidence levels are shown in
o summarize, students who want to start their business in the future

Appendix 10.6. T
with high intentions have parents who support their decision (4.38) compared to the
students with lower intentions. They desire to be their own boss, while having more
confidence in their perceived capabilities and personal experience, as opposed to the
students having lower intentions to become entrepreneurs in the future. Those who have
higher intentions believe that entrepreneurship is a respectable career choice, which
students with low intentions seem to believe less in such perception. They also think they
can succeed regardless of the support of the government, while other students believe less
in this statement.
B. Hypothesis Testing (Inferential Statistics)
In the current section, our hypothesis will be tested using different hypothesis
testing techniques, as in Appendix 11, in order to derive conclusions and strategic
recommendations. Therefore, this section will be divided in accordance to the different
themes of the research and hypothesis generated previously.
1. Students’ pursuit of different careers (Appendix 11)
Students were asked to evaluate their likelihood of pursuing three different career
paths: working in multinationals, starting a business after five years or starting a business
upon/before graduation.
51
Hypothesis 1
H0 : Students are inclined into pursuing a career in entrepreneurship more than MNC.
Ha : Students are inclined into pursuing a career in MNC more than entrepreneurship.
After testing the difference in means of the different career paths students intend
to take; it was proven with a confidence level of 99.99% (p-values of 0.000 and 0.003)
that students are more inclined to pursue a career in multinational companies than starting
their own business. A paired sample test was done (Appendix 11.2) t o identify if there
was a difference in the means students intending to work in multinationals compared to
the two other options; and the difference was found to be significant with a confidence
level of 99.99%.
Hypothesis 2
H0 : Students who wish to open their own startups wish to do so upon graduation.
Ha : Students who wish to open their own startups wish to do so not directly after grad.
It was also proven with a confidence level of 99.99% (p-value 0.000) that students
intend to start a business in five years more than becoming entrepreneurs upon or before
graduation. As another proof, a paired sample test was conducted in Appendix 11.2 and it
was shown with high confidence (99.99%) that there is a significant difference between
the means of starting a business upon graduation and starting a business in five years.
Therefore, for the two hypotheses stated above, we were able to accept the
alternative hypothesis and reject the null hypothesis. It was proven that students’ highest
preference with regards to their career paths is working in multinational companies,
52
followed by starting their business in five years and finally, starting a business upon or
before graduation, with a confidence level higher than 95%.
Hypothesis 8:
H0: Students who believe that currently there are no market opportunities have a lower
tendency to become entrepreneurs.
Ha: Students who believe that currently there are market opportunities have a higher
tendency to become entrepreneurs.
Testing the availability of market opportunities on students tending to becoming
entrepreneurs was conducted. This independent variable alone had some significant effect
over the dependent variable, but was found insignificant when combined with other
variables, having very low effect on the tendency of becoming entrepreneurs (very low
standardized coefficient). Therefore, other variables had greater effect on the dependent
variables so we failed to accept the alternative hypothesis and failed to reject the null
hypothesis.
2. Factors influencing the rise of potential entrepreneurs
(Appendix 12)
Hypothesis 3:
H0 : Parents’ support to the student’s decision of becoming an entrepreneur has no effect
on the student’s tendency to do so.
Ha : Parents’ support to the student’s decision of becoming an entrepreneur affects the
student’s tendency to do so.
Hypothesis 4:
53
H0 : B
eing one's own boss has no effect on the student’s tendency to do so.
Ha: Being one's own boss affects the student’s tendency to do so.
Hypothesis 5:
H0 : Perception on personal experience has no effect on the student’s tendency to become
entrepreneurs
Ha: Perception of personal experience affects the student’s tendency to become

entrepreneurs.
Hypothesis 6:
H0 : S tudents’ perception of their capabilities does not affect their tendency to become
entrepreneurs.
Ha: Students’ perception of their capabilities affects their tendency to become

entrepreneurs.
After testing the students’ preference for their future plans and proving it with high levels
of confidence, it is of huge importance to identify the factors that are significant to have an effect
and casualty on the students’ decisions to become entrepreneurs upon or before graduation.
That being said, after testing several variables that may have an effect on their decision, the most
significant factors are tested in a multiple regression in Appendix 12.1. Looking at the
standardized coefficients, it is found that the variable with the strongest effect is the students’
perceived capabilities to start a new business (p-value 0.000), followed by the parents' support to
the students’ decision on becoming entrepreneurs (p-value 0.000) and lastly, their perceived
personal experience (0.035), which has a negative standardized coefficient because it is a reverse
statement. The three variables are proven with a confidence level higher than 95%, that they
have both a positive correlation and causality with the students’ decision of starting a business
54
upon graduation. Evaluating the accuracy of the points on the line, the R-Squared of the
regression line is 21.7%.
The same test was done, but in order to test the tendencies to start a business in five
years in Appendix 12.2, a s opposed to the previous test. Having similar results, four factors were
shown to be significant to the dependent variable; which are, starting with the most dominant
variable, parents’ support to the students’ decision, followed by perceived capabilities, tendency
to become one’s own boss and lastly, perceived personal experience (having a negative
standardized coefficient because it is a reverse statement). Perceived personal experience has a
slightly higher p-value of 0.125, meaning that when divided to its half since it is a one tail test,
the confidence level of this variable’s effect will be 0.0625, which can be negotiable.As for the
accuracy of the points on the line, the R-Squared is 32.9%, which is relatively good.
Overall, the three common variables having an effect on the two proposed dependent
variables, while controlling for the other variables respectively, are the parents’ support to their
decision, perceived capabilities and perceived personal experience. Therefore, we were able to
accept the four alternative hypotheses and reject the four null hypotheses mentioned previously.
3. Impact of Media and Events (Appendix 13)
Hypothesis 9:
H0 : Students are not getting more exposed to startups and entrepreneurs from social media.
Ha : Students are getting more exposed to startups and entrepreneurs from social media.
Hypothesis 10:
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H0 : Students do not think social media portrays entrepreneurship as a “trend” .
Ha : Students think social media portrays entrepreneurship as a “trend”
Social media and entrepreneurial events, such as RiseUp, have increased over the years
when showcasing entrepreneurship related topics or trends. That being said, two simple linear
regressions were conducted in order to test the impact of the entrepreneurial seminars and the
social media exposure in portraying entrepreneurship as a trend. Appendix 13.1 shows that
entrepreneurial events have a significant effect on portraying entrepreneurship as a trend, with a
confidence level of 96.8% (p-value 0.064/2= 0.032). While Appendix 13.2 also shows a strong
significance between the social media in exposing entrepreneurship and how it portrays it as a
trend, with a confidence level of 99.99% (p-value 0.000). When combining both independent
variables in Appendix 13.3, it was proven that the social media exposure has a more significant
effect on portraying entrepreneurship as a trend than entrepreneurial events, due to the high
p-value of the entrepreneurial events in the multiple regression and due to its low standardized
coefficient compared to the social media exposure. In this case, we are able to accept the two
alternative hypotheses proposed earlier and reject their null hypothesis.
Hypothesis 7:
H0: The less exposure on entrepreneurship that social media provides the students with, the
lower their tendency to become entrepreneurs.
Ha: The more exposure on entrepreneurship that social media provides the students with, the
higher their tendency to become entrepreneurs.
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We had expectations regarding the correlation and causality of social media with the
tendency to becoming entrepreneurs. However, after running regression and correlation tests, we
found insignificant results and we could not infer conclusions. Thus, we failed to accept the
alternative hypotheses and failed to reject the null hypothesis.
4. Entrepreneurship Education (Appendix 14)
Entrepreneurship education is one of the most crucial aspects of our research. That being
said, students were asked to evaluate and allocate importances to four different educational
pillars, which are internships, entrepreneurship classes, extracurricular activities and talks/panel
discussion in universities. Comparing the differences between the level of entrepreneurship
education in classes in an Anova test, it is shown in Appendix 14.1 that AUC has the highest
entrepreneurship education in classes, compared to public and private universities. However, it
was found that there is a significant difference in the entrepreneurship education in classes
between public and private universities (p-value of 0.235/2 = 0.117), with a confidence level of
88.25%.
Hypothesis 14:
H0 : Students don’t think that educational institutions should incorporate mandatory basic
Ha : Students think that educational institutions should incorporate mandatory basic
Hypothesis 15:
57
H0 : There is no difference between practical and theoretical education in teaching
entrepreneurship for students.
Ha : Practical experience impacts entrepreneurial knowledge more than teaching

theoretical entrepreneurial modules in classrooms.
Starting with a one sample t-test, Appendix 14.2, s tudents allocated the highest
importance to internships (mean of 4.31), followed by entrepreneurship classes (mean of 4.14),
talks and panel discussions (mean of 4.1) and extracurricular activities (mean of 3.94). These
importances were proven with a confidence level of 99/99% (p-value of 0.000).
Taking this finding into a deeper level, Appendix 14.3 s hows a paired sample of the
differences of the importances and evaluations of each respective pillar, in order to see where is
the biggest entrepreneurial educational gap. Hence, the largest mean difference was in the
internships followed by entrepreneurship classes, talks, and finally extracurricular, which had a
negative mean difference, inferring that its evaluation has surpassed its importance in teaching
entrepreneurship. The differences in means was significant with a confidence level of 99.99%
(p-value of 0.000).
When comparing the difference of the importances of the four pillars in Appendix 14.4, a
strong significance in shown in the difference, showing with a confidence level of 99.99% that
internships were ranked as the most important pillar, relative to other pillars, in teaching
entrepreneurship, followed by entrepreneurship classes, talks and finally extracurriculars, having
the least important. This is shown in the mean differences - with large differences, like in
internships and extracurricular activities, conveying a huge difference in importance. Therefore,
58
this paired sample also proved the hierarchies in the importance of different teaching pedagogies
in transferring entrepreneurship education to students.
Finally, with regards to the four pillars, the evaluations of each pillar in respective to the
other was tested in Appendix 11.5 which conveyed that the extracurricular activities had the
highest evaluation, which refers to how universities are increasing and normalizing the
availability of extracurricular activities on campuses, followed by talks, classes and finally,
internships. This also proves how internships have the lowest evaluation respective to the other
pillars, which is something that needs to be further endorsed in universities. In fact, the
evaluation of internships was 3.13; so as it is going to be further discussed in the
recommendation, this mean gives great opportunity and space for policy makers to incorporate
internships, due to the large distance between its current evaluation and perceived importance.
Those differences were found to be significant with a confidence level of 99.99% (p-value
0.000).
As mentioned previously, perceived capabilities is one of the most significant factors that
affect the students’ decisions on becoming entrepreneurs. Therefore, a multiple regression was
conducted to test the effect of internships evaluation and perceived personal experience on the
students’ perceived capabilities (Appendix 11.6). It was found that the two independent variables
have a significant effect on the dependent variable; which is perceived capabilities, with a
confidence level of 99.99% for the perceived experience variable and 98.2% for the internship
evaluations (p-value 0.036/2 = 0.018). Also, perceived personal experience had a higher
59
standardized coefficient than internships evaluations; so implying that it has a greater effect on
the perceived capabilities of the students.
Overall, we were able to accept the two proposed alternative hypotheses and reject their
null hypotheses with high levels of confidence, since students still perceive entrepreneurship
classes of huge importance and they allocate the greatest importance to internships - practical
experience.
VPerceptions on government awareness and efforts (Appendix 15)
Hypothesis 12:
H0 : Students are aware of the government support.
Ha : Students are unaware of the support of the government.
Hypothesis 13:
H0 : Students do not think the government is making initiatives in favor of entrepreneurs.
Ha : Students think the government is making initiatives in favor of entrepreneurs.
Hypothesis 14:
H0 : Government support is not one of the detrimental factors for entrepreneurs to succeed.
Ha : Government support is one of the detrimental factors for entrepreneurs to succeed.
Moving on to the other factors that might affect students’ intentions to start a business,
government-related factors were tested. A one sample t-test was conducted to compare their
perceptions and awareness towards the government. In appendix 15.1, s tudents believe that
startups can succeed regardless of the government support (mean of 3.58). They are also not
aware of the governmental support provided to startups in the market (mean of 2.59) but they
60
still think that the government is doing initiatives to support startups (3.49). These means were
proven with a confidence level of 99.99% (p-value 0.000).
Getting a closer look at the students with different behaviors, students with high
itnentions to start a business upon or before graduation tend to believe that startups can succeed
regardless of the government support, more than students with lower intentions. In appendix
15.2, it is proven with 99.3% confidence that students with high intention have different
perceptions than students with lower intentions regarding the support of the government needed
for startups to succeed. The other two government-related variables were also tested but we
could not infer conclusions due to the low levels of confidence.That being said, we were able to
prove the three alternative hypotheses mentioned earlier and reject the three null hypotheses with
a high level of confidence.
V. Conclusions & Recommendations
1. Change the narrative of traditional media
Parents’ support to their childrens’ decision of becoming entrepreneurs has a very high effect on
the students’ tendency to become entrepreneurs before or after graduation (appendix 12.1) and
even within five years from now (appendix 12.2). However, this support may not be common
because of the social and cultural perceptions of failure, which is the fate of many startups and
entrepreneurs. Therefore, we recommend a national plan to change the narrative on
entrepreneurship among youth. Failure should not be a taboo that prevents parents from
61
encouraging Egypt’s young talents from even attempting to build their own startups. It should
rather be properly addressed by showing aspiring entrepreneurs the full picture.
This can be done by highlighting certain startups to the masses: startups that have achieved high
financial benchmarks and high-impact startups. Startups that generate high revenues and have
high valuations reflect financial success for the founders as well as the whole team working in
the startup because financial wellbeing is always an important factor for the youth. Mr. Taher,
founder of Orcas, provided us with a personal witness on how financial success acts as a driver
for many young entrepreneurs he knows. The second criteria is to highlight startups with high
social impact to the masses. Startups such as SWVL and WUZZUF would be good examples
since they impact millions of individuals on a daily basis, which makes them viable successful
stories for the masses.
2. Introduction of Entrepreneurship Education in Universities
Entrepreneurship education is not well integrated in most of the public universities in Egypt.
However, students ranked entrepreneurship classes as the second most important factor
contributing to their learning about entrepreneurship (appendix 14.3). There is also a
significantly large gap between the student’s perception of how important entrepreneurship
classes are and their evaluation of what they receive currently in their universities. This might
not necessarily lead to more entrepreneurs graduating from those universities immediately, but
more students will graduate with an entrepreneurial mindset that will reflect on their professional
careers and might influence them to be entrepreneurs even if not right away.
62
3. Enhance Experiential Learning
There should be more experiential learning offered to students to give them a real experience of
what it is like to be an entrepreneur or work in a startup. This should be done in-class and even
outside the classroom. It can be done in-class by partnering with various startups to provide
real-time case studies to give students of the obstacles faced by entrepreneurs early on in their
journeys. This can either take the form of individual case studies distributed over the whole
length of the courses, or it can also be done as a holistic project that counts towards the students’
coursework. The latter option might provide more in-depth experience coupled with results
achieved since it will be a lengthier project that is similar to interning in a startup. The
government might also encourage students to intern in startups during their summer vacations
through separate initiatives with startups that see a benefit in partnering in such initiatives.
Alongside the regular benefits of having student interns, participating startups can be offered
other governmental incentives.
4. Increase Awareness of Government Support
In the research, it was discovered that students have a low awareness of the support that the
government offers to entrepreneurs and what initiatives are being taken. This is not only
exclusive to students since our qualitative research concluded that even entrepreneurs who have
already started do not know much on government regulations with regards to entrepreneurship.
There should be more on-campus presence to market for that governmental support across all
universities in Egypt to allow students and aspiring entrepreneurs to benefit from that support.
This could also be achieved through organizing student competitions with government presence
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and support to spread awareness about the government’s initiatives in an experiential approach
for the students.
Although our research concluded that students believe that they can succeed regardless of the
government’s support, it is still important to make that success journey easier for them especially
when there are initiatives already in place. More importantly, heavily-regulated industries, such
as Fintech and Regtech, have higher barriers that entrepreneurs may not always be able to
overcome. Some startups simply will not be able to operate without the easing off and support
provided by the government. Luckily, the government is already taking steps in those two
particular industries to achieve its mission of higher financial inclusion, however, those steps are
not made known to students.
64
65
g. Appendices
I. Experts Interview Questions (Appendix 1)
1. In your view, how did the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Egypt change over the last
decade?
2. What drivers (ecosystem-specific or not) led to the increase in entrepreneurial activity
among Egyptian youth?
- Ecosystem: Funding, mentorship, access to funding,
- Non-ecosystem: Bigger pool of skilled calibers to work in startups (desire to work
in startups over MNCs),
- Is it a trend among youth to start a business? Is it based on opportunities in the
market or a general aspiration?
3. What is the reason behind the policymakers’ and ministers’ increased attention paid to
entrepreneurship? Why is it a priority to them?
4. What support from the ecosystem do young entrepreneurs need to start, succeed and grow
their businesses?
- What governmental support currently exists
- What is on the way
5. How can we improve entrepreneurship education to support entrepreneurship in Egypt?

- Formal governmental education and informal education (workshops, co-working
paces…)
6. To what extent did events such as RiseUp raise their attendees’ potential of becoming
successful entrepreneurs?
7. (For incubators & VCs) What is the background, education, behavioral traits of the
applicants of your (name the incubator)? Which ones get accepted? And hence: What
entrepreneurial traits/mindsets are needed to succeed even after their graduation from
your (name the incubator)?
66
8. How to further promote entrepreneurship among youth and ensure they succeed?
67
2. Babson College (Appendix 2)
1. How did the perceptions about entrepreneurship change over time among college
students?
2. What are your endeavors at enhancing entrepreneurship education?
3. Is entrepreneurship education in Babson about teaching the business of
fundamentals of marketing and finance, or is it about teaching creativity and
innovation? How can both be integrated?
4. How does Babson train its educators?
68
3. Focus group guide for the qualitative fieldwork (Appendix 3)
i. Objective of the Study
Thoroughly understand university students’ perceptions on becoming an

entrepreneur in Egypt.
ii. Opening/Ice Breaking Questions and Announcements
● Ask the students to introduce themselves; name, age, major, class standing.
● Explain the nature and concept of a focus group
● Explain the aim of this particular focus group and how it is moderated (specify
time of the study, encourage different views and that there are no right
answers, invite them to eat/drink from the food available, etc.
● Ice breaker: how is your university/professors accommodating to online
learning?
iii. Introductory Questions
● What comes to your mind when you hear the word “entrepreneurship”?
iv. Transition Questions
● In your view, what is entrepreneurship?

● Who do you consider is an entrepreneur? Can you name a few examples?
● How is a startup different from any other company? Can you name a couple of
startups you know?
● Did entrepreneurship change during the last couple of years? How?
v. Key Question #1
● What career do you aspire to pursue? Why?

○ Probing questions
○ Do you aspire to be an entrepreneur someday? Please elaborate
why.
○ How do you perceive working in multinational companies?
○ What or who influenced your decision?
○ To what extent are your parents or friends supportive?
vi. Key Question #2
● Describe the typical young entrepreneur

69
○ What traits and behaviors do they have?
○ What is their typical day at work?
○ What type of experience or education do these young
entrepreneurs have?
vii. Key Question #3
● How does the media portray entrepreneurship in Egypt?

○ What do you think of the increase of entrepreneurial events such as
RiseUp?
○ Do you see it more of a trend, or as opportunities in the markets that
entrepreneurs are trying to seize?
○ How are you being exposed to existing successful entrepreneurs?
viii. Key Question #4
● What challenges do you think entrepreneurs face?

○ What traits do you perceive as most important for an entrepreneur to
succeed?
○ In your opinion, what are the fears of entrepreneurs?
○ How is the society and community reacting to entrepreneurs? (e.g.
parents, friends, etc.)
ix. Key Question #5
● What drivers, in your opinion, made entrepreneurship more attractive to

youth of our generation?
○ What type of support do you think entrepreneurs are receiving
nowadays? (in terms of enablers, education, investors, etc.)
○ Do you think the government’s support is contributing to the increase
in startups we see? How?
○ What is the role of entrepreneurship education in boosting
entrepreneurship (if it does)?
x. Key Question #6
● What are your recommendations for more ideas for the government and
entities in the ecosystem to support and drive entrepreneurship?
70
○ What support from the government can be improved or changed?
○ What reforms should happen in education to support youth in
entrepreneurship?
○ What other support do you see necessary to be enhance from other
stakeholders such as investors, enablers, media, etc?
xi. Summarizing
● How do you think Egypt is progressing in terms of entrepreneurship

activity?
● What are your expectations in the future of entrepreneurship in Egypt?
71
4. Entrepreneurs Interview Questions (Appendix 4)
1. Please introduce yourself

a. Name of startup
b. Number of years operating
c. Industry you are operating in
2. How do you think the entrepreneurial activity in Egypt has changed over the last
decade?
3. What are the drivers that pushed you to start your business and become an
entrepreneur?
4. Do you think there is an increase in entrepreneurship because of it becoming a
trend, more than being based on opportunities in the market?
a. How does the media portray and expose entrepreneurship?
5. What kind of education helped you when you started your business? And what do
you think is missing in regards to entrepreneurship education?
a. Formal education, enablers’ mentorship
6. What are the main challenges you faced, and how were you able to overcome
them?
a. General challenges or industry-specific
7. What support did you receive when you first started your business?
a. From enablers, government, investors ( Is there any startup level, in the ecosystem,
that is missing funding?)
72
8. Has there been any kind of progression in the support that the government gives to
entrepreneurs?
a. Laws, regulations, awareness, etc. (general or industry-specific)
9. What support is still needed from the government in order to further encourage
entrepreneurship in Egypt?
a. What do you think is the major factor that is missing and needs to be addressed
and enhanced by government officials?
73
5. Names & Profiles of Students (Appendix 5)
We had five students from private universities and three students from public
universities. The two students from the American University in Cairo were Doha Shoukry, a
junior majoring in Accounting, and Darin Hany, a junior, double majoring in Political Science
and Mass Communication. Two of the students were enrolled in the British University in Egypt:
Ann George - the only student entrepreneur - a senior majoring in Entrepreneurship, and Salma
El Masry, a senior majoring in International Business. Lastly, a student from the German
University in Cairo, Nader Jimmy, a junior double majoring in Marketing and Entrepreneurship.
As for the students enrolled in national universities, they were all students in Cairo University.
They included Abdallah Ghoneim, an Aerospace Engineering graduating senior, Ola Nour, a
senior in the Faculty of Commerce, and finally, Salma, a junior in Economics and Political
Science. The two focus groups were held on March 27th and April 4th.
74
6. Names and Profiles of Entrepreneurs (Appendix 6)
In the blockchain industry, an interview was made with Mr. Amr Saleh, Founder of Elk,
which had developed hardware for blockchain and was unfortunately shut down in 2019.
Another interview was held with Mr. Baher Abdallah and Mr. Ibrahim Eid, co-Founders of
Valify, one of the earliest regulatory-tech startups in Egypt and the first one to enter the Central
Bank of Egypt’s sandbox that incubates regtech and fintech startups adding new elements in the
Egyptian financial sector but still need proper regulation. Two founders of two ed-tech startups
were also interviewed: Ms. Dima Soury, co-founder of Agora, and Mr. Hossam Taher, founder
of Orcas. As for the fashion and lifestyle industry, we have interviewed Ms. Yasmeen Khamis,
co-founder of The Doodle Factory, a social startup that contributes to providing better lives for
underprivileged children. Leading one of the top furniture startups in Egypt, we also had an
interview with Mr. Khaled Atallah, Ariika’ s CEO and Managing Partner. As a founder of one of
the first companies that has been established in the field of solar energy in the region, Mr.
Ahmed Zahran, founder of KarmSolar, was also interviewed. Lastly, in the field of digital
as conducted. A
recruitment, an interview with Mr. Basil Fateen, founder of HireHunt w ll
interviews were conducted from April 4th to April 14th.
75
7. Questionnaire Guide & Codebook (Appendix 7)
This survey is conducted to gain insights from students on the rise of entrepreneurship in
Egypt for a Marketing Research course. Results will remain anonymous and will only be
used for research purposes. The survey will not take more than 10 minutes to complete.
Thank you very much!
Filter Question
1. Which statement describes you the most? (TypeStu)
a. Student (1)
b. Student Entrepreneur (2)
Rate the following questions from 1-5 (1 being very unlikely and 5 being very likely)
2. How likely are you to start a business within the coming 5 years? (StartBus)
3. How likely are you to start a business before or upon graduation? (Bus Grad)
4. How likely do you see yourself working in a multinational company? (Mnc)
Rate the following questions from 1-5 (1 being strongly disagree and 5 being strongly agree)
5. I plan to join my family business (FamBus)
6. My parents are supportive to my decision of being an entrepreneur (Parents)
7. I want to be my own boss (Boss)
8. I do not want to have a 9-5 desk job (DeskJob)
76
9. Entrepreneurship is a respectable career choice (CareerCh)
10. Anyone can become an entrepreneur (AnyEnt)
11. I think there are good opportunities to start new businesses in the market (MktOpp)
12. I think it is risky to start a new business (Risk)
13. I believe that I am capable of starting a business on my own (Capab)
14. I do not have enough experience to start a new business (PersExp)
15. Having work experience is not necessary for someone to be a successful entrepreneur
(WorkExp)
16. Successful entrepreneurs must have a creative mindset (Mindset)
17. Successful entrepreneurs create opportunities that fulfills a need in the market
(MktNeed)
18. I am aware of the programs that the government is offering to support start-ups
(GovSupp)
19. I am aware of the Central Bank of Egypt’s loan programs for the different types of
startups (CBESupp)
20. It is very hard to market and promote a start-up in Egypt (Mktg)
21. There is a good ecosystem supporting start-ups in Egypt (Ecosystem)
22. I think the government is increasing its initiatives to support startups (Initiative)
23. The social media has given me more exposure on startups in Egypt (MediaEXPO)
24. I think the social media portrays entrepreneurship in Egypt as a trend (Trend)
Rate the following questions from 1-5 (1 being very unlikely and 5 being very likely)
77
25. How important is passion as a trait for successful entrepreneurs to have?
(PassionIMP)
26. How important is funding for entrepreneurs to startup their business? (FundingIMP)
Nominal Scale Question (Yes/No):
27. I have attended at least one entrepreneurial event
a. Yes (1)
b. No (2)
Rate the following questions from 1-5 (1 being strongly disagree and 5 being strongly agree)
28. Entrepreneurial events made me more exposed to the different pillars of
entrepreneurship (EventsEXPO)
29. Educating entrepreneurial concepts and skills need to be enhanced in universities
(EntrEduc)
How important are the following factors in teaching entrepreneurship in Egypt? (1 being not
important at all, 5 being very important)
30. How important are extracurricular activities such as clubs in teaching
entrepreneurship to students (ExtCurIMP)
31. How important are Entrepreneurship classes in teaching entrepreneurship to students
(EntClassIMP)
32. How important are Internship opportunities in startups in teaching entrepreneurship to
students (InternIMP)
78
33. How important are talks and panel discussions by guest entrepreneurs in teaching
entrepreneurship to students (TalksIMP)
Rate the effectiveness of your university in the following statements (1 being ineffective, 5
being effective)
34. Evaluate your university on the extracurricular activities such as clubs
(ExtCurEVAL)
35. Evaluate your university on entrepreneurship classes that are provided
(EntClassEVAL)
36. Evaluate your university on internship opportunities in startups that are provided
(InternEVAL)
37. Evaluate your university on talks and panel discussions by guest entrepreneurs that
are provided (TalksEVAL)
Rate the following statements from 1-5 (1 being strongly disagree, 5 being strongly agree)
38. In the university I am enrolled in, I learn about entrepreneurship in my classes
(UniEntClass)
39. The university I am enrolled in has taught me entrepreneurial skills through
extracurricular activities (clubs, student organizations) (UniExtCur)
40. Startups can succeed regardless of the support that is provided by the government
(StartupGov).
Demographics
79
41. Age
a. <18 (1)
b. 18-23 (2)
c. 24-30, (3)
d. 31-45, (4)
e. >45 (5)
42. Current year in university
a. 1st (1)
b. 2nd-3rd (2)
c. 4th (3)
43. Major
a. Engineering (1)
b. Business Administration (2)
c. Economics (3)
d. Political Science (4)
e. Mass Communication (5)
f. Medicine (6)
g. Other (7)
44. University
a. AUC (1)
b. GUC (2)
c. MIU (3)
d. BUE (4)
80
e. Cairo University (5)
f. Ain Shams (6)
g. Other (7)
45. Univ(2)
a. AUC (1)
b. Private Universities (2)
c. Public Universities (3)
46. StartBus(2)
a. Low Intentions (1)
b. High Intentions (2)
47. BusGrad(2)
a. Low Intentions (1)
b. High Intentions (2)
81
8. Descriptive Statistics (Appendix 8)
82
83
9. Descriptive Statistics (Appendix 9)
84
10. Sampling Characteristics/Profile (Appendix 10)
10.1: Cross Tabulation to describe the students’ educational background (Upon Grad)
10.2: Cross tabulation: students with entrepreneurial events attendance
85
10.3: Independent Samples T-Test for Comparing Students’ Profiles (Upon Grad)
86
10.4: Cross Tabulation to describe the students’ educational background (Future)
10.5: Cross tabulation: students with entrepreneurial events attendance
87
10.6: Independent Samples T-Test for Comparing Students’ Profiles (Future)
88
11. Hypothesis Testing
1. Students pursuing different careers (Appendix 11)
Appendix 11.1: One Sample T-Test for three different options
89
Appendix 11.2: Paired Sample for the three career options
90
2. Factors influencing the rise of potential entrepreneurs (Appendix 12)
Appendix 12.1: Multiple Regression for the most significant factors on starting a
business upon/before graduation
91
Appendix 12.2: Multiple Regression for the most significant factors on
starting a business in five years
92
3. Effect of Media Exposure (Appendix 13)
Appendix 13.1: Simple linear regression: entrepreneurial events exposure (x) and
media portraying entrepreneurship as a trend (y)
93
Appendix 13.2: Simple linear regression: social media exposure (x) and media
portraying entrepreneurship as a trend (y)
94
Appendix 13.3 Multiple regression: events exposure & social media exposure (x)
with media portraying entrepreneurship as a trend (y)
95
4. Entrepreneurship Education (Appendix 14)
Appendix 14.1: Anova: Comparing entrepreneurship classes among the different

universities
Appendix 14.2: One Sample T-Test to compare means of educational pillars
importances
96
97
Appendix 14.3: Paired sample for importances and evaluations of the four pillars
98
Appendix 14.4: Paired samples for differences in importances of the four pillars
99
Appendix 14.5: Paired sample for the difference between the evaluations of the pillars
100
Appendix 14.6: Multiple regression: effect of internships evaluation and personal
experience (x) on capabilities (y)
101
5. Government awareness and support (Appendix 15).
Appendix 15.1: One sample t-tests for the three government-related factors
Appendix 15.2: Independent samples t-test for students with high and low intentions (grad)
against the statement that startups can succeed regardless of the governmental support
102
Appendix 16: Summary Tables
1. One Sample T-Tests
One-Sample Statistics
Mean Sig. (2-tailed)
StartupGov 3.58
Initative 3.49 0
GovSupp 2.58 0
StartBus 3.26 0
BusGrad 2.41 0.003
Mnc 3.75 0
ExtCurIMP 3.94 0
EntrClassIMP 4.14 0
InternIMP 4.31 0
TalksIMP 4.1 0
2. Independent Samples T-Test

a. Starting a business upon graduation
Group
Statistics
StrartGrad2 Mean Sig. Sig. (2-tailed)
Boss Low Intention 3.96
High Intention 4.43 0.2 0.003
CareerCh Low Intention 4.44 0.001
Parents Low Intention 3.72 0.199
High Intention 4.43 0.012 0
Risk Low Intention 3.91 0
103
Capab Low Intention 3.18 0.618
PersExp Low Intention 3.8 0
GovSupp Low Intention 2.62 0.002
StartupGov Low Intention 3.47 0.418
b. Starting a business in the future
Group
Statistics
StartBus2 Mean Sig. Sig. (2-tailed)
Boss Low Intention 3.8
high Intention 4.41 0 0
CareerCh Low Intention 4.4 0
high Intention 4.56 0.084 0.102
Parents Low Intention 3.49 0.097
high Intention 4.38 0 0
Risk Low Intention 3.84 0
Capab Low Intention 3.09 0.173
high Intention 3.7 0.69 0
PersExp Low Intention 3.89 0
high Intention 3.39 0.218 0
GovSupp Low Intention 2.51 0
StartupGov Low Intention 3.41 0.369
104
3. Paired Samples T-Test
Paired Samples Test

Paired Differences
Mean Sig. (2-tailed)
Pair 1 Mnc - BusGrad 1.341
Pair 2 Mnc - StartBus 0.493 0
StartBus -
Pair 3 BusGrad 0.848 0
EntrClassIMP -
Pair 4 EntClassEVAL 0.861 0
InternIMP -
Pair 5 InternEVAL 1.175 0
TalksIMP -
Pair 6 TalksEVAL 0.659 0
ExtCurIMP -
Pair 7 ExtCurEVAL 0.166 0
InternIMP -
Pair 8 ExtCurIMP 0.372 0.1
InternIMP -
Pair 9 EntrClassIMP 0.166 0
InternIMP -
Pair 10 TalksIMP 0.211 0.008
EntrClassIMP -
EntrClassIMP -
Pair 12 TalksIMP 0.045 0.002
TalksIMP -
ExtCurEVAL -
Pair 14 EntClassEVAL 0.489 0.06
ExtCurEVAL -
105
ExtCurEVAL -
Pair 16 TalksEVAL 0.332 0
TalksEVAL -
TalksEVAL -
Pair 18 EntClassEVAL 0.157 0.045
EntClassEVAL -
Pair 19 InternEVAL 0.148 0.054
106
References
- “Young Egyptians Driving Entrepreneurship Growth.” ICSB, Icsbioadmin, 7 Nov. 2018,

icsb2019.com/young-egyptians-driving-entrepreneurship-growth/.
- “Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Attitudes.” Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, 2019,
www.gemconsortium.org/economy-profiles/egypt.
- White, Doug & Polly. “Entrepreneurs Turn the Classic Theory of Maslow's Hierarchy of
Needs on Its Head.” Entrepreneur Middle East, 3 Nov. 2015,
www.entrepreneur.com/article/252362.
- “Fostering Entrepreneurial Youth.” UNIDO - United Nations Industrial Development
Organization, June 2016,
www.unido.org/sites/default/files/2016-06/ECP_brochure_FINAL_0.pdf.
- Reda, Lolwa. “Entrepreneurs Voice Challenges They Faced: Experiences from Different
Industries.” Egypt Today, 14 Dec. 2014,
www.egypttoday.com/Article/3/61953/Entrepreneurs-voice-challenges-they-faced-Experi
ences-from-different-industries.
- Barringer, Bruce R., and R. D. Ireland. Entrepreneurship: Successfully Launching New

Ventures. Pearson, Boston, 2016.
- “Highlights of The Central Bank of Egypt’sFinTech and Innovation Strategy.” Central
Bank of Egypt. December 2019.
-
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The Rise of Startups in Egypt

Farida El Mahmoudy 900171515

Mariam Boktor 900170040

Rawan Zaky 900172900

Ali El Taher 900170246

Farid El Raheb 900160782

Submitted to Dr. Ahmed Tolba

MKTG 320102 - Marketing Research

c. Problem & Research Questions……………………………………………………...2

e. Research Design Methodology………………………………………………..……..5

ii. Focus Groups Analysis…………………………………………………..…..19

iii. Entrepreneurs’ Interviews……………………………………………….…...27

ii. Sampling Plan………………………………………………………………...45

iii. Data Collection Process………………………………………………………46

iv. Data Analysis and Findings……………………………………………...……47

1. Sample Characteristics (Descriptive Statistics)....................................47

2. Hypothesis Testing (Inferential Statistics).............................................51

h. Conclusions & Strategic Recommendations……………………………………….….58

In recent years, entrepreneurship in Egypt has gained popularity among young

highest potential to being entrepreneurs.

C. Problem Identification & Research Questions

support the current positive trends​?

what factors are still missing?

​III. Research Questions:

1. What drivers (ecosystem-specific or not) support from the ecosystem do young

entrepreneurs need to start, succeed and grow their businesses?

2. What entrepreneurial traits/mindsets are needed to succeed?

4. How can we improve entrepreneurship education to support entrepreneurship in Egypt?

5. What challenges do entrepreneurs face to start their business?

D. Target Market Description (Study Population)

scope and budget of this research.

​ esearch Design Methodology

In the​ exploratory phase,​ w

the internet; such as the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor.

As for the qualitative research, we conducted:

be discussed further in the analysis.

we have interviewed experts in the field: Mr. Mohamed Rahmy, Managing

​ r. Youssef El Samaa, Managing Director of ​Falak

Advancement of Global Entrepreneurial Learning ​as well as Dr. Jamie Kendroski,

Director of International Services and Multicultural Education in Babson College

c. Interviews ​with young entrepreneurs from various industries ​(Appendix 3)

recommendations to policy makers.

A. Drivers increasing the entrepreneurial activity in Egypt

entrepreneurial activity in Egypt. According to the GEM report of Egypt of 2017-2018,

75.9% of Egyptians viewed entrepreneurship as a good career choice. It is worth noting

noticeable in the support of governmental leadership and policy makers towards

prioritizing entrepreneurship, through launching support programs or initiating new laws

in their favor, such as investment and licensing (GEM Report, 2018).

B. Traits needed for an entrepreneur to succeed

Since entrepreneurship is not a lenient field; a person must possess certain

“Entrepreneurship: Successfully launching new ventures”; what they consider a

a. Passion for the business:

c. Tenacity despite failure:

Since entrepreneurship is usually a risky business; which is also known as an

and the ability to bounce back.

According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2017/2018 on Egypt’s

contributed to the rise of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Egypt. However, young

support the current positive trends?

III. Research Questions:

esearch Design Methodology

In the exploratory phase, w

r. Youssef El Samaa, Managing Director of Falak

Advancement of Global Entrepreneurial Learning as well as Dr. Jamie Kendroski,

c. Interviews with young entrepreneurs from various industries (Appendix 3)

Global Entrepreneurial Learning as well as Dr. Jamie Kendroski, Director of

International Services and Multicultural Education in Babson College, o ne of the top

Mr. Mohamed Rahmy, Managing Director of Endeavor, mentioned in his

even sometimes reach levels of stubbornness to succeed Execution intelligence was

C. Ecosystem support needed to start and grow businesses

Interestingly Dr. Reza stressed on the importance of liberal arts education in

form of education beyond the mechanics of startups.” he added, “Entrepreneurship

students are mentioned in Appendix 5.

hear the word “entrepreneurship.” The students’ impressions were somehow

opinion, claiming that, “The media romanticizes entrepreneurship and pictures it in a