International statistics show that 20 percent of new ventures may fail in the first year, 30 percent may not survive their second year, and 50 percent may not make it past five years.
These numbers are frightening and may discourage new founders from taking the first step. To face this scare with confidence, all you need is a mentor or a mentorship program to accompany you through the different phases of your project.
The first thing mentorship provides is a validation of your idea. Mentors and mentoring programs will not waste time and effort in helping a project that does not sound solid and promising. Once your project gets the approval of an experienced entrepreneur or organization, you have accomplished your first step towards success.
But the most valuable benefit of mentorship is knowledge acquisition. Mentors transfer invaluable knowledge acquired through years of experience to mentees, helping them avoid unnecessary hurdles and prepare to deal with foreseen challenges.
An additional benefit offered by mentorship is networking. Projects and businesses do not function in isolation. They need a network of connections to thrive. Mentors connect newbies to relevant individuals and entities to help them expand and scale their ventures.
In Lebanon, several institutions offer mentoring programs that you can apply for with your project. In what follows, I will introduce some of these programs and highlight a project that benefited from their mentorship.
Before diving in, I would like to direct your attention towards Ebtedy’s open call for application to Meet Your Mentor, a mentoring program for Creatives that will take place online between March and June 2022 in Arabic or English, depending on your preference. If you are based in Iraq, Jordan, or Lebanon, you can benefit from the guidance of an experienced professional by applying to the program before 13th March 2022. A second round of this mentoring program will take place the autumn.
Mentoring Programs In Lebanon
With a focus on design, strategic thinking, and circular economy, Fantasmeem offers creative professionals and social entrepreneurs an incubator program to support the development of new ideas and the scaling of newly launched startups.
Mentors within the program lead participants towards the development of a sustainable business model viable in a circular economy. It also connects them to relevant individuals and institutions within their field of work. And it enhances their marketing and communication skills, a key component to the success of any venture.
Led by young founder Sara Dsouki, Speetra Design Studio is an initiative that benefited from the professional training of Fantasmeem. Speetra aims at digitizing the fashion industry by introducing digital design and 3D Printed textiles. In 2020, Speetra won German Green Product Award and participated in International Fashion Weeks in Paris and New York.
Founded in 2002, Berytech is one of the oldest startup incubators in Lebanon. Although Berytech does not cater to a specific niche of startups, it, however, offers an inclusive range of training programs. Environmental sustainability is at the heart of many entrepreneurship programs initiated by the organization, so sectors like tech, food, and energy are the current focus of Berytech, however, the arts and culture sector is included in their programs.
An example of a cultural initiative that benefited from a Berytech program is MAD (Music. Art. Design). MAD is an online creative platform founded by Lise and Rima Yacoub. MAD aims to identify new talents, promote artists, connect them with advertisers, and international venues, help them transition their art to the digital sphere, and equip them with the right tools to become successful Artpreneurs.
Arts and Culture Entrepreneurship Program
ACE program is a training program initiated by the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC). The program specifically targets cultural initiatives and organizations in Lebanon and the Arab region. The program’s modules include strategic thinking, fundraising and outreach, microfinance, and social media marketing. It also showcases case studies and best practices from the global south to foster a South-South dialogue. On the one hand, ACE offers training and mentorship to the participant organizations in the program. In addition, the program offers a financial grant to fund a specific activity inspired by the program to strengthen the sustainability of the organization. On the other hand, participation in the program is curated through nomination. This implies that for an entity to benefit from the program, it needs to be already established and well connected to a network close to that of AFAC.
Waraq (papers) is one of the non-profit participant organizations in the ACE program. Waraq is a visual art and graphic design hub, lab, incubator, and co-working space located in a charming Beiruti traditional house. Using the space and the printing equipment, Waraq design yearly programs that aim at promoting the art of illustration, printmaking, design, and animation.
Tripoli Entrepreneurs Club (TEC) is a community-driven social enterprise creating an ecosystem for Tripoli-based startups. The club assists entrepreneurs at all stages of their business development. TEC was founded and launched in 2013 by Najwa Sahmarani and Fadi Mikati to retain Tripoli’s talents and contribute to the city’s economic growth.
The enterprise currently offers three programs: Startup Seeds, Business Elevation Unit, and Rainmakers. As its name suggests, the Startup Seeds program targets entrepreneurs with new ideas and helps them turn their ideas into investable businesses. The Business Elevation program targets operating startups struggling to scale their business models. Rainmakers targets university students and fresh graduates to help them kick off their professional careers by equipping them with technical, business, and essential skills and facilitating a 2-month internship in a startup.
Off The Wall is an advertising technology agency that benefited from one of the TEC programs. Off The Wall is a computer graphics and visual technology provider offering interactive visual technology products. Their products include holograms, 3d projection mapping, and animations.
Bloom’s core mission is to help the personal growth of entrepreneurs, which would eventually lead to the growth of their business. It is mainly a capacity-building organization that offers skills training programs. What distinguishes Bloom from other similar institutions is their organizational and operational systems. Bloom is led by a young generation of mentors with diverse backgrounds. Their organizational structure is flat rather than hierarchical. Lastly, they adopt a remote rather than site-specific operational system. Thus, a startup can have access to Bloom’s programs from any central or non-central location.
Le Joyau Olive is a brand promoting the traditional Lebanese olive oil soap-making craft internationally. Le Joyau Olive preserves the practice of a fading craft, supports local artisans, and delivers a high-end product to customers worldwide. Le Joyau Olive participated in a recent Bloom accelerator program targeting Lebanese promising enterprises.
In addition to the five aforementioned institutions, I have also to add Seedstars for the record. Seedstars is an international Switzerland-based organization that offers a wide range of acceleration and growth programs and invests in high-growth companies located in the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Central and South Asia.
By: Jana Al Obeidyine, a dancer, writer and independent publisher based in Beirut- Lebanon.
Copyright Photos: Jana Al Obeidyine