Infinite Reflections - Latest Comments

Re: MENA Entrepreneurship: Challenged Opportunity

Tramadol Addiction — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 10:45:08 -0000

Loved this format. Great for Domain Newbies.

Re: Hassan Al-Karmi: A great family member passes

remove Antivirus .NET — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 04:28:47 -0000

Sorry to hear that!

Re: Hassan Al-Karmi: A great family member passes

Fritzie — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:00:20 -0000

Its like you read my mind! You seem to know a lot about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you can do with a few pics to drive the message home a bit, but other than that, this is wonderful blog. A great read. I will certainly be back.

Re: Hassan Al-Karmi: A great family member passes

gold coast hypnosis — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 01:55:58 -0000

Falcons coach Rushdi Issa took the opportunity to give center Sami Shalabi a practice in versatility. Shalabi switched from the five to the three spot, ...

Re: Hassan Al-Karmi: A great family member passes

seo companies — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 12:10:21 -0000

His most impressive writing include 14 dictionaries of which 8 were published. His BBC program “Qawl al Qawl” (“Saying Upon Saying”) was heard across the entire Arab world and was known to be a favorite among many Arab leaders.

Re: Hassan Al-Karmi: A great family member passes

Fertility Medicines — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 09:21:40 -0000

confiscate dalla colonia di Karmi Tsur, in direzione sud. La violenta risposta dei militari israeliani ha causato il ferimento di Hassan Yusef 'Alqam, ...

Re: Hassan Al-Karmi: A great family member passes

brisbane seo — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 08:33:02 -0000

Sami Shalabi led Central Academy with 18 points, but even more impressive was that nine different Falcon players scored in the game. ...

Re: Why Internet Censorship in Jordan is Bad for Business

Cool designer — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 20:34:52 -0000

Build a website is really not that tough, and top of all, you can build a website or more for free.
Build a website is a extremely individual skill and is different with each client.
It is more about revealing your business to new probable clients and generating new sales.

Re: MENA Entrepreneurship: Challenged Opportunity

Vince Ghossoub — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 05:34:50 -0000

maybe we should look East

Re: MENA Entrepreneurship: Challenged Opportunity

Sami Shalabi — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 08:03:33 -0000

Thanks PK for the insightful reply. I am a believer that entrepreneurs wherever they are will face challenges and the only way to deal with them is to take them head on. I would love to see governments instead of creating more incubators, attack the basic problems that need legislation, such as online banking reform.

However fragmented the efforts maybe they are moving in the right direction. It will just take time. Also, I think the fragmentation is temporary since we are in new territory. The efforts are startups themselves so please be patient :).

What I would love to see is when a startup in the MENA solves one of these issues, they share their best practice. I feel not enough of that happens and thus causes the whole ecosystem to slow down.

Re: MENA Entrepreneurship: Challenged Opportunity

PK — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 03:07:57 -0000

Sami, a very insightful summary of the MENA Entrepreneurship landscape. Its a major challenge and the financial slowdown is only extending the timelines, afraid a generation of local innovation will be lost in this quagmire. One thing you may want to add is that the various initiatives to support the ecosystem in the region are mostly directionless, too text-bookish and all over the place. More combined and concerted effort is needed.
@PKGulati

Re: MENA Entrepreneurship: Observations

Mihir jha — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:32:44 -0000

Great Write-ups....m gonna follow you sir...!!!

Re: MENA Entrepreneurship: Observations

Sami Shalabi — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 23:48:19 -0000

@Amer - Thanks for the kind words. Great link BTW. I enjoyed it.

Re: MENA Entrepreneurship: Observations

Sami Shalabi — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 23:47:32 -0000

@Joost - One of the challenges with replicating an MIT-like venture culture is getting the components of an entrepreneurial ecosystem in place. At MIT it is not just about the education, but all the other pieces such as investment at all levels (angel, seed, venture), meetups, business friendly laws, and of course the exists. I see the focus at the universities on some of these pieces of this ecosystem, mainly because it was they have control over.

I am bullish about the region in general given the size of the opportunity, but public policy and the business climate needs to evolve too. It is just a matter of time.

Re: MENA Entrepreneurship: Observations

Amer — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 13:03:09 -0000

great post! Once I read the below article, I immediately remembered your points on failing:

Winner’s Curse: Why Losing A B-School Biz Plan Competition Is Better Than Winning

http://bit.ly/5sTbyN

Re: MENA Entrepreneurship: Observations

Joost Bonsen — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 23:37:29 -0000

Great words of advice for people generally! I'm curious what the prospect are for an MIT-like venture culture to emerge in Abu Dhabi's MIST. And, for that matter, in the other emergent tech uni's in the region. KAUST comes to mind.

--Joost

Re: Ajax Hangs in Safari

substa — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:12:58 -0000

OH MY GOD!! THANKS!!!
I was mad for this!
Where did you read it? Is there some documentation on this bug?

Re: F1 Montreal with my brother!

Carl — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:48:23 -0000

Excellent, are your ears still bleeding? :-)

Re: Hassan Al-Karmi: A great family member passes

Elisa-Designertots — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 09:56:39 -0000

Thanks Sami!

Re: Hassan Al-Karmi: A great family member passes

Sami Shalabi — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 07:35:52 -0000

Thanks for the kind words Elisa. Ghada does indeed have a website. It is www.karmi.org.

Re: Hassan Al-Karmi: A great family member passes

Elisa-Designertots — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 14:24:08 -0000

I am in the midst of reading In Search of Fatima and I am having trouble putting it down. My mother is a sephardim (1/2 Syrian /Jew and 1/2 European Jew ). My dad is all Italian. I was raised and am still practicing Catholicism ( I am a terrible speller!). Always attended Jewish holidays with my mom-not so much anymore. Anyway, I found my way to your blog while just cuising the net for more info on Ghada. Please excuse me if I typed her name wrong. How amazing is it for you to find out you were/are related?! Does she have a blog page or somewhere that I can write or correspsond? Well anyway, I am finding the book so amazing. I relate to much on so many levels . Of course for completely different reasons but non the less.... I am in LOVE with this book and her writing. Best wishes, Elisa

Re: Congrats JackCards!

shalabi97 — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 20:46:12 -0000

test

Re: Congrats JackCards!

shalabi — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 22:48:13 -0000

Re: Congrats JackCards!

kdowds — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 12:25:33 -0000

Thanks for all your support Sami. We're over the moon about the Wall Street Journal! Thank you again, Kim and Katherine

Re: Amir Shalabi

Dave Delay — Thu, 10 May 2007 15:14:12 -0000

Belated congratulations, Sami. Somehow I missed the announcement. I hope all is well with the family.