why I’m being a jerk to local startups
In his Wamda piece about Cairo StartupWeekend, Omar has referred to me as “notoriously hard to please”, so it got me thinking about this reputation of mine and how it came to be in the first place.
So, why am I such an asshole to local startups?
Because I refuse to treat them like children.
How do I know that? It’s because this is what they tell me, in confidence of course.
Those industry leaders, investors, CEOs, StartupWeekend judges and mentors secretly think this about you and your work, but end up saying ego-soothing comments and words of support.
I dunno about you, but this sounds insulting to me! I surely don’t want to be treated as such, and I believe that we need to be held up to the highest standards, that startups in places like Silicon Valley are held up to.
How can we ever learn to create great products if we’re constantly told that our shitty pathetic creations are good enough?
The teams behind world-leading products like Facebook, Instagram, Foursquare and Path are certainly no better than anyone of us here in the region, only difference is they have very high standards which the industry expects of them, and they work their ass off to meet that.
In closing, I ask you again: do you still want to be treated like children?
