Iratel Ventures Breakfast Series #14
We hosted a gathering of local and global entrepreneurs, investors and active ecosystem players at Iratel Ventures Breakfast Series event last Thursday. At our next few sessions, discussions will be based on 20 emerging technologies. The technologies for this event were:
Enterprise 2.0
Enterprise Applications
Enterprise Architecture
You can find the full list of technologies we’re tracking here.
During this session these topics were discussed:
It is said that Iranian enterprise software solutions, like core banking, are very good. Why then can they not be deployed outside Iran?
If we continue to neglect cloud technology and not invest on incorporating it in enterprise, what will happen to our enterprise in case of entering Google cloud or AWS services to Iran? or simply when current band-aid solutions don’t work any more?
The group discussed that the startup ecosystem in Iran is primarily focused on mobile and B2C and enterprise experience is thin. In addition, the enterprise market is not that large. However, if we consider B2G as an enterprise market, there may be interesting opportunities but they have their own challenges as well. It was also discussed that the sales and distribution channels for B2B and enterprise are much more specific. This barrier to entry has been solved for consumer apps via the app stores. A bright spot that the group agreed on was that if we can find strong enterprise technology companies, they will have a high chance to succeed in global markets too as proven by a few enterprise startups that are currently doing so. The challenge then becomes quality of service and the foundation of trust that needs to be built as Iranian technology.
Finally, it was decided to keep the discussions going in a semi-open environment and build a support platform for entrepreneurs which would become Breakfast Series’ digital twin. It was agreed that a semi-open Slack team would be the primary communication channel post events. Invitation to the Slack channel will be sent to the participants who provide their email address at the Breakfast Event and show an interest in being part of the discussions on the Breakfast Series Slack channel within a more selective Iratel Ventures Community.
The next event will be held on Thursday 25 May. The technology topics to be discussed are:
Networking & Communications — Consumers
Networking & Communications — Service Providers
Security & Infrastructure
Advanced Tech, Emerging Tech & Green Energy
Embedded Software and Systems
We believe the more open the dialogue, the better it will allow innovation and bringing different disciplines including investors together. These series were started to increase the dialogue opportunities among ecosystem players and especially to bridge the gap between those who are willing to know more about Iranian startup environment and meet up with other ecosystem players. This will increase openness and transparency.
Finally, if you’d like to be added to the breakfast mailing list, please sign up or follow us on LinkedIn.
This is the fifteenth in a series of posts about Iratel Ventures Events. We’d love to hear from teams with crazy (but commercial) startups. Get in touch or attend our breakfast series. Finally, don’t forget to get your IV Score or talk to our FundingBot to prepare for your next VC meeting.
Thanks to Fardad Zand for his contribution.