The only thing that gets everyone at Cairo Gossip more excited than getting an exclusive on a party in Sahel, is seeing our fellow Cairenes kicking ass abroad – something we hope will be happening at Web Summit.
The Dublin-based business convention brings together the greatest and most innovative minds of the business and technological spheres for discussions, workshops and roundtables. A competition for ‘The World’s Hardest Working Startup’ is hosted by the summit, and involves several Egyptian participants. We spoke to one hopeful, Magda Gomaa (Co-Founder and Marketing Director of Sirkil), for an insider’s perspective of the competition.
Sirkil is an online networking platform that maps out the connections and relationships between a company, its suppliers, vendors, investors and end-users. “Our goal extends as far as becoming a daily global inevitable tool to businesses, such as the email; an essential part of every corporate business operation.”
It’s a very ambitious goal for an initiative that was started by six people in their early twenties, and Gomaa admits that their venture came with inevitable trepidation. “When we first started, we were bit concerned that no one would take us seriously.”
However, with Web Summit’s invitation to Sirkil, there’s no chance of that being the case anymore. “We applied earlier in June, fully aware of the very rigid screening process. Fortunately, we were classified among the early stage start-ups with high potential.” And despite being at such an early stage, Gomaa and her accomplices have more big ambitions for Sirkil. “Our second business line reflects the same networking concept, but through on-ground events characterised as expositions, conferences or exhibitions.”
Websummit.net has an open voting section where people can ‘Like’ their favourite start-ups until October 11th; the top 50 of that selection move on to the actual competition in Dublin at the end of October. There are plenty of creative, forward-thinking people in
Egypt, but the problem always comes down to execution – money, bureaucracy and other frustrating factors have been a thorn in many an Egyptian entrepreneur’s side. But with Sirkil, just one of Egypt’s entrants in the competition, we have more proof that Egypt will work its way out of its political, economic and social woes – we just have to be patient.
Vote for Sirkil here.