ConnectAgri raises $1.1M
ConnectAgri raises $1.1M, led by Leap Ventures, for its Karnott IoT agricultural box.
Author: Henri Asseily
Lebanon taking major steps forward in digital
In an editorial (in French) in the newspaper L’Orient-Le-Jour, Leap’s Hala Fadel reviews the major advances that Lebanon has achieved in digital, and what remains to do.
Hala Fadel on how to get the pitch right
Leap Ventures’ Hala Fadel on how entrepreneurs can get their pitches right and how she is not hot on e-commerce.
Entrepreneurship after Oil in MENA: 4 Hard Truths
When I was a kid, we were taught in school that oil would be drying up, and so would revenues from oil. At least they got one thing right: oil revenues are drying up, albeit for vastly different reasons. And those governments that used to rely on oil revenues for income are going to have to switch to the good old taxation systems. But taxation systems only work in economies that have a thriving private sector, since a governement that takes back money that it gave away in the first place can’t last very long. So the oil problem boils down to Read More …
The difference between a CEO and a COO
The difference between a CEO and a COO is surprisingly easy to understand, but it is also surprisingly misunderstood by too many entrepreneurs who start as CEOs and devolve to COO roles. At Leap Ventures we have had to explain these roles enough times that I feel compelled to write about it, in the hope that we can simply point to this post in the future. So what is a CEO, how does she differ from a COO, and where’s the problem? A CEO does what he wants to do. A COO does what he has to do. — Hervé Read More …
Startups: Valuing equity, cash, and the team
Valuing equity can be very hard in startups, but so is valuing cash and the team. I gave a talk a few days ago at the TechWadi Roadshow powered by Google For Entrepreneurs, that took place in the UK Lebanon Tech Hub in Beirut. I was asked to discuss the importance of teams when launching a startup, so I decided to explain the relative importance in time of the triumvirate: teams, equity and cash. A major error by many first time entrepreneurs is to misprice the value of equity and cash, and generally assume they’re constant over the life of Read More …
You’re on stage: entertain!
I’m talking to you, the boring person on stage behind the mike, looking at your screen or notes, reading a speech with long sentences and big words in a monotonously boring voice, clicking a device to move forward an endless stream of badly edited PowerPoint(TM) slides. What is wrong with you? No, really. I mean it. What is wrong with you? You’re given a (somewhat) captive audience. You have the opportunity to impact the next 2, 5, 20 minutes or hours or years of dozens of people. And you squander it all away. Why? Do you really think you’re actually good Read More …
Determining The Value Of Your Company
I was asked by Entrepreneur ME recently to explain how I valued companies, and as I was thinking about writing a post here on Leap’s website about it, I’ll just instead link to the article. I’ll just quote myself… I am in no camp whatsoever regarding valuation, and, to enrage all philosophy teachers out there I have to state that the answer is ‘it all depends.’
Don’t start a startup alone
Image caption: Leap partner Henri Asseily (right) and Farhad Mohit eating dinner in Farhad’s parents’ dining room while starting Bizrate.com in 1996. Their office was the greenhouse just outside. I got a call the other day from a young entrepreneur who’d heard we had started Leap Ventures, and that we’d invest in companies like his. Mistake #1: don’t call someone, send an email. In the email, you can structure your thoughts correctly, and you won’t be bothering that person who’s probably in a meeting and probably will want to send your info to the right analyst anyway. At Leap, send your pitches to businessplan@leap.vc. Read More …
Leap in Forbes Middle East: Doubling down on Entrepreneurs
Hala Fadel and Noor Sweid talk to Forbes Middle East about what it takes to be a VC in the MENA region.