The Higher Council for Innovation and Excellence in partnership with the Ministry of National Economy, the ANIMA Investment Network – The Next Society, and the EU Representative Office organized an advocacy panel workshop on building a common strategy for innovation in Palestine. Flow’s Chairman, Saed Khatib, spoke on legal bureaucratic and regulatory frameworks to enhance the legalities in the innovation sector.
A very rich and fruitful business lunch meeting between the Flow Team and a group of top level managers at Google. The meeting was energetic and included an interesting exchange of experiences. Google showed a deep interest in supporting the Palestinian ecosystem and entrepreneurs.
Flow hosted UNICEF MENA Regional Director, Geert Cappelaere; UNICEF Representative/State of Palestine country office, Genevieve Boutin; and UNICEF Deputy Representative for UNICEF/State of Palestine country office, Etona Ekole, who met young Palestinian entrepreneurs and accelerators from Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem in Ramallah. The event aimed to introduce UNICEF to the Palestinian ecosystem and the challenges facing its entrepreneurs. UNICEF State of Palestine is exploring ways of cooperation to help support Palestinian Startups.
Flow has ended its three-month incubation phase covering topics related to business development, product development, personal skills empowerment, and technical assistance. Mentorship was structured on generic, specific, one-one-one, virtual, and in-house basis to cope with the incubated startup stages. Sessions were given by both local and international mentors.
As part of its incubation completion, Flow has arranged several peer mentoring, one-on-one sessions with top Palestinian startup leaders who worked closely to improve and provide constructive feedback and advice for a better and efficient strategy building and business growth.
Flow hosted an event in cooperation with Sharp & Beyond for Legal and Investment Consulting Services. The workshop provided an overview on companies’ registration in Palestine and the United States, the role of the Palestinian Investment Promotion Agency, and tax filing for companies.
Flow signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Higher Council of Innovation & Excellence to support startups and to help bridge the gap between them and investors.
Flow has signed a promotional partnership agreement with the ANIMA Investment Network in their project ‘The Next Society’. The project is an open community of changemakers engaged in innovation and economic development.
Through a series of experiential activities, reflection exercises and discussions given by Connor Swenson and other members from Google for Startups, 80 Palestinian entrepreneurs were enlightened on how to boost their productivity and get things done at a faster pace. Topics discussed included productivity, time management, personal leadership, planning and how to think big.
In a 2-hour event, Flow connected their 7 selected startups and others in the Palestinian ecosystem with entrepreneurs at Google for Startups who came from campuses in Brazil, Spain, Poland, United Kingdom, United States of America and South Korea. Mentoring focused mainly on fundraising, partnerships, strategy, marketing, scalability and team management.
Within the Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) and in partnership with Gaza Sky Geeks, Flow hosted its first public event which opened the opportunity for a 100 entrepreneurs and other interested parties to network with leading entrepreneurs in the market and exchange experiences. Before the mingling started, Co-founders of Packagecloud, Armando Canals & Joe Damato discussed “Building a company without investors” offering advice and reflection; while, Co-founder of PinchPoint and COO of SocialDice, Khalid Abul Kheir spoke on “Fund Raising & Growth Hacking”.
After an intensive and thorough coaching week, shortlisted teams were asked to pitch their ideas in front of a judging panel that consisted of successful entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, angel investors, and technical experts. Each team was given a 20-minute time slot to pitch their idea, answer questions and concerns, and receive constructive feedback. Judges’ evaluation and scoring of the pitches were reviewed thoroughly by Flow and upon that teams were selected for the next phase of the program.
