Most startup advice is written for people who don’t live in your world. They assume you can incorporate in Delaware over lunch, that investors return emails, and that your biggest problem is choosing between term sheets. That’s not your reality. Your reality is more interesting. You’re building something in a region where the rules are still forming, where opportunity and rapid change coexist, and where being local and technical gives you advantages that Silicon Valley founders can’t replicate. This handbook exists because we got tired of translating Silicon Valley advice for MENA contexts. We got tired of founders asking whether they should “just move to Dubai” or whether their ideas are “too local to scale.” We got tired of seeing great technical talent doubt themselves because they don’t have Stanford degrees or Sequoia connections.

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The Real Problem

The startup advice ecosystem has a MENA problem. Most content is written by people who’ve never had to explain to investors why their market matters, never built products for users without reliable internet, never navigated regulatory systems where the rules change quarterly. This creates a translation problem. You read advice about “finding product-market fit” but the tactics assume user behavior that doesn’t exist in your market. You read about “fundraising best practices” but the investors described don’t invest in your region. You read about “scaling internationally” but the scaling strategies assume you started in a large, homogeneous market. The result is founders who spend too much time trying to force foreign frameworks onto local realities instead of understanding what actually works in their environment.

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What Makes This Different

This handbook is written by founders and investors who’ve built companies across MENA. Not consultants who studied the region, not Silicon Valley VCs with MENA “theses,” but people who’ve lived through the specific challenges of building startups here. We don’t try to make MENA sound easier than it is. Building a startup anywhere is hard, and building one in MENA has specific additional challenges: infrastructure limitations, fragmented markets, developing regulatory frameworks, and distance from major tech ecosystems. But these challenges also create unique opportunities: less saturated markets, cultural advantages in relationship-based businesses, growing digital adoption, and government support for economic diversification. Understanding both the constraints and the opportunities is how you build something valuable. This handbook maintains consistent positioning: MENA presents both challenges and advantages that differ from other markets, requiring adapted strategies rather than wholesale copying of Silicon Valley approaches.

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Who This Is For

This handbook is for technical founders who want to build something significant. It’s for people who see problems worth solving and have the skills to solve them, but need guidance on the business and strategic aspects of turning solutions into companies. It’s for founders in Cairo who are tired of being told to “just move to Dubai.” For technical founders in Amman who know their market better than any consultant. For ambitious founders anywhere in MENA who are building something real and need a compass, not a map. Most importantly, it’s for founders who want to build global companies that happen to start in MENA, not regional companies that hope to expand someday.

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Further Reading

Paul Graham’s Cities and Ambition explores why geography matters for startups and how different cities send different messages about what’s possible. His essay The Other Road Ahead discusses how the most promising opportunities often exist in overlooked areas—which perfectly describes MENA’s position in the global startup ecosystem.