An Egyptian fintech became their accelerator’s poster child—featured in every pitch deck, speaking at conferences, appearing in government reports. The accelerator raised millions citing this “success story.” The fintech? They burned through funding on demo days instead of customers and shut down six months later. In emerging ecosystems, programs need success stories before you’re actually successful. Don’t become their marketing material.

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The Ecosystem Theater Problem

Everyone needs proof points except you. Accelerators need demo day content, government programs need impact metrics, VCs need portfolio highlights. They’ll promote you based on early traction, not sustainable results. Your “success” helps them fundraise. Your participation, growth metrics, and media coverage become their credibility when pitching for more funding or government support. The incentive misalignment is obvious. Once you’re their poster child, they have more incentive to keep promoting you than helping you build an actual business.

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The Warning Signs

You’re presenting more than building. If you spend multiple days monthly at events instead of with customers, you’re providing ecosystem value, not business value. Your non-profitable metrics appear in their marketing materials. Seeing your company in program pitches before you have sustainable revenue means you’re being used as proof of concept. Program requirements consume development resources. If meeting their expectations takes significant time from customer development, the relationship is backwards.

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MENA’s Specific Pressures

Government timelines don’t match business timelines. Political cycles create pressure for visible milestones that don’t correlate with business success. International funds need regional validation. Global VCs investing in MENA use early portfolio companies to justify their regional strategy—often prematurely. Innovation theater is everywhere. Corporations use startup partnerships for PR rather than genuine business development.

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Your Defense Strategy

Time-box ecosystem activities brutally. One day per month maximum, regardless of “opportunities.” Keep your metrics private until they matter. Don’t share business data for their marketing materials until you’re actually successful. Make relationships transactional, not strategic. Extract specific value (funding, customers, expertise) but don’t make programs central to your strategy. Control your narrative completely. Don’t let anyone else define your success story or business trajectory.

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The Simple Test

Before any ecosystem activity, ask: “Does this benefit my business more than their organization?” If the answer is no, decline. Good ecosystem participation: Programs that provide direct customer access, technical resources you can’t afford, or expertise that accelerates product development. Bad ecosystem participation: Demo days, media interviews, partnership announcements, and conference speaking that primarily serve program credibility.

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When to Say No

Skip anything that consumes more than 10% of your time in administrative overhead. Resist equity or revenue sharing for program participation—if they need ownership to justify helping you, they’re extracting more value than providing. Don’t present your company as more successful than it is, even when they encourage this for their credibility.

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The Long Game

Build businesses first, contribute to ecosystems later. Companies that become cannon fodder early rarely develop into the mature businesses that genuinely strengthen ecosystems. The goal isn’t avoiding ecosystem participation—it’s ensuring your participation advances your business rather than someone else’s agenda. In emerging ecosystems, the pressure to appear successful quickly is intense. But lasting companies resist becoming marketing material until they’ve built genuinely successful businesses.

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Further Reading

Paul Graham’s The Fundraising Survival Guide shows how fundraising can distract from building. Ecosystem participation creates similar risks: consuming founder attention that should focus on customers and product development.