La dorada, características de la especie y de su cultivo

Shehab Marzban: My mother has kept asking me for more than two years, when

I will finally find myself a new job. She does not understand why I gave up a se- cure job as a bank manager in 2012 and took on the risk of starting a company. But I never even think about giving up – my co-founder and I are firmly con- vinced about our idea, even if the cash flow is not yet where we want it to be. We just need a little more time and are working seven days a week to reach our goals.

Our start-up Shekra (an abbreviation for Sharek Fekra) is a crowdfunding plat-

form specializing in Egypt that serves as a bridge between entrepreneurs and a wide range of investors. Given the political changes that my country has seen in recent years, it is obvious that the current generation will have a major impact on the future of the Middle East and of the world as a whole. Entrepreneurs play an especially important role.

Selling papyrus on the Christmas market

The start-up scene of Cairo is certainly not as sophisticated as that in Silicon Val- ley and not as hip as that in Berlin. But there are many young people here that can advance the local economy with good ideas and innovative concepts to. And many already successful companies would like to continue to grow, only they often lack the investors to provide the necessary risk capital. With Shekra we

want to help to increase the success rate of start-ups from the region, so that Egypt can rise to global standards.

I'm moved as an adult back to Cairo; my childhood and part of my study period I spent in Germany. In some ways being a founder probably in my blood, because I can remember very well that I was always creative as a child and liked doing my own thing. At 15, I brought papyrus from Egypt and then sold it on Christmas markets in Germany. That was the first time in my life that I earned my own money – a nice feeling.

During my studies in Computer Science and Economics in Cairo I have looked extensively at start-ups. Also during my PhD studies at the University of Cologne about Sharia-compliant portfolio management, my interest turned to business start-ups. During and after studying I worked for several start-ups, including the "SEKEM" in Egypt. SEKEM is ancient Egyptian, meaning "life force". The company sells biodynamic foods from "Demeter"-farms in Egypt to customers in Europe. Experience is more important than friendship in the start-up team From 2008 to 2012, I was in the product development of a start-up involved in “Islamic Finance” and lived 2012 for half a year in San Francisco. There I had the chance to visit numerous start-ups, and was able to have interesting conversa- tions with entrepreneurs in brainstorming sessions. My many years of academic experience in the field of "Islamic finance" and the provocative thoughts of other founders finally motivated me to put together with two former colleagues our own start-up.

Our founding team works brilliantly because our skills complement each other perfectly. One of them is an engineer, the other a software specialist and I my- self am a financial specialist. We're not best friends, but work very efficiently to- gether. Many founders make the mistake of selecting their teams on the basis of friendships instead of experience. So often all the important areas cannot be covered, because crucial qualifications are missing.

After the preparation phase of approximately four to five months our company Shekra was formally established in November 2012 as a limited liability compa- ny. The launch of our platform took place just about seven months later, so the seed phase took a good year. We raised ourselves the necessary capital with the help of our families and friends. However, we would need several hundred thou- sand dollars in order to expand. Currently, we have five employees and fall back on a few external consultants when needed.

Twice award winners in the Gulf States

Our crowdfunding model is based on a network of small investors. We have tai- lored the offer particularly to the needs of countries in the Middle East. This in- volves in no way donations, but the getting equity via crowdfunding

But Shekra goes one step further. We support start-ups in the implementation of their business plan. In a project with three different phases our company sup- ports the new founder before, during and after financing. We have developed milestones that enable us to assess the progress of the company.

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We intend to be the most important crowdfunding platform in the Middle East and the emerging markets. Shekra is still based in Cairo. But at the moment we are thinking about moving to the Gulf countries, because there are significantly more Islamic investors there. It made me very happy that we already won two important awards in the Gulf region in 2013, just one year after our foundation. Firstly the Best SME Development Award of the Islamic Economy Awards in Du- bai, then the Ethical Finance Initiative Award of the Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank. Political instability means uncertainty

In the near future we would like to send a representative to Malaysia and to oth- er countries with significant Muslim populations. Moreover, we have set ourselves the goal of winning investors from Europe and the US for our platform.

Whether all this will be successful depends very much on the macro environment in Egypt. There are a lot of young people in this country with an incredible

amount of potential. But they need a proper education, so that they know more about business start-ups. This is what is still missing.

The continuing political instability in Egypt on the one hand creates a lot of un- certainty for entrepreneurs, as investors flee risk. On the other hand, we benefit in some ways, because in difficult times many interesting and innovative start-up ideas are born out of necessity.

4.10 BRINING WINE CULTURE TO BRAZIL – ALYKHAN KARIM