Khaled Bishara - an Egyptian success story
Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2017 8:49 am
An interesting article on one of Egypt's leading entrepreneurs.
Khaled Bichara is practically a force of nature in the Egyptian startup realm. It was 25 years ago that Bichara founded LINKdotNET, Egypt’s first internet service provider. The fearless go-getter was in his early twenties and entrepreneurship was not yet the booming trend it is today. Despite most people failing to understand his compulsion to start his own business - let alone one focused on the internet, a new and seemingly useless invention at the time - the risk he took shaped the trajectory of his career forever. Since the massive success of LINKdotNET, he’s led a number of big-time companies including Orascom Telecom Media and Technology, Wind Telecom, and currently heads the major telecommunications-focused investment group, Accelero Capital, as well as entrepreneurship support network Endeavor.
http://www.startupsceneme.com/MenaEcosy ... -My-Countr
Trying to equate his outlook for young Egyptians with my own thoughts on the subject wasn't easy.
I'm not sure if Khaled is part of the Coptic community....probably. He was roughed up by the police during the Tahrir Square events...despite their knowing that he was a prominent businessman. Post the revolution, he, like Sawiris, has kept relatively quiet about the turn of politics.
Khaled must be quite rich now. Having Naguib Sawiris as one's mentor is never a bad thing. Not mentioned in the article is his role as CEO of Orascom Development Holding AG....the hotels, resorts, etc conglomerate (El Gouna etc) for which he trousered SFr 1 million in salary last year.
I wish he could do something about the bloody awful internet services in Egypt. Perhaps that's not his pigeon.
Interesting that he recommends entrepreneurship as opposed to politics as the way forward for Egypt's youth. Sawiris seems to be moving from the former to the latter....having made more money than he could spend in several lifetimes.
How young talented Egyptian entrepreneurs will fare with the deadweight of political old fogies and the ever-present military interests remains to be seen.
Khaled Bichara is practically a force of nature in the Egyptian startup realm. It was 25 years ago that Bichara founded LINKdotNET, Egypt’s first internet service provider. The fearless go-getter was in his early twenties and entrepreneurship was not yet the booming trend it is today. Despite most people failing to understand his compulsion to start his own business - let alone one focused on the internet, a new and seemingly useless invention at the time - the risk he took shaped the trajectory of his career forever. Since the massive success of LINKdotNET, he’s led a number of big-time companies including Orascom Telecom Media and Technology, Wind Telecom, and currently heads the major telecommunications-focused investment group, Accelero Capital, as well as entrepreneurship support network Endeavor.
http://www.startupsceneme.com/MenaEcosy ... -My-Countr
Trying to equate his outlook for young Egyptians with my own thoughts on the subject wasn't easy.
I'm not sure if Khaled is part of the Coptic community....probably. He was roughed up by the police during the Tahrir Square events...despite their knowing that he was a prominent businessman. Post the revolution, he, like Sawiris, has kept relatively quiet about the turn of politics.
Khaled must be quite rich now. Having Naguib Sawiris as one's mentor is never a bad thing. Not mentioned in the article is his role as CEO of Orascom Development Holding AG....the hotels, resorts, etc conglomerate (El Gouna etc) for which he trousered SFr 1 million in salary last year.
I wish he could do something about the bloody awful internet services in Egypt. Perhaps that's not his pigeon.
Interesting that he recommends entrepreneurship as opposed to politics as the way forward for Egypt's youth. Sawiris seems to be moving from the former to the latter....having made more money than he could spend in several lifetimes.
How young talented Egyptian entrepreneurs will fare with the deadweight of political old fogies and the ever-present military interests remains to be seen.