YallaStartup Weekend and The Power of YALLA!

The power of Yalla was at its highest levels during YallaStartup Weekend, organized by YallaStartup Team: Habib Haddad, Sami Shalabi and Elie Khoury, in Beirut, Lebanon from November 12 to 14, 2010. as part of the Global Statup Weekend where entrepreneurs from different cities around the world are competing for recognition and awards by investors and giant companies. Same as most of entrepreneurship meetings in MENA, YallaStartup Weekend was also full of Jordanians. Around 300 geeks from Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Palestine formed 34 teams to build their products in 54 Hours.

Based on various entrepreneurship meetings, discussions and forums in region, We can clearly sense it: YallaStarup Weekend is the solution to fill the gap. Practical level is the most missing part of all other forums in MENA, but not at #YSWLB where it was all about turning concept into reality; couple of sessions on the side to guide attendees and team members to go through their self-created workshops and guide them to deliver the best of their startup in one crazy weekend.

Pitch your idea on Friday, get votes, and form your international team. Work all together on Saturday. Then Present your product on Sunday. This agile process could be one of the fastest ways to boost your start-up, and a big motivation to turn this idea you have been shaping only in your mind into an actual product in one weekend. Network with giant companies, meet potential co-founders and investors to move to the next level of forming your own company.

The YallaStarup Committee has selected "Mimix: a tool that translates speech into sign language for deaf, made by people from Jordan and Lebanon that never met each others before!" to win the 1st prize, and a good potential to be acquired by Google youtube, [Vote for the Best Startup at the Global Startup Battle]. where 2nd prize was awarded to "Capsuly: a community based digital storage solution". On the other hand Habib Haddad stressed: "The judging committee is only 5 human beings and with all my deep respect to each and every one of them, remember the results by no means should impact you, each project has the chance of becoming the next big thing so move on with it :)". As another great startups were also presented with a huge potential, like: "Meta: a whole new promising web browser" and "iSpicePhotos: facebook albums, your life story the way you want it".

YallaStartup Weekend was a great experience for all, tho it had couple of down moments, especially for Jordanians who came on the "Geeks on a Bus" which was super late, 2.5 hours late to leave Amman, slow and lost directions in Beirut, while geeks were not hyper enough at borders and break points, so all got late and exhausted while some missed precious moments at the Startup Weekend. On the other hand attendees were annoyed by slow internet speed, and noisy skype sessions with some speakers. But overall YallaStarup Weekend was a great and rare assist to create better Arab Entrepreneurs, and it was a great success boosting the startup spirit and commitment in the Middle East.

"Everyone who loves Hummus, Tabouleh or Shawerma, leave now! What is this YallaStartup? How dare they do a Startup Weekend? What is next now, a Google from the Middle East? they have the nerve to do it in Lebanon, they have Geeks on Bus rides from Jordan and Syria. Why can't they stick to traditional events? this will create startups all over the middle east. Middle Eastern entrepreneurs listen well, it's about passion, team and commitment .. and most importantly above all .. YallaStartup!"  [YallaStartup Funny Video] This is how Hitler reacted to YallaStartup in one of the funniest scripts of Hitler Reacts Videos created by organizers. Now, How about your own reaction? Share your best and worst moments at YSWLB :)