Lockdown in an Ecosystem Builder with Valentina Primo

In this interview, we meet Valentina Primo, the founder of Startups Without Borders, a social enterprise with a mission to change the perception of refugees and migrants in the world. She shares how the idea of an ecosystem builder was born in 2018 and how with the lockdown, Valentina and her team had to find the new way forward. To do so she asked her community with over 2000 entrepreneurs worldwide about what they need. That is how she launched an interview series about building a startup. The big question was still about this year’s summit. After last year's success when it was hosted at American University in Cairo in partnership with the United Nations and Facebook, the plan for 2020 was to have an even bigger summit. Given the travel limitations, Valentina and her team decided to organize it in hybrid form with several main stages, including Amsterdam, San-Francisco, Cairo with online streaming internationally.

#LockdownEconomy #SustainableDevelopementGoals #AlterContacts #SDGaction35868 

About the Guest

Valentina is an entrepreneur and a journalist with a Masters in peace studies, Human Rights, and EU policies. She is the founder of Startups Without Borders, a platform that supports and connects refugee and migrant entrepreneurs to resources, while providing investors with an entry point to under-the-radar startups with disruptive potential. Valentina has been involved in the Middle East’s entrepreneurial landscape since 2013, having launched Egypt’s largest platform on entrepreneurship, Startup Scene Middle East, in 2017. She has been actively involved in the Middle Eastern startup landscape, giving workshops and keynote speeches at conferences in Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Russia, Norway, France, and Italy, including Lean Startup Nights Cairo, Egypt’s RiseUp Summit, and Techfugees.

About Startups Without Borders: 

Startups Without Borders connects the most ambitious refugee and migrant entrepreneurs with resources to grow their business, while providing investors with an entry-point to under-the-radar startups with disruptive potential. 

Website: https://startupswb.com/

Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/startupswithoutborders/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/startupswithoutborders/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/startupswb_com

Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/company/18592903/

About the Host 

Julia Skupchenko is a co-founder of Think Tank for Sustainable Development, AlterContacts.org, a co-founder and lead mentor of the global online community of entrepreneurs, BusinessGreenHouse.org. She is a published writer for a leading international online magazine for small business with millions of readers, Entrepreneur.com.

She is also a business mentor on the Artificial Intelligence program at Rockstart Startup Accelerator (Amsterdam) and at the Higher School of Economics (Moscow). In her personal practice as a Business Developer and Advisor, Julia has consulted 100+ entrepreneurs, experts, small and medium businesses across the globe. She is nominated for Entrepreneur Award 2020.

https://julia.altercontacts.org

https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliaskupchenko/