Tapping the resources provided by public and private sector-led incubators could help young entrepreneurs, including students with innovative ideas launch their businesses and start-ups into the market, a “student company” has said.
Ranim Samir Abukhalil, a 20-year old Business student at Qatar University, said there have been “ample efforts” to increase awareness on the importance of start-ups in diversifying Qatar’s economy.
Abukhalil is among the four students who developed a high-tech tracking device that helps people locate lost important items through their company, “Qaho,” which means “here it is” in Arabic.
Qaho’s device runs on Bluetooth technology and comes with a mobile app, which could be downloaded in Apple iOS or Android devices. It can track lost items within a 40m radius using either its ringing or map features. Though it is still in its prototype stage Qaho plans to launch the device within three to five months.
Abukhalil emphasised that organisations like Injaz Qatar and Qatar Incubation Centre (QBIC) were instrumental in helping provide exposure for both Qaho and their tracking device in the market.
“That’s what happened with us,” said Abukhalil, referring to their achievements at Qaho, which was among the two winners of the “Best Company of the Year” award during Injaz Qatar’s “8th Mubadara 2015 Young Entrepreneurs Competition” held in November last year.
Mubadara is a competition for student enterprises established through Junior Achievement’s globally recognised “Company Programme.” Student teams were offered the opportunity to establish and run a real business over four months with the guidance of professionals from leading businesses across Qatar.
“We would like to share our success story and hopefully in the future we might train other start-ups to build their own successful businesses so we can help in increasing the economic growth of the country,” she stressed.
Currently, Abukhalil and her partner, 21-year old Raghad Akram Abughazzeh, a Computer Engineering student of Qatar University, are busy developing their product at the QBIC.
Asked about the role of QBIC in their journey as a start-up, Abukhalil said: “QBIC has played an important part in our journey as young entrepreneurs. It has provided us training and coaching courses to help us be well-prepared for business life.”
Aside from a course on digital technology slated in March, Abukhalil said their training at QBIC “will make sure we do things the right way by helping us understand how a start-up operates and how to be a successful company in the future.”
Abughazzeh added: “We are really lucky to live in a country that continues to support business-minded people, who should take advantage of this privilege by presenting their business ideas to these agencies. I am confident that this first step will bring them closer to their goals because this is exactly what happened to us.”