Starting a Global Startup in Jordan

If you missed The Founders Institute Online Event with Mo Taslaq, Founder of Mixed Dimensions, and one of the most successful entrepreneurs in Jordan, here are my personal draft notes from that event, I figured why keep them to myself if others might find it helpful. Mo shared his deep startup experience, best practices, strategies, and mistakes along the way.

P.S. I’d like to mention that those are notes that represent my personal takeaways and not a word for word of what was said in the interview.

Main Takeaways:

Always ask yourself if your team can take you forward or not and if not then don’t go, or change your team.

Stability isn't good for startups, ups and downs are good in terms of pivoting and experimenting.

If you have no market, people will not come to you, go and create a new market or partner to combine 2 markets/technologies and ABP (Always Be Pivoting)

Your family and your partner are more important than your Career, if you become a lonely sad millionaire then it ain't worth it.

Mixed reality and blockchain are growing rapidly both in the region and globally, so it’s not a bad idea to be an early adopter now.

If you're a Technical Founder with no business experience and have multiple ideas, these ideas are noise. Validate with a mentor and pick the one. Find the Idea, then become an Entrepreneur.

Going to the gym every day for 2 months is a good way to test the resilience needed for being an entrepreneur

Being a founder isn't a part-time, you can't have a job and a startup at the same time if you were serious about your startup.

If you are from Jordan and didn't work with Facebook, Google, or didn’t go to Stanford; No one will recognize you in the US. if you didn't do anything in your life, Investors and companies will be hesitant to partner with you.

CEO of a startup is mainly there for Fundraising and Marketing. If you can’t do one of these two, step down and hire a CEO for your Startup.

Cold emails don’t get you far, always get an intro if you can.

For first-time Entrepreneurs, you should go to an accelerator, later you can do things by yourself.

Find Regional Accelerators that invest in MENA startups, not just your domestic Accelerators and Incubators.

Getting a CFO is almost always worth it, our CFO helped us to lower our COGS by 40%

Jordan Is a good starting point, but you might need to go somewhere else to register your startup for better incentives and benefits.

If you don’t have a technical cofounder don’t bother starting a Tech Business (No investor will talk to you) Team always come first.

If you feel down as a founder, remember why you created your Startup, If it didn’t work it means that the fire inside you has vanished and you should move to the next idea.

Fundraising is like applying for Jobs, 99% rejection rate.

Live in the same City/Country that your market is in. It'll be difficult to target the US/EU market from Jordan.

Some will let you down and tell you you can’t do it, ignore them.

Always be solving things you enjoy, because it’ll be how you spend your life.

iPARK is the best place in Jordan for building Tech Startups.

Founders depression is very real, starting a business isn’t a walk in the park, and it has a mental toll on you, If that happens; always keep a smile on your face in front of friends and family, and work towards a healthy balance to restore your mental health.

Thanks to Mo and to the Founder Institute for hosting such an insightful event.