 brought to you by Amazon Web Services. Okay, welcome back everyone. We are here in Baja Rain for exclusive coverage for AWS Summit, part of Amazon's new region being launched here in the Middle East. I'm John Furrier, your host, with two great guests. From C5 Accelerator in Washington, D.C. now, kicking out in Baja Rain. Hi Jeff, I'm the Executive Director of C5 Accelerator. I'm John Furrier, your host, with two great guests. From C5 Accelerator in Washington, D.C. now, kicking out in Baja Rain. And Ava Demetriatus, good to see you again. Thank you. Chief Operating Officer. Guys, congratulations. Baja Rain, D.C. The world. Thank you. The world is global. C5 Global. It's great to be here. This is an exciting time. I mean, I got to ask you, Ava, because we had previously met, talked about interviews in D.C. Smart people that know Amazon, because Trisha and Annie Jassy and Jeff Pates as I say, we're going to be misunderstood for a while. Come on, that's not true. A region in this area is going to explode the entrepreneurial scene. What's your take? I think that's absolutely true. As we see today at the summit, there's just such a growing number of entrepreneurs and people who are excited to embrace digital innovation. Three years ago, I think the story would have been different, but ever since we set up the Accelerator here, which is the first one in Bahrain, we've just seen an explosion of interest, and not just from Bahrain, but from around the GCC and even startups from abroad coming and setting up here as their Middle East practice. Talk about C5 for a second. Let's take a minute to explain what you guys do. I jumped ahead a little bit, I'm excited, because I just love the entrepreneurial energy. This is a really important thing happening, and you guys are playing a role. Talk about C5, Accelerate. What are you guys doing? What's your business model? Just take a minute to explain as a setup. So I'll ever talk maybe more about our global operations, but really C5 Accelerate a few years ago branched the business, which was largely an investment business into an innovation business, and we built Bahrain's first, and one of the regions, in fact, first cloud-enabled Accelerators, and Bahrain's very first technology accelerator, and we did that in partnership with the Economic Development Board, the Labor Fund, Temkeen, and obviously with AWS, and really we benefited from the first mover advantage. And the thinking around that was, is that as Amazon grows its geographic footprint, there is great opportunity to build on the cloud in places like the Middle East, where the ecosystem is nascent, and there's an amazing first mover advantage. So when we partnered with the government to build this, we realized, as we do that, we also need to contribute to building a healthy ecosystem. So we built this first accelerator, and we have felt- When was that, by the way? 2016, actually, September marks our two year. We've since graduated five cohorts, we're gearing up for six, and we have 34 startups under our belt. Our first cohort was an all Bahraini cohort, and today we're very proud to say that actually half of the startups that have graduated from this program that is based out of Bahrain, our international startup. So that's what we're doing locally. Maybe Eva can tell you a little bit more about what we're doing on a global scale. You know, and that's important. I want to make sure you got that out about the early having a bunch of startups under your belt, because when I went to the startup Bahrain session yesterday, I was really, really impressed by two things. One is just the smart energy, the smart people who understand entrepreneurship. Either went to school for it, or have learned through the scar tissue of trial and tribulations like myself. And then the entrepreneurs were there themselves. And you know a healthy entrepreneur community when they start bitching and moaning, or out chirping away, they're hungry. There's a hungry appetite for entrepreneurship here and creating, but it's not fake entrepreneurship. You can't, they're really hungry. They're like, where's the cash? Where's the capital? How are we going to get? This is really a positive sign. It is, and I want to add something really quick before ever jumps in. I think in the past two years, what's great about a small ecosystem and the ability to pivot and build fast is you actually see the impact that you can have as an individual and as a company and as a community really on the landscape. But also regionally, we've had great collaborative efforts across the GCC and in the region with partners in Saudi and Kuwait and Egypt and in Jordan. So I think there's a lot of momentum we're riding on now and I think it's a great time to be building in the tech space. Well, Ava, before you get to your comments, I want to just follow up on that comment around Saudis in different regions. Because this is a trend that's been happening for a while in Silicon Valley. As you know, people have been leaving Silicon Valley because it's cost to live there, but people have been put in engineering teams outside of Silicon Valley. I mean, 20 years ago, you only went outside of Silicon Valley or the US to outsource, which is not really product development. It's just coding. Then the trend became real engineering and product development, real chops outside. So we just had Abdul on from Saudi and he was talking about his shape of his team and psychology, the makeup of the people. It's just not in Saudi Arabia, it's in China, it's all over the world. So as developers are working across the world, this is a really big deal. I mean, this is the new dynamic. Diverse teams, geo-located, no borders. This is going to change the political landscape. It's a cultural shift. Certainly. I mean, I think it's a while before we have here the same secret source that exists in the Silicon Valley or that has existed there for the past decade or so. But the emphasis on training and upskilling is huge. And as we've heard a number of times today, there are so many incentives to do so for free. So you can actually learn to code. You can become a certified AWS coder for free in Bahrain, which is a phenomenal advantage and step up. I mean, no one would pay me to do that in the UK. So I think that, along with a number of other initiatives, are really going to leapfrog the development here. And in terms of what you talk about, the landscape and geo-location, it goes in so many different directions now. There's no single focus. So we had a Swiss company last year come and incorporate in Bahrain and hired developers here to grow their business. So it can go in so many different directions. The winner take all business model is an old business model. Now it's everyone's winning. So it's a little bit of flattening of the wealth and the opportunities, but the pie is getting bigger. I think this is the dynamic that cloud and Amazon continues to demonstrate that the oracles, for instance, of the world. We got to win it all and lock everyone in and we got to own it. That ethos is not, that dog is not hunting as they say. So this is changing the entrepreneurial landscape. And the other thing I observed is the younger generation, that leveling up is very easy to them. It's like a video game, right? It's like leveling up as AI, blockchain. I think one of your companies I talked to, oh, we're doing a blockchain implementation. They will eat up the cloud. I mean, it's going to be like pretty fast. So I'm expecting some accelerated. You mentioned Hungary, but they're also fearless. The entrepreneurs that we work with have that perfect mix of a super smart idea and an understanding of a niche sector of the market, but also this resilience and recklessness that you need to embrace the opportunity and all the scary stuff that comes with it. I think adding to that, I think what's great with Amazon coming to Bahrain with us working across the globe is the cross-pollination that happens. Because whether we like it or not, like Eva said, we are not Silicon Valley yet. And maybe we don't aspire to be specifically Silicon Valley and we want to build our own unique ecosystem, but the lessons learned from the likes of Silicon Valley and London and Singapore and China and everywhere else in the world really helps build not just the skills required, but the grit that could otherwise be absent. And it can engender the kind of cultural shift that's necessary. So you can develop these robust and resilient qualities that are necessary for a founder. Well, that's a really great point. I moved from the East Coast and the US to California in my first startup because that's where the action was. And I can say I've been there 20 years and I've been an entrepreneur doing things ever since. And there's a fallacy of trying to emulate Silicon Valley, every I dotted T cross and trying to take the playbook. It's no direct match. However, there's some consistencies in there and that's grit, creativity, openness, capital markets and community. And this is something that you guys kind of have in place and then adapting that to your culture. Now I will say that my impression here feels a little bit Silicon Valley because it's a little bit more open and loose. People like to go fast. Fast and loose is the Silicon Valley way. Dubai's a little bit more like New York to me. So I can feel more valley like here. I'm not saying that Dubai's bad. I'm saying it's different cultures, bigger, it's more. There's definitely a lot of agility here. I think one of the other advantages which leads back into what C5 is as a whole. We're primarily an investment business. We have a venture capital fund based in the UK. And so what we're really looking for is investable scalable business models where we're de-risking the cost of capital with cloud computing because that is how ultimately these startups scale. And so another benefit that we really see in this market is value for money. So if you're a startup in Silicon Valley and you get to the stage that some of our startups get to when they finish their program, your valuation is pretty much always triple what we would see here. So valuations are very sensitive subject. Our startups hate talking about it. We structure our deals with them in a way that generally avoids of having a valuation. It's very easy to do business here. Just keep on increasing the valuation. All startups will come cropping to your doorstep. So it's a nuanced area. But that means that you can get really good value for money, businesses, but more importantly, you're investing in the teams and the entrepreneurs and there's no shortage of that here. Let's talk about the ecosystem here and then let's talk about the women in tech because one of the things that blew me away yesterday was Theresa Cross on Hell Day women breakfast. And for the first time I got kicked off a table because they wanted to make room for the workshop. Sorry about that. I'm like, wait a minute. This is not an inclusive environment. Sorry, now we need the table. Okay, I know, I was happy to tap out. But that, I wasn't expecting that. I was, and the energy and the just really, again, this event, they locked the doors for the keynote. So there's really a big interest across the board. Talk about the ecosystem and then the women in tech situation. So I think the ecosystem is an interesting question because, I mean, we work very collaboratively. And like I said, this initiative largely was kind of envisioned by the government and mainly by the Economic Development Board. And I'm sure you got a chance to speak to Khalid Ramayih and he might have given you a bit of an idea of how this started off. But really the EDB threw this idea of starting up into the community and said, look, you guys lead on it. And it took a little bit of time for the community to figure out what that really means and what it's going to look like. But it really made the community and ourselves also think pragmatically about what we want this ecosystem to look like. So even though it's not as mature, like I said, as other ecosystems further away and especially in the West, it is coming together very nicely because it's coming together as a collaborative effort. And you see a very good consultation, continuous consultative work between private sector, public sector, the startups, and then the other stakeholders including ourselves and academia. We still have a long way to go. I think especially in areas and this is something that I always emphasize is to shift the culture. You really need to start at a much younger age. So at schools, at universities and where we engage with them and are keen to do more on that trend. But I think we are building, we're laying the foundation for what I hope in the next five, 10 years will be a pretty competitive entrepreneurial and sort of. It might be sooner. Hopefully sooner. I think we have the right recipe now to build a robust ecosystem. Yeah, I can say I can attest to that through what I saw yesterday. Your thoughts? Yeah, I mean, our team in Bahrain is 100% Bahraini. So I'm based in London but Hadiya here leads a phenomenal team who are all Bahraini citizens and being the island that it is, we know everybody. So Hadiya's done an excellent job of engaging with everyone from schools to universities to post-grad to public sector, private sector. So really all the stakeholders in the ecosystem are engaged. And everyone from the oil and gas industry to the finance sphere are thinking about how innovation can advance their businesses so that they don't get left behind at the train station. So it's really top of mind and top of agenda which is a very invigorating scenario. And I think, you know, going back to some of the initiatives from bankruptcy laws to having a fintech bay with the central bank of Bahrain, there's just so much, like they're constantly pushing the envelope to make this a friendly environment for entrepreneurs to come and do business. And I want to add one thing. There's always this question of does government have a role to drive innovation and creating the ecosystem? I think Bahrain is a good example for others in the region and even beyond to say actually government does have an important role. And if you look at Bahrain, it's government that has been very flexible and nimble in terms of moving to accommodate whether it's, you know, the new bankruptcy laws or allowing for, you know, the fintech sandbox and a cloud-first policy and shaping the startup Bahrain. The government has taken the lead on a lot of these initiatives. So it's a good example of how there can be a top-down approach to building an entrepreneurial landscape but also where the bottom needs to come and meet the top. So I think that's a good example. Well, that's a good point. I think just to reiterate, my observation is that they know how to get things going and sponsor but they're also listening and self-aware. And even on theCUBE here, we heard, you know, comments like we'll get out of the way. Now that's the difference between good judgment, you know, and no, no, I funded you, I own you. I mean, I've seen that in the public sector or we're going to fund you as an NGO and then I kind of own you. So come to my receptions and be my, you know, show horse and show all the way people how good I am donating money. So there's a little bit of a balance between, you know, enabling, but at the end of the day, this is going to be a fast pace. And that's where I think the speed, knowing when to get out of the way and letting the community go. I mean, this is, I mean, people like speed here. I mean, the cars are driving fast. You got a Formula One race track up in 14 months. They like speed, but sometimes things are surprisingly slow. So it's incredible that we are where we are. I mean, you also have women in tech and I think there's something that we're really proud of. So C5 globally, 43% of the startup founders that we've supported through our accelerators are women. So in terms of diversity, we're thrilled about that statistic. We'd like it to be 50%. And I think that the Middle East, we're seeing so much hunger from women entrepreneurs and women who want to learn to code, to be founders. And we want to do everything in our power to enable that. Is there some computer science degrees coming out of the university? Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, how do you hear had this fantastic idea a year ago to found what we call C5 Nebula. And I'll let how do you talk about why we came up with that name and how it relates to our business. But this is now a new stream of our business, which is, it's really a, it's a membership platform where all women globally are invited to join and we provide education, upskilling, jobs, connectivity, mentorship. And through this network, we are allowing a complete globalization of the talent and skills that we have. So you can be a student in DC wanting to come and volunteer to work for a company here and we will make that match happen. So I think it's a very exciting phase for us and we've seen so much demand for this program. Maybe how do you talk about why we came up with this name? Yeah, I should like Ava said, I mean, we are Bahraini and we've always had, you know, we've been lucky to have been pioneering and have had worked very closely with men and have had really equal opportunity, but in industries like tech globally, women's representation is lower than that of men and there are areas where there's still work to be done. A lot of work to do. So last year actually with the first AWS summit when Teresa was out here, we figured we'd do a women in tech breakfast. And when we were curating that guest list, we couldn't find that many women and we didn't know if it wasn't that we didn't know them or that they didn't exist and we realized really we need to put together something to bring all the women together and work more closely. So we built Nebula. Really like Ava said, do three things in a little more. One is the connectivity side of things and then the upskilling, but also to raise awareness and appreciation. But where's Nebula? What is Nebula? So Nebula scientifically, it's an astrological astronomical phenomenon. But it's in your network group, is that what it's called? It's a platform. So it's actually been officially launched three weeks ago. You can go online and visit it and it's a platform that allows you to become a member of Nebula and gives you access to mentorship, to opportunities to upskill and train, but also to raise awareness and appreciation for the amazing opportunities for women in the tech space. Is there a URL? There is a URL. We've been debating what it is today. It's www.c5nebula.com. Okay, C5, I'll put it up, publish it. And what it means, it's a Latin word for cloud and it's where stars are born. It's also what's important is it's a compilation of a bunch of different clouds and electrons and it's a mess, it's a bit of a mess, but it's a lot of forces working together and I guess the moral of the story is we can create stars in the space, but we all have to work together and it all has to come together. And it's powerful when you work together. Only 10% of VC funding, worldwide, goes to women founder companies and 1% of that goes to women of color. So there's some staggering statistics there. Globally, this is not a Middle East problem. This is globally a real big area of disparity that we're trying to help address. Well, you guys know our doors open in California and Boston. Certainly the women in tech, we got a big network. We can merge them into the Nebula, connect our networks, we're open. And anything you guys have to share with us, we love co-creating with the communities. That's what we do at theCUBE. Thanks for coming on and sharing. Thanks for having us. Thank you, John. It's been a pleasure. You get a great mission, big supporters. C5 Accelerate, they're the ones on the ground making things happen, getting those sparks of entrepreneurship and helping them capture them into one community, creates an energy and some momentum and help people create value and also capture the value. That's what it's all about here. The Amazon Web Services region in the Middle East, CUBE coverage continues after this short break.