Iraqi Entrepreneurs Journey V.2 New Trends and Insights

Executive Summary

This research is an updated, quantitative assessment of the Iraqi Entrepreneurs Journey: An In-Depth Analysis that was published by KAPITA in 2020. The findings indicate that the landscape is still dominated by sole, male founders. And similar to the previous findings, their startups are operating in a different field than their educational background.

Additionally, despite having a startup, the majority of entrepreneurs still worked in another job to support their business or to get more experience.

In either case, campaigns, policies, and programs need to be developed to include more females, provide relevant academic training, and support the startups financially.

Business plans and having a testing phase seem like the norm for most startups, indicating a high level of awareness about the importance of these elements. However, the effectiveness and implementation are still to be investigated. Another important aspect is developing the team.

Most of the entrepreneurs worked to develop ideas and team members were mostly selected based on having different sets of skills than the founders. This will give the startup resilience and innovative advantages compared to businesses managed by single individuals or members with similar skills.

It is important to note that hiring was mostly done through references and recommendations (networking) followed by social media.

Registering the startup comes with its own challenges. Most of the entrepreneurs expressed their desire to register their startup but were hesitant due to the long, tedious registration process. Self-funding remained the major source for most startups and financial needs remained the major challenge to scaling. In a highly competitive market, funding seems to be the factor that will determine the success of these startups.