T.K.M - A Business Incubator
The Knowledge Mine (TKM) a project under the Knowledge Oasis Muscat (K.O.M) is a true startup business incubator. The first of its kind in the region. It seeks to be a platform for starups and early stage tech ventures. A quick look at the admission process shows that the screening process is merit structured with emphasis being put on a solid business plan, innovative ideas, strong management team and above all a vision backed with strong faith.
I think it is a commendable step and is the sort of organization I had been trying to screen for myself and fellow entrepreneurs. QSTP or YAL Dubai are good iniatives but don't quite extend the helping hand to startups as being done by TKM. Read on and be awakened to a new world of local business incubation.
posted by bizzwhizz at 3:13 PM
3 Comments:
there were several business incubator initiatives that really didn't go anywhere ... Encube, DIO ..etc. Don’t mean to sound negative, but I see the Omani one sharing the same fate.
And as for YAL... to me; its just a networking project and it doesn't do much around here.
The only true business incubators that I’ve seen effective and quite active are SME (Sh. Mo’s) and Tomooh.
QSTP is striving to be what it name calims. In a telephonic interview Mr. Des Ryan, QSTP's Business Support Manager, brought to to my attention the innovative funds such as the 'Proof of Concept Fund', 'Seed Funding Fund' and various others. These allow businesses to hook up to QSTP at any stage of life cycle and focus instead of worrying about unforseen forces. I'll have a post on it soon with all the details.
We do have high ambitions for our business incubator but the busy construction sector here means that we currently expect to open it late 2007. The steelwork has all gone up but fitting it all out and putting in IT will take quite some time.
We're not sitting on our hands though, the seed- and VC-funds are being raised now and we will launch an executive education program in entrepreneruship in early 07.
Moryarti is right, there are a lot of initiatives out there. I see this as a good thing - sure not all are going to succeed but at least people are thinking that way.
Ben Figgis
Qatar Science & Technology Park
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