For more information and complete list of startups and etc you can check this out.

Now Slush is on the road! On September 17th Slush comes to Tehran: There will be a pitching competition. The winner of Slush In Tehran is invited to Slush 2014

Having spent a good part of this past year in Iran and some of it working at MAPS, a relatively young but highly promising and inspiring startup incubator, what surprises me is not so much that this is finally happening, but rather that it took so long for it to happen. Just consider some of these statistics. Iran has one of the youngest and most educated populations anywhere in the Middle East. More than 70% of Iranians are younger than 35, and Iran’s literacy rate stands at 85% (OECD/WorldBank), a number that increases to 97% among young adults (aged between 15 and 24), without any gender discrepancy and well ahead of the regional average of 62%. Iran’s rigorous education system and college entrance exams filter the best and brightest for its leading institutions of higher learning, where only 10% make it to the highly selective public universities. Maryam Mirzakhani was the product of this system, and her Alma Mater, Sharif University, continues to inch upwards in the rankings among the world’s very best.

Another secret that is gradually bubbling to the surface is that women are at the forefront of this technological breakthrough. Maryam Mirzakhani is truly exceptional however you look at what she has accomplished, but her story makes one wonder how many more like her are still inside the country. 60% percent of college graduates in Iran are women, many of them trailblazers in their own right. Satratech, a MAPS startup, is a predominantly female-run operation having 8 of its 12 engineers as well as its co-founder all women. Shafajoo, its health and medical application, received top honors at the 6th annual Iranian web show in 2014, AND the software gained its 100,000th user within 6 months of its launch. Just this past month, Iran held its first startup weekend for women, one of a handful of countries to ever do so.

There are of course many challenges facing the high-tech community in Iran, challenges such as the US-imposed sanctions, the internal censors, and the continuing brain drain. But these have been a part of life in the country for a long time now, and the Iranians have managed to make their headways despite these problems. In many ways, these challenges have made them more resilient, more resourceful, more creative. Despite the sanctions for instance, you can find any high-tech consumer item you wish in Iran as a visit to Payetakht will attest to. The internal censors have made it inconvenient, and at times difficult to access many sites or to connect to the outside world, but by one account up to 70% or Iranians bypass government filters, a realization that may finally be encouraging the government to ease up the restrictions. And even though the brain drain must be felt on many levels in Iran, it hasn’t stopped the country from embracing internet banking, mobile bill-pay, and the spread and wide use of technology in a host of areas. In fact Iran has one of highest numbers of internet users in the world, ranking 13 when those numbers are taken as a percentage of population, well above, China, Russia, India, Brazil and Turkey.

Outside the country Iranians have cemented their reputation as pioneers in science and technology and by the looks of it, they are doing the same inside. Yes, the road inside has been more challenging with many more ups and downs, but Iranians seem to be overcoming them one by one. Iran is coming online as a high-tech powerhouse. The big question is, how far will it go, and how fast.

Now Slush is on the road! On September 17th Slush comes to Tehran: There will be a pitching competition. The winner of Slush In Tehran is invited to Slush 2014 and receives:

• Flights by Finnair
• Accommodation
• Exclusive access, including the opportunity to take part in the Slush pitching competition

Startups should open to early-stage tech oriented product or service in all sectors. Less than 3 years in operation and has received fewer than $3M of fundings. Eight pre-selected startups, each having 3 min to pitch plus 5 min for Q&A, will face a judging panel.in Addition, Entrants will be judged on the uniqueness of their idea, their level of development thus far, and their potential for future growth.

Techly, Iran Startups, Finnair and Iran ICT Organization are the partners of this event that help the international team to make this happen.

You can attend as an Startup or as a Guest.All these are free of charge.You can use this link.

The finals will be held in front of a worldwide audience at Slush 2014 in Helsinki on November 19th.

Nick Stevens as a Facilitator started the event by introducing startup weekend to all attendees. After 31 pitches, 12 ideas got selected and 10 teams gathered to start “No talk, all action”.

Nick’s presence was a great opportunity to all attendees, mentor, staff and also the liveblog team. By his advice, all teams got out of the building and evaluate their ideas.

Friday afternoon we had the presentation and judging session. Every team had 5 minutes to present their work and 3 minutes to answer the questions. GiftMan, Brown Ground and DarooYar win this battle, but as you know all the attendees are winners if they use what they’ve learn in their real business.

I had the honor to interview Mr. Koorangi Founder at MPS, the first Incubator for supporting technological business here in Iran. This event as the first startup weekend he attended attracted his attention. He said that he has seen obvious change past 3 years he has got back Iran. Although there is some problems, the startup ecosystem is in progress.

Entrepreneurship is a case that should be reviewed and he taught some investors are paying attention to Middle East and Iran since the problems are the same all over the world. Problems such as traffic, shopping, library and entertainment are the same in Iran and San Francisco or France as well. Because of these similarities the strategies and methods should be global. So, we should solve a problem by whole and as Iran is part of the whole, the problem will got solved.

We have so many creative young people here who could solve the problems but they need support and some tools. The main tool is fund.

He also mentioned about the importance of investors. As you know, Mark Zuckerberg had enough investors so he could launched facebook. The idea itself could not guaranteed success and fund is important as well.

He answered the last question about localization the successful startups around the world. He said that most people are afraid of foreign investors and they say foreigners has got the market and we cannot compete. This idea is wrong, if you have a strategy you can work as well and attract the investors. And this would be a positive act when a foreign company buy internal companies. So think global and act local.