Ramy Adeeb, Senior Director of Project Management for Yahoo!, tells BarakaBits about how his Egyptian background motivates his work in Silicon Valley.
So, we’ll start with the basics?
“I was born in Egypt and lived there till I was 15. But Egypt has continued to be an inspiration for my work throughout.”
How does your Egyptian heritage inspire your work?
“Egypt was the inspiration behind my previous startup, Snip.it, a social curation startup born during the Arab Spring. With family living in Egypt during the revolution, I turned to social media to share news of the uprising. But I was frustrated with the existing social media tools which favored sharing news bites over real analysis so I quit my job in venture and founded Snip.it in 2011.”
Snip.it was acquired by Yahoo! and you could have moved on to…well, on to whatever you wanted! What motivates your commitment to your field?
“Technology is changing our lives–not just making it more efficient, but also enabling social and political change. And, with capital requirements for startups decreasing every day, the barrier for entrepreneurs to create this change is the lowest it has ever been. I am passionate about being on either side: being an entrepreneur or being a venture capitalist, but I realize the entrepreneurship is where all the value is created, and all the fun (and stress) is had!”
You can follow Ramy on Twitter (@ramyadeeb), and keep an eye out for him in coverage of The Fifth Annual TechWadi Forum in San Francisco, California (June 14th).
For more info: TechWadi: Building bridges between San Francisco and the Arab world; Ramy Adeeb
