Venture capitalist Christopher Schroeder notes the extent of Iranian government support for tech startup infrastructure.
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schroeder: An uninformed crypto investor backed 14 Pakistani startups, inflating valuations
“I'm thinking about one person now who literally decided they were going to invest in 14 companies in Pakistan. They didn't really know Pakistan at all and never been there. They just assumed one of them would hit and that didn't help the ecosystem at all. I me…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schroeder: Iranian youth widely use American social networks and edtech platforms
“When I was in Iran a month ago, all the young people wanted to show me on their smart devices, not only how they were all on our social networks, which allows them to see each other as well as to see other parts of the world, all of them had access to Coursera…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schroeder: Iran and the Middle East have more female entrepreneurs than Silicon Valley
“It amazes me how across the region and in Iran, maybe even more so, I find more women entrepreneurs than I find in Silicon Valley.”
Insight
Schroeder: Emerging markets share more similarities with each other than Silicon Valley
“I think one of the big theses that I have learned in this traveling is that which is happening among emerging markets among themselves is more shared in many cases than their compatriots in Silicon Valley or even Beijing.”
Assertion Partly supported
Schroeder: Careem beat Uber in the Middle East by accepting cash payments
“One of the biggest and obvious ones was they began to offer cash payments in when you finish your ride in a Korean car, because they knew that most people in the Middle East were not comfortable yet in the safety and protection of doing a digital transaction. …”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Schroeder: Day-one international expansion failed for most emerging market startups
“I saw companies from Africa, from the Middle East and Southeast Asia that started, you know, day one going to London and started going to Different parts of the world. And I was skeptical of it at the time. And in hindsight, I I'm proven right. Right. Because …”