Nearly all Iranian universities now offer entrepreneurship programs
Nazanin Daneshwar · a16z Podcast | Layering Tech and Culture in Iran · Jan 2, 2019 · at 6:23
Nazanin Daneshwar, founder and CEO of Takhfifan, discusses the rapid growth of university entrepreneurship programs in Iran over the preceding two years.
0:00 / 0:07exact quote · 8.0s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“Now pretty much all the universities have that, but by those years, I mean, just one of the universities had the entrepreneurship field for studying for people.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Nazanin Daneshwar
European investors and American executives visit Tehran to explore tech opportunities
“There are already, like, lots of Europeans that have visited our office, they have been in Tehran, there are some of them already in Tehran, they have offices. I even heard, like, from a very famous company that I cannot name, one of their top managers, the Am…”
Daneshwar: US sanctions prevent American VCs from investing in Iranian startups
“Americans are sanctioned, so they are always running around, they are looking at the companies, they are talking to them, etc., I mean, but the fact is when it comes to the real serious story, they just say, oops, sorry, you know, we are Americans, we have to …”
Daneshwar: Takhfifan faced no government barriers launching in Iran
“Well, we didn't have any barrier or any problem, you know, facing from the government side to start a company.”
Takhfifan grows to over one million customers and 60 employees
“We started as two people, and now we are basically having more than one million customers, and we are operating in seven cities, and we have grown to 60 people.”
Daneshwar: Iranians routinely use VPNs to access blocked social media platforms
“Facebook advertisement is closed for Iranians, like Google AdWords as well, but the fact that people here are having the full access to Twitter, to Facebook, and Facebook is blocked by the government as well, but we are going through the VPNs, so everybody is …”
Daneshwar: Iran's startup ecosystem will mirror Berlin within three to five years
“Well, I mean, to be honest I can already see, like, we are going to be at a super competitive market, like, that the whole idea, like, I remember from Berlin time, when I was living there are still cafes that we were, like, sitting there, and we just said, don…”