There is a common mistake among entrepreneurs and followers of the start-up movement for startups regarding the reasons for the success of entrepreneurial companies in specific countries, which is that most of the reasons are usually attributed to the level of the entrepreneur's professionalism, level of education, patience, persistence, and intense dedication to his work that ultimately leads him to transform his small business. To a global company.

This may be true, but it is definitely not the only reason for successful entrepreneurship in certain countries and its failure in other countries. When we talk about Jordan as one of the leaders of the Arab countries that witness a remarkable success in the entrepreneurship movement in it, it is wrong to base the reason on persistence And the culture and education of Jordanian youth - only - because in the end it is an extended part of a comprehensive Arab reality, witnessing in other regions a great failure in developing the concept of entrepreneurship. The main reason for the success of entrepreneurial movements in specific countries is what was expressed by the famous entrepreneur Paul Graham (1) when he indicated that the real question that must be asked is a reverse question: What protects startups from failure in certain countries? (2)

He answers this question that the failure and death of startups is normal, while abnormal in the first place is their life, it is exactly the same as the birth of a child, it is natural to die because of its fragility and weakness, but it continues in life because of the environment, incubator and care that helps it to continue. The same situation for the success of startups, which is mainly linked to countries that provide an atmosphere considered incubating for the entrepreneurial movement in them, and never the ingenuity of the entrepreneur or his intelligence are the reason for the success of his project.

Here, we are embarking on another round of reviewing a group of the most prominent emerging Jordanian companies that occupied its position in the list of the 100 most important Arab startups, and we shed light on some features of their success and their access to this rank through the positive leadership in the small kingdom.

Tomato company

The field: Digital Games .. A pioneering company established in Jordan in 2013, and it is considered one of the largest Arab gaming platforms that aim to Arabize global games and present them to the Arab user via smart phones with Android and iOS. The company was founded by Jordanian entrepreneur Hossam Hammou after a series of failures, where he and his team were forced to close a company that was previously launched that specialized in making browser games under the name "Wizard product" (..

Within a few months of launching a tomato platform, it managed to launch dozens of games and the number of its downloads reached more than 4 million downloads, which was considered a clear indication of the company’s success in attracting the attention of Arab users, and it was a signal to launch more in developing games and adjusting them to suit the user in Region. Tomato is currently working in the field of publishing games in the Arab region, and aims to work to Arabize and develop copies of successful international games by contracting with the largest developers of international games and studios, as it also opens the door for game developers at all levels to publish their games and adopt them by the platform.

Today, the number of games launched by Tomato reached about 40 digital games for the Android and iOS systems, and the company has achieved more than 31 million downloads since its inception to date, and is used by more than 3.5 million users per month, which has made the company one of the most promising gaming companies in Jordan and the Middle East.

The company is currently targeting the expansion in the Arab Gulf and North Africa markets, which made it open to open an office in Cairo, in addition to that the company is currently focusing on the Gulf market as one of the largest markets in the world using the Internet and a demand for the world of digital games via phones. 3,4,5)

Akhtaboot Company

In 2011 the company was included in the list of the 500 fastest growing Arab startups, and the list of the fastest 30 Jordanian startups (Akhtaboot)

The field: Employment .. A Jordanian startup that specializes in the field of employment, established by Youssef Shamoun and Haj Hassan in 2007 as a comprehensive professional platform, that provides job opportunities and career guidance and works to link employers and job seekers with qualified employees. At the beginning of its launch, it was focusing on Jordan locally, then it expanded to open branches in Dubai and Riyadh.

The job seekers raise their CVs on the site, which provides a research fund with the latest jobs according to all disciplines, as well as that the site holds a series of partnerships with newspapers, broadcasts and magazines with the aim of publishing jobs whether for those looking for them or those who want to hire, and is also considered the only recruitment site in the Middle East that provides With a set of personality tests, such as the MBTI test, which enables job seekers to pass it for free.

Akhtaboot has contributed to the attendance of dozens of job fairs in Jordan and the Arab countries at the level of universities, employment companies or specialized professional programs to raise the efficiency of employees and link them with companies. It also signed partnership agreements with many social institutions such as the Jordanian Talal Abu Ghazaleh Foundation. In 2011 the company was included in the list of the 500 fastest growing Arab startups, and in the same year it was included in the list of the fastest 30 Jordanian startups. (6,7,8)

Arab Weather Company

Field: Meteorology .. The Arab Weather Company was established in Amman in 2006 as a local meteorological company mainly under the name "Jordan Weather", and in 2010 the name of the company was transferred to Arab Weather to direct its meteorological activity to all Arab countries.

The founder of the company is Mohamed Al Shaker, he started his small company while he was still in high school, he studied at the College of Pharmacy - despite his interests in the meteorology world - which made him obtain two degrees in meteorology after graduating from the meteorology office in the United Kingdom, because there is no such specialization In Jordanian universities.

The company includes a large cadre of meteorologists to provide monitoring services professionally, as well as many consultants in many Arab countries, and the site is currently considered one of the largest weather sites in the Arab world, as it was used in 2014 by more than 20 million users Arab, among them 5 million Jordanian citizens, which made him among the 10 most visited sites in Jordan, according to Alexa's ranking.

In 2015, Arab Weather Company received a significant unidentified financing round from regional and international investors, including the Badia Impact Fund, Dash Ventures and other investors, as a prelude to a further expansion in the region. Currently, Arab weather has become a primary source for many television stations and companies, among them the Saudi Telecom Company website, and it provides services in weather forecasting, as well as news related to science, geography and climate. (9,10)

Loa Company 

Field: Support and financing .. Jordanian Liwwa Company was founded in 2012 by Ahmed Moore and Samer Atiani, and it is a flexible lending platform designed to address unemployment problems in the Middle East and North Africa by financing small and medium enterprises.

The idea of ​​the company came on the echo of the fact that small and medium-sized companies represent 80% of the total economic activity in the Middle East and North Africa, and that these companies provide employment opportunities close to 40%. Thus, working to bridge the financing gap for small and medium-sized companies in the region would improve the wheel of the economy. The Liwa platform comes at a time when many Arab countries are experiencing a crisis of financing gaps for small and medium emerging projects, so that in Morocco, Lebanon and Yemen they reached about 250 billion dollars, according to the World Bank, as well as the reluctance of many banks to finance projects, and their dependence in particular on Personal relationships in financing infusion, not the quality of the business.

At the local level, the Liwa platform comes at a time when small and medium companies play an essential role in the Jordanian economy, so they employ 60% of the Jordanian workforce, which makes the company's role in securing capital for companies from this side. Since the establishment of the company, Liwa has played a prominent role in providing 20 loans worth $ 100,000, as well as cooperating with a group of local and regional investors who are able to support small and medium loans.

This role led the company to recently obtain a round of financing through which it was able to obtain substantial financing - whose value was not determined - from a group of investors such as "Dash Ventures", the Bank of the Union and the "MVI" Fund, which would make the company able to implement expansion plans. Regional in the Middle East. (11)

Medical Company

The field: Medical content and services .. Altibbi website is a pioneering Jordanian startup company, now the main medical reference in the Arabic language after it developed from a simple medical dictionary on the Internet in Arabic and turned into an integrated medical portal that provides medical information, examination services and medical advice, And communicate with doctors online, medical written and visual content and decree.

The site was established before 2011 by Jalil Al-Labadi, a Jordanian business pioneer who decided to upload an electronic version of the medical dictionary in Arabic with about 15 thousand definitions, and it is mainly the work of Al-Labadi’s father, the doctor who collected him for 15 years. With the publication of the medical encyclopedia, Al-Abbadi noted a scarcity of medical content - at the time - and that the Arab user usually resorted to some paper medical journals or some inaccurate websites in their content, and this was the starting point to convert the small medical encyclopedia into the medical site in its current form.

Today, the medical is considered one of the largest Arab medical references, and collects more than 5 million users per month, and communicates with 10 thousand active doctors from the Arab world as a whole - if a third of them are from Jordan - in addition to the presence of more than 650 thousand medical articles published, in addition to medical consultations Free in cooperation with licensed physicians. The doctor won the World Summit on the contents of the phone (WSA) in the field of health care, and succeeded in obtaining an investment - the value of which was not disclosed - in 2014 by MEVP and Dash Ventures. 12)

Cash Pasha Company

The field: electronic payment facilities .. CashBasha was founded in 2013 by business leader Fouad Grace, and aims to provide an integrated payment service for shoppers in Jordan that enables them to purchase through the Amazon site without the need for a payment card or a bank account, meaning that Cash Pasha makes all the procedures for buying through Amazon for a simple ordinary Internet user, and saves him entering these complications.

Once the shopper chooses to purchase a specific commodity from Amazon via "Cash Pasha", he receives an immediate price quote for his request, including customs and shipping fees.

Cash Pasha came to offer a solution to an intractable problem in the Arab world and the third world, which is the presence of many shoppers who do not have credit cards, and began expanding outside Jordan to include Saudi Arabia with more expansion plans in the Gulf and North Africa. Currently, the company handles approximately 8 thousand requests per month with accelerated growth rates, and was able to conclude a partnership agreement with Aramex, the international Jordanian shipping company, and was able to conclude an agreement with the American investment company Startaps (500). In late 2016, Cash Pasha won the first place in the "Startup Istanbul" competition, which was held in Turkey against 2700 startup companies around the world. (13,14,15)

Finally, it can be said that Jordan offers a unique - and inspired - example of the Arab entrepreneurship movement, not only in the models of promising projects launched by Jordanian youth, but also in terms of developing social mechanisms that embrace these projects and make them see the light, whether through private business incubators or institutions. Government.