Ehsan Ghasemi participated in our Startup Live Zagreb program in 2018. We interviewed the serial entrepreneur, CEO and founder of SAY* who is currently shaking up the social entrepreneurship scene. Where did the participation in our program take Ehsan who is fighting poverty using high tech?
Hi Ehsan. You participated in our Startup Live Zagreb program in 2018, right? How was your experience?
Short and Sweet. Due to sanctions, Iranian entrepreneurs are boycotted by the world and participating in Startup Live Zagreb was a perfect start for us because we met our Croatian team and our advisors there. This happened all in less than 3 days. Short and sweet 🙂
But what we really want to know is what is it about our program that made you come all the way from Iran to Zagreb?
We wanted to understand the European market better. This was our very first competition outside of Iran. We also wanted to get more educated regarding running a startup.
How have you been since our program in Zagreb? How’s your project going today?
Well, I believe Startup Live was more than just its prize, because of Startup Live I met many lovely people who guided SAY to get to this stage. After Startup Live Zagreb, we were accepted to Founder Institute in Berlin and aeternity blockchain in Sofia. Zagreb, Berlin, Sofia all happened in 6 months and helped us to accelerate our company. Today we are releasing our beta version in Iran and we have also attracted our first investor. We are expanding and will provide our services around the world sooner than we thought, thanks to the lovely people in Zagreb.
So, would you recommend our program to your friends?
Definitely, Network, Lovely people, Lovely City
*SAY is a startup born from Pendara company which seeks to fight poverty using high tech. By gathering information regarding all children protected by all NGOs globally, SAY creates a virtual child on behalf of every single one of them while the children’s identities are being protected. Every single interaction made with a virtual child within the application of SAY has an impact on a real child’s life in our world.
