Incubator Innovators
April 17, 2024
“There are things I can already reflect in my own project,” Mariam Fayyad says. “Even in my own mindset. Even if it won’t be reflected in my project directly, my mindset is different.”
Mariam Fayyad is the co-founder Sol’mare, a fashion brand that designs and produces simple, colourful summer clothing pieces using sustainable linen fabric. She is one of the 14 sustainable fashion and furniture Egyptian startups participating in the first round of DEDI Green Incubator.
DEDI Green Incubator’s first round concludes after a networking event, a workshop in Denmark and three business development modules hosted in Cairo.
A Global Perspective
“Getting to see how they look at business models in Denmark, how they see incubators, how they deal with startups is very useful,” Mohamed Mamdouh El Haddad, founder of Haddad Furniture Designs says. “It gives you a global perspective on how companies operate”
Over a week in Copenhagen, the participants took part in workshops by DEDI alumni and industry experts including workshops on technology in design, sustainable leadership, communication as well as a creative workshop on mood boards creation.
The participants of DEDI Green Incubator took part in DTU Skylab’s Startup Day in Copenhagen where 60 pre and early-stage, knowledge-based startups showcased their prototypes and technologies in the exhibition and pitched their business ideas on stage.
“The event presented numerous opportunities for growth and connection,” furniture designer Mamdouh El-Haddad says. “From potential partnerships to valuable mentorship, the possibilities seemed limitless.”
Expert Modules in Cairo
In collaboration with Cocoon Culture Center, DEDI also organised a number of modules for the participants to gain a deeper perspective into business development, presentation and marketing.
“The first module of the program posed a few questions for me: what are the next steps we need to take? What mistakes did we make along the way that we need to go back and correct?” Haidy El Gendy, founder of Cotton Town, a B2B marketplace for pure Egyptian cotton. “The trainer, Mohamed Abu Khadra, was giving us keys to unlock these questions and look into your own project’s trajectory,” she says following the two day module on Business Growth & Development.
For Menna Remah, the two day module on Proposal Creation by Creatives Services Director Aya Hesham at Mada Masr, was impactful.
“As designers, we struggle sometimes to articulate our brands and businesses especially when presenting to donors, clients or potential partners,” Menna Remah, founder of Menna Remah Upcycled Garments says.
During the module, the fourteen entrepreneurs were engrossed in how to pitch their businesses and establish partnerships through simulations and exercises, pushing them to articulate their business ventured and how to take them to the next level.
Finally an intensive module on Marketing and Brand Positioning ran by Youmna El Herraoui, helped the participants establish their marketing language and positioning in the local and global market.
Networking & Profile Raising
As part of DEDI Green Incubator and efforts to support DEDI’s alumni, DEDI supported five of our participants’ and alumni’s sustainable fashion brands to participate as vendors in From Waste to Good Taste, a large scale marketplace event for sustainable brands hosted in downtown Cairo.
We also showed the furniture pieces that resulted from our previous project Design for Circularity during the event.
Ultimately for Menna Remah, there was a bigger takeaway from her participation in the DEDI Green Incubator.
““DEDI introduced us to how powerful & impactful collaborations and working in clusters can be,” she concludes.
This project was managed by Sustainability Program Manager Rana Khamis and Project Officers Doaa Fayyad and Yousra Fouda.
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