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The Pan-Arabia Enquirer

Amman’s entrepreneurs embrace risk in the living rooms of their parents’ $3m villas

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Amman’s entrepreneurs embrace risk in the living rooms of their parents’ $3m villas

New generation of privileged business leaders willing to put everything on the line
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AMMAN: Jordan’s bustling entrepreneurial scene has come alive in recent years with a new group of business leaders unafraid to put their necks on the line, assuming they’ve got a bit of startup capital from their mums and dads first.

“Entrepreneurs like me are a different breed because we really embrace risk,” says Fadi Hussein, 2012’s Young Jordanian Entrepreneur of the Year, handing a used coffee cup to one of three Sri Lankan maids in his parents’ kitchen.

“I mean, we don’t take the easy option. No way. We’re putting everything on the line… like, I had to duck out of a family skiing trip to Faraya last winter because I was invited to speak at some start-up conference thing in Cairo. It’s a crazy life.”

Fadi, 25, who followed up his seven years in an elite British boarding school with an MBA at a private university in Geneva, has shunned a job with his father’s construction firm to see how far he can take his own start-up – which he started on his kitchen table with nothing more than a laptop, iPad, iPhone, his father’s contacts, several thousand dinars of working capital from his uncle in Dallas and a vague idea that he wanted to do “something with DJs”.

And now, two years later, his company Something With DJs has managed to book DJ Tiesto to Jordan three separate times in just six weeks.

“I mean, it’s not about the profit is it?” insists Ramzi Johnson, founder of The Social Media Start-up, a company that helps start up social media start-ups. “It’s the journey, the innovation, the teamwork… the endless uncritical congratulation at Tweet-Ups. Money is just numbers. That’s how all entrepreneurs like us see it.”

And Johnson says he’s in this for the long haul. At just 23, he knows his journey has just begun.

“I mean, now that I have learned to totally ignore repeated failure, I could really see myself doing this for a long time.”

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15 Comments

15 Comments

  1. Inspiratapeur

    March 19, 2013 at 8:31 am

    Frankly, I object to the above. “Something With DJs” has been a breath of fresh air in Jordan… how else would we hear incredibly banal trance music in a big desert for the price of the average national wage? We need to celebrate these people. I’m planning a Tweet-up-hashtag-debate-erence next month and Fadi’s so getting an invite……

    Reply

  2. Dubai Dude

    April 16, 2013 at 2:25 pm

    rotfl… this is hilarious and supremely sarcastic !

    Reply

  3. Anonymous

    April 20, 2013 at 6:33 pm

    Thank you.

    Reply

  4. Dima

    September 22, 2013 at 1:54 pm

    I think young entrepreneurs need more support, the DJ business has a big future. You know?

    Reply

  5. PM Dawn

    September 24, 2013 at 10:16 am

    Kitchen table? Real entrepreneurs make it happen in business hubs with social areas and ideas pods. Everyone knows that today’s business titans built their empire in a glorified cafe with exposed AC ducts and piped in chill out music.

    Reply

  6. Sally Udeh

    September 24, 2013 at 10:31 am

    i want to see this article in a movie !! must be hilarious
    !!!

    Reply

  7. Dawser دوسر (@Namleh)

    September 25, 2013 at 9:26 am

    I don’t think it matters if the entrepreneur is rich or not as long as he/she are committed and have a great idea! I admire those who have rich parents and utilize their fortune in creating successful ideas! The most important thing is a great idea and solves a real problem!

    Reply

    • Anonymous

      September 25, 2013 at 11:20 am

      You missed the whole point dear.

      Reply

  8. bawartany

    September 25, 2013 at 11:20 am

    Priceless! Loving it…

    Reply

  9. Anonymous

    September 25, 2013 at 2:00 pm

    The definition of an entrepreneur is: an individual who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on financial risk to do so.
    This is not taking financial risk, this is just spending money and calling yourself an entrepreneur.
    That is the whole reason for this article.

    Reply

  10. Carol

    September 25, 2013 at 3:57 pm

    I judge people by their art. And Tiesto is the most dumbed down version of electronic music. There are many art consumers that are sheep, they follow what is cool and fail to dig beyond hypes and trends. The fact that this guy booked Tiesto (three times) just shows how he doesn’t even have the ability to research better music. Tiesto is the Jersey Shore of electronic music. Anyone in capable of realizing that just lacks listening abilities and proper research.

    Reply

  11. Hanna Matalka

    September 26, 2013 at 1:21 pm

    This article is brilliant, it draws the line between real entrepreneur’s people who start from the bottom and a different kind of entrepreneurship, but as long as these guys are doing something such as creating jobs and contributing to society instead of spending their money on silly stuff they deserve respect.

    Reply

  12. #Moyesout

    September 27, 2013 at 5:30 am

    Hilarious! If only I had a dirham (or pound sterling) every time I met someone like that claiming to have struggled with investing their parents’ millions into a new idea that had “crap concept” written all over it … and then daddy paying equal amounts to PR machines for write-ups in publications going out of business about their son’s Revolutionary business … P.S You stopped sending the weekly round up. i’m starting to think your news is kinda fake ….

    Reply

  13. dave scott

    October 31, 2013 at 8:38 am

    Unfortunately as a music producer and sound engineer in Jordan I have to deal with these idiots several times a year. This article is great as I thought I was the only one who could see through the bullshit. Happily I was wrong.

    Reply

  14. nemok

    October 31, 2013 at 11:33 am

    Is this meant to be for real or is it just a joke ?

    “had to duck out of a family skiing trip to Faraya last winter because I was invited to speak at some start-up conference thing in Cairo”

    Really?

    Reply

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