Seeqnce is one of the fastest growing internet startup accelerators in the Arab World.

Operating from Beirut for the past 12 months, it has successfully brought together a 2000-strong community of entrepreneurs, investors, professionals and youths.

During that time, startups were launched and advised, workshops and policymaking seminars were facilitated, and overall a successful momentum was created that placed Lebanon firmly in the regional internet entrepreneurship race.With the launch of its new space in Hamra in August 2011, Seeqnce aims to become a hub where the various elements of the ecosystem come together and interact. The space is designed specifically to stimulate startup innovation, thought leadership and community growth in the web & mobile industry

"Having been parachuted into the MENA region, I hit a fundraising wall. Then I met Seeqnce and got a $200K loan a month later. Now that's acceleration"
Karim Safieddine, Founder and CEO, Cinemoz.com

The development of a thriving internet industry is critical to reducing unsustainable unemployment levels and creating opportunities for the annual 10 million new entrants to the Arab World job market. Simply put, it's the new companies that create the jobs that will fulfill the aspirations of youths.

As a startup catalyst, Seeqnce combines two environments: A Coworking Space, where resident startups work, collaborate and share knowledge; and a Community Space, where students, partner corporations and professionals participate in Seeqnce initiatives and interact with the startups.

Such an envrionment and set of activities follows best practices established with resounding succes by the likes of Y combinator, TechStars among others.

We believe that, to foster an ecosystem, Seeqnce has to become a nexus of activity and people. To encourage the spread of ideas and the spark of entrepreneurship, students should be rubbing elbows with entrepreneurs and a student-entrepreneur-investor feedback loop must be sustained, advised and grown.

This is the core mission of Seeqnce.

Seeqnce has access to a knowledge pool and in-depth expertise about internet companies: What it takes to start one; to steer it from seed stage to growth stage; to overcome technical, business and financial challenges; and to achieve profitability and success.

Resident Startups get access to the full Seeqnce advisory resources, following standard best practices in terms of equity or other forms of compensation.

"Seeqnce is a community and a micro-infrastructure that supports a new generation of entrepreneurs in Beirut, providing an ecosystem in which new businesses can emerge, thrive and grow"
Eli Andrews,Co-Founder and Managing Director, Transterramedia.com

Coworking for Resident Startups: The Coworking space is a secure and separated open-plan environment where desks are reserved - not oversold - to startups, independent professionals and select SMEs. The profile of residents must follow Seeqnce's focus on web, mobile and digital industries. Thus typical user types include programmers, designers, entrepreneurs, social media marketers, and other professionals.

The 2011 monthly Residency fee is $450 (incl. taxes) per desk occupied.

Residency fees are priced competitively yet profitably, since they answer a pressing need and enjoy strong local demand. Teams that take up residency are charged per desk occupied on a minimum monthly basis, with emphasis on longer term commitments. Residents who are startups can benefit from a smaller fee than established firms or can even have their stay fully covered by a sponsor.

Residents enjoy a serious work environment, reserved working space with good internet connectivity and an emphasis on professionalism, collaboration and mutual respect. All residents also have equal access to conference rooms where private work can be undertaken or where presentations and meetings can take place.

Become a resident startup

Community Work Environment:

The Community space is an informal open plan area with assets that can be commonly used. Desks, internet connectivity, a presentation area as well as sponsored technology zones will be present.

Students, freelancers, creatives and other individuals that are part of the web, mobile and digital sectors can become members of the Community space. Membership fees are competitive, can be sponsored, and offer access to a professional work environment in addition to exposure to new technologies - showcased by sponsors - and to the various regular activities and events.

The Community space is available for anyone to use as a professional shared space, where desks are available on a first-come first-serve basis, and where a lounge area, fast internet and other amenities are provided.

Following are the prices and other details to become a Seeqnce Member and access the space:

• The Community space is available as a work environment from 8am to 6pm, 7 days a week.
• This daily access costs LBP20,000/day per person, including internet and 400MB of bandwidth.
• After 6pm, the Community space is focused on running presentations and workshops. Should there be no booked event, Members have nightly access (6pm to midnight) with internet (200MB) for LBP15,000 per month.
• In all cases, any additional 1GB bandwidth requested costs $11/GB.

Become a community member

The Community space is designed to accomodate daily events, presentations or workshops after 6pm.

With internet access, projectors, wide screen TVs and an open area, the space is ideal for such activities. Companies can use it to showcase their latest products, developers can share their technology expertise, designers can talk about best practices, and much more. The idea is to create a vibrant environment where ideas and people are constantly clashing and mixing, thereby making it ripe for projects to come to life and companies to form.

Some more details:

• All activities start from 6pm until 12am.
• Renting the space costs $100/hr for commercial or corporate activities.
• For community activities, such as barcamps or knowledge sharing, Seeqnce can offer reduced pricing and even waive them completely. Please contact us for more information.

Contact us

Fadi Bizri is a Founding Member of Seeqnce and its Community Manager.

Fadi is a serial entrepreneur with product management expertise.

He currrenly acts as Project Manager for Cinemoz.com

He is also a Co-founder of iSpicePhotos, an award-winning iPad application that allows consumers to delve more deeply and more interactively into their Facebook photo collections.

Previously, Fadi was Founder and CEO of ltaqi.com, a collaborative activities planning web service, created as a solution to the chaos that ensues from attempting to organize friends around activities. Iltaqi's centralized environment makes it easy to initiate and keep track of any number of activities simultaneously. Iltaqi means 'to meet' in Arabic.

Fadi also held the position of VP Product Management for Earthone.net, a London-based online aggregator of print-on-demand services. He led the development team, steering the overall product strategy from inception to market.

Fadi holds a Master of Engineering from the Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, and a Bachelor of Engineering from the American University of Beirut.

Reham is an Assistant Community Manager at Seeqnce, who joined the team in July 2011.

Previously, Reham worked as a Trainer and School Relation Coordinator at the LAU Model UN, an international program built on training High School students on life skills related to peaceful resolution of conflicts, creative communications and leadership skills, role-playing and diplomatic tackling of controversial issues.

Also, Reham worked as a Public Relation Director and a Trainer at Al Safadi Youth Leadership School, a course of two training sessions about leadership given to students in underprivileged schools around Lebanon. Reham is a Microsoft Student Partner (MSP) who helps spreading technology enthusiasm and knowledge in the community.

Reham has participated in organizing several campaigns at the Lebanese American University, like the LAU 2nd NGO Fair, LAU UN Day and LAU Violence Against Women Campaign.

Reham holds a BS in Business emphasising on Management Information System from the Lebanese American University.

Aleksandra Dimitrieska is Editor in Chief of Seeqnce.

Previously, Aleksandra held the position of Assistant of Senior Credit Analyst in Nova Kreditna Banka Maribor (NKBM), a leading bank based in Ljubljana, Slovenia. She was assisting in customer financial condition analysis, order management, as well as maintaining accurate credit files, collection files, and electronic notes for each customer account.

Aleksandra was actively involved in various marketing research projects conducted by Faculty of Economics at University of Ljubljana for leading international companies based in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Aleksandra is a student at International Full-Time Master Program in Business Administration (Major in Marketing) at Economic Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Entrepreneurship from Gea College of Entrepreneurship in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Paul is currently a member of the Seeqnce team and its Operations Manager.

Paul specializes in research, policy analysis, and administrative operations.

Previously, Paul worked at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Middle East Center, a leading Middle East think tank. Paul assisted Dr. Amr Hamzawy with his research on civil society in the MENA region. He also helped in compiling information for their Egyptian elections website as well as in running events at the center.

Other activities include working as a disc jockey at WCDB radio, where he had his own weekly radio show, and working as a legislative assistant at the New York State Senate.

Paul holds an MA in International Relations from Northeastern University and a BA in Political Science from the State University of New York at Albany.

Samer Karam is the Founder and Director of Seeqnce.Samer is a serial entrepreneur with product lifecycle management, marketing and financing experience. He is also an expert at managing greenfield projects in Banking, Information Technology, Communications and NGO / NPO sectors, and is an Official Juror for the 2011 MIT Enterprise Forum Arab Business Plan Competition.

Previously, Samer was Director of Communications, Outreach and Technology at ArabNet, a then greenfield conference for the Arab Web Industry. Samer developed and successfully led strategies to double attendance targets using novel community-sourcing techniques to accommodate the zero-dollar marketing budget. He engaged these same communities to enable the global trending of #ArabNetME on Twitter (Top 5) for two straight days - a first for a conference in the Arab World.

Prior to ArabNet, Samer was a Project Manager in Bank Audi's Special Projects for the CEO group, where he developed a business case for the first direct bank in the Middle East in collaboration with Tata Consultancy Services, IDEO, Capital Outsourcing, Leo Burnett and various internal partners. His tactical negotiations with partners effectively halved external expenditures. The Special Projects offices where designed by Samer specifically to nurture creativity, collaboration, and innovation.

Samer also founded Wunbox, a real-time communications and collaboration web platform, Cooki3man, a Twitter cookie-order service, LiveTweeting, an events broadcasting service, and Blogging Beirut, one of the first and most popular blogs in Lebanon.

His civil society interests led him to co-found ThinkGreen with Maxime Chaya, in which he applies his startup knowledge towards environmental awareness applications. Samer also volunteered as a nightshift paramedic with the Lebanese Red Cross.

Samer holds a M.S. in Information Systems from the New Jersey Institute of Technology. His thesis research and publications foretold the exchange of privacy for convenience in modern day society. Samer sought doctoral studies in Organizational Behavioral during his applied organizational research in the Office of the COO at Bank Audi. He also holds a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Balamand.

Maroun is a Founding Member of Seeqnce and its Technology Advisor.

Maroun joined Seeqnce as the Founder of CLASHwith.

Maroun is an IT Security expert, particularly systems, networks, and data security. He has over 10 years of experience in building, managing, and maintaining scalable enterprise systems

Previously, Maroun served as a software consultant for an IBM Business Partner, helping customers leverage IBM middle-ware for information management.

Maroun holds a Master in Management Information Systems from the Saint Joseph University in Beirut.