Karl Gedda, director of Smart ESA (right), and Fadi Abboud, winner of the fourth edition of the ESA-HEC Paris Entrepreneur competition. (Credit: Stephanie Bechara/L'Orient Today)
The ESA Business School, located in the district of Clemenceau in Beirut, has appointed a new director to its incubator branch Smart ESA in October 2023.
We sat down with Karl Gedda, Smart ESA’s new director, to discuss this year’s ESA-HEC Paris startup competition (in which L’Orient-Le Jour is a partner), his background, the country’s start-up ecosystem and Smart ESA’s new business strategies.
This interview has been edited and condensed for flow.
L’Orient-Le Jour: Could you tell us a bit more about yourself? Who is Karl Gedda?
Gedda: I’m originally from France and I arrived in Lebanon about a year ago. I was sent here on a mission by the French Foreign Office to work on, and support Lebanese schools to be more innovative and to adapt to the new requirements of the 21st century by mobilizing around them the innovation ecosystem. This will be strengthening also the EdTech business branch and create added value jobs.
I left France at the age of 23 and moved to California, where I stayed for nine years and studied at UC Berkeley. I was involved in strategy for technical innovation during my stay there and headed a company that worked alongside NASA on technology transfers, before selling it. I eventually went back to France and was hired by Ernst & Young (EY) to create strategic practices in the SouthWest of the country (Bordeaux, Toulouse) and partly in Paris. Around that time, I also worked with the government on various projects. After extensive experience across the US, France, and the European Union, I consider myself to be an expert in three main fields, acceleration programs, innovation, and clustering.
L’Orient-Le Jour: As Smart ESA’s new director, what plans do you have in the pipeline for the incubator?
Gedda: We are redesigning the incubator to be more involved in acceleration too. Smart ESA has always been known for its trainings, workshops, and lectures. We’re changing this a little as we’d like to operate more directly on the start-up side. We would like to do more ‘match-making’ or basically help Lebanese entrepreneurs gain more visibility, business and funds by putting them in contact with media outlets and other relevant businesses. We also want to focus on growing our network to expand our opportunities for innovation and create impact by empowering entrepreneurs to create value-added jobs. We will be selecting and helping three to five startups (who have high potential for growth and job creation) every year by providing tailor-made coaching and giving them visibility. We’ve already taken one start-up to Monaco and helped them look for funds and we hope to do more in the future.
On the international level, we want Smart ESA to position itself as a bridge between Europe and the MENA region, especially the GCC, with Lebanon being the bridging point.
L’Orient-Le Jour: How would you assess Lebanon’s start-up ecosystem today?
Gedda: The sector was booming at one point but then the crisis came. There are talents here and there’s a real move for entrepreneurship but the ecosystem is missing funds right now because of the crisis and other factors in the country. While there are some angel investors and other forms of regular financing, venture capitals are currently missing. Regardless, the market as it is, can still be used for sandboxing or beta testing.
L’Orient-Le Jour: In your opinion, how could we counter the massive brain drain that the country has been experiencing for the past years?
Gedda: Brain drain has always been a problem in the country but one way to counter it, is creating value-added jobs here and the only way to do that, for me, is to have more entrepreneurs. At Smart ESA, we’re trying to boost startups, because the more they grow, the more they recruit and the more they create these value-added jobs, we focus particularly on EdTech and culture, E-Health and MedTech, and on Green Projects. Another way to prevent brain drain is to also have more safety in the country, and when I say safety, I refer mainly to general security threats that reign over the country given the current situation.