Dear John,

It’s hard for visionaries to solve problems if they can’t open a business.

That’s the problem Faisal Saeed Al Mutar and his team at Ideas Beyond Borders (IBB) observed in the Kurdistan region in Iraq.

Faisal has met many young locals motivated to launch a startup, but who’ve struggled with Iraq’s burdensome rules and regulations.

With a vision for making entrepreneurship easier in Iraq, IBB put a plan together and pitched it to investors at last year’s Smart Bets pitch competition.

Their plan had three components:

1) Launch a user-friendly website that helps entrepreneurs register a business in 24 hours.

2) Execute a 1,000,000-view social media campaign to drive traffic, awareness, and new signups to the website.

3) Advocate for pro-business reforms in the regional parliament.

Because their plan was clear, simple, and had the potential to support thousands of entrepreneurs, IBB won last year’s Smart Bets pitch competition and the $50,000 grand prize.

This year, IBB has been putting their prize money to work.

Their website is well underway, and the team has engaged successfully with government offices, legal experts, and industry representatives to ensure the website is effective and easy to use when it launches.

We call it the “Smart Bets” program because participants have a proven track record delivering big results with modest resources.

Each partner is a ‘smart investment,’ or a ‘sure bet,’ to make an even greater impact with additional funding.

This fall, Atlas Network will crown our next Smart Bets winner, and the competition starts on Wednesday.

I hope you’ll attend to watch the first round and vote for the three contenders you think should compete for the grand prize in November.

All my best, 

Kam

Kameron Griffin 
Director of Development Operations 
Atlas Network

P.S. Please register here to join us for Wednesday’s virtual pitch competition. Registration is open to all Atlas Network supporters, and we’d like your vote to help us choose the three finalists. See you Wednesday!