What happened when Silicon Valley Met Lebanon?

The American Lebanese Chamber of Commerce and Startup Megaphone‘s “Start Up Lebanon – Silicon Valley Roadshow 2016”, which took place from September 12 to 16, 2016 was an astounding success.

For the first time in the history of modern day Lebanon, decision makers joined forces to represent the best Lebanon has to offer to the tech world.

The last time a high level delegation visited Silicon Valley, 15 years ago, the message was one of charity for the weak. This time, the Embassy of the United States in Lebanon, the American Lebanese Chamber of Commerce, Lebanon’s Capital Markets Authority, Startup Megaphone, BerytechLeap VenturesMEVPPhoenician FundsKafalatUK Lebanon Tech Hub, the Lebanese Broadcast Corporation International (LBCI)Pepsi LebanonFirehorse, Salhab Partners Law Firm, and White Lab, delivered a strong message of unparalleled business opportunities in an exceptional frontier market. Embedded reporters and cameramen from LBCI, MTV, and An-Naharrelayed this message of hope back to Lebanon. #SVR16

Each and every institution and individual we visited was positively marked by our engagements and interactions – all circling back with uplifting feedback and requests for partnerships, collaboration, et al.

Lebanon is back. Bigger, faster, stronger, better.

(don’t forget to LOAD IMAGES before you scroll down through our photostory)

Day 1 – September 12, 2016


Awe inspiring presentation / Q&A on cutting-edge ultrasonics by Professor Khuri-Yakub at Stanford.


Google power lunch in Mountain View with half a dozen Googlers handling everything from Android Partnerships to YouTube and more.


European Innovation Day at the Computer History Museum with Tim Draper.


Networking dinner in San Francisco.

LBCI Coverage of Day 1: https://www.lbcgroup.tv/news/281361
MTV Coverage of Day 1: https://youtu.be/OwRsGJnZbqQ
An-Nahar Coverage of Day 1: https://www.annahar.com/article/467426

Day 2 – September 13, 2016


Morning at Keith Teare‘s, Co-Founder of TechCrunch. Discussing investment strategies, funnels, pipelines, and dealflow.


Peerspace powerlunch discussing the share economy.


Hiro Saijo, CEO of Yamaha Motor Ventures, explains how MotoBot is learning how to beat Valentino Rossi.


The Lebanese Delegation gets a warm welcome by LeWeb Co-Founder Loic Le Meur at the sold-out Leade.rs Bots event.

LBCI Coverage of Day 2: https://www.lbcgroup.tv/news/281521
MTV Coverage of Day 2: https://youtu.be/ZxawoPx7CMU

Day 3:


Breakfast in Palo Alto at HanaHausSAP‘s award winning co-working space. Discussing how to build a sustainable co-working space.


Site visit and design thinking case studies at Stanford’s d.School.


HIVE Demo (HANA Immersive Visualization Environment).


Private lunch talk on innovation in large enterprises with Jonathan Becher, Chief Digital Officer of SAP and technological singularity with Emeline Paat Dahlstrom, Chief Impact Officer of Singularity University.


Leila Janah, founder of SamaSource, explaining how mechanical turks are lifting people out of poverty around the world.


SmartRecruiters CEO, Jerome Ternynck, sharing insights on how to solve one of the biggest challenges of any enterprise, small or large: recruitment.


Open Garden CEO, Paul Hainsworth, presents the peer-to-peer mesh networking technology that makes FireChat so resilient.


Heather Blanchard, Director of Ecosystem Partnerships at GSMA, hosts a networking dinner for the Lebanese Delegation.

LBCI Coverage of Day 3: https://www.lbcgroup.tv/news/281643
An-Nahar Coverage of Day 3: https://www.annahar.com/article/468281

Day 4:


Early morning at AnchorFree, with Eugene Malobrodsky, co-founder & CTO, discussing the cat and mouse game of VPNs, and the importance of Internet freedom.


Private Facebook VIP tour followed by on campus lunch with partnerships, engineering, and section heads.


Discussion with Facebook IPv6 legend Paul Saab on next gen communications.


Meet and greet of Sprayable‘s co-founder Ben Yu, with a sampling of the new innovative Sprayable Sleep (melatonin spray).

LBCI Coverage of Day 4: https://www.lbcgroup.tv/news/281835
MTV Coverage of Day 4: https://youtu.be/y6sUXA7s-o0

Day 5:


Powertalk and Q&A with Marvin Liao, Partner at 500 Startups, on accelerators, seed investing, and startup culture.


A frank discussion with Alex Asseily, co-founder of Jawbone, on the unique challenges of hardware startups, with brilliant insights on the revolutionary AirPods by Apple.


An in-depth look at the intricacies of mobile game development with Lyle Fong of Hobo Labs.


Global startup ecosystem insights at Startup Genome, with co-founder Marc Penzel and president JF Gauthier.

Gala Dinner:


Internet Hall of Famer and founder of the Internet ArchiveBrewster Kahle, headlined Start Up Lebanon – Silicon Valley Roadshow 2016’s Gala Dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel San Francisco.


The Gala Dinner brought together over 150 changemaking entrepreneurs, investors, and executives from around the world to celebrate the success of the Roadshow.

LBCI Coverage of Day 5: https://www.lbcgroup.tv/news/282200
MTV Coverage of Day 5: https://youtu.be/ACSrJDSLxPI
An-Nahar Coverage of Day 5: https://www.annahar.com/article/469757

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