Saudi vs American Startups. One Big Difference.
There is a growing influx of investments into the Saudi startup ecosystem, both from the Saudi government and other private domestic and international sources. Remarkably, Saudi startups are living up the dream, performing beyond expectations, and showing no remorse on capitalizing on this perfect opportunity. By contrast, the American startup ecosystem is relatively growing at a steady pace, with a noticeable focus on AI-related ventures.
We studied the growth potential and challenges of the top 50 American startups vs top 50 Saudi startups. The selection criteria was based on startup growth, investors interest, and market opportunity. Our analysis report revealed several similarities between the American-based vs Saudi-based startups, which was expected given the effect of globalization and accessibility to economic and technological resources. However, there was one staggering difference that stood out.
While Saudi startups demonstrated an outstanding quality of founders who are driven and committed to the mission of their work, they seemed to struggle with execution. 86% of the selected American startups demonstrated strong execution, in contrast, only 34% of Saudi startups achieved consistent execution. Objectively speaking, execution is challenging for American startups as well. However, perhaps due to the maturity of the startup ecosystem and the founder-centric culture, American startups are able to better execute their ideas.
In simple words, startup execution is the founders’ ability to know what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. The founder’s ability to execute is what moves the needle from an idea to a fully functional business. The startup execution is comprised of three crucial stages: idea validation, product development and customer traction.
Our team reviewed and evaluated the execution strategies for both Saudi and American startups. We noticed that the American founders invested significant time and resources into testing their ideas, developing and implementing their product roadmap, and establishing their brand identity. 82% of the American startups organized recurring business reviews for their team to develop, implement and evaluate their execution. While only 16% of Saudi startups showed similar commitment, as 84% of Saudi startups failed to develop their execution strategy beyond the idea conception.
Saudi startups are strongly backed and empowered by the Saudi 2030 vision. The $1 trillion investment in energy, digitization, transportation and logistics is offering local startups a unique opportunity to lead and transform the entire country into a global unicorn. With that said, there is an opportunity for Saudi startups to further invest in their execution development and implementation to avoid wasting time and resources on non-validated ideas, under-designed products, and lack of customer traction.
The truth is that founders don’t need advice, information, or another million-dollar plan. Founders need to know what actions to take today to win. At Fortence, we help founder achieve the ‘perfect execution’. We do that by enabling founders to execute a personalized step-by-step action plan to turn their idea into a functional business. The startup execution problem is far from being an exclusively Saudi challenge, but rather it’s the #1 factor of startup failure around the world.
The good news, several market studies in the MENA region show that the Saudi customer is excited and eager to engage, support and advocate for local startups with a clear vision, a simple product, and an appealing brand. Every startup success starts with a ‘perfect execution’.
While we were not surprised by the outstanding performance of the Saudi founders, we were certainly impressed by the determination, knowledge and focus of the Saudi entrepreneurs and their unbreakable will to win.
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