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With a distance of almost 13,00 Kilometers separating the Kingdom of Bahrain and San Francisco, some of Bahrain’s leading entrepreneurs and startups went on a quest that proves the more that you’re willing to go that extra mile the more likely you’ll be able to achieve greatness, and they did just that by enlisting themselves into the program “From Bahrain to Silicon Valley”.

The program is an initiative created by the MIT Enterprise Forum Pan-Arab Region and Tamkeen with support from TechWadi to take startups from the Middle East on a week-long trip to Silicon Valley and experience an insider look of global giants such as Uber, Salesforce and Google, as well as the opportunity to be mentored by industry leaders. The startups also attended some awesome events such as TechCrunch Disrupt, in addition to a variety of uplifting and inspiring talks from experts, and had the opportunity to meet and network with a wide range of investors.

StartUp Bahrain is pleased to be able to attend an event of this magnitude in terms of professional growth, and are sharing with our readers a brief about what this program that is set to inspire, train, mentor and build bridges is all about.

This year a selected group of startups have been selected to represent Bahrain, such as Malaeb, who have stated that “It’s been a great experience to connect with the other end of the world and understand how things here function, being the center for tech innovation and funding. We managed to speak to investors and figure out what they want to see in an international startup in order to back it.” In attendance from the Bahrain startup ecosystem were also Inagrab, WNNA, Eat App, and the Experience Accelerator amongst others.

When it comes to the agenda, the program includes visiting the tech giants that help shape the world we know of today, with a tour that takes you to the headquarters of some of the world’s most prominent and successful companies.

The purpose of the tour isn’t merely limited to exploring the environment or sightseeing, it’s more about being able to interact with executives and learn from their experiences as well as work ethic, all the while being trained and meeting some of the industry’s most impactful experts and being awarded the opportunity to continuously pitch your business ideas to Angel investors and venture capitalists (VC) firms such as 500 startups, Blackbox and Lumia capital to name a few.

However, the program itself reaches the highest of its peak when TechCrunch Disrupt commences, with a variety of tech-based startups presenting their ideas, businesses and their showmanship as it can potentially be the push that is needed to transform a dreamer to a global leader.

To summarize, Bahrain to Silicon Valley truly encapsulates the meaning behind “an event you do not want to miss”. For more information about this program, make sure to stay tuned by following our Instagram story for some live coverage!