Entrepreneurship is a journey full of ups and downs and, sometimes, a lot more downs than you’d expect. Still, it is these kinds of hurdles and obstacles that help in shaping up resilient startup founders that continue to contribute to the ecosystem. In a recent poll conducted by StartUp Bahrain, we wanted to understand more about the challenges and obstacles that our founders face within Bahrain’s ecosystem.
Many of our founders stated that a prime struggle of theirs is funding, with around 38% of votes, showcasing that securing financial resources can be quite the pivotal factor to a startup’s success. This constant pursuit for investment could deter founders from other needs to their startup as it is a very demanding and time-intensive matter.
In addition to funding, 23% of founders find a hard time recruiting skillful and talented individuals to be fundamental for the continued success of their startups. The nature of the startup landscape requires retaining talents that share the founders’ vision to propel it forward. This dual mandate of recruiting and training requires very strong incentives for skillful individuals that many startups lack, both due to the risky nature of the industry and ventures as they mature, and of course, time.
Our polls aim to gather insights directly from the Bahraini ecosystem, and this time we focused on the multifaceted challenges faced by the Kingdom’s founders, and while the results aren’t all too surprising, there’s always room for hope!
From funding to recruiting to scaling, each of these challenges provide founders with their own stepping stones on the path to success. The emergence of new support and training programs offer help to individuals and startups alike in aligning their shared goals. So while the entrepreneurship journey is never a linear path, it’s important to have the optimistic view that every challenge can be an opportunity in disguise.
