Parviz Karami

Parviz Karami, advisor to the vice president for science and technology affairs and the secretary of the knowledge-based economy and culture-building technologies development headquarter

Innovation and creativity are not supported in this country. Therefore, we must look for high income-generating solutions”. You might have heard this sentence or similar phrases. While they have been true in the past, the extensive development in activities of knowledge-based companies and startups and creative innovation centers has proved otherwise.

This movement has been initiated for some time now and mostly focuses on innovative youth and startups. These people have creative ideas and can establish startups to turn their ideas into a knowledge-based company to provide products or services to others at the end of their path.

However, startups are still in the beginning of their path and need support to grow and flourish. In other words, newly established businesses need our support to be successful. Therefore, we must provide the necessary education and experiences to these individuals since they will eventually solve the country’s problems in the future. Their gift to people is meeting their needs and increasing their welfare. As such, nurturing the ideas of these individuals and turning them into technological products will have advantages for the community. They are also active in all areas and seek to find solutions. Some of them attempt to find new solutions to treat diseases, use new energies, artificial intelligence and other solutions to increase access to various services. Nevertheless, all of them follow a single goal, which is improving the life quality of society members.

Founders and owners of startups are bold and hopeful. They do not fear failure and go to the end of the way with determination. Therefore, implementation is important after idea and it is crucial not to be disappointed after failure. These people fight in tough situations. It is true that any successful business has passed years of hardship, determination and teamwork to become a big enterprise.

Today, being recognized and unique and willingness to achieve success are factors that distinguish startups from other activities. The basis of advancement in a startup is scientific principles and using experiences. Startups inject innovation, knowledge and technology to the society, which is less observed in traditional businesses.

Without a doubt, there are challenges on the path, one of which is finding an investor. Venture capitals must know the value of these ideas and must come to the field to support them.

However, some approaches can be used to accelerate the pace of this move. Accelerators act as a place for re-fueling and they act as fuel to increase the pace of startup activities. Nevertheless, we still need culture-building to improve startup activities more than before despite the formation of the innovation and technology ecosystem in Iran. This ecosystem contains more than six thousand startups, 180 innovation centers, and 4500 knowledge-based companies, as well as venture capitals and accelerators. However, it is important to create an ecosystem that empowers startups and knowledge-based companies; an ecosystem that awards citizens with a new type of innovation every day.