Avatech is a 6 months startup accelerator program that provides entrepreneurs with the necessary ingredients to succeed. We provide aspiring entrepreneurs with mentorship, entrepreneurial training, seed funding and a creative workspace for a period of 6 months. We prepare the teams to get in front of more than a hundred accredited investors to expose their product and receive funding to grow their businesses. – Avatech.ir

As you might already know, I was recently invited to Iran to lecture at the QIAU university and facilitate the world’s largest Startup Weekend event.

Additionally, I’m also here to help my friend Sara Usinger, program manager of one of the very first tech startup accelerators in Tehran, Iran named Avatech, coaching their first cohort on how to pitch properly.

UPDATE: Check this video from Avatech out!

And I have to say I was amazed and surprised of the quality of the startups already in their first batch. There are definitely startups with broad international appeal here. For proof, check out taskulu, a simplified project management tool when Trello is not enough and Slack is too chatty.

Some of the startups pitching were clearly copycats of US startups, turning the international embargo to their advantage (Hint for the politically inept: these US services are not available in Iran because of an international trade embargo) – albeit making them highly fragile to the incumbent US competition should the embargo be lifted (which seems more and more likely by the day).

 

Some of the startups pitching me: