Shifting from "Why" to "How": uMake's ICG Model

Newton’s first law of thermodynamics states that “energy cannot be created nor destroyed but can only be converted from one form to another’’.

At uMake, we are proud of our members’ momentum and dedication to excellence, innovation and impact. Since its establishment in late 2017, the energy that emanates from uMake has only become stronger and more impactful. This momentum is not artificially engineered, but it’s rather a natural byproduct of uMake’s DNA which gives special consideration to shared values and core beliefs. And despite the various obstacles along the way, this momentum has managed to survive and continuously reinvent itself both physically and virtually. Today, uMake is in the process of completing the transition from being a co-working space into the ultimate enabling ecosystem that offers various transformative platforms where the diverse community of 'uMakers' has all the needed resources to inspire, create and grow.

In the pre Covid-19 years, uMake came into existence as a response to the growing demand for flexible and efficient shared office spaces in the city of Ramallah and across Palestine. Simply put, inspired by the success of international co-working spaces such as WeWork and IWG, uMake’s initial vision was to provide a physical space for a wide range of beneficiaries including entrepreneurs, startup founders, freelancers, remote workers and students, among many others. However, a few months after launching the space, Daoud Ghannam - founder and CEO of uMake - reached a realization that uMake’s members and main beneficiaries needed more than working in a collaborative and flexible environment. Taking into consideration the unique context of the Palestinian economy and the urgent need to create new opportunities for Palestinian youth, the focus had shifted towards building the holistic infrastructure that can be conducive for innovation and sustainable impact. Accordingly, additional services and tailored startup support programs had been gradually added to the mix. In addition to accessing different options of office space, uMakers were able to benefit for the first time from extra valuable offerings such as mentoring, networking events, business development services and globally-recognized startup acceleration programs. 

Importantly, the COVID-19 pandemic could be considered as the critical historical point which provided the proof of concept for the new strategy. In other words, not being solely reliant on office space has enabled uMake to diversify its revenue streams and keep delivering value to its members, clients and partners through different virtual and physical channels. Through the past two years (2020-2022), uMake team has embarked on an exploratory mission to discover uMake’s main purpose and 'why' it exists in the first place. Not surprisingly, the answer to the “Why” question can be directly derived from uMake’s vision statement. Specifically, through its different offerings, startup-focused programs and partnerships, uMake managed to transform itself into a holistic Entrepreneurship Support Organization (ESO) which primarily aims to become “the space of infinite possibilities where change-makers inspire, create and grow”.

The moment we shifted from “WHY” to “HOW”

 In Q1 2021 and through a series of dynamic team meetings, we discussed “how” we are going to translate uMake’s vision statement into reality. The main points of debate were related to how we can better serve our members while also add value to the Palestinian entrepreneurial ecosystem. It should be noted that based on detailed market research on the local ecosystem and after working closely with industry stakeholders and hundreds of Palestinian entrepreneurs from within Palestine and the diaspora community, we came to conclusion that in order to maximize our impact and deliver greater value to our beneficiaries, we have to divide our offerings into phases based on: 1) the type of provided services and 2) targeted segments of beneficiaries. Each one of those phases includes a number of offerings where our members, clients and partners can join us on a rewarding journey of inspiration, creativity and growth.

Inspire, Create and Grow (ICG): A new model for lasting impact 

We envision the ICG model as the inclusive platform that enables uMakers (be it early-stage startup founders, social entrepreneurs and/or change-makers) to tap into an infinite pool of resources where they can confidently develop their personal capabilities, test and launch their innovative solutions and finally maintain the momentum to realize their genuine growth potential.

1) Inspire: we consider this as the initial phase where we meet with uMakers for the first time by providing them with the needed infrastructure so they get “inspired” towards solving a specific challenge or achieving positive impact in their local community. The primary services that can be classified under the “Inspire” phase include accessing our modern and flexible co-working space, attending our networking events, getting mentorship and assistance from our team as well as engaging with our social media posts, thought-leadership blogs and last but not least our community-wide activities. 

2) Create: this is considered the phase where real things start to happen. Entrepreneurs and change-makers are now fully inspired and they start utilizing our available resources to ‘create’ positive change. The “Create” phase can be divided into two primary segments: A) Dynamic business services for SMEs, corporates and NGOs: such as business development consultancy and events management (both virtually and physically). B) Entrepreneur-focused programs: most notably is the pre-seed startup accelerator program Founder Institute (FI) which enables early-stage founders to develop their entrepreneurial capacities and harness their skills to successfully launch their businesses and enter the market.

3) Grow: this is the final phase of our model where we work closely with our members who passed through the previous two phases as well as with more advanced startup founders and tech entrepreneurs who are actively engaged in the Palestinian entrepreneurial ecosystem. One of the remarkable examples is the Ignite Investment Readiness Program which is being implemented in partnership with other key ecosystem stakeholders under the direction of the Ministry of National Economy’s Innovative Private Sector Development Program IPSD. Through the Ignite program, we cooperate with passionate and successful Palestinian entrepreneurs on addressing fundraising challenges and prepare them to raise investment from private sector organizations and venture capital funds in Palestine and across the wider MENA region. Going forward, we seek to capitalize on our available resources and expand our offerings within the “Grow” phase so we can help our community of entrepreneurs and change-makers to penetrate new markets and achieve success regionally and globally.

In nutshell, we strongly believe in the power of the ICG model in enabling us to transform our business offerings in a way that positively affects our members and add much needed insight, value and resources to our nascent Palestinian entrepreneurial ecosystem. As mentioned earlier, based on past experiences and observations, we have become more aware of the main challenges that face entrepreneurs and early-stage startups in Palestine. Therefore, each phase of our model (Inspire, Create and Grow) has been carefully designed in order to add the maximum value to our members and help unlock many untapped opportunities in this challenging yet promising part of the world.