If the past few days of site visits and lectures gave us the theory behind Morocco’s startup ecosystem, today was all about putting it into practice.
Day 9 brought new perspectives. We moved from observing to doing, culminating in an intense, cross-cultural entrepreneurship exercise. But before we even put pen to paper, we needed a catalyst to set the tone, and that came perfectly from Farah’s talk this morning.
Farah’s presentation fundamentally altered how we approached the entrepreneurship exercise. It is easy, especially as international students and visitors, to fall into the trap of inventing solutions for problems we don’t fully understand. Farah’s insights served as a critical reality check. She emphasized the importance of hyper-local context and genuine empathy in business development. Her perspective forced us to pivot away from generic, Western-centric business models and instead focus on grassroots viability and social impact that is important to the community you are in.
Working on an entrepreneurship pitch is challenging enough, but doing it in a cross-cultural team adds an entirely new layer of complexity. However, my team navigated this quite well. Right off the bat, we were all ears and open to hearing each other out. With the mix of two Moroccan University students, we were able to hear new insights and get a glimpse of life here for people of our own age. During the exercise, we all brainstormed together, and honestly, I found it intriguing that it felt like we all shared the same brain cell at some points. Though also, how our lives don’t differ too drastically, even being countries apart.
My team’s focus was on solving the water purification issues, or rather, the easing the availability of safer drinking water. This is an issue everyone in this program, and I’m sure visitors and tourists alike, have found. Tap water in Morocco is generally not safe to drink if your body is not already used to it, and coming from the States, this means that we all rely on bottled water or filtered water to stay safe and hydrated. We also got to pick the Moroccan students’ brains, and turns out, although they are okay to drink the tap water in Rabat, it is not the same case for all cities. Our product was a water bottle with health tracking technology to track how much water a person drinks a day, the pH levels, and the cleanliness of the water itself. This would be done through the water bottle itself and purifying straws, which we decided would have new drops every month! My team was highly collaborative, and we all pitched in to discuss final ideas. Our final name for the product was “Quench”!
I had a lot of fun with the cross-cultural activity. The absolute best part wasn’t the final pitch itself, but the moments in between the work. Getting the opportunity to talk to these students, share our stories, and ultimately work together was an incredible experience, and I’m only saddened at the fact that today was the only day they joined us. Nonetheless, I’m grateful for the opportunity, and the fact that they came to do so on their Sunday off!
The rest of the day was our ‘day off’, which meant more time to go and explore the Medina after lunch! A group of us went out to the souks to finish up some shopping, and I have to say, I had so much fun doing so! I may have lost signal for the majority of the afternoon, but it was no biggie as I got to have a very immersive and enjoyable experience out with my friends! It was a lot different, being able to go out to the souls without a time constraint or getting lost. We all know our way of the land for the most part, so we were able to weave in and out of the places we wanted to. We later went out to a beachside cafe, where I got an iced mocha (finally!) and a crepe! I wrapped up my day by venturing out to check out salsa dancing and try some new foods!
Tomorrow brings a day of site visits and getting ready to prepare for our final presentations this week! My time in Morocco has gone by so fast already, and now I’m trying to soak it all in before the journey is over!