Reza Ghiabi, in an interview with the ANA News Agency, stressed the need for the growth of startup companies in Iran. He said: “Start-up companies in Iran are still considered the bad offsprings of the country’s economy. There is a love and hate relationship associated between them and the government.
Reviewing the roots of the new startup ecosystem in the country since 1989, he emphasized that although Iranian startups have been able to take a unique path, many opportunities have been burned due to a lack of proper interaction with the government.
The startup expert in this field explained: Most of the problems of startups and decision-making institutions in the country stem from the existence of three thoughts among activists on both sides. First, it is thought that every phenomenon in the country should have only one trustee. In other words, there is a state of competition between the ministries and the deputies in the godfather of startups, and each institution has defined a series of internal and external startups for itself. Second, the gap between academia and industry in startups manifests itself as a confrontation between knowledge-based companies and market-oriented ones. On the one hand, startup companies attract the market, and on the other hand, knowledge-based companies attract strategic and legal support. This is if the two can strengthen each other with the proper regulation. This means that market-based startups create knowledge, and knowledge-based companies get closer to the markets. Third, decision-makers are essentially accustomed to seeing each new phenomenon as absolute good and absolute evil. They are still unable to properly distinguish the possibilities of innovative phenomena from their threats, consulting very few and far few.
Ghiabi stated: The 13th government has the opportunity to moderate the dual relationship of love and hate between startups and the government, and through its actors, to take advantage of the entrepreneurial and economic opportunities of these companies in the country’s interests. He added that the need for interdisciplinary thinking, finding insiders among professionals and elites in society, encouraging civic and trade union activities in startups, more legal support, and integrating the government’s attitude towards startups are vital strategies to overcome this challenge.
