Conferences related to telecommunications and ICT always aim to explain more about what is happening in the industry, however the Telecom Review Leaders’ Summits always offer more than just that. Leading C-level experts gather under one roof to explore the future of telecommunications from different perspectives and each according to his/her field of expertise.
Ayman Jomaa, CEO, Numbase is a regular attendee of Telecom Review Leaders’ Summits and had a remarkable presence at the 12th edition which was held in Beirut, Lebanon. Telecom Review spoke to the CEO onsite to know more about his participation at the summit.
Being one of the regular attendees, Jomaa was able to give us his opinion about the conference compared to previous edition. According to him, the Lebanese editions of Telecom Review Leaders’ Summits are bridging a gap that exists in Lebanon.
“Telecom Review Leaders’ Summit is getting better year after year. Telecom Review is creating something outstanding in Lebanon to the extent that you feel the need to attend and you feel the importance of holding such events. Telecom Review is creating a bridge that is delivering a necessity we lack in Lebanon”, he said.
Numbase CEO gave an interesting keynote at the Summit in which he highlighted the approach telcos are currently adopting towards startups and what they should actually do for them to help startups and reap more benefits.
“I see telcos today chasing startups and hailing their successes while they can be the creators of these startups. The only missing ingredient is uniting all these telcos under one platform. Let them keep competing on prices, products, and content but at least create one global platform to enable innovation. When we speak about scale, when we look at the internet, we see it very big – 4 billion users big. So when launching a product online, you’re having access to 4 billion users but by creating a unified platform for startups to be launched on, you’re giving them access to 5 billion customers who are all billable”, he explained.
For this call to be headed, Ayman Jomaa announced a confidential initiative that aims to materialize the thought of uniting all telcos under one global platform and was proud to disclose that Lebanon will among the first to adopt it.
He said, “This is still a little bit confidential. A group of innovative companies, including Numbase, have created a new initiative to be pitched very soon to the GSMA for creating one pillar of this platform to be tested across all MNOs worldwide. I believe Lebanon will be one of the first countries to adopt it.”
After giving his keynote presentation, Numbase CEO took part in the startups panel which discussed startups’ elements of success and as a successful entrepreneur, he was able to share his insights on the topic.
On startups maturity, he said, “A startup reaches maturity when it’s totally monetized, when the numbers make sense for anybody to acquire it whether through a direct exit like what happened with Shazzam which was bought by Apple, or by exiting through IPO. Once a startup is viable for an exit, I believe it’s not considered as a startup anymore.”
