🇸🇦 A Little Week Trip

👋 Hey — Egemen here.

For the past 18 months, SCALABLE always had a set template that I followed.

Now I want to go out of that a little bit and share some personal experiences.

I’ve been on a trip to Saudi Arabia this past week, I’m actually at the airport as I’m writing this.

I’ve been working with the accelerator and the university for a while, but this was my first time on the ground at one of the country’s largest university innovation centers.

This was not a demo day setup. Not pitch theater. Not surface level innovation talk.

This was builders. I mean serious ones.

Founders who understand their problem space deeply, teams who are clear on why their startup should exist, operators who think in systems and not features.

Many of them are already shipping. Many of them are already generating revenue. Many of them are already thinking beyond their local market.

At some point, you realize this isn’t just a collection of startups. It feels like a movement taking shape.

Universities here are changing roles. They’re no longer just places you pass through to get a degree. They’re becoming platforms for talent and serious startup engines. The innovation centers are not treated as side initiatives. They’re funded, structured, and run by people who genuinely understand how companies are built. And founders rise to that standard naturally.

Had a blast working closely with the startups here and helping them with their targets.

The rooms themselves had a certain calm to them. People were focused, curious, and engaged. Hungry, but not frantic. There wasn’t noise for the sake of noise. Just intent.

Jeddah adds something to that dynamic. The city slows you down in a good way. It gives you space to think properly, to build with intention, and to have long, honest conversations without rushing to the next thing.

Saudi Arabia doesn’t fit the “emerging” label anymore, at least not in the way it’s often used from the outside. What’s happening here feels foundational. The order is clear: infrastructure first, talent next, capability after that, and scale as a consequence, not a goal.

Because of that, the startups coming out of this ecosystem won’t be copycats or trend chasers.

They’re being built around real problems, in real markets, with real leverage. Some of them will end up being globally significant. I’m very confident about that.

Being part of this week felt like a privilege. I got to contribute, listen, and learn, and I left with a lot more optimism than I arrived with.

I left inspired.

If this is the baseline, the next few years are going to be very interesting.

If you need a hand with what you’re building, just reply to this email, I’m happy to get my hands dirty.

Do you like SCALABLE?