We focused this week on the importance of building a founding team in leading your startup to success. Are you looking for the right partner? Are you hesitating to make your choices and set your priorities? Have a look at the advices and tips that Wamda offered you this week to facilitate your entrepreneurial journey.

Pic of theWeek 

To build on your own expertise, you can co-build your idea with a person who compliments your skillset well and will be as dedicated to the idea as you. They should feel a sense of ownership and loyalty to the brand as well. You may even find the need to have more than one co-founder at different stages in your journey; rather than hiring, you can offer a founding position with equity to ensure your co-worker has a stake in the company. Read more here on what Maya, managing editor at Wamda has to say about this.

Upcoming Events 

• 09 Feb - Interview Skills Workshop in Dubai
• 15 Feb - Startup Turkey Conference
• 15 Feb - GIST Entrepreneurs in Action Photo Contest 
• 07 Feb - Cisco Starting a Business Workshop

Make sure to check wamda.com/events, or follow @WamdaME on Twitter to stay updated about more events! 

Entrepreneur of the Week

This week's Entrepreneurs are Eastline Marketing's Mark Dfouni and Nemer Badin, who launched their startup more than 15 years ago in Montreal, and brought it t Lebanon in 2006. Watch our interview as they discuss their experience and recent launch of a web platform that allows clients to seamlessly create social media campaigns, and support Arabic.

Articles you Might have Missed 

Launched in Casablanca in 2008, Maroc Web Awards have become the event to look to in the web and mobile space. How did it achieve success? Find out in this post as co-founder Younes Qassimi shares his tips.

Kyle Wild is the founder of analytics company Keen IO. What are his thoughts on writing a demo day pitch and how do they apply to entrepreneurs in the Arab world? Find out in this post.

A couple of days ago, Facebook announced the Dubai launch of Facebook Studio Edge to help digital agencies and organizations when marketing on Facebook. Lean more about the program's short series on Pages, Advertising, and Technology in this post.

Yala Music has been providing fans the ability to stream and download music since 2010, and has offices in France, Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, and the UAE. The company has just announced ad-based downloads; is this a model that will appeal to customers in the region? Read this post and share your thoughts.

The success of companies such as Ferrari, Pixar, and IDEO is largely due to their investment in their employees and the fact that they allow them to develop their skills and grow intellectually. How can the Arab world re-implement a creative work culture? Read this post by Wamda contributor Oubai Elkerdi as he shares his thoughts on how to redefine "work".

9 Golden Rules for Email Correspondence in the Middle East

In a time where our communication is increasingly relying on short Skype calls, Google chats, and emails, one must make sure to avoid any misunderstanding that can stem from a weakly-planned message. Read this post on how to make sure your email rocks to put all the odds on your side.

11 Lessons I Learned After 4 Years at Wizards Productions

It is clear that after cofounding one of the strongest gaming startup in Jordan, Sohaib Thiab had learned a lot of valuable lessons, putting him at an advantage with any challenge he decides to undertake. Find out what lessons he learned from his four years at Wizards Productions.

Lebanese Entrepreneur Launches Data-Driven Career Matching Site

What if you're not even sure what you want to do in life? New career-matching service FreshGrad has launched to solve this problem in the U.S., offering career recommendations based on an enormous database of aggregated data. Read more in this post.