BBC: Egypt's Revolution Inspires Tech Startups

Egypt’s revolution in 2011 proved two incredibly important things for Egyptian youth.

First, that the combined power of the crowd can accomplish anything. Second, that it takes critical networks of communication and collaboration to activate that crowd.

While the revolution eventually led to the collapse of a 30-year old regime, it has also had a lesser-chronicled impact – becoming a catalyst for a growing movement of technology start-ups booming across the country.

Egypt’s swelling mass of young, educated, and enlightened graduates are now working on changing the future of a nation byte by byte, not just brick by brick.

And embracing the principles of the revolution, many of their start-ups are using this idea of collaboration, and the power of the crowd, to make it happen.

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Shake It Up

Founded by a pair of 22-year-old Cairo University graduates, Instabug is Egypt’s collaboration-driven start-up.

Developers need feedback on their apps, but it’s often a pain for users to report bugs. Few will actually send an email, or leave a comment on a social media page.

With one line of code, and in less than a minute, Instabug’s bug reporting feature can be added to any application – a feedback form activated by simply shaking the phone.

“When you’re angry at an app, what’s the first thing you think of doing?” asks co-founder Moataz Soliman…

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