As 2021 approaches fast, we’re preparing to embark on an ambitious job creation and economic growth project. We hope to provide 50 enterprises in Lebanon with financial support, training, mentorship, marketing and growth support, and other ecosystem support activities. This is also part of our transition to using the Bloom* online project management and training/mentorship platform.

We’re inviting people to share insights on some key questions (shared below) that will guide some aspects of the program, and that could be helpful to other ecosystem groups too. We will share a summary of the findings with everyone who gives feedback. 

Some background: the Lebanon Growth Accelerators (LGA) program** was designed to engage and support the ecosystem in Lebanon. Bloom will be running two rounds of accelerator programs, plus partnering with other ecosystem players for an additional six cycles of acceleration programs. These six partner cycles could be stand-alone programs (of modest scope), or in conjunction with pre-existing programs. We aim to support more collaboration and co-learning opportunities for enterprises, accelerators, and others in the Lebanese enterprise ecosystem, both during and beyond the duration of this program. 

(The call for partners will open in January 2021. We’d love to hear from you if you’re interested to participate.)

Meanwhile, we’re asking for feedback on these questions: 

1. Which sectors should be prioritized for job creation and addressing other critical needs in Lebanon?
2. Which funding approaches (low-liability loans, investment, grants, etc) could be most effective in the short term and beyond? 
3. What ways could we collaborate with others in the ecosystem and/or leverage matching funds? 
4. What kind of ecosystem activities or supports could most benefit enterprises, the ecosystem, and the country? 
5. Partnership interest, and possible links to other activities of groups in the ecosystem.

We invite you to share feedback through this brief form, to start the discussion.

We look forward to working alongside you and others to help make 2021 a year of coordinated effort and maximum positive impact. 

Best wishes,

The Bloom / AltCity team 

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*Bloom is a project-based learning platform (in private beta) that supports MSME teams and the accelerators they work with, and will launch publicly in Q2/Q3 2021. Bloom is an affiliated initiative of AltCity and Pitchworthy, and our methodology is based on the knowledge & experience accumulated over thirteen years of enterprise & ecosystem development in Lebanon and the region, and work abroad prior to that.

**This program is implemented with support from The European Regional Development and Protection Programme for Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq (RDPP II).