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Around the world with Obama

Alumna, engineer and entrepreneur Sara Ahmadian among select group to promote private investment through White House program
June 8, 2015
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By Tracey Lindeman


Sara Ahmadian, MA 10, never thought that at age 32, she’d have a standing invitation to fly around the world with Barack Obama and his presidential crew.

Sara Ahmadian at talk with U.S. president Barack Obama Sara Ahmadian grabs a quick photo during U.S. President Barack Obama's talk, during which he pledged to raise $1 billion in private investment to fund global entrepreneurship initiatives. | All photos courtesy: Sara Ahmadian

A software engineer and CEO of tech startup Seamless Planet, Ahmadian was invited by Obama to join three dozen other carefully selected entrepreneurs from around the world for the Global Emerging Entrepreneurship event at the White House in May.  

There, high-profile CEOs and investors — including reality-TV show Shark Tank‘s Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran and Daymond John spoke about how best to support and promote entrepreneurship among women and youth in developing nations.

Ahmadian and fellow attendees have since become key components of the Spark Global Entrepreneurship Initiative, which aims to generate over $1 billion in private investment for emerging entrepreneurs by the end of 2017 — half of that targeting women and young entrepreneurs. 

“We are ambassadors of President Obama, to find out how we can help other countries to be good in entrepreneurship,” she says.

As such, they have access to pitch ideas to high-level government officials and to join the president on upcoming trips to countries like Nigeria and Colombia.

Sara Ahmadian with Shark Tank investor Barbara Corcoran Sara Ahmadian met Shark Tank investor Barbara Corcoran at the White House, as part of the U.S. government's new global emerging entrepreneurship initiative.

Following her sojourn in Washington, Ahmadian published an op-ed in the Globe and Mail underlining gender and racial disparities in entrepreneurship.

Although she now lives in Silicon Valley, the Iranian-Canadian businesswoman is focused on improving the entrepreneurial spirit — particularly among women — on her former home turf. She founded Seamless Planet in Montreal, where most of her employees are located.

“The Canadian economy, especially in Quebec, is not great,” Ahmadian says. “I see Canada as a service-oriented country, but not really good at entrepreneurship.”

She says there are many advantages to setting up a business in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada — tax breaks and access to multidisciplinary talent, for example — but those benefits aren’t well presented to prospective entrepreneurs. She believes that lack of self-promotion contributes to a youth-driven brain-drain.

“Most smart Canadians who are ambitious do not stay in Canada, which can be a huge problem. It’s already a problem in Quebec,” Ahmadian says.

She would like to see Quebec universities do a better job of creating business mentorship and career-placement programs for current students, rather than focusing on developing final-year or post-graduation services.

“When you’re an entrepreneur you have access to so many mentors, but most students are lost and don’t have access to anyone,” Ahmadian says.

She is looking for collaborators who can help further homegrown mentorship programs for women firstly, but also for immigrants, visible minorities and young people.

“It’s important for women to start something and be successful — because then they can help other women,” she says.



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