At the beginning of the year, Safir HANAFI, a graduate of our MSc in International Project Development programme, was selected to take part in the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit, with his project Lok-Iz (an innovative platform to connect landlords and tenants), which is currently being incubated at NEOMA Business School.

The event, which brought together in Silicon Valley the world’s leading entrepreneurship experts, provided Safir with an opportunity to present his new business model and to contact investors who are always on the lookout for new opportunities.

Here he looks back on this exceptional experience, which is now opening up new perspectives for his start-up….

“During the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, we were able to meet the biggest players on the web (Facebook, Airbnb, Uber, Google, etc.) who all gave up time to discuss our projects and above all to give us advice. Thanks to the contacts I made there, we got an appointment with Y Combinator, an American venture capital firm. If we are selected, we will come and settle in California. The area is full of innovative ideas and potential partners; it would really kick-start our project!”