Beirut was scorching under the June sun. Driving through the city, you could feel the heat rising off the asphalt, windows down, frowns sweaty, eyes squinting against the glare. Police officers had been posted at the worst bottlenecks but the traffic had long stopped listening. The general mood: chaos.
It was no different inside the SmartESA HQ; just a different kind of chaos. The AC was running, the honking and generator hum from outside couldn’t quite pierce the double-glazed windows, but the energy in the office had its own temperature. VivaTech was days away. One of the largest gatherings of tech companies, startups, AI pioneers, and business heavyweights was about to converge in Paris, and the team at SmartESA had every reason to be wound up. They are co-organizing the biggest Lebanese delegation ever to attend the event: one government minister, ten partners, twenty-two startups, and enough back-to-back networking events to make a calendar reconsider its career choice.
In the middle of all of it was Francesco. Handling several things at once, visibly, and somehow still radiating the kind of calm that makes people feel like they can walk up and interrupt him, which they did, more than once during our interview. He didn’t seem to mind. He was the eye of the storm, and he knew it.
When we finally sat down, he started talking through the details of the week ahead with the precision of someone who had already lived it twice in his head. Nothing was off his radar. It quickly became clear that the chaos around him wasn’t the team scrambling to get ready. It was the team getting every last detail exactly right. The tone was set before the first question was asked.
VivaTech is one of the largest tech events in Europe. For a Lebanese startup that’s never been, what does the room actually look like?
It’s one of Europe’s biggest tech conferences. Everyone who’s anyone in tech, innovation, and AI is there. Startups at every stage, corporations, government entities, NGOs, investors, VCs, experts. Anyone connected to the industry in any way.
The important thing is that VivaTech is a playground where you have to be intentional. If you go just hoping to meet people, you won’t meet anyone. You need to know who you want to meet, which events you want to attend, which speeches and workshops. Everything is centralized on their website and app. As a startup, it’s your job to structure yourself based on your KPIs and objectives, because you can get overwhelmed very easily.
You’re taking 22 startups as part of the Lebanese delegation this year. Last year you had 21. The year before that, there was no unified delegation at all. How did this come together?
Last year was the very first time in VivaTech’s ten-year history that all the main partners in Lebanon created a united front and represented the Lebanese innovation ecosystem together. Everyone — all the key players, all the partners — stopped working separately and showed up as one. This year is the second time we’re doing it.
What goes into deciding which startups make the delegation?
It’s actually quite straightforward. You need at least one Lebanese founder, a minimum of $100,000 in turnover or profit, and direct impact on the Lebanese market. We love every Lebanese founder who applied, but if your primary market isn’t the Lebanese consumer, how are you contributing to this economy on return? And of course, your solution needs to involve tech or AI in some meaningful way. VivaTech is not the right event for a non-tech business.
Do you think a larger delegation creates a bigger impact, or does it dilute the rewards for each startup — since they may all be targeting the same investors?
It doesn’t dilute at all. The volume of opportunities at VivaTech is too large for any single startup or ecosystem to fully capture. There are over 150,000 to 200,000 attendees every year. There are genuinely enough opportunities for every one of them — as long as you know how to sell yourself, how to connect, and how to pitch your ideas to the right people.
That’s the work on the startup’s side. What does SmartESA actually do for them once they’re there?
It goes well beyond just getting them through the door. We provide full access to VivaTech — every exhibitor, VC, expert, speech, and workshop. But what matters more is everything around that.
We organize meetups and events outside the conference floor so startups can connect with our partners already based in Paris, and with Lebanese founders who’ve already built something on their own. We connect them with governmental and institutional partners who can help them understand the French ecosystem — what it looks like, how to navigate it, what it would mean to establish part of their operations there.
One of the most significant things we offer is access to high-level corporate meetings. If a startup tries to reach a company like Orange on their own, they’ll most likely end up with a project coordinator at a booth. We get them in front of CEOs and executives directly.
But getting those meetings means nothing if the startups aren’t ready to handle them. What do you do before the trip to prepare them?
We provide specialized mentoring, coaching, and training on how to operate within an exhibition format. How to set KPIs, how to network, how to pitch yourself, how to structure your objectives at a stand or booth. Everything needed to make the most of the experience before they even land in Paris.
And when it’s over and everyone comes home — does SmartESA stay involved?
We absolutely shouldn’t stop at the event. The work continues. Once we’re back, we do follow-up meetings with each startup: here are the contacts you gathered, these are the meetings you had — now how do we move to the next step? What do you want from each of these people? Does this person actually serve your vision for the next six to twelve months?
The reality is that around 90% of connections made at a trade fair die within a week if you don’t act. We make sure startups follow up within that first week — even a simple email: “It was great meeting you at VivaTech, here’s who I am, I’d love to schedule a 20-minute call.” Then from there, we build an individual plan for each meaningful contact.
That said, there’s only so much we can do. Once the strategy is set, it’s up to the startup to follow through.
There are real operational constraints in Lebanon — banking, transfers, infrastructure. If foreign partners are offering these startups support, aren’t you afraid that it pulls them out of Lebanon entirely?
That risk always exists. But one of our core priorities is helping startups build what we call a dual strategy. Get yourself established in France — registration, legal structure, fundraising — because it’s more organized and easier to navigate. But keep your operations in Lebanon. You raise money from the European market, you operate here, and you serve the Lebanese market.
You’re betting on your ability to launch and raise abroad while keeping one foot planted at home. It’s not legally mandatory. But it’s the ethical thing to do. We’re building an ecosystem, not exporting talent.
Could that create a false signal to foreign investors — a Lebanese company asking for investment while clearly eyeing the exit?
I see that perspective, but I read it differently. Think about what it actually takes to build something in Lebanon. You’re operating without a functioning banking system, without institutional support, without the basic infrastructure that founders in Europe take for granted. These people built something real in spite of all of that — that’s not a small thing. And yet when they step into a stable, structured market like France or Germany, suddenly there’s hesitation. The environment is easier, the resources are there, the risk is objectively lower — and that’s precisely when some of them pull back. Investors who understand that contrast don’t see a liability. They see a founder who figured out how to win on hard mode, and is now standing at the starting line of easy mode. That’s not a false signal. That’s the whole pitch.
You mentioned investors respond well to that framing. But what objections actually come up?
The main one is thinking too small. When some Lebanese founders scale into the European market, they’re still operating with the same mindset they had back home. They’re not taking the risks that would actually push them to the next level. They’ve built something, they’re comfortable, they’re profitable in a small market — and they’re afraid that one wrong move costs them everything they worked for. Fear of loss.
Which is interesting, because entrepreneurship by definition requires risk tolerance. They had the courage to start something. But when it comes to that extra leap forward, they pull back.
Why do you think the risk tolerance inverts when they go abroad?
Partly because the ecosystem in Lebanon is fragmented. Founders here haven’t had enough exposure to what a healthy, scaled ecosystem actually looks like in practice. They’re afraid they’ll have to rebuild everything from scratch, which isn’t necessarily true. But the comfort of knowing your audience and your market — even a small one — is powerful, and it becomes a ceiling.
Do you think the problems Lebanese founders are solving are unique to Lebanon, or do they travel?
Not entirely. Take YY Regen — they’re addressing challenges that Lebanese farmers face because of the absence of government safety nets. Other countries, particularly in Africa, face very similar conditions. So maybe Europe isn’t their natural next market. The African market might be a closer fit.
The problems Lebanon produces aren’t 100% Lebanese-specific. And that actually repositions us — not as the weakest player in a developed world, but as the strongest in an emerging market context.
That’s an important reframe. But I’ve been in this ecosystem for three years and there’s something that consistently holds it back — the lack of media coverage. How much does that actually hinder progress?
Significantly. When an outsider — an investor or a foreign ecosystem — tries to research Lebanese entrepreneurship, there’s nothing current. No updated data, no annual investment figures, not even a single consolidated report on what incubators and accelerators are actually producing. That gap makes the ecosystem look smaller and more fragmented than it is.
But this is exactly what we’re trying to reverse. Last year at VivaTech, one of the most common reactions we heard was: “We had no idea Lebanon had a scene this large.” That’s what we’re working to change — showing the world that we exist, that we’re aligned, and that we’re no longer fragmented. Everyone is still running their own programs and their own identity, but we share one goal now: putting Lebanese entrepreneurs on the global map.
Compared to the other ecosystems you see at VivaTech, where does Lebanon genuinely lag?
Two honest answers. First, institutional backing. We now have a Ministry of AI and Technology that’s starting to support the ecosystem, but that work only really began in the last year or so. Second, financial resources. Taking a delegation of this size to an event like VivaTech costs real money. So far it’s been entirely private sector — donations, people who believe in what we’re building. There’s no national plan, no public funding mechanism that lets us show up without first worrying about whether we can cover the costs.
When you look at other country pavilions spending $3 million on their booth and compare it to ours at around $200,000 — which was excellent given the budget — the gap is visible. Having public sector financial backing wouldn’t just help us compete. It would give legitimacy to everything we’re doing.
If there’s one thing the delegation could bring back — or produce at VivaTech — that would genuinely move the needle for Lebanon’s entire ecosystem, what would it be?
Practical partnerships at a national level. It’s great that each startup is building its own relationships. But as a delegation, the question is: what do we bring back that benefits not just these 22 startups, but everyone in the ecosystem?
Just imagine what it means when government services get digitized. You do everything in two clicks and you’re done. That kind of infrastructure-level change creates the conditions for every startup in the ecosystem to operate better. That’s the kind of return that matters.
Last question. Are you going there with a humble attitude or an ambitious one?
Provocative. We’re humble, of course. But we’re going there to make one thing very clear: don’t sleep on us.
