Building Lebanon’s common engine

If we want to put Lebanon back on the right path in tech, in the Middle East and beyond, the first thing we need is not another startup, another accelerator, or another isolated initiative.

We need a common engine.

A shared engine of ideas, yes. But more importantly, a shared engine of problems.

Today, what I see in Lebanon is not one ecosystem. It’s multiple sub-ecosystems running in parallel, each with its own agenda, its own priorities, its own narrative. X doesn’t speak to Y. A ignores B. Effort is duplicated, energy is wasted, and progress cancels itself out.

From a productivity standpoint, this is deadly.

And yet, we all say the same thing: we want to build for Lebanon. We want to help the country move forward. We want to be part of the solution in the middle of a long-lasting crisis. The contradiction is obvious. Good intentions without coordination produce nothing durable.

The first real task, the most important one, is alignment.

Everyone who shapes this ecosystem must sit at the same table. Not to pitch. Not to compete. Not to protect territory. But to share notes. To share problems. To put data, insights, failures, and assumptions on the table so that every actor understands the full system they are operating in.

Without that shared understanding, every solution is partial. Every product is local. Every initiative remains fragile.

Power does not come from stacking isolated efforts. It comes from synchronizing them.

Only when we have a common engine, where problems and ideas converge instead of fragment, can we build something truly meaningful. Something stronger than the sum of its parts. Something that scales beyond individuals, organizations, or short-term agendas.

So the order matters:

First, design the system.

Then map the problems together.

Then align incentives.

Only then should we build.

Anything else is motion without direction. And Lebanon has already paid enough for that.