Scaling up the MENA ecosystem

Written by Christian Rangen

Chris Rangen is a strategy advisor and business school faculty. He works with CEOs, companies, strategy leaders, ecosystem developers, innovation agencies, venture funds, national fund-of-funds and governments on their top strategy and transformation challenges.

December 2, 2025

“Mindblowing  – but in a good way”

“Absolutely stunning”

“Possibly the most unique training I have taken part in. The highs and lows of being a start up founder squeezed into two days.

“Every founder should have this!”

Just wrapped up an incredible two-day workshop on Scaling and Exiting for Founders”

“If only I had attended something like this 20 years ago during my first venture… In just 16 hours, we covered what felt like a year’s worth of founder lessons thanks to Christian Rangen of Strategy Tools and the team”

“Two days. High-impact insights. High ROI on time invested”

“Helps founders focus on fundraising and its importance for success”

“Capital structure matter a lot more than we think about in our day-to-day”

These were just some of the feedback comments we received after a week in Dubai.

In close collaborations with many of the largest ecosystem players, including Dubai Future District Fund , Dubai Technology Entrepreneur Campus – Dtec , DIFC , 1trepreneur and Ignyte , more than 150 people; founders, VCs, angels and ecosystem builders – all going throught the Founder’s journey.

What started as an idea, “Can we develop a fully regional MENA version of Scale Up!?” 12 months ago, is now a fully developed, fully proven advanced stage scale up program – and now completed seven programs with 250+ founders, investors and ecosystem builders. Next, we need to go from seven to 1.000 programs. Let’s go!

Fundraising 101 at DIFC
Scaling to IPO, with DFDF
One of 48 team photos! Chris, Scott, Sanjana, Alain
Early-stage founders meet wide angle lens
Sunday, full-day Train-the-trainer at DFDF
Got an exit strategy yet?
Whiteboarding into 2026!