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Launch HN: Manara (YC W21) – Connect Middle East engineers with global companies

202 points| laila90 | 5 years ago

Hey everyone! My name is Laila and with my co-founder Iliana I’m building Manara (https://www.manara.tech/). We support software engineers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to get great jobs at tech companies worldwide. These companies appreciate being connected to skilled talent that is diverse and inclusive (50% of our engineers are women).

I grew up in a refugee camp in Gaza. My dream was to become a Silicon Valley software engineer. Eventually I hacked my way there successfully, becoming a software engineer at Nvidia. I like to joke that the hardest part wasn’t escaping Gaza in the middle of the 2014 war, but rather, my first interviews... which I totally bombed. ;)

Once I got to Silicon Valley, I was surprised at the lack of women. In Gaza, more women study computer science than men! I was also surprised to learn how hard it was for companies in Silicon Valley to attract the talent we needed. During interviews with candidates I’d often think, “I wish I could hire my friends in Gaza. They’d be great.”

That’s when I re-connected with Iliana. She and I had met in Gaza when she was running Gaza Sky Geeks (GSG), the first startup accelerator in Gaza. Her work was widely covered and has a few threads on HN including https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11858963. Iliana asked me “How can we produce more success stories like yours?”

I told her that engineers in the MENA region don't lack talent, but they lack other ingredients. They're mostly not aware of opportunities outside their region, and even if they are aware, they think you have to be a genius to work at a company like Google. Also, they have no idea what sorts of resumes recruiters want to see and don't have brand names to put on them. They don't have referral networks to get their foot in the door. And they're completely unprepared for the style of interviews that tech companies go for. As we talked further, it became clear that all of these problems would be fixable with the right kind of coaching and support, and that bringing this growing talent pool to the global job marketplace would benefit both sides (accelerating the success of global companies, while redistributing wealth to the region).

We developed an approach to address those gaps - and it worked. Just last week, 67% of the people we referred to Google for internships made it past the hiring committee (they’re now waiting for their job offers, so if you work at Google and have internship headcount, let us know!) We’ve heard Google interviewers say several times, “This is the best junior engineering interview I’ve ever done.”

I want to emphasize that we are not a zero-to-hero bootcamp. Manara is a career accelerator for skilled software engineers at all levels with a focus on junior engineers. Students learn the technical and soft skills they need to pass interviews and get introductions to companies with jobs that are either remote or on-site (in Europe or Canada). We charge an affordable fee to both candidates and companies, only if a successful match is made.

We focus on MENA (and specifically Arabic-speaking countries in the region) for a few reasons. On the business side, that's where we're from and where our connections are, so we understand the dynamics and have comparative advantage there. Second, the region has a huge opportunity: the youngest population in the world, 2x more university graduates than 10 years ago, women studying computer science at high rates (in some countries more women study CS than men: 52% in Palestine, 62% in Tunisia, 70% in Qatar), and so on. Third, it lends itself to scale. Our graduates have a high sense of affiliation and loyalty to the region, which means that as soon as we place 1 candidate at a company that’s growing, s/he comes back to us looking for 3 more to hire.

But we’re not building Manara just for business reasons; rather, we were motivated to launch Manara for social impact reasons. The unemployment rate for recent college grads is ~60%; for women who studied CS, it can be as high as 83%. It pains us personally to see highly talented friends of ours struggling to find (meaningful) work. We originally planned to build Manara as a non-profit, but after lots of research, we realized that a social enterprise approach would better support our mission: the pressure of becoming self-sustainable forces sharper thinking and execution, and will make it possible for us to deliver this solution at scale.

A powerful part of our impact is the community we are building. Students study in cohorts. Within each cohort, they compete to see who can solve more coding problems, and form strong bonds and support each other. Students also meet volunteers from tech companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Wayfair, Stripe, etc for mentorship and mock interviews once they achieve certain milestones (e.g., 100 questions on Leetcode). This leads to high motivation and retention. It also gives them access to professional networks like those Americans have when graduating from universities like Stanford. Often these networks later help them with their job hunting: just last week, a candidate got an interview at Uber thanks to a referral from one of our volunteers who works there.

Our volunteers love the chance to use their professional skills to mentor engineers from untraditional backgrounds. Several told us that they spent years looking for an effective way to contribute. One recently wrote to us, “I'm in awe of the work Manara is doing. I love interacting with my mentee and providing mock interviews - so thank you for giving me a platform to be able to support these students.”

If you're hiring, check out https://www.manara.tech/hire-engineers. If you'd like to get involved or join our newsletter, check out https://www.manara.tech/get-involved. Most importantly, we can't wait to hear what you think, wherever in the world you might be.

Over to you, HN!

104 comments

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amasad|5 years ago

At Repl.it, we interviewed interns via Manara and was mind-blown by the quality. We've given offers to two and I know at least one will be joining us soon. I think Manara has a potential to transform the global developer market. Very excited for them!

ilianam|5 years ago

Awww... I know they both loved Repl.it too - they love what you're building and Faris made a really positive impression on them!

laila90|5 years ago

Oh WOW thanks a lot!! We love it when we get multiple offers from the same company - extremely excited about our Repl.it placements :))

square_usual|5 years ago

Is repl.it hiring outside NA time zones? I checked the postings a while ago, and all of them specified PST +- 3 IIRC.

Jugurtha|5 years ago

Hi, Laila. Congratulations on the launch. I'll share this (Algiers, Algeria).

One of the problems people here have is getting paid from companies abroad. I think it would be good to conduct interviews with people who may be having the same problem, and either offer a solution or explain it on the website. Many people work as freelancers, and the way they get their money is Herculean.

Also, many, especially here, neither are Arab nor identify as such [native population and ethnicity before 7th century invasions]. Many also do not share the language or other common attributes. Therefore, if you're not ethnicity based, but based on the "region", I guess North Africa, and Middle East are the terms that would work better.

Again, congratulations. There a lot of very talented people in these countries who will not work abroad for different reasons. Staying not to leave family behind is a very, very, common reason. Making remote work easier for them, whether positions or ease of payment, is huge.

This is encouraging even for those who are willing to move but aren't invited to because they haven't reached the skill level required for an employer to incur that cost, and they haven't reached the financial level to incur that cost themselves. I guess your product hits that niche as well.

laila90|5 years ago

Hi! Ahlan! Azul! Really appreciate your bringing these issues up.

Regarding payments, this has been coming up and we’ll need to pick your brain as we develop solutions. For now we are managing payments for companies that hire remotely by wire transferring the funds ourselves. In other words, the companies send the money to our US entity and then we do the transfer. We’ve also been looking at https://pilot.co/ https://www.boundlesshq.com/ and https://www.letsdeel.com/. Are you familiar with those? What do you think? Btw Pilot is also a YC company that initially planned to be a full-time remote work marketplace, but switched to facilitating payments because there was such a big need there.

You’re right of course that in North Africa (the Maghreb) many don’t speak Arabic nor identify as Arab. When we call it “the Middle East and North Africa,” we also get feedback that it’s inaccurate. I wish there were a better word! We’ll keep iterating until we get it right.

PS: My co-founder Iliana has spent lots of time in Morocco and some in Algeria… and can’t wait to go back! She speaks some darija… and picked up a few words of Berber. :)

mtalantikite|5 years ago

"Also, many, especially here, neither are Arab nor identify as such."

Came here to say the same -- I grew up in the US, but my family is Kabyle and you definitely don't want to call my father Arab!

tyingq|5 years ago

Sounds like a terrific idea. I saw the growth of this sort of thing in Argentina and other South American countries once some companies started investing time and money there. A fair amount of the popularity was attributed to sharing highly overlapping time zones with the US. I imagine this has a similar advantage for European customers.

You may get some mileage out of talking with Globant (https://globant.com) or a similar company in South America to hear what their experience was. They have a different model, but do a lot of the same things you've outlined.

ilianam|5 years ago

Yes! Totally right about the time zone benefits (although some of our talent is willing to adjust to US time zones, the employers rarely seem to believe it).

Also true about the fact that this sort of thing has sprouted in other regions, including South/Latin America. We've been trying to connect with them & share lessons learned because we think there's a big need in this space & we should all help each other succeed. I'm not sure I understand how Globant is similar to us though, is it an agency?

The ones we've spoken to so far that are pretty similar to ours (last-mile prep for job placement) include: PestoTech (engineers in India), PAZ.AI (refugees in Europe), Shift.org (veterans in USA), Insight Fellows (data science in USA), Talently.Tech (devs in LatAm), Laboratoria (women in LatAm), Outtalent (devs in Eastern Europe).

So far it seems to me that they're not far ahead of us, but nevertheless they've made enough progress to share some important lessons. First, it's important to start with and maintain quality. Quality for candidates means getting a job that's much better than what they would've gotten on their own, within 2-6 months of meeting our requirements. On the demand side, quality means that candidates meet or exceed the expectations of their standard talent selection process and performance post hire. Second, it's important to take a talent-first approach because that's what attracts the top talent. This includes being careful not to charge the talent an unreasonable rate. Employers may not all pay for the talent at the beginning when we're establishing our reputation, but ultimately that's where the main financial opportunity is - and charging a subscription fee ensures long-term mutually beneficial relationships.

Of course there's also the outsourcing agency/staff augmentation model that has existed for decades in Eastern Europe and South Asia... Andela is a more recent/visible example in Africa. Those are more easily profitable, but we've avoided that approach for now because we see that the top engineers prefer to work directly for great companies (whether remotely or on-site) and it is more beneficial for their career growth to do so.

itin|5 years ago

I love this because it empowers people in the MENA region to establish financial security and grow their careers at global tech companies. This will hopefully unlock resources for the much-needed entrepreneurship growth in the region

laila90|5 years ago

Thank you! And totally, the region's entrepreneurship scene is growing quickly. Our current YC batch has at least 5 companies from MENA. We're excited to be a part of (and unlock) this growth.

salsheikh|5 years ago

Just wanted to chime in to share that the original post is great but doesn't do enough justice to the talent. I've been working as an engineer in the Bay Area for 3+ years and found Manara about a year ago. During that time, I've closely mentored 6 engineers and mock interviewed several more. I think nearly every end-of-program mock interview I've given to Manara students are a "Hire" with questions of similar difficulty to those used at the big tech company I work for. Having gotten to know them very well now, it's clear to me that these really are a selection of the best engineers in the region (e.g. top performers in competitive programming competitions, hackers with more side projects than university projects, etc).

P.S. Also worth mentioning that this is some of the most exciting volunteer work I've done...it's a small part of what I do each week but it keeps me disproportionately energized even throughout the rest of my week!

ilianam|5 years ago

Thanks so much for sharing that! Glad you're having such a great experience on our volunteer team. We couldn't do this without people like you.

cik|5 years ago

Wasalaam ukhti, from the other side of the fence. I'm in Israel, and would love to learn more, and see how I can help from here. It could be one of our small steps that helps move the needle on peace!

I'd like to introduce you to some friends in North America who will be very interested. Please check out my profile for an e-mail, and let's talk.

Shukraan habibti!

ilianam|5 years ago

Thanks so much for your interest in helping! The best way to get involved is to visit https://www.manara.tech/get-involved. Can you also share that link with your friends in North America who would be interested? Really appreciate your spreading the word!

temp2933|5 years ago

Speaking from the employer side, can you possibly mention some salary levels? I know the topic is sensitive and difficult, but giving some indication here or on the website would be great. This is hopefully competitive with other low-cost locations for react//dashboards/enterprise-java etc

laila90|5 years ago

Hi, no worries, thanks for asking! Curious what you’re seeing are the salary bands in competitive low-cost locations?

We’re currently most familiar with the bands in Palestine, Egypt, Jordan, and UAE. What we’re seeing there varies widely, but can probably be thought of as breaking down into two separate scales/salary bands: those paid by local companies and by international companies sourcing talent in the region primarily for affordability, and those paid by international companies sourcing talent in the region primarily because they need strong engineers.

In the former, the band for junior engineers straight out of college with no work experience is ~$800-$1800/month. In the latter, it’s $2500-$4500/month. For senior engineers, in the former it’s around $5k/month and in the latter it’s $6k-$10k/month.

Of course startups sometimes seek strong talent but can’t afford the range, so they may pay on the lower end but make up for it with equity, career growth, etc.

langitbiru|5 years ago

So in the past I read something similar. It's similar business but for Africa: https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/23/connecting-african-softwar...

Then something similar showed up again. But this time the business is for Europe, Asia and Latin America: https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/23/youteam/

Then I joked with my friend: "Maybe you should build something similar but for South-East Asia." (We live in SEA.)

Then the similar business showed up again today but for Middle East and North America. So I guess it's about time when something similar shows up but for SEA (or other parts of the world). :)

ilianam|5 years ago

Yes, there’s a growing trend of connecting tech companies to untraditional talent, including in emerging markets. This is for good reasons: talent is everywhere, there’s a growing need for it in the tech sector, remote work and/or relocations are easier than before, and untraditional talent is less likely to be successful going through traditional application processes on their own.

The vision of these organizations is similar, and they take slightly different approaches. For instance, Andela is an agency (they hire the talent) and YouTeam and Andela are both remote-only. We took the approach of helping talent reach their dream jobs whatever they may be (including jobs at companies like Google in Europe) because that makes it possible to attract the best talent, and because ultimately we believe that will have bigger impact.

I’ve seen at least one example in SEA so far: https://pesto.tech/ If you find others, let us know!

maz1b|5 years ago

Hey Laila,

Congratulations on the launch. Your story is great and I love the premise. I myself am the Founder, CEO + CTO of a medical education company working on revolutionizing the future of meded-tech in MENA, so in the near future I'll be looking into hiring from your platform.

Be well and good luck!

Azib

laila90|5 years ago

Would love to stay in touch, Azib! What's the name of your company?

ipince|5 years ago

Congrats on the launch, Laila and Iliana!

Quick question: why are the companies with on-site jobs restricted to Europe and Canada (if they are in fact restricted)?

Thanks!

ilianam|5 years ago

Ah, that's not our restriction, that's the reality of visas for people from these countries. It's almost impossible for a junior engineer to get a visa to the United States. One of our candidates had a job offer at Amazon in the USA but couldn't get the visa. So he ended up at a startup in Germany instead.

So far our participants have ended up primarily in Germany and Poland, and we're seeing possibilities in Sweden, France, and the UK too. We're still figuring out what the Canadian visa situation is for junior engineers but it seems possible (probably best for them to apply for residency first and then get a job).

If you have any more insight on this do let us know!

fakedang|5 years ago

Keeping you guys in mind the next time someone asks me for MENA talent. And if I want to hire some myself!

ilianam|5 years ago

Thanks so much! That's interesting that people are already asking you for MENA talent sometimes. Under what circumstances does that happen?

joelbluminator|5 years ago

Did u consider working with Israelis? I know it sounds far fetched but I'm sure many companies wouldn't rule out hiring Gazans remotely. Whether they can do so legally is another question, probably not.

aloukissas|5 years ago

Oh man, the name is unfortunate. It's slang for "babe" (for girls) in Greek. Also the last name of one of the most famous erotic comic artists (Milo Manara). Fun times!

laila90|5 years ago

oh yeah, we've heard about that recently from a Greek friend! Thankfully it seems like the Greek language is the only one in which our name has a weird meaning (at least so far), and hopefully it’s not offensive? Manara means “lighthouse” in Arabic. We did lots of user testing with various name options and this one was most positively perceived in Europe, North America, and MENA. Now we just need to get really great SEO to show up at the top of search results :)

lumberjack24|5 years ago

Manara sounds like a beacon of light for the MENA engineers!

Congrats to you Laila and Iliana for the launch and I will definitely be sharing this with fellow Tunisian developers :)

ilianam|5 years ago

Thank you so much! We'd love to connect more to the Tunisian software engineering community. Will send you an email.

throwaway313371|5 years ago

There's a big caveat here: Middle-eastern engineers will have significant problems working with more liberal/woke companies. They have a strong tendency to be homophobic/transphobic/misogynist.

Last year I fired an off-shored team of 10 otherwise excellent Egyptian engineers because their homophobic statements on LinkedIn and in Slack made people in the company uncomfortable.

If your company's engineers lean more right-wing/republican, then middle-eastern engineers are probably a great untapped resource. If your company is more of a Silicon Valley company, they are a liability which can get you sued.

ajcp|5 years ago

I think your one(?) experience with Middle-eastern engineers has unfortunately given you a bad impression, but I'm not sure that necessitates making such a dogmatic and blanket "caveat".

Following the logic in your own statement equating Republicans to Middle-eastern homophobes, mid-west engineers will(!) have significant problems working with more liberal/woke companies. They have a strong(!) tendency to be homophobic/transphobic/misogynist. They are a liability which can get you sued.

Does that sound like a correct, or even fair, assessment to you?

I'm a Republican software engineer from Kansas and it doesn't to me.

Beyond that, from my time living in Beirut and traveling the Middle-east I can assure you there are many, many liberal (in both the Western and US sense) and metropolitan software engineers who would have no "problems working with more liberal/woke" companies".

Grustaf|5 years ago

Great initiative Laila!

Interesting that the proportion of female CS students is so high in those countries, I imagine it's more like 10% in most Western countries. Based on you inside perspective, do you have any theories about why this is so?

Anecdotally, I've worked for a lot of startups in Scandinavia, and one in Jordan, and that one had the most women!

ZephyrBlu|5 years ago

I've seen reasoning elsewhere along the following lines:

Because there is a stronger economic incentive in Middle Eastern countries compared to western countries, more women go into STEM fields.

golemiprague|5 years ago

It seems like there is correlation between patriarchal societies and having more women developers. I wonder why, maybe because anyway the society is patriarchal so there is not much difference between this field to others unlike in the west where all misogynist white males concentrate in this profession and all the good guys go to law or acting or wherever there are many women and everything is equal and rosy. But then you have to wonder why would those Arab women want to move to a horrible place like the western tech industry instead of removing their shackles and becoming a nurse in a hospital or work in HR of a big corporation, the places where women feel comfortable and equal in the west. It is a bit of a mystery.

ilianam|5 years ago

Hi! What other societies have you seen with a high percentage of women developers?