“Back in 2017, there were a lot of refugees coming to the Netherlands, particularly from Syria. We believed there must be so much talent in this group – but not many refugee-led businesses coming to life yet. So with my co-founders Laura di Santolo (MSc IM/CEMS, 2018) and David Hwan, we started exploring what initiatives already existed for supporting refugees who wanted to start a business.  And we realised that we could contribute something.

“We started by organising a two-day event where 20 refugee entrepreneurs from all over the world worked on their business plans with students, mentors and coaches. That event showed us the power of the RSM community to bring together diverse groups of people. We started our first full incubation programme in April 2018, just after Laura and I both graduated. It was tricky – we only managed to raise sufficient funds to run the programme the day before it started! But it worked out – and that programme became Forward·Inc.

“So far, we’ve supported 179 startups – including 60 female-led businesses – and have around 2,500 participants in our network. We find potential entrepreneurs through the community of graduates from Forward·Inc programs, online via our social media posts, or through other organisations that work with people from refugee backgrounds. People can apply to join our programmes via our website, and they can enrol on different programmes depending on where they are in their entrepreneurial journey.

So far, we’ve supported 179 startups – including 60 female-led businesses – and have around 2,500 participants in our network.

“Our participants tend to have a very strong professional background in their home countries: they might have had their own companies already. They are highly qualified: the majority have a university degree, and around five per cent  have a PhD. Just over a third (36 per cent) are women, and while most are younger, we have participants across all age brackets. The biggest nationality is Syrian, but we also work with a lot of people from Yemen, Turkey and Palestine. We try to translate their experience from back home and adapt it to new contexts. We want to help them focus on the strengths they bring and propel them successfully into a new environment.

“Our Digital Entrepreneurship programme, online, reaches around 300 people annually. Participants have access to video modules, carry out assignments, and have live sessions with our trainers. They graduate with a more defined business concept ready to take to the next stage.

“Some continue into our Incubator: a very intensive, community-based, four-month-long programme. After that, they should be ready to launch. Once they have registered their company, they can enrol in the Growth programme, which is focused on marketing and boosting sales, and the lnvestor Readiness programme, focused on pitching to investors and attracting capital. Finally, we offer mentorship, which underlies all these different programmes.

“We also try to match what we offer to what people need. Up until now, for example, all our programmes have been in English, but we have just launched our first programme in Arabic. This will serve refugees in the Middle East who have fled to neighbouring countries, such as Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan. Our 100 participants are mostly from Syria and Palestine. It’s our goal to offer everything we do in the Netherlands in the Middle East as well.

“It’s been great to see how many refugees, in turn, create businesses that have big community impact. Khaled Shaaban, an entrepreneur from Syria, has helped more than 500 refugees land a job with his company Subul, which trains refugees in IT. Another, from Yemen, developed an app called Taaly, which enables people to learn Dutch by interacting with language partners via online video. We have alumni working as freelancers in the creative sector, and entrepreneurs who have started food businesses, retail businesses and social enterprises.

“For us, it doesn’t matter what kind of business it is. What matters is that people come to us with a strong drive and conviction that they can do it, and that they have the skills to deliver. If they have those things, we can support them along their entire journey. Many companies increasingly want to get engaged in diversity and inclusion, so a lot of companies are very interested to work with us.

“Right now, we are seeing a negative narrative about people who are applying for asylum in the Netherlands. We want to counter that narrative by creating success stories and showing positive examples. It’s an incredibly important topic, not just for the people who work for Forward·Inc, but for our whole alumni community.

“I find it incredibly powerful that people are translating this resistance from the Government towards them as individuals into positive action that inspires and motivates – and ultimately, shows that they have so much to contribute. And the figures back that up. Putting €1 into Forward·Inc translates into €8 of social value. We support people to leave the social welfare system and become completely economically self-reliant: more than 500 of our alumni participants are now economically independent. In fact, we have now saved the Dutch government more than €30m. Our startups have raised €5.4 million EUR in startup capital.

“We want to change the perception of people who are refugees – focusing on the positives they bring and making sure they can contribute as much to society as possible by making the most of their talents. That contribution has always been there: it’s already happening, but it’s not being recognised. We hope to inspire people to follow in the footsteps of the entrepreneurs we work with, people who are leaders in the communities they represent. Everyone has something to give. If you’re willing to give more than you want to take, that leads to a better outcome for everyone.”