Carol Sharabati remembers the pitch. Twenty years ago, she walked into a US company and proposed outsourcing to Lebanon. The response was polite and dismissive: "We tried the Philippines. We tried India. It never works."
Carol did their first project for free.
They never hired anywhere else again. That client was Subway. Then Wells Fargo. Thomson Reuters. Dollar General. And then something nobody expected: the Lebanese team didn't just execute. They started leading. Within a few years, fresh graduates in Beirut were registering US patents for their American clients.
"Our counterparts in the US started using the Lebanese talent to mentor and integrate the Indians, the Chinese, the Argentinians," Carol said. "Lebanese talent positioned itself as a leader — not just in execution, but in the integration of different teams."
"The cedar doesn't break in the storm."
The Proof Is Already Here
This wasn't a theoretical panel. Every person on it is running a company right now — with Lebanese talent at the core. Not as a cost play. As a competitive advantage.
Hani Daou
Builds high-speed testing equipment for Meta, Nvidia, and Amazon. Over 400 people, based in Lebanon, enabling AI infrastructure for the biggest companies on earth. Hani runs business development from California. The entire engineering operation runs from Beirut.
Carol Sharabati
Three companies spanning private sector outsourcing (Subway, Wells Fargo), public sector reform across MENA, and fintech for the GCC. Fresh graduates she hired 20 years ago now lead the firm and register US patents for clients.
Marianne Zakhour
Hired 11 people from Lebanon after the Beirut explosion. Her Canadian team soon asked to recruit more from Lebanon and less locally. During the 2024 war, not a single Lebanese team member missed a second of work — under bombing.
Samer Bejjani
A tech platform delivering photo and video globally. US is the biggest market. The entire strategy is built on Lebanese talent: "In terms of professionalism, EQ, and value for money, we compete with large US-based players while paying our people better locally."
Roy Baladi
Started Jobs for Lebanon during the 2019 collapse. 5,000 diaspora members posted jobs, resulting in 1,500+ hires and $36M injected into a struggling economy. Now runs Kanz, an AI recruiter across the Middle East. The AI screening correlation with expert interviewers is over 90% for Lebanese candidates — higher than any other market.
Five companies. Five bets on Lebanon. Zero regrets. The data tells the rest of the story.
Lebanon by the Numbers
Why Lebanon Outperforms
Ask any founder who's outsourced to India, the Philippines, Eastern Europe, and Latin America what makes Lebanon different. The same five words come back every time: problem solving, hustle, depth, maturity, emotional intelligence.
The level of maturity, the depth in the subject matter, the ability to drill deep and become very quickly an expert. The problem solving skills. All these things positioned us ahead. And gradually, our US counterparts started using the Lebanese talent to mentor and integrate the Indians, Chinese, Argentinians, and Egyptians on the team.
Carol Sharabati — Founder, CMEWe have the hustle gene. We have adaptability. We're able to really understand and perceive and process the world around us. We've always wanted to challenge the idea that we have to leave Lebanon in order to be successful.
Hani Daou — Business Development, MultilaneIn terms of professionalism, EQ, and value for money, we can compete with very strong large players, while paying our people more in local terms and doing the same or better job than our US-based competitors. It's really a huge leverage in our business model.
Samer Bejjani — Co-founder, ShutterdayVery soon the Canadian team started asking us to recruit more in Lebanon and less locally. They really, truly enjoyed the depth of experience and the relationship element that the Lebanese brought to the table.
Marianne Zakhour — Founder, acquired by Supply ChainAnd then there's the thing no competitor can replicate: resilience under fire. Literally.
Not a single person stopped working for one second under bombing in Lebanon. Everyone on the team was blown away. Even our customers couldn't believe the maintained service levels through the toughest times.
— Marianne Zakhour100% SLA compliance. During a war. Backup locations, backup internet, UPS systems, solar panels. Her team had planned for every scenario. The only time Marianne ever had to buy a relocation flight was when a developer got stuck in China during COVID. It was never a Lebanese person.
The Playbook
Theory is cheap. Here's exactly what worked — a composite playbook from five founders who've been doing this for years.
The Lebanon Hiring Playbook
Hire Fresh Graduates Early — Before They Leave
Carol's strongest approach: hire straight from universities, raise the bar constantly, and watch them deliver. Within 2-3 years, her fresh grads were registering US patents. "You need to catch them before they travel. Once they see they have a great job at global standards, they stay."
Invest in Attitude, Not Just Experience
Samer's principle: hire people who aren't yet "set in their ways." Early-career hires who haven't been exposed to low accountability environments are easier to mold. Promise great exposure, raise standards internally, and offer competitive packages for staying home.
Separate Experienced and Fresh Hire Tracks
Marianne learned the hard way that university grads needed training before facing North American enterprise clients. She split the team: experienced hires who could front clients immediately, and junior hires on a structured development track. Both succeeded — just on different timelines.
Use AI Screening to Find the Best — Fast
Roy's data from Kanz: AI screening correlation with expert interviewers is over 90% for Lebanese candidates — higher than any other market in MENA. Lebanese professionals present their skills and experience in AI interviews better than candidates anywhere else in the region.
Build for Resilience from Day One
Backup internet. Backup locations. UPS systems. Solar options. Payroll initiated a week early so the team never feels financial uncertainty. These aren't nice-to-haves — they're the infrastructure that kept Marianne's team at 100% SLA compliance during a war.
Retain Through Purpose, Not Just Pay
Carol's insight: headhunting is constant. Big companies come to Lebanon to poach. The answer isn't salary matching — it's purpose. "The more there is a purpose in the work they do, the harder it is for anyone to move them. People working on public sector impact? No one can headhunt them."
The Future Belongs to Builders
Every founder on this panel agreed on one thing: the world is moving faster than any government, any university, any institution can keep up with. The people who will thrive are the ones who aren't waiting for permission.
Jack Dorsey fired 4,000 people in a single day — half his staff across all companies. Not because revenue was down. Because AI agents made them unnecessary. Roy brought this up on the panel. The room went silent.
The last two hires I've made — I haven't looked at their resume. I just looked at the AI agents they've built. That's the future. It doesn't matter where you live. It matters how smart and intellectually you can be, because your leverage is going to exponentially increase.
— Samer BejjaniEvery founder said the same thing: learn AI now. Not theory. Practice. Build agents. Automate your own job. Use Lovable, n8n, Claude Code — whatever gets you building. The companies of the future won't read your resume. They'll look at what you've shipped.
Roy shared an experiment from Kanz: instead of posting a job description, an employer posts a challenge. Any candidate in the community can build a solution using AI agents. The winner earns half the revenue of that job description. In two to three hours, a candidate can prove what they can do — and the employer is two steps ahead because they can see the proof in the pudding.
This approach works in Lebanon better than anywhere else in MENA. The correlation between AI screening and expert human evaluation is over 90% for Lebanese candidates. The talent is there. The grit is there. The only question is whether individuals will invest in becoming AI-native fast enough.
I don't think it's going to matter much where you live. It matters how smart and intellectually you can be because your leverage is going to exponentially increase. If you have internet, you should be extremely investing in learning AI — how to work with AI, how to let agents work for you. The companies will come looking for you.
Samer Bejjani — Co-founder, ShutterdayPick Up the Phone
This wasn't a panel about outsourcing. It was a call to arms. Every founder on this stage chose — emotionally, financially, strategically — to bet on Lebanon. Now they're asking the diaspora to do the same.
Everybody here has a role to play — especially the expats. We've gone out, we've learned, we've contributed. And now the biggest impact for our contribution will be Lebanon. If all of us do just a little bit, we can change the country. So if your heart comes calling — pick up the phone.
— Hani DaouReal initiatives are already making this easier:
Jobs for Lebanon — Roy's free platform, born from the 2019 collapse — connected 5,000 diaspora members with local talent. 1,500+ hires. $36M in income injected into the economy. Still running.
The Free Economic Zone Law — passed in Lebanese parliament in late 2025, championed by companies like Multilane. Once ratified: tax incentives for exporters, hiring flexibility, and the infrastructure to position Lebanon as an alternative to China for manufacturing.
SE Factory and HR Factory — Zeina Saab shared a model that handles contracts, NSSF, and taxation for international companies hiring in Lebanon. The Oyster model, built for Beirut.
Carol's challenge to the room was direct: "Lebanese talent is not execution talent. It's strategic partner talent. It builds complex, high-value solutions. The opportunity is now."
Start Here
Silk was Phoenicia's greatest export. The founders on this panel are proving the next one is silicon — and the people who build with it.
The infrastructure is fragile. The politics are complicated. The banks are unreliable. But the people are extraordinary. They kept working under bombing. They register US patents within three years of graduating. They outperform every other market in AI screening assessments across the entire Middle East.
The question isn't whether Lebanon can be a global talent hub. It already is — for the companies that had the courage to try.
What You Can Do Today
If you're in the diaspora: Post one remote job. Hire one person. Start small. Carol started with one free project and built a 20-year company.
If you're in Lebanon: Learn AI. Build agents. Automate your workflow. The companies of tomorrow won't hire resumes — they'll hire people who've already proven what they can build.
If you're a company anywhere in the world: Try Lebanon. The price-to-quality ratio is unmatched. The resilience is proven. The talent is deep.
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"Coming to Lebanon is traditionally not a logical decision. It's an emotional decision. And you need to have that emotional commitment to come back home in order to provide the value you can."
— Hani Daou