I had no idea this stuff was going on in Beirut, but I'm excited to visit. If anyone from the Beirut tech community is reading this, I had two questions:<p>(1) Do you agree with the author that the startup community is primarily held back by internet speeds? (It's painful to Skype or share a YouTube video with friends in Lebanon, so I know it's a problem -- just wondering about how you'd rank it with other concerns.) Are there any gaps in desired engineering skills? Are people bringing experience with large-scale web architecture or hardware design from working outside of Lebanon?<p>(2) What's the competitive advantage for these companies? Some ideas -- like music streaming or health tracking or Hulu for the Middle East -- seem easily deflated if an already-at-scale competitor decides to focus on Arabic internationalization. What do Beirut's tech startups understand about Middle East consumers that Western tech companies are missing?