Local Leaders’ Insights on Sustaining a Business in Malta at This Year’s Start Up Festival Malta

Making Arts & Culture Accessible

Sarah Lee Zammit, founded the company Nocemuskata as a niche in Malta’s art and culture sector. Her goal was to make this sector more accessible to the Maltese audience. The creative industry is a challenging venture which has a lot of potential, and Malta can be a laboratory for the arts. Sarah has managed to grow her company outside of Malta. This niche sector provides challenges and pushes her outside her comfort zone, which leads to exploring new possibilities.

As a female founder she talks about the difficulty of juggling between her personal life and the business life, as she sees no difference between the two as a woman in business.

Malta’s Technology Sector

Karl Gauci from Tech.mt oversees the growth and support the government provides to the tech industry. This is done with the InMalta collaboration, which features five important companies including, Gaming Malta, Finance Malta, Malta General Innovation Authority. Tech,mt and Malta Enterprise. This synonymous brand works together to provide funding, guidance and resources for businesses in each sector

The Malta Crafts Foundation

Elton Micallef is the CEO of Malta Crafts Foundation which is dedicated to small artisans in order to help them grow and flourish. The foundation encourages traditional artisans to explore new technology without losing their identity as a craftsperson. Elton believes that innovation and tradition can work together and start-ups should be seeing technology as a tool rather than a replacement. There are government schemes which provide artisans with funding opportunities, the Malta Crafts Foundation targets these people to guide them onto the right path.

Passion in Business

Matthew Pullicino founded several companies such as Right Brain, the bigger picture and is the Managing Director at Stargate Studios. During the panel discussion, he talks about his experiences in a niche industry. He describes the “kick” of seeing someone buy a product, this is the realisation that an entrepreneur is able to do what they love and make money off it. This impacts your confidence and outlook on the business.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the world relied on working digitally this opened up opportunities for creative business to network outside of Malta. The digitalisation made it possible for global communication and resources.

Partnership & Collaboration

Micallef encourages collaboration between artisans because a group working together will excel further than if one works alone. Pullicino shared his experience on partnerships within a business, he stated that it is best when you have a partner who challenges you and compliments you in your skills. Having someone who compliments you does not overwhelm the business and creates a balance and functioning structure for the company. Agreeing with Matthew, Zammit expanded on this by discussing her recent partnership, which was a crucial point for her venture. Having a partner challenges the way one views problems, this way their business was more effective and functional.

Support Systems

Gauci suggested to never assume anything and always seek help. The government is very proactive in establishing initiatives for different niches and sectors, and there is guidance to find the right solution. Pullicino’s advice to young entrepreneurs is to embrace structure. When starting a company it is advised not to solely focus on creating a product and neglecting the importance of business structure. It is crucial that entrepreneurs understand that structure and help are necessary in a start-up.