Elie El Khoury » ALIGN – Woopra: An Entrepreneur’s Idea Built to Solve a Problem ★

ALIGN – Woopra: An Entrepreneur’s Idea Built to Solve a Problem

For Elie Khoury, web developer and guitarist, long-time passion for computers, commitment to perfection, and solid ambition to make it big, paved the way for this computer science graduate to become a successful entrepreneur.

“A successful start-up is one that has been built to solve a problem,” said Khoury, and this is precisely what he accomplished when he co-founded Woopra.

At age 12, Khoury received his first computer and began code programming. Throughout his college years, he worked on one project after the next, from an MSN delete checker to a Photoshop tutorial blog, looking for that one big break. With the passion and commitment to succeed, Khoury was only missing an innovative idea that would solve a problem. Many projects later, Khoury noticed there were no webmaster tools that allowed him to monitor the web traffic on his websites. At long last, Khoury found a problem to solve, and the idea for Woopra was born.

Khoury teamed up with Jad Younan, fellow LAU graduate with a degree in Computer Engineering with an aptitude for web development, to create Woopra, a web tracking and analytics website. Khoury described himself and his partner as “ignorant” during the initial development of Woopra, both ignorant of potential competition and of the possibility of failure. But the two were optimistic about their idea, and their passion and ambition blinded them from their ignorance. Khoury reflected that the pair “was a passionate team and looked at the problem from a different angle.” After months of zealous effort and with the support of their friends and family, Woopra was launched in 2009 at a WordPress event called WordCamp in Dallas, Texas.

Today, Woopra tracks over 160,000 websites with 6,000 new monthly users. But with numerous other analytical websites, what has made Woopra so successful? Unlike other leading competitors, Woopra has a unique element: real time analytics. Woopra enables webmasters to track the features and stats of their website in real time. “Every user can use Woopra for different reasons, whether for customer support via chat, real time tracking, labels, or search,” asserted Khoury.

The roadmap of Woopra’s success has indeed been positive, with constant improvements, including a brand new infrastructure that was rebuilt just last month. As Khoury affirmed, “With a commitment to perfection, high quality, competitive pricing, and by targeting tech bloggers by word of mouth,” Woopra is on the way of becoming the ultimate webmaster tool.

But problems for Woopra still exist. Khoury finds Lebanon to be a difficult terrain on which to expand, which is also why the partners decided to launch Woopra in the United States rather than Lebanon. For Woopra’s next move, Khoury is considering moving to Silicon Valley. He believes that this is a primary way to compete on a greater scale and move Woopra up a notch in the big software players’ game. He is optimistic about this move: “Silicon Valley, unlike Lebanon, can provide Woopra with the capital, mentors, and the proper ecosystem” to grow the company.

The future for Woopra does indeed look bright. The Washington Post called Woopra an “impressive live tracking and analytics service,” and considers it to better than its leading competitor, Google Analytics. At the rate it’s going, Silicon Valley might indeed be Woopra’s next big hit.

Khoury also explained the difficulty of finding talent in Lebanon to help with web development. He urged Lebanese university students and graduates to explore the option of working for a start-up company to grow their expertise and knowledge. Khoury, who also has founded YallaStartUp, an organization that aids start-ups in the entrepreneurial stage, also encouraged his audience to work on their own start-ups.

He remarked, “Everyone in Lebanon wants to work for a multinational firm, have a stable salary, then become an entrepreneur after years of experience.” But Khoury disagrees with this mentality. “The best time to start your own business is between the ages of 18-25, when you have no responsibilities,” he said, then added jokingly, “and are ignorant.”