Cactus International aims to strengthen the Middle East and North Africa region’s economy by promoting women's entrepreneurship. The company provides MENA women with the tools they need to become successful entrepreneurs. Since the company's founding in 2013, the company has provided more than 100 entrepreneurship courses, workshops, and counseling services to over 2000 women. Cactus's flagship course is its business plan course that currently includes online pre-recorded business training, mainly in Arabic, and one-on-one consultation and personal coaching. So far more than 200 women graduated from the business plan course, and over 70% of them launched or grew their businesses and employ two employees on average. 80% of the employees hired are women. The company is based in the Bay Area in California-USA and is made up of diverse team members from the US, the UK, and MENA countries. The cactus team has gained expertise in helping MENA women overcome their personal fears and the cultural barriers that they face to reach their highest potential while launching and/or growing their businesses. Areen Shahbari is the founder and chief executive officer of Cactus International. She is a Fulbright alumna and entrepreneurship, strategy, and innovation instructor at Harvard University Extension School and Stanford University Continuing Studies. She holds a BA in psychology and communication, and an MBA in entrepreneurship. Cactus's mission is to Strengthen the MENA region economically by 1.    Increasing Arab women’s interest in entrepreneurship 2.    Increasing the number of Arab women entrepreneurs who can create scalable and sustainable businesses 3.    Connecting Arab women entrepreneurs with each other and have them build partnerships, promote each other’s businesses, support each other emotionally and financially, and share resources and information.