The collapse of the regime came as a shock to many, both abroad and in the country. Syrian tech optimists shared with Rest of World their hope that a wave of innovation can help the country begin to bounce back. Under the Assad regime, Hourani and his co-founder Bashar Saaduddin Al Jbawi had been threatened with arrest. YallaGoThe ride-hailing app YallaGo was one of a handful of Syrian tech companies that succeeded during the war. When authorities switched off access to the proxy server that hosted the YallaGo app, supporters of YallaGo took to the streets and social media in a rare, public show of anger.