LUMS, the nation’s most prestigious higher education institution, built the Center for Entrepreneurship with the vision to make it the largest breeding ground for sustainable, high-growth and high-impact businesses in Pakistan.

The management of the center, headed by Mr. Khurram Zafar, an entrepreneur himself, as well as an independent council of leading entrepreneurs of the country scout for promising upstart businesses all over Pakistan and inducts the most promising ones into this four month program. The Foundation offers co-working space, utilities, internet, and other administrative support to the startups as well as access to a network of world-class mentors, business leaders and investors who guide and groom these young, passionate entrepreneurs. The center is also collaborating with investors to put together a seed stage investment fund for the startups as well as collaborate with business center developers to offer subsidized office space to the graduates of the Foundation program.

The teams that have been inducted as the first batch of The Foundation includes, Cognitica which develops augmented reality based mobile and marketing solutions. Beed, based on research done at LUMS, this team is working on making all broadcast content interactive with the aid of smart phones. Savaree, this company is building a trust-based, ride share social network that allows drivers to monetize the free passenger seats in their cars by posting routes and connecting with riders that share that route. Bugdev Studios, a team of very passionate mobile game developers and designers that build and publish creative, fun, action-packed games that make people think, feel and enjoy.

Other start-ups include BizClout, a one-stop solution to fully e-commerce enable SMEs with-in 15 minutes using a proprietary content management and ecommerce platform. The company offers value-added products to promote and market these online brands as well. MARO, oven baked bread (tandoori Roti and Naan) is one of the most commonly consumed food item in Pakistan and MARO aims to setup a network of ‘Tandoors’ that provide healthy bread and an immaculate consumer experience at the same price as traditional ‘Tandoors’. Appography, the company aims to improve the customer experience by introducing a visual navigation IVR (Interactive Voice Response), in a clutter-free, simplified and more consumable manner on customer smart phones.

Speaking about the Center, the Executive Director, Mr. Khurram Zafar said “Entrepreneurship is the future of our country and LCE aims to scout the best entrepreneurs from all over Pakistan and provide them everything they need to succeed and turn their dreams into realities.”

The Foundation is one of the many innovative projects under the LCE banner with other centers in progress such as the Skills Commercialization Centre and a Corporate Innovation Center amongst others.

If there’s one industry in Pakistan where entrepreneurship is erupting nowadays, it would be none other than the technology sector. The low startup capital required for a technology company as well as the general appeal of computers to young minds make it the go-to industry for anyone hoping to make their mark on the entrepreneurship landscape. And in that sector, if there’s any one organization that has emerged as a hub for tech entrepreneurship, it would be Plan9 – PITB’s Tech Incubator . 

Now after 10 months or so since its inception, on my visit to ASTP, I am sitting with this amazing young intern Samar Haider analysing the initiative and how it achieved success in a very short time.

A non-profit government program, Plan9 exists to nurture the best minds from across the country in a six-month incubation process wherein all those inducted into the program are provided with not only the workspace and tools to create their products, but also world class mentorship, linkage opportunities with enticing investment channels, and that vital exposure that makes an aspiring entrepreneur into a successful one. Plan9 has begun to gain immense popularity amongst bright students and now receives scores of applications from fresh graduates when its induction process begins. Currently, it is in the midst of its second incubation cycle, with fifteen energetic teams actively working on their products and prepping them for launch later this year.

But, Plan9 didn’t happen overnight. Much thought, planning and hard work went into establishing Plan9 into the icon it is today. It was Dr. Umar Saif, the chairman of Punjab Information Technology Board who along with other like-minded people around him came up with the idea for such a start-up incubator in Pakistan. A Cambridge and MIT educated Computer Scientist, he has authored several influential publications with his research being published in an array of popular media including New York Times, MIT Technology Review, CNN, and BBC, to name a few. Not content with excellence in academia alone, Umar has co-founded many a start-up himself and has worked tirelessly for the promotion of ICT in developing countries such as ours. It was this passion for bringing the wonders of technology to the underserved areas of the world that got him the title of Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, won him the MIT Technovator Award, and earned him a spot on TR35, MIT’s highly selective list of the top young innovators from across the globe.

When Dr. Saif was planning to setup Plan9, he went out in search for someone to help him structure and run what then seemed like quite a daunting project, someone who shared the same passion for entrepreneurship and wanted to make a difference back in their homeland. Dr. Umar’s search led him to Nabeel A. Qadeer, better known for his contribution towards numerous software automation initiatives within the SME sector of Pakistan. A Certified Project Manager by Profession, graduate of FAST-NU with a Master’s in Business & Management from Strathclyde Business School, Nabeel had experienced first-hand the rigours of founding a startup in the real world, Nabeel learned that he had a lot more in common with Umar than just their undergrad degree in Computer Science. Both these individuals wanted to see Pakistan become a hub for the booming technology sector, especially where entrepreneurship was concerned. It was this first contact that cemented a long-lasting bond between two technology futurists, a bond based on an idea which was Umar’s vision and Nabeel’s will.

Back in Pakistan, the two put together their very own A-Team of excelling individuals from diverse backgrounds, each bringing something unique to the table. Hafsa Shorish who overlooks the marketing and PR and is the reason Plan9 has been making waves in the media shared her experience saying “Plan9 has offered me a plethora of opportunities to learn and grow. Dr. Umar Saif’s unwavering belief and Nabeel’s utmost faith in me from the very beginning empowered me to take on all sorts of challenges”. Uzair Shahid has taken charge of end to end operations of Plan9 ensuring that all runs smoothly in the grand scheme of things. Mariam Shakir watches over the incubatees & alumni relations and is the one to go to if ever there arises the need for a brainy researcher. Sarah Tariq Gilani is the one with a knack for stringing words together into wonderful pieces of writing and also drives Plan9’s design strategy. Ahmad Farooq Malik comes in wherever the legalities are concerned, to ensure that the budding startups face no issues out there in the real world. And finally, Ebad Shah, their resident designer and animator, brings thoughts and expressions to life on a digital canvas to get ideas across in a symphony of shapes and colours.

                                                                                  Plan 9 Team

Together, these people have transformed Plan9 from a mere thought into the country’s largest technology incubator. What was just carpeted office space a year ago is now a floor teeming with energetic engineers working on their renditions of the next big thing; Plan9 is doing a lot of things right; they’ve managed to bring together stakeholders from all across the Technology Industry under one roof with the desire to help young technology entrepreneurs make something out of nothing.

Their board of advisors is a reflection of the kind of capable people they have involved with this initiative. Amazing individuals from across the globe are now associated with Plan9, some as Mentors and others as Investors. One of their major milestones has been the creation of Pakistan’s first Angel Investors Club which is now working conscientiously towards building an ecosystem for local and foreign investors to put their time & money into young Pakistani entrepreneurs.

The graduates of Plan9’s very first incubation cycle went on to make headlines of their own, making achievements for which they credit the incubator as that key environment which helped them grow into successful entrepreneurs. Plan9, too, has benefited greatly from them, for it has been those very fresh incubatees who unknowingly helped mould it into the great facility that it is today.

Summing it up, Plan9 is a commendable initiative taken by the Government of Punjab for aspiring entrepreneurs. Those of us who have been out there struggling and did everything on our own know what an ideal resource it is where you don’t have to worry about utility bills, power outages or office space, and just concentrate on building the next big thing. Fabulous free resources coupled with valuable advice from local and world experts make it the place to be for young graduates. Kudos to Plan9 team especially Dr. Umar, Nabeel and Hafsa on a job very well done. Hope we’ll get to see many more success stories from Plan9 in the coming years. I can already see Pakistan’s name climbing up the ranking of best startup ecosystems.

Every day we come across website addresses trailing with “.com.pk”, “.net.pk”, “.org.pk”, “.edu.pk”, “.gov.pk” or simply “.pk”. To land on this site, you also typed “entrepreneurs.pk”. However, majority people in my network don’t have an idea who operates this “PK” thing for us. It is sad to mention that even many IT Professionals and Computer Science students in Pakistan don’t know about PKNIC (Pakistan Network Information Center (Pvt) Ltd.), the registry responsible for the .pk country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) for Pakistan since most of the people acquire domain name via resellers with a hosting plan. Those who know about PKNIC are unaware of the fact that it is owned and run by Mr. Ashar Nisar, A Pakistani – American who graduated from UET Lahore in the 80s.

Ashar, the reclusive owner of PKNIC (the entity which registers all .pk domains) is termed as an unsung hero along with Imran Anwar, the pioneer and founder of internet and email in Pakistan. Those who have been associated with IT Industry since its inception term Ashar, Imran and Alvi brothers as the fathers of Pakistani IT Industry.

The .PK domain was envisaged as being a private sector provider of services to promote Internet in Pakistan. Formed in 1990,  Ashar Nisar and Imran Anwar both co-founded it as both of them were UET students and neighbors. Every effort was made to keep the government and the telephone monopoly out of it. This remains true to this day. However, some differences arose between the duo and ultimately Imran moved out leaving the complete management control to Ashar.  Mr. Ashar, the technical genius later went onto form PKNIC to manage the ccTLD.

The ccTLD is normally owned by government’s regulatory authority or the ministry of IT but the case of Pakistan is totally different. PKNIC operates from USA although important government, educational, and private organizations including PTA are currently using the DotPK domain server. Recently, The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) persuaded this US-based Pakistani company PKNIC to set up an office in Lahore and deploy a mirrored root server in Pakistan which is fully operational now.

Apart from the PKNIC story, some of you may already know that the very first PC computer virus was developed in our very own Lahore, back in 1986. The famous Brain Code used to change the volume label on a floppy disk since there were no hard disks at that time. This invention is generally attributed to the Alvi brothers, Basit and Amjad but the role of their friend Ashar Nisar is often overlooked. I have been told by various sources that Ashar was the original inventor and that this virus was originally displayed during the National Science Exhibition at UET. Alvi Brothers just modified and released it with their name.

I daily come across individuals who talk negatively about this champ and debate that PKNIC’s registration numbers and some management practices are not up to the mark. But considering how he started from nowhere, did right things at the right time, faced pressures from government & non-governmental organizations, and stands out as a role model for our technology students,  Mr. Ashar Nisar is our entrepreneur of the month.

Pakistan at the moment needs real walk persons instead of real talk ones. Don’t get carried away when gurus advise you that you don’t have a business model or a proper plan, and that there are giants against whom you can’t survive. Just believe in yourself and your idea or product. If its really good, you can eventually make 100 business models out of it. Give it your 110% and Insha’Allah you’ll succeed. If you fail, try again. One day you will.

Don’t wait. Somebody else might have the same idea. Go and grab the opportunity NOW. Even if you’ll let it go due to failure someday, at least you won’t regret that you never tried.

P@SHA

Imran Sayeed, a serial entrepreneur, a consultant, an engineer, a mentor, a rainmaker, and a great supporter of many initiatives in Pakistan including the OPEN-MITEF initiative would be in Lahore on July 29.

Imran is the Senior Vice President, Global Architecture, Application Development and Management Practice and leads all commercial sector industry practices for Keane, a global BPO and IT Services company with ~14,000 professionals worldwide. Industry practices include Financial Services, Insurance, Healthcare, Pharmaceutical, Manufacturing, Retail, Hospitality & Travel and Energy, and together comprise most of the key business lines and customers for Keane.

Imran Sayeed came to Keane through its acquisition of netNumina, a boutique technology strategy and consulting form that he founded and grew from a 15 person startup to one of Computerworld’s Top 100 emerging companies. netNumina won more than 30 of the leading financial services & pharmaceutical institutions in the world as clients, raised more than $25MM from venture capitalists and strategic investors and received more than 20 industry awards for its work.

Imran has over fifteen years of experience in software and services. Previously, as a founder of Open Environment, Sayeed helped pioneer multi-tier client server technology, and grew the company from a 10-person startup to an IPO and leadership in the middleware market.

He has written and spoken extensively in leading industry conferences and trade journals over the last 13 years on entrepreneurship, e-business, financial services, insurance and technology. Sayeed serves on the Advisory Board of several software and private equity companies.

Imran Sayeed also holds a patent on technology for providing secure financials transactions over the Internet that he jointly developed with Citigroup. He is currently a visiting faculty member at MIT’s Sloan School of Management where he teaches in the MBA program on technology business strategy.

He attended Brown University where he majored in Engineering, and Harvard University, where he did post-graduate work in business, marketing and product development.

The interactive talk is being held at the NIB Auditorium at LUMS from 5:30 – 7:30 pm on July 29, 2010. It is a FREE event but you must register so that the management can do arrangements accordingly.

Click here to Register.

Click Here to RSVP on the Facebook Event Page.

Jamil Goheer and Khurram Mir at APICTA 2008

I clearly remember it was December 2006 when I got to know about a Pvt Ltd. Company working within the CS Department at LUMS. I was like WoW! Why don’t we have such a culture here at FAST-NU.  Later, I got to know that men behind this venture are ex-FASTians who graduated a year before I actually came to FAST Lahore.

After June 2007, we extensively started hearing about this company which called itself the First Quality Assurance Company in Pakistan mainly because by that time Khurram Javed Mir, the CMO of the company was out from LUMS with an MBA degree. He definitely had a plan how to take this company forward. I remember how people used to gossip about this company especially their batch mates. Some liked the idea considering that their companies can now outsource the QA work whereas some were of the view that what a stupid idea they have come up with as every software company has its own QA department. In the opinion of the second lot, they were definitely a failure.

It was May 2008 when one of my friends Arafat asked me to help setup an office and during the whole summer I heard him quoting Khurram Mir’s inspirational and motivational quotes though he never followed them himself .

“You know Rafaeel. Khurram Bhai said you have to work 20 hours a day if you have to get somewhere.”

By that time, Madam Jehan Ara and Sir Zia Imran had already administered an injection of entrepreneurship to me. So the next thing in my mind was if the CMO is so inspirational what their gang leader would be. Thus like an FBI agent, I ran a background check on Jamil A. Goheer who founded this company in 2006 and has played a key role in taking it from a startup to an award winning software QA services enterprise.  One glance at his profile confirmed that he’s definitely “The Boss”.

Year 2008 was a hard work payoff year for Jamil and Khurram. Their company won various awards including P@SHA ICT Award for Best Startup Applications. Also they were declared the “Best Startup in Asia Pacific” at Asia Pacific ICT Awards 2008.

Then suddenly one day, one of their employees told me about the breakup between the three founders of the company. Jamil and Khurram went one way by handing over the company name whereas the third partner on the other side. Everybody was of the opinion that their affair with entrepreneurship is over but my analysis said, “It’s Not”.

My guess was right. Jamil and Khurram jumped back in the arena with a new name Kualitatem and proved that its the people who matter, not brands. With the vision and the will, they have surely come a long way since then and never got a chance to look back. They have top international and local clients like Microsoft, BBDO, NetSol etc. on their list. What more one could ask for?

Jamil and Khurram seem to be in a constant pursuit of innovation and are cooking up interesting ideas soon to be revealed. Most of us are anxious and looking forward to hear more success stories from Kualitatem.

For the last few months, we were thinking to start a section called Entrepreneurs of the Month and today when we finally decided to give it a shot, Jamil and Khurram were definitely on the top of our list considering their hard work and perseverance. We have all our best wishes for them.

Do you have a company that you’re tired of running or do you just want to watch your company slowly and painfully die? Follow these steps to ensure you will lose your employees, piss off your clients and end up as WalMart’s only greeter under 65!

• Hire people because they are your friends, not because they know what they are doing. Your friends will be loyal and it will be really fun working together!
• Be afraid to fire people who aren’t pulling their weight. Firing people makes them mad and making people mad is so uncool. Not cutting the low performers makes you a cooler boss and everyone will like you more even while they are doing twice as much work as the slacker sitting next to them.
• Don’t document anything.  It’s better to talk about the same thing over and over again because you can’t remember what you decided last time you talked about it. This will give you the opportunity to talk to your employees more frequently and they love talking about their projects over and over again.
• Use email as your project management system.  Sending an email to someone ensures they will complete it.  You don’t need any system in place with deadlines, project planning or resource management.
• Regularly forget to attend meetings that you set up. Your employees like getting together in the conference room and waiting for you for 20 minutes until they decide you aren’t going to show up.  It gives them a chance to chat with each other.  And they probably aren’t that busy anyway so it’s not a big deal.
• Every few months, freak out and call a bunch of meetings to find out what’s going on. After those meetings, promptly forget everything that you were told.
• Drastically change priorities regularly. You don’t want your employees getting too comfortable. If they never know what the goal is they will always be on their toes.
• Don’t measure anything. Trust your gut.  It’s always right and will tell you how those tests would have turned out anyway.
• Trash talk your employees to other employees.  Rely on that information getting back to them so they improve performance so you don’t have to waste time on performance evaluations.
• Don’t offer benefits to employees.  Your company is so unique and awesome that people should want to work there for free.
• Argue with employees in front of their peers. This lets them know you care about their projects.
• Go around managers and task their employees. Rely on the employees telling their supervisor what they are working on. The managers will be grateful for you giving their underworked staff something to do.
• Be “too busy” to properly communicate or use tools that everyone else uses to manage projects.
• Never hire people that are smarter than you. You don’t want them showing you up.
• Consistently tell your employees how busy you are. They aren’t busy so hearing how busy you are will make them realize how important and smart you are.
• Have your employees send you lots of reports but don’t bother reading any of them.  Then regularly stop by and ask employees for updates on projects even though the full update is in the reports you ignore.
• Give vague directives like “follow up on the email I sent last week” and assume your employees know which email you are talking about.  When they ask which email, pretend they are stupid for not knowing what you’re talking about.
• Be impatient.  Employees are really motivated by you standing over their shoulders while they work. Also, calling them every 30 minutes to find out if something is done makes them more efficient.

Sadly these are all things I have witnessed far too regularly.  I actually did witness them all in one company, which coincidentally isn’t doing so hot.  I’ve done some of these things myself.  But through years of being the low level employee, then being in middle and executive management, and now running a business of my own, I’d like to think I’ve grown and learned a few things.

So take a hard look at yourself and your management style and make sure you’re not a major offender. If you are, you can change. You’ll find that not only will your employees be happier but you’ll be happier with their performance and output. Having good communication with your employees will always result in a better product or service for your clients and a stronger company overall.