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General
When a 19th century romantic French writer by the name of Victor Hugo said “Nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come” he obviously could not envision Pakistani bureaucracy. Not only can it reduce an idea to nothing more than its meager skeletal remains squirming in its own vile, it too often does.
Come 2004, the IT bubble is about to burst in a military run, democratic, American influenced politically independent subcontinent country by the name of Pakistan. It is here in our story that along comes an idea. It is a simple idea yet revolutionary in every way, the idea to prepare this country for the…
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Events General
The past whole week I was really excited about going to the exhibition on 5th and 6th at expo center Lahore since the theme read “home expo and super car expo”. I was counting on seeing some innovative home solutions, fancy cars and a lot of appliances for both. As I entered the arena, an ear piercing heavy bike engine race greeted me. Oh wow nice, we have bikes here too… and lots of them, but let’s see if we have the actual products that are expected.
First cars!! Honda Launched its new City Aspire at the event. This attracted a lot of young crowd who wanted to check it…
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General
NOTE: This is a sponsored post
Football. The most popular sport in the world. That may be hard to believe, we being a die-hard cricket nation, but there are many amongst us who get their blood pumping whenever our favorite team kicks some balls (pun intended). There’s excitement in the air, and the airwaves for that matter, when Spanish rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona are about to have a face-off on the field. Manchester United or Chelsea? The answer could incite either jeers or cheers, depending on who you’re surrounded by. It feels like you belong to an exclusive club really, not to mention how convenient it is to…
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Coffee Session General
There are two main things that are currently causing out growth in ICT to stall. One is the lack of original ideas, so most of the entrepreneurs either copy what is already around internationally or locally (same ideas of online shopping, online bidding) we still have not hit the jackpot with someone creating some thing like instagram or drawsomething and being acquired by one of the big names.
The second issue always lamented by entrepreneurs is lack of any funding sources in Pakistan. Over the years we have seen efforts being made to create funds which would help but what ended happening that most of these funds either did…
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Coffee Session General
We all know about the 7 layers of the OSI model. This is the framework by which computer networks are defined. Starting with the physical layer, going through the transport layer and finally culminating in the application layer where end user applications reside. I believe that this should be redefined to include and additional layer – the Social Layer. From the current vantage point, the Social Layer lies right above the Application layer – hence it is served by the Application layer.
The 90s witnessed a boom in what is now referred to as web 1.0. This consisted of static applications hosted over the web. Static applications meant that…
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General Mobile Apps Software & I.T.
Pakistani IT industry has been progressing rapidly over the last few years. It is heartening to see that the industry players are innovating and working in different areas to establish their expertise.
Recently, TenPearls, one of the leading IT companies of Pakistan, launched “Carumba!”, a 3D car racing game for iPhone and iPad. Carumba! has been designed and developed by TenPearls’ innovation labs. Launched as a free game, Carumba! allows users to earn coins during the race, and redeem them to unlock other cars and tracks or to get additional nitro boosts. It has also been integrated with Apple’s Game Center.
The game has received very good response from…
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Events General
‘Rethinking Pakistan’ [and my expression goes LOL and I will explain why] was the theme of the conference which took place at margalla hills Islamabad on March 31st 2011 organized by TEDx, lets just summarize here what TEDx is; before we further dig into the “theme” and happenings of this conference.
TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) and ’x’ denotes the independently organized events under the TED umbrella, mission is “Ideas worth spreading” and this events basically brings together individuals, communities and organizations with the opportunity to excite dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level (geographically). The programs combine live presenters, performers and pre-recorded talks from some of the most brilliant…
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Announcements Events General
ICT R&D Fund aims to provide graduating students a chance to really make their final projects counts. I have always felt that students in their final year some times product excellent products which due to lack of any infrastructure and proper guidance plus funding just go in the Universities Libraries.
Seems ICT R & D fund is giving these students a chance to take their projects to the next level by acquiring funding, if you are a final year student doing a project all you need is to get this form filled and submitted through your head of department .
Last date for submission for forms is 31st…
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Coffee Session General
I wanted to discuss the Thiel Fellowship and sort of run the idea among our readership to figure out if it was justified or not. Bay Area hedge fund manager Peter Thiel started a Fellowship program in his name about a year ago trying to capitalize not on start ups, but the smart kids who may actually come up with the next billion dollar idea.
Let there be no mistake. Innovation solves problems. Bankers, lawyers and hot shot executives are good for only one thing: managing an existing infrastructure. It is the innovators who turn existing ideas on to their heads and enable breakthroughs. Considering the point above, it…
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Chalk one up for startups (against the MNC bunch) – MulazamatTV is announcing that their little startup that they launched just some months ago was just acquired by a foreign firm. This team has had a good month, where this acquisition comes just after their other venture, DevNext was acquired by Nuvica a little while ago.
8:57 am
interesting.. i wonder which firm acquired them..
10:34 am
congratulations !!!
11:46 am
Congratulation:)
12:12 pm
Congratulation…:)
12:51 pm
That’s a great news. I hope it’ll inspire other good minds in our country to go for entrepreneurship and do their own startups.
12:52 pm
Thats a great news. I hope it will encourage other capable people.
Great going guys…i would love to see another venture from them…
3:37 pm
congratz
two thumbs up to you guys …
4:41 pm
Congratulations,,It will encourage others to try…The opportunity is there for all ..even the underprivileged…
I agree with Adil Saleem .more ! Ideas beget ideas….
One question needs answering .”What could Pakistan be noted for” ?
ian
6:13 pm
Congrats!
But being a close friend of Ali Raza, I know the potential of their idea and work they have done so far. I don’t think 2-3 millions rupees is the amount Mulazamat.com is really worth of. It deserved much more than that. But considering the pace these guys were working with, this deal seems reasonable.
As now, after selling Mulazamat and getting acquired by Nuvica, they have enough resources to start working on their other ideas. And I’m very hopeful about it.
Good luck guys!
11:31 pm
Congrats! I agree with Munir. Ali is a talented guy and I am expecting much more such ideas from him.
8:22 am
this was a bad move,
mulazamat is a new venture and the owners should have controled it for atleast another year which would have increased its value even more and then sold it, they could have got more then 10 million like that, who ever bought it has hit the jackpot and got a gift.
even if they want to sell it, he sould have just sold a stake in it and kept some of the company.
the good news however is that this shows forign firms are interested in pakistans IT market.
12:45 pm
Great new Congrats! Ali
9:31 pm
great work shaikhoo and TT.
10:54 am
would anyone like to share who acquired mulazamat? is it rozee or some other company?
8:43 pm
@Obaid –
@Younas , Tayyab , Arsalam – Thanks
@Sharjeel – Yes, you are right. We need to motivate other young grads, there is a lot of potential in Pakistan. We just need to guide them.
@Adil – Thanks, more good news are coming up soon
. I hope people will like the next idea we already working on.
@Khawaja – Thanks
@ian – Thanks! Don’t worry, Pakistan will soon be noted for many good startups. More and more ideas are pouring in, we are motivating others to start their own ventures. Sometime soon, you will see pakistani startups recognized on International Forum. How can we forget about iScrybe Guys, these guys are already rocking…..
9:13 pm
@Munir – Hey Buddy! Nice to see you here, I remember all those nights we spent at Sea View discussing many things
and you already know what we are coming up with 
Thanks!
@Qasim – Thanks & Thanks
@Suhaib – You pointed the same thing as mentioned by Mohtashim on ITTazee and I think this thing require a separate post that I will write on my blog today. Do check the response there. As far as the good news is considered, as said earlier, there is a great potential in Pakistan and foreign firms are continuously looking to acquire startups working on good ideas.
@Sumair – Thanks
@Fida – Nice to see many classmates showing up here
@Younas – You are one of the many persons I heard asking “Is it Rozee?â€Â
1:06 pm
My honest opinion on the story. Apologies for anyone who may get offended …
MulazammatTV acquired…hmmm…
When you go to the site it shows the message:
“This site is currently unavailable.
If you are the owner of this site, please contact us at 1-480-505-8855 at your earliest convenience.”
From http://sites.godaddy.com/sites.html.
So Mr. Ali, I see that whoever has acquired Mulazammat for 2M has decided to shut it down? Apparently unable to pay for hosting fee? Excuse my comments, but we all love GreenWhite and we would want it to promote the startups that deserve to be promoted and not the wannabes. Also Green&White has an international following and when someone reads a story such as this, and try to dig a little deeper only to find out that this particular service is down for good, i guess it does affect the credibility of the post as well as the product.
By the way, if you think spreading acquisition news helps you in your reputation; let me tell you that it would help a lot more if you could have a following like Scrybe and then raise some funding/get acquired. That’s when you sound credible and you get the respect that you are looking for. But I guess that requires sheer persistent hardwork as in the case of Scrybe or for that matter, Green&White which is not so evident on Mulazammat.
Some other thoughts:
a. does Mulazammat have a following? Alexa traffic rank for last three months: 3,124,987= one visitor per day!
b. how long does it take to create something like mulazamat & how long does it take to market it?
Development costs from a local firm: Rs. 500,000.
Hire a team of two editors @ Rs. 50,000/month. Costs for a year: Rs 1, 200,000.
Rent a small office @ Rs 20,000. Costs for a year: Rs 240,000.
Other costs per month Rs 50,000, for a year: 600,000 (includes travelling/billing etc.).
Marketing budget @ 50,000/month, for a year: Rs 600,000
Total costs: Rs 3, 140, 000.
Saving from acquiring Mulazammat Rs, 1,140,000.
Worth it? Don’t think so. Think of two dedicated editors working for a year @ 50k! Think of 50,000/month marketing budget?
This acquisition, if it actually happened, was a VERY bad business decision (unless there is some underground popularity of mulazammat that I don’t know about).
4:30 pm
@Ammar – Here are my honest answers to your honest opinion, One thing I should clear, there is no need to apologize, we need such kind of open discussion and I am thankful that you take out some time to decide that this deal is bad as per your calculations.
1. When you go to the site it shows the message: “This site is currently unavailable.â€Â
Yes, we have to take the hosting down as the new owners will launch it over other servers. If you were following the Blog, it was mentioned there that the website will go down and Mulazamat domain will redirect the visitors to the blog.
2. So Mr. Ali, I see that whoever has acquired Mulazamat for 2M has decided to shut it down? Apparently unable to pay for hosting fee?
Yes, because they will launch it under a new name as a new service for foreign clients. Mulazamat is a local name, a local identity.
3. Excuse my comments, but we all love GreenWhite and we would want it to promote the startups that deserve to be promoted and not the wannabes . . . . . .
So, Mulazamat don’t deserve to be promoted? I think Osama can better comment on this.
4. Green&White has an international following and when someone reads a story such as this, and try to dig a little deeper only to find out that this particular service is down for good, i guess it does affect the credibility of the post as well as the product……
Where were you when Mulazamat was in operations for 4 months? As far as spreading the news is considered, If we did something good, then its our right to spread out the news and motivate others.
Now some personal thoughts, criticism started on the very first day when Osama posted about MulazamatTV back in September. I believe everyone know about the potential of Mulazamat at that time. One thing I should mention, we are not Scrybe, we are not Rozee . . . . . so stop comparing us to them. We have our own identity and we feel proud of what we are doing. If you think Mulazamat acquisition was a bad thing, that’s your problem . . . . just keep an eye on our progress then you guys will get all the answers you wanted to know.
Based on your calculations total cost is of Rs 3, 140, 000 / year, so that makes Rs 104666 for four months (This is the total period when idea was thought, implemented and promoted). Even though you don’t know the actual amount of acquisition. So, if Rs 104666 is our total cost of operating in 4 months, then I think you are clever enough to estimate the profit we gained.
You were not happy with DevNext news, you are not happy with the Mulazamat news . . . . . . . . So, I think you are still wondering “How a single-room startup is doing all these stuffâ€Â, do check out my blog today, I have some more interesting news for you (I hope that will make you happy).
Picture abhi baki hai meray doost
12:47 am
Thanks Ali
I am being cynical here.
Regarding the calculations, Rs. 3.1 M, is actually Rs 261,666.7/month of expense per month. Regardless I wasn’t saying that. What I was saying was that if the investor would go ahead with his own development, that would be much more value for money. So the figures I gave were based on my assumed “business plan” (Khudee, anyone?:)) …
I hire a local team and develop a full fledge portal for Rs 500,000. More advanced than what your portal was.
Then I hire two brilliant editors at Rs 50k per month which is by any standard a good salary.
I start putting in some money into branding and marketing and create a brand out of the product.
At the end of the year, I’ll have a following; a proper product that can be ‘rebranded’ for other markets or even monetized locally (but that’s not our topic right now
).
So what to put it rather bluntly (and may be rudely – which is why I apologize) – I DOUBT this deal ever happened. Numbers just don’t match up. The lighter way of saying the same thing is “I think this was a BAD business decision”
Coming back to your reply. Someone purchased Mulazammat and is going to ‘relaunch’ in a different market under a different name…hmmm.. in that case, he can do the same thing in MUCH lesser price with a proper company (there are numerous good firms out there) who would provide support and do a really good job and won’t be one-person company. So even that sounds a bit shaddy. Heck, the buyer could hire his own team:
1 Team lead: Rs 50000
3 Developers: Rs 35000
1 Designer: Rs 45000
Infrastructure: Rs 630,000
Total for six months: Rs 830,000
In six months, a team of five could potentially deliver a KICK ASS product (assuming they are ‘reasonably competent professionals’ which they should be if you are paying as much as mentioned above.
If I can do this calculations, any business man can. So I doubt this deal was ever done.
Looking forward to the rest of the picture dost …
3:26 am
“Total for six months: Rs 830,000
In six months, a team of five could potentially deliver a KICK ASS product (assuming they are ‘reasonably competent professionals’ which they should be if you are paying as much as mentioned above.”
And they are getting all already made in Rs. 2-3M. Not at all a bad deal for them, in my opinion.
Also, you’re missing an important factor here i.e. a huge video content they are getting which will surely help them to start business quickly.
3:35 am
Ammar
Your math is accurate but you are ignoring four elements.
a) The first is time to market – the advantage of a product which is ready, tested and available.
b) The second is that some times to get a great resource, the only option is to buy him out.
c) Third, the gora’s are more comfortable with buying than building. It’s us Desi’s who prefer to build versus buy.
d) Fourth, Ali doesn’t need to prove anything to you. If you are not willing to accept him at face value, there is not much sense in a conversation.
12:37 pm
Munir,
I was questioning the ‘buyer’ of the service and not the seller – seller is obviously happy.
Jawwad,
You are absolutely right. But if you look at the old site of Mulazammat there was NO worthwhile implementation. There was no market-value as such except probably a little hype on greenwhite. I don’t see how the buyer’s time-to-market could’ve been reduced by paying for such a service. That is why I am doubting the actual deal.
You are right that it’s us desi who try to build rather than buy; I disagree a little. It depends on the business plan really. In this case, I am doubting the worth of Mulazammat – the idea was probably good but there was little or no implementation. A few videos cannot be worth 2 million.
Regarding great resource, that would be acceptable; in case the company that acquired DevNext also acquired Mulazammat … hmmmm…
Of course, Ali doesn’t need to prove anything to me. However, the news was posted on greenwhite and as a regular and loyal reader of greenwhite I think I can question anything that gets posted. I know Osama accepted the news on the face value – but the readers don’t have to accept the news if they see obvious problems. They can question and dissect a deal inside out; that’s the whole point of having a community, right?:)
12:41 pm
Munir,
Just missed one thing … “huge video content” – there were “a few” videos with not-so-good sound quality. The idea was nice but execution – not quite sure .. sorry
Videos werent 1 lac each certainly.
2:07 pm
So Ammar if I’m reading you correctly, you’re saying that a little hype on green & white goes a long way to make startup sellers happy? Cool.
We dont take things on complete face value – If Warid announces selling a stake to Singtel I wont be calling up singapore but I will try to find out how credible the sources are.
Remember, we broke the news of the acquisition before Ali and others confirmed it on their blog…. we’re not in the business of breaking false news.
4:14 pm
“I was questioning the ‘buyer’ of the service and not the seller – seller is obviously happy.”
Read my reply again. It was about buyer.
“Just missed one thing … “huge video content†– there were “a few†videos with not-so-good sound quality. The idea was nice but execution – not quite sure .. sorry
Videos werent 1 lac each certainly.”
“But if you look at the old site of Mulazammat there was NO worthwhile implementation. There was no market-value as such except probably a little hype on greenwhite.”
That’s what you’re missing. There is a lot more which was not publicly released. The version which was publicly available was just a preview of how things will work. I’ve already hinted that buyer is getting a huge video content with a portal, which is ready and tested as Jawwad mentioned.
7:00 pm
Ammar
You are right. The community is about discussion but sometimes the discussions goes around in circles
7:59 pm
Okay since everyone seems to disagree with me then I must be wrong
Also based on Osama’s comments, I believe that Osama got the news from some independent source so I admit that I am wrong here
Munir, since I was only questioning things at the facevalue and I don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes so I guess I could be wrong about the ‘feature set’ too. And yeah you are right, you were talking about buyer and not the seller – my mistake
In short, Ali congratulations to you and wish you more success in future. And I also hope we see similar success stories in future.
8:01 pm
@Ammar – Ah, Calculations again …. It is nice to know that you can do this calculations, any business man can but I am afraid I am not so good at it
, I hope I will learn this from experience.
1. Regarding the calculations, Rs. 3.1 M, is actually Rs 261,666.7/month of expense per month?
What I have written? 104666 for four months and as far as I think 261666.7 * 4 = 1104666
2. Heck, the buyer could hire his own team:
1 Team lead: Rs 50000
3 Developers: Rs 35000
1 Designer: Rs 45000
Infrastructure: Rs 630,000
Total for six months: Rs 830,000
I think you forgot to multiply the salary for 6 months, if not please refer all those employees to work for me, I badly need them under Nuvica
So, I think you have to do the calculations again, add the content cost (whatever you think that the buyer will give for bad-sound-quality videos) and post again, I will surely complete the picture . . .
8:08 pm
Osama,
you are right, when you report a startup you not only make the owners happy but you also send them a lot of traffic (as green and white becomes more popular, the amount of traffic will increase too – you never know we have something like green&white-traffic-spike someday).
My questions were based on the assumption that you took the news at the face value because you want to promote the startups. So I thought I should question the deal, if nothing else, it could simulate other like minded cynics (apparently I am the only one here
).
8:19 pm
@Ali
Regarding (1), you are right. I realized that after I had posted the comment but didn’t correct myself
Regarding (2), you are right again. Six months would cost 1.4 M. Though I HIGHLY doubt, it would take six months. With the team mentioned above, you are going to have around 210 programming man-hours per month with you; and Mulazammat would be at max a 1500 hr job including design and testing so it wouldn’t take more than three months.
Regarding content, in the do-it-yourself plan
buyer would produce the videos himself or once the platform is made would reduce development team size and instead hire content producers 
So my hypothesis is that 2M is too much because:
a. Mulazammat is discontinued. According to you, it will be launched for a different market under a differnt name. If that market is not Pakistan, then content is practically useless.
b. Development costs are really low
c. Content production cost isn’t too much either. I personally know producers from NCA who would take around Rs 50,000 per similar video production which would include shooting, post production editin and other stuff… but then again I dont exactly know Mulazammat business idea or I dont really understand it
So purely looking at numbers, I think the deal was too good for the seller
for buyer it was not so good.
But again, congratulations, you can even get a CL-9 now
8:38 pm
Ok ok everyone back off from Ammar
Actually Ammar you’ve raised some good points. I’d love to think that all my sources are excellent and that I have a formal media fact-checking department but I dont.
As such, I’ve been wrong about my stories as well. In fact if anyone knows more juicy details about this deal send them my way… maybe they could help clarify. Maybe a super-secret screenshot of the portal they didnt publically release would help.
Here is what I do honestly think:
1- I dont buy the “We have lots of content but just didnt release it” bit. If I had a lot of content that’d be the first thing I’d want to show people in the market to build momentum.
2- I do, however, not think Ali and the team would want to risk announcing these things on their blog – staking their future reputation – if it weren’t true, or would’ve denied it on their blog if my sources were false.
3- I think that this is still great for both parties. 4000% ROI for two guys in a garage who had put in 4 months of work into it. A bargain (even from these calculations) for the buyer who got a ready-to-go platform that has been market tested to show that these is demand.
Cheers!
Oh and Ammar, yes this is what community is – YOU guys fact-check me, so keep it up.
8:42 pm
Sorry 400% or so… 40x returns.. ha
12:24 am
Osama,
Regarding 3, I would agree. If there is a ready-to-go platform and good quality content; and both are done in just four months, then it’s indeed a great deal for both the parties. By the way, who’s the buyer?
Regarding finding employees, Ali, you just need to post some job ads, offer good salaries, reasonable working environment, reasonably exciting work, reasonable growth and you will find good employees … best of luck
8:10 pm
so do we know who bought them out? and where the heck is this idea now?
9:53 pm
it was bought by nuvica and is currently under further development
10:38 pm
Under further development by? local Nuvica team?
11:21 pm
This previous comment wasnt by Ali Raza.
I was led to believe that Bayt may have had some interest in mulazamat
8:10 am
Interesting.. i hope it comes back or someone else builds a platform similar to it..