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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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5:54 pm
I had planned to come in early to see things right from the start after hearing about the turnover in Islambad but due to weekend and clients weekly updates due, etc i came almost at the end of the coffee break.
Only after hearing a few questions after the break i was able to visualize what kind of questions must have been asked earlier (Fahad Akhtar btw gave me a little overview of the questions before the break as well) and it seemed like everybody wanted to know the recipe of a good product, recipe of becoming hit over night, recipe of becoming a Million Dollar company, etc.
Please don’t take me wrong some of the questions asked there were really good but most of the questions were really not up to the par of the people you had called.
After the end i was left with one big question what was achieved by all of this. Did the young entrepreneur learn something or did they just got to see the CEOs they always wanted to see in person?
There were a number of other questions in my mind as well but i rather not delve into it, its a long list.
Following are some of things i wanted to share in particular:
1. I was under the impression that the focus of the meeting was Young Entrepreneurs but all the guests invited didn’t really start young or in recent times. If you wana give everybody the real taste you should have called in Raza from Confiz and Yasir from Netrasoft, etc. These are people to whom the crowd can really associate coz they are around 25 – 26 of age and doing very very well.
2. I believe answering questions the way they were coming can’t be really helpful. If i were to really learn from these CEOs then there should be a case study on these CEOs and their companies telling what kinda conditions the went through, what were their experiences in different things, etc rather than firing questions at them.
The last question asked “The mistakes made by these companies” i think was the most pertinent question. Telling how one became successful is something that wouldn’t help much but knowing what things to avoid, what problems to foresee, what pitfalls to be careful of are far more important.
3. If you still wana keep the same Questions and Answer session then maybe it would be more feasible if you do some prior homework on the CEOs and their companies and prepare a list of very pertinent questions yourself that you ask them so everybody could benefit from it, you can always have a small open question time if some got missed.
4. As Ali pointed out in one of his earlier posts that meetings / gatherings like these are not meant to fire questions at the panel but rather they acts as a platform where Young Entrepreneurs give a brief presentation of their idea / product and then get feedback from the panel on their ideas. Maybe a few pointers on how to position, recommendation on changes, or even better VC funding.
I guess thats about it for now. Overall i am happy with the initiative but the direction need to be corrected.
Ahsan.
7:25 pm
Ahsan,
Maybe you aren’t clear about the format – you’re supposed to ask the questions, we’re supposed to bring the CEOs.
It seems like you had some decent questions but why didnt you ask them there?
10:10 pm
Osama,
We are waiting for a coverage of Startup Insiders Lahore event. Is it coming?
11:46 pm
So, how many showed up at the Lahore event?
10:15 am
@ Usama,
I think you didn’t understand what i was trying to say. I don’t have any questions. I think the current format that you are following is much helpful and the above points where my suggestions.
4:56 pm
Hi How does one organise the startup workshop?
Who is key contact ?..email ?
Thank you ian
7:38 pm
P@SHA and G&W have been organizing the Startup Insiders workshop together. We have had 3 so far – one each in Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore. We can be contacted at: president@pasha.org.pk OR osama@coreframeworks.com OR jawwad@avicena.com
4:11 pm
Anxiously waiting for the coverage of the Lahore event. I wonder what took u so long …
9:05 pm
Hi Jehan,
Thank you for the info..i am very interested in the initiative and wonder if it will be progressed to include workshops…
and ultimately semi annual conventions ?
9:41 pm
Hi Ian,
That is in the planning stage right now. It has grown beyond what Osama, Jawwad, Zia and I had ever thought possible. We are taking input from participants and evolving the sessions so that the young people who keep coming back continue to find value.
6:10 am
Ian
If you are based in Singapore, I am in Singapore for the next few days. Let’s connect and chat. You can reach me at jawwad@avicena.com
Jawwad