P@SHA Launch Pad – Karachi

As you all are aware I was not physically present at the Karachi event of launchpad, I am relying on videos posted by CIO webstudio and few blogs and tweets to put the pieces together . Again P@SHA has launched a very impressive series I hope the continue acting as a catalyst for the entrepreneurs. The winners were

Ktaben.com for First prize

Tagit and Foot mouse shared the second prize.

the blog coverage which is most comprehensive is here

Launchpad by P@SHA in Karachi on 27 June 2010

Please forgive me for not reviewing all the videos and adding my comments, I am relaying on the great coverage on the above listed blog for this, you how ever are free to comment based on the videos. And Thanks to CIO Pakistan for covering these

I guess first up was Arzi Rehahish, we have already covered them in our Arzi Rehaish – Trying to help the out of city dwellers post. as Ozair in his post writes

According to the conceiver’s market research there is a greater need for that in Islamabad and Pindi followed by Lahore and then Karachi.

There is no video of it on CIO so I can not comment on the presentation

Again I would need to get help from Ozair to summarize this, here are his comment

H2O or HR2O, presented by Asim Naseem Siddiqui, was an idea to build an eco-system for HR Consultants. The most interesting part for one of the judges was that data from the jobs posted would be used to analyze/suggest salary ranges for that job in the industry. What I found interesting was also the fact that he wanted to build a network for HR consultants, so that referrals from former employers could be shared as well. Mr. Siddiqui himself has been a HR consultant himself for 3 years. This should help cover the trust deficit while hiring in our society

Third up was Kitaben also covered by us Get updates in your Inbox Kitabain.com Launched – A books marketplace They also won 1st Prize for their product. Here is CIO Webstudio’s video of Presentation they also did a quick feedback from the Presenter here

After this Footmouse was presented which one 2nd Prize, Uzair in his post mentions the following, Here is the video,

Foot Mouse – presented by Muhammad Ahsan from NED University was having the mouse in your feet, so that you can have your hands free for the keyboard, should be good for disabled people and as one of the judges said, could be used to produce an exhilarating game with 2 in the feet and 2 in the hands. Interestingly this young lad had also done sort of a market research, even though this was his final year project. According to that, a Foot Mouse currently available is at the cost of 359 USD. He built one in 700 PKR. A question from the judge, how long would it take and how much would it cost/unit to manufacture 100,000 units, couldn’t be answered. Shared the second prize with tagit.

Here is a talk CIO had with Mohammad Ahsan

Next up was PakPolling, again I have to rely on Uzair’s feedback as there is no video related to it on CIO. here are his comments, the product/idea is based around voting through sms and fingerprints

presented the idea of using the already available databases of NADRA and PTA for voting either through fingerprints or SMS. As judges pointed out that this should greatly increase the voter turn-out. However, as soon as one claims that his main customer would be the government, the difficult question to answer is "How would you sell?" Another important question from the judges was how much should a voting unit based on finger-print recognition cost. A judge also asked them to refer to UNI voting system being implemented in India.

Next was Rensoy which was a search tool/assistant, Uzair has following comments

As I commented yesterday, you probably haven’t done much research on "semantic search engines". And I think Google’s wonder wheel is already a step in that direction, with a much simpler interface than Rensoy’s.

Reflex 360 was next product/ Idea, Uzair’s feedback goes like this, which is followed by the CIO Video

Reflex 360 IDRH – Internet Development and Research Center – presented by a couple of students who had graduated from NED University. The idea is to have a software development center which actually funds a research and development center. They needed a seed money of 2.5 million to raise awareness about "how important is the research/thinking culture in a society". Most of the time was spent explaining just what would be done with the money earned from the software house. What you need to explain to get money from an investor is that how do you plan to generate money from the software house.

Then it was turn for GSM/GPRS Tool, who it seems are also started working with some Ambulance service, again Uzair’s feedback

GSM/GPRS based tracking tool – A software service for companies to track their assets/personnel. They are probably already collaborating with an ambulance service. The advantage that they have over uTrack and other such tracking services is of course that this tool is Telco independent.

Following are next three presentations again as there are no video resource I am pasting Uzair’s feedback for it

SEO Analysis Tool – presented by Sadia Allauddin – An automated tool to analyze why a web page won’t show up in Google’s search results, built by 2 ladies as a final year project in NED University. They were already invited by one of the judges for a talk. Congratulations and Good luck, an investor’s time is as important as his/her money.

Dhaba – A food ordering service. An already existing service was mentioned by the judges, which I cannot recall now.

Global Learning – presented by Subhan Gillani of Gillani Soft – The idea is to have an online learning tools/lectures resource.

Up next was FYDEST, SMs base tool to find shortest path with in a city here is CIO Coverage followed by Uzair’s account

Find Your Destination – An SMS based tool to find the shortest, easiest and fastest path from tagged points in a city. The most important question How do you get runtime traffic information? There are a lot of stake-holders/risk involved here

Shahzebsaeed.com was up next which was a high quality shirts,  here is the CIO Video of His Comments

Pakipay was next we covered it few days back here According to Rehan (CEO/Founder) they are still in Alpha, but i guess they were put to some querying by the judges as Uzair Mentions

A mobile payment service similar to Telenor’s Easy paisa but telco independent. Comment from the judges is to go back and get some feedback from a finance specialist. There is State Bank involved wherever there are financial transactions, and that is probably why Telenor’s Easy paisa has Tameer Bank involved. I, personally think that you do need to get a bank involved in between.

Telecom Clicking GE came next here is the Video on CIO

Telecom Clicking GE – built and presented by two ladies in their final year at NED University, is a tool to assist RF planners inside Telcos. The idea is to have information about 3D buildings etc on mapinfo. Currently, the RF planners use Google Earth to get information about construction(s) in a location and terrain info from mapinfo. Switching between tools is a hassle which they are attempting to target.

Help me launched by the high profile Farzal Dojki was up next, Farzal’s product had also recently got coverage at Venture Beat

Kids Convent was up next again Uzair’s comment follow the CIO Video

Kidsconvent.com – A school for all ages, lectures audio/animated prepared with experts on different subjects available on DVDs and on line so that anyone can teach children with a unified syllabus. According to them they already have a contract to deploy this material in 40 model schools that CDGK is building.

Tagit was up next it seems like a group subscription service where you can subscribe for a tag and then receive updates, as Uzair Mentions there are others already in space (Chopaal.pk, Mango Party). They were the winners with Foot Mouse for second place.

Tagit – An SMS based tagging service, where for example lipton can be tag and people can subscribe for updates to this tag. They shared the second prize with Foot Mouse, they did have a good presentation, but I personally could not differentiate them from chopaal and pringit combined. More on that combination here:http://www.codeweek.pk/2010/02/chopaal-pringit-social-networking-tide-in-pakistan/