ID92 Diaries

A friend & a major contributor to the entrepreneurship landscape of Pakistan, Alicia Dean, is back with us to build further on the relationship we’ve developed with the ecosystem in Austin over the years. We’re looking to host a fantastic delegation soon comprising of entrepreneurs, academicians and businessmen.

Was a joy getting to know of a different & an extremely interesting side to Barkan Saeed. He is among those who acted as a catalyst at P@SHA in recent years. We’re figuring out things to do together now & I’m genuinely looking forward to it!

A pleasure meeting my friend Rabeel Warraich of Sarmayakar after long. Good to see him doing well. We’re planning some interesting things to do together, so stay tuned!

Spoke to & learnt from 26 brilliant teenagers gearing up to be innovators, entrepreneurs & change makers. They seem to be utilizing their asset of time really well at the summer camp organized by the brilliant ID92  team. So nice to see their passion & love for Pakistan! 

Pleasure hosting Hussain Nadim who was once a junior at school & now a good friend. Great to see you doing so well Hussain. Pakistan needs able & sane voices like yourself. ‘Continue to shine! 

In all these years, I’ve done the best I could. Shall continue to do the best I can. #Pakistan #May10

The Austin delegation from Capital Factory is in Pakistan & they’re loving the experience of meeting with entrepreneurs & professionals from our industry. Such partnerships add to the confidence & trust in one another, opening more avenues to collaborate in effect. 

A genuine joy & pleasure meeting my dear friend of the Capital Factory fame, the very unique Fred Schmidt -Director International Affairs, Capital Factory). So good to see him in Pakistan. He’s a major supporter of the work I do & our entrepreneurial ecosystem as a whole. 

A pleasure having discussions on the do’s and don’ts of entrepreneurship with the aspiring young entrepreneurs of CSIT school of Superior University. 

Thank you my friend Abbas Yousafzai for your valuable time. 

Launching a technology company, InfinIT Labs, with Prof. Dr. Chaudhry Abdul Rehman, Chairman The Superior Group as my partner/founder – Very Soon!

After a relatively long gap, ‘spent most part of my day doing what I enjoy most i.e. speaking to startups; ‘heard their pitches & shared a bit of mine.

Have high expectations of our new batch at ID92. Wish they all end up building successful businesses. Highlight of the day was when I met a 20 year old, studying medicine, who found an untapped area in the space of education, researched for 6 months & designed a product over a year while studying. Ali is a young, energetic & passionate entrepreneur who we’ve incubated at Innovation District 92 today. Should be fun working with!

Creating synergies between faculty of FAST & Superior University. Expect good things to come out of such a partnership. Thank you Dr. Amjad Hussain for your kind hospitality.

A genuine pleasure hosting Syed Ahmad & Shehryar Hydri, the two key pillars of P@SHA & important players of the Tech landscape in Pakistan. Syed spoke to over a hundred students & faculty members at Superior University, had a candid conversation with the Group Chairman on ways to work together & discussed means to strengthen academia-industry ties.

Hoping to build onto all extremely significant discussions. 

Sunday well spent listening to 15 great startup pitches. Tough questions were asked by the judges which were well defended by most entrepreneurs. 5 startups chosen to be part of ID92 Batch 2 in phase 1. Hoping for another 5 to join us soon. Good luck Marya Naseer & team.

Fatima is a genuine entrepreneur. We’ve all witnessed her journey from AppJuice to Tech Juice Pakistan. She’s seen ups & downs, has stayed focused & established her brand over the years. She should be a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs. I wish her more success.

A pleasure attending the convocation ceremony of Superior University in Lahore today. I wish for graduates of all disciplines & faculties to do extremely well in their professional endeavors. Real life for them starts today! Our young graduates of today will be leaders of tomorrow!

Pleasure meeting my friend Syed Ahmad after a relatively long break. He gave some great insights into improving the quality of IT graduates we’re producing yearly. Good to hear of some tangible steps being taken by the Government for the promotion of the IT sector. 

Hope you liked the dessert Syed. 

Pleasure meeting the energetic & dynamic team of The NEST I/O. They’re carrying the flag high Jehan Ara. Good to know that the event went well.

Pleasure meeting an investor from the EO chapter in Kenya. Thanks Shoaib Z. Malik for the intros.

Good to meet Imran Jattala of the Hult Prize Pakistan today at ID92. He & his team are taking tangible steps to promote Entrepreneurship in Pakistan. 

The team from Momentum visited today. We’ve agreed to work together in making this year’s conference a success. The Jafri brothers & team have successfully gathered the entire industry together via Momentum Tech Conference. The theme of celebrating Corporate Innovations sounds exciting.

Wish them well!

A pleasure meeting with a diverse set of professionals from the business community in Detroit. We’ve agreed to work on partnerships between startups in Detroit & Pakistan. We shall be working on a framework through which their high tech companies outsource work to companies / engineers in Pakistan, leading to more job creation. 

Salaina & Aqsa of IDG Pakistan are planning a great project with ID92.

Will be supporting Javeria of TiE Lahore  who has launched an initiative to economically #EmpowerWomen in Pakistan. 

Signed an MOU to help a program backed by Karandaaz to enable women led businesses.

After a night of staying up working on a project proposal, it was refreshing to meet with 2 entrepreneurs from KPK. Impressed by the progress Jehangir of Bera has made in a year. His revenues look promising. Husnain of DesinoX is starting off but has big plans. Wish ’em well!

It was a brilliant discussion yesterday between the Hon. Federal IT & Telecom Minister Mr. Khalid Maqbool & professionals / entrepreneurs from the IT sector. I briefed the Minister on the happenings in the entrepreneurship landscape of Pakistan. He & his team loved the concept of a show like Idea Croron Ka & have shown interest to help support & scale it more.

Read full blog here.

Yesterday was a big day at Innovation District 92.

We celebrated the graduation of our 1st batch; out of 6 startups that were incubated, we graduated 4, all of whom are already in business, serving clients & making sales.

The biggest news was that of our startup Careeb that closed its seed investment of USD 100000, the signing of which happened yesterday at the event.

We also celebrated the Investment commitments of PKR 170 Million on Idea Croron Ka Season 3.

Thanks to Alicia Dean, founder of the Atx+Pak Entrepreneurship Program & Ali Syed of Capital Factory for conducting a fantastic information session for our entrepreneurs who aspire to apply in Phase 2 of the ATX+PAK program. A big shout out to our dear friend Fred Schmidt for being a genuine friend to Pakistan & extending support via Capital Factory!

I thank all my teams, friends, board members & supporters from the business & IT community for being there throughout 2018. I can forsee an even more productive & progressive 2019 for Pakistan’s entrepreneurship landscape. 

Featured in an exclusive TV show with Dr. Sumaira Rehman & Alicia Dean on the rising awareness of Entrepreneurship in Pakistan.

Discussed learnings from Atx+Pak Entrepreneurship Program Phase 1 & expectations from Phase 2 while analysing the journey of Superior Universityleading to Innovation District 92 & Idea Croron Ka 

The show will air next week!

A major advocate of Pakistan, a dear friend & founder of the Atx+Pak Entrepreneurship Program, Alicia Dean is back in town to kickstart & catalyse the selection process of startups that are growing & are ready to scale to the US market.

She also aspires to take some major Pakistani fashion brands to the US for them to set up shop & grow as part of the Fashion Forward initiative of the grant program.

Had some very useful discussions with her today. My team shall ensure that she gets to meet with all key stakeholders of the ecosystem in Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar & Karachi.

Let’s continue to build synergies & create mutually beneficial possibilities. 

Was a pleasure attending a grand launch of a new campus of Superior University in Lahore, primarily to promote our degrees in numerous domains of Computer Science & Information Technology as a whole.

We’re growing as a group, more importantly as an academic institution. 

A genuine pleasure hosting my friend & now partner Umar Farooq – CEO, Durshal & Tech Valley Abbottabad, at Innovation District 92 today. Amongst other things, we formally signed an MOU with Durshal Abbottabad, also known as Tech Valley, as we work towards engaging with more entrepreneurs from KP with platforms like Idea Croron Ka & various other grant backed initiatives like Atx+Pak Entrepreneurship Program & more.

Looking forward to doing some interesting things together to promote Tourism & Tech! 

It was great to chit chat about old times with my friend from college, FAST, Burhan Rasool .. Great memories & so many of them! He has done fantastic work with the Government & is part of one of Prime Ministers’ task force nowadays. Wishing him well for his future endeavours!

Its always a pleasure meeting friends after long. Had an interesting discussion with Sajid Latif, DG Punjab Information Technology Board, about the work we’re doing in our respective organizations. We’ll be finding synergies to work together on many initiatives to promote entrepreneurs in Pakistan.

A fabulous exchange of ideas with the full of energy Omar Shah on ways to collaborate between Co-Labs, ID92 & IdeaCroronKa. He aims to set new standards in Pakistan with regards to shared work spaces leading to building strong corporate & entrepreneurial communities.

A candid & well rounded rendezvous with friends & partners from the entrepreneurship landscape. Interesting discussions around startups, incubators, engineering, investments & of course food with Faisal Sherjan, Asra Nadeem, Sadaffe Abid and Amna Nadeem.

Spoke my heart today about life in general, my professions, entrepreneurs and of course my reasons for believing in Prime Minister Imran Khan and a Naya Pakistan. The more I interact with the youth of Pakistan, the more hopeful I continue to be for our future. We will rise IA!

Thank you to the team at Daftarkhwan for being great hosts.

A unique experience delivering my 1st international online lecture to around 50 business students of the The Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics (JSBE) in Finland. I spoke about the contours of entrepreneurship basing my narrative on the extremely interesting startup equation.

Minister Atif Khan has successfully instilled the spirit of entrepreneurship through KPK via the KP Impact Challenge steered by Dr. Mariam Chughtai of the LUMS School of Education.

I am pleased to announce that Idea Croron Ka along with LUMS SOE shall feature success stories from KP via our show & much more!

Important messages exchanged. Important decisions being taken. Thank you Qaiser F Ansari bhai for the mediation & advice. Expect surprises.

Meighan Stone, Senior Fellow for Women & Foreign Policy, David Rockefeller Studies Program visited ID92 on the agenda of promoting women entrepreneurs in Pakistan. Being 52% of the entire population, I firmly believe it is the women of our country whose contribution to the economy of Pakistan can truly bring the change our country needs. Following this ideology, we have recently started #HerIdea – a campaign powered by Idea Croron Ka, dedicated to bringing the women of Pakistan on the front. It gives me immense pleasure to say tell that #HerIdea is being steered by Maria Naseer – my right hand in making Idea Croron Ka a possibility.

It was a genuine pleasure to host the new US Counsel General Lahore Colleen Crenwelge, Minister Counselor for Public Affairs Mr. Christopher Fitzgerald & my friend Public Affairs Officer Michael Guinan at Innovation District 92.

We have agreed to further strengthen the collaborative work between our entrepreneurial initiatives & the U.S. Mission Pakistan. We are excited about working towards successful completion of our ATX+PAK Phase 2 goals & a few other grants we’ll be announcing soon.

Celebrating a win for Pakistan’s entrepreneurial ecosystem with some friends, partners & more importantly, the fantastic entrepreneurs who were the reason behind the success of Phase 1 of Atx+Pak Entrepreneurship Program (all 4 Cohorts), which in effect, has lead to the formation of Phase 2 which is the ATX+PAK Business Development program. Special thank you to my brother, my friend, Abbas Yousafzai, and Qaiser Ansari Sb for joining me on this special day.

I am personally glad to have Capital Factory as core partners in this phase & more so about the fact that their mentors / investors shall be coming into Pakistan to help scout for startups. A massive learning opportunity!

Exciting times ahead IA.

It gives me immense pleasure to announce Innovation District 92 as the proud in-country partner for the Advanced version of ATX+PAK Entrepreneurship Program. Thumbs up to Faizan Mahmood, for doing a fantastic job in securing the grant!

As always, we are super excited to work with the City of Austin and Capital Factory. This is a great opportunity for Pakistani entrepreneurs to get international exposure and to learn from the best entrepreneurial practices prevalent in startup hubs like Austin, Texas.

A pleasure brainstorming ideas with my friend Farrukh Habib – Federal Parliament Secretary for Railway (MNA-108) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf  Central Deputy Secretary General, on how to best utilize resources available with Pakistan Railways. Farrukh aspires to use innovation & technology to revamp processes completely; I’ll be advising & assisting him in doing so. Expect good changes!

It’s always a pleasure to have brilliant young Pakistani entrepreneurs visit ID92 to assist other aspiring younger entrepreneurs. Indeed, communities form the core fabric of societies.

It’s always inspiring to meet Shahida Saleem. Her passion and initiatives to serve the children and youngsters of Pakistan through education and social entrepreneurship is beyond commendable. Get ready to be surprised! We have some great things planned up for Idea Croron Ka. Keep watching 👍

Had some great discussions with friends – Farhan Masood, Hussain Kanji, Aamir Jafri and Rabeel Warraich, on various interesting tangents that’ll be revealed to you soon.

A special thank you to my friend Farhan Masood, Founder and CTO SoloInsight, for coming all the way from New York to met me. You’ll see him very soon in the opening episode of Idea Croron Ka Season 3.

My college friend, an ex-colleague & a credible historian (with extremely differing political views as mine), Yaqoob Bangash came over to meet with me in a Naya Pakistan. 😉 Had candid conversations & some interesting plans on ways to do things together. Happy to hear his plans. 

Spoke to the 1st batch of Innovation District 92 today. Glad to see startup founders with aspirations, exuberance & skills! I wish them well on a day that marks the beginning of a new entrepreneurial journey & reassured that the team shall enable them in every way to become change makers of tomorrow!

God speed Change Makers! 👍

Always a pleasure to exchange ideas & find ways to collaborate with the ever so positive & energetic Yusuf Hussain, CEO Ignite and his dynamic team. Excited & looking forward to some very interesting collaborations not only for ID92 but also at the Superior Entrepreneurial Expo!

Stay tuned guys! 

With my friend, co-star on Idea Croron Ka & a solid investor leading Sarmayacar in Pakistan, Rabeel Warraich.We’ll soon be engaging in a few more gigs together & you’ll be seeing lots more of him at Innovation District 92, so stay tuned! 

Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing with Shahida Saleem, Managing Trustee Promotion of Education in Pakistan (PEP) TRUST. Click here to read more.

It was a genuine pleasure hosting the Honorable Counsel General, Elizabeth Kennedy Trudeau & her fantastic team at the Innovation District 92 today. We exchanged plans to work with the US Consulate General Lahore on various fronts as The Superior group as well as our startup incubator. She met with the 1st cohort of District 92 & also recorded a podcast via our radio frequency BOOM FM 106.6. 

Glad to announce the pioneer batch of District 92 after 4 days of intense competition, Pitchstop, as my team has named it. I thank all my friends from the industry for extending their tremendous support, spending hours grilling and judging the shortlisted participants, and helping my team choose the best 7 from the lot of 100 competing startups. Talking about the startups, they travelled from different cities to be a part of the Pitch Stop and for that we truly respect their time and efforts. For those who couldn’t make it to ID92’s incubation, our doors are open for them and will give them whatever support The Superior Group can extend.

It gives me immense pleasure in announcing that we at Innovation District 92 have partnered with the University of Oklahoma on a grant program namely, “Professional Fellows Program” funded by the US State Department to promote entrepreneurs in Pakistan. It involves a 5 week exchange for Pakistani entrepreneurs twice a year & also includes two delegations visiting from US to Pakistan once every year.

In the quest to promote entrepreneurs from all across Pakistan, our team would be contacting various incubators nationwide & will be open to receiving applications from independent startups. Congrats to all entrepreneurs! 

You can read more about it here.

Glad to join hands with CIRCLE as they host the local chapter of She Loves Tech at the premises of District 92! The winner will get a chance to appear on Idea Croron Ka Season 3.

Some BTS snaps for you 😉 In a recording of a small documentary for the Superior Group. Coming up with something new; something interesting…

I’m pleased to welcome a friend and very able Ali Mukhtar of Fatima Ventures as a board member of Innovation District 92. He will be helping us with the selection of startups to mentor them throughout their incubation cycles.

Fatima Group & The Superior Group would be working together towards creating awareness in various industries on the importance & advantages for local businesses in working with entrepreneurs and startups in Pakistan.