Success begets success. The successful walk the successful and sometimes the best way to attain your entrepreneurial dreams is following the footsteps of other successful entrepreneurs. When I say “follow,” it goes beyond following your favorite entrepreneur on Twitter or adding up to your number of social media friends. Follow should mean learning from them, understanding how they have been able to make a success out of their business exploits. You have to learn from their stories and accomplishments. A lot of Pakistan entrepreneurs are making a lot of difference to world with their innovations and creative skills. Here are some of Pakistan’s entrepreneurs that you need to follow.
It is hard for you to talk about software technology in Pakistan without mentioning Zia Imran. His company, Vahzay (Pvt) Limited, which is based in Lahore focuses on producing software and IT products and services. What makes Zia stand out is that he has worked with companies like Oracle, Altera and other startups in Silicon Valley. Yet he has gone on to start his software development tools company.
According to Forbes, Monis Rahman is one “who slept the least, whose office was tiniest, who choked down the most Ramen noodles and holds some formidable trump cards.” Monis is the mind behind Naseeb Networks, which specializes in recruitment portal, social networking and other services in Pakistan. In 2006 he started Rozee.pk and has built it to a company with over 40, 000 employers and 5.4 million professionals registered on its portal.
Ali Rehan is the Co-founder at Eyedus Labs and Ingrain. Ali emerged from LUMS, Pakistan to Google Blackbox. He went on to Groopic where he handled the business side of the products. Groopic has earned great reviews from TechCrunch, Gizmodo, Cult of Mac and CNN. What Groopic does for the user is to take group pictures that include the photographer. In 2014 he became a co-founder of Ingrain. Ingrain is a native advertising platform that enables the user to place automatic and individually targeted online videos in real time. The publisher of these videos can monetize the content without compromising the user experience. Why you should follow Ali is that he is young and has so much potential to create more innovative products.
Mentioned in Mashable, Forbes and Virgin, Maria is the founder and president of Women’s Digital League (WDL) an online platform that caters for training and equipping Pakistani women. Maria has been recognized as a Thought Leader by Ashoka Changemakers. During her time with working in an online digital outsourcing sphere she has steered WDL to winning the Early Stage Award in Changemakers.
CEO of Sofizar, Zafar Khan has driven the company he founded to immense growth. His company Sofizar makes more than ten million dollars per year in revenue. It is not simply about staying with the trend, Sofizar is doing well to tackle more verticals and achieve a better growth rate.
Farhan Masood is a brilliant and creative entrepreneur who has won international awards and recognitions in several countries. Some of them include The Asia Pacific ICT Awards and the MIT Enterprise Forum BAP 2012 Competition. His company SoloInsight Inc. (USA) and SoloTech Labs (PK) has driven him to provide innovative solutions which are custom designed for the clients he works with. His experience is deeply rooted in perimeter security and he is always willing to share his knowledge and expertise through several keynote speeches at various universities and colleges. He is also the founder of Go Green Pakistan, a campaign aimed at connecting patriots in the country.
Qaiser Abbas is the author of “Tick Tick Dollar”, raised from humble beginnings he was able to make his way to becoming a top notch motivational speaker. His story will inspire you as you start your journey to becoming a millionaire and a successful entrepreneur. Qaiser wants you to relate with his own journey. He talks about his secret to becoming the person he wanted to be and fulfilling his purpose. He has been featured in Zara Sochiye on GEO TV.
According to him he is a “professor and a serial entrepreneur.” He is the founder of Plan9, a startup incubator based in Pakistan and assumed to be Pakistan’s largest startup incubator. He is credited as a force behind the IT ecosystem in Pakistan. It is difficult to talk tech in Pakistan without talking about Umar Saif. But what remains profound is his role as the Chairman of the Punjab Information Technology Board. His work is one of transformation, no wonder the World Bank highlighted his work as one of three global examples of good governance innovations.
Now, you have eight amazing entrepreneurs from Pakistan who are making a lot of difference. Which one will you pick as your favorite and most iconic?
