The Plan9 Launchpad 2014 kicked off on May 2nd in Lahore with the first of three events to be held across the country. The theme of the event was Celebrating Culture with Technology. As the first full day of the launchpad comes to a close, we’re here to provide you with a summary of what has happened so far.
Plan9 Launchpad Theme
Organized by Plan9 and Acumen, the first day of the event (May 2) was all about Social Entrepreneurship in Pakistan. The event started with Umar Saif, Chairman of the Punjab IT Board addressing the audience.
“You have absolutely no bloody excuse to not create a Google-esque startup in Pakistan.” – Umar Saif
Other speakers included Yasmin Zaki (Founder of Child Care Foundation), Imran Sarwar (the Managing Director of Rabtt), and Benje Williams (of Amal Academy). Sophia Ahmed, representing Acumen Pakistan, talked about the role Acumen has played in social betterment.
The Process
Over the first two days of the Launchpad, many teams presented their ideas, of which 20 were shortlisted and 2 were finally chosen as winners. The judges for the event included Yasmin Zaki, Zainab Saeed, Roshane Zafar, Sheikh Noor & Daniyal.
All 80 teams were given 5 minutes to present their ideas to the judges. Of these, 13 were selected to further present their ideas in detail, of which 4 were shortlisted for the second round. In the second round, teams were allowed to use audio and visual aids, and given 5 minutes plus a 10 minute Q&A.
Some Innovative Ideas
Some of the inspiring ideas that were pitched drew a lot of attention. We wanted to highlight some of them.
Pak MedCare Solution – Their goal is to provide a panel of easily accessible online doctors and medical experts for people.
#moovy – Video tutorials for internet and technology usage for people who don’t know how to use the internet – including the illiterate.
Pak Caravan – Itsy.Bitsy – Bring your recyclable trash to an Itsy.Bitsy booth and gain points that can be cashed in for discounts.
Agritech – An online platform that would help farmers gain an insight into modern farming methods.
Women Empowerment – An online platform for women can discuss their social and medical issues, aiming to increase women empowerment.
ndAcE (INDustry Academia Exchange) – To serve as a liaison between academia and businesses, and get students ready for the real world by the time they graduate.
Hassan Saqib – A platform serving as an online community for researchers where they can share discussions as well as criticism in research areas.
At the end of the day, two teams were chosen by Plan9 for their 4th cycle of incubation. Umar Saif announced #moovy and Pak Caravan’s itsy.bitsy as the two team that will get support from Plan9 for the coming 6 months.
According to Plan9, the following teams have been shortlisted at the end of Saturday
2. Appsow Inc
3. MONEVS
4. JumpSmart
5. DSSSW Engineering Solutions
6. Do It Yourself Geeks
7. Group Mutaj’sis
8. SnapShot
9. Tutors Earth
10. logics.do
11. Phone Market
12. Dollar Design
13. Holy Grail
14. Market Eagle
15. Blowing that
16. Hikkup
17. aPointed
18. yarnpak
19. Quartz Robotic
20. TexSum
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