There are people in Pakistan who have very successfully rolled out high-tech startups, acquired funding and established themselves in the global market.
There should be something , a portal/network/group to allow these people to mentor others. They have such good knowledge and resources but there is no platform to pass them on to the new comers.
TiE and OPEN kind of do that but the physical presence requirement is restricting. An online platform should be much better.
Thoughts?
June 17th, 2008 at 1:39 am #Fariha Akhtar
Tehseen, the StartUp Insiders Sessions are being conducted in three major cities of Pakistan (Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore) with the same purpose i.e. mentoring of young/aspiring entrepreneurs, however, they again have a requirement of physical presence but I remember reading about their website which is under construction and also read about Ali’s idea to have virtual SI sessions which anyone can attend from around the world. I hope these will provide the sort of mentoring you are talking about, however, lately I haven’t read about any progress being made in this regard so thumbs up to you….your idea may actually trigger the work that was planned to be done :)
June 17th, 2008 at 11:46 am #Suleman
Yes, the idea is great.
There could be subsequent ideas, such as, at least building a portal for Start-up insiders, and making all the sessions available online for future references. (All the videos, and an open discussion forum – It would become a valuable resource for the upcoming and future entrepreneurs)
One such example is, Stanford’s Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Seminar which they make available for everyone in the world in the shape of videos and mp3s(podcasts) http://etl.stanford.edu/. , which can be downloaded here http://edcorner.stanford.edu/podcasts.html.
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Now the trouble is, this again is not a business idea, unless there’s some sort of revenue generation for the venture to sustain itself(motivate people to continue building the portals and beefing up the content or hire someone to do the job).
A nominal subscription fees might help to sustain the project.
June 17th, 2008 at 3:17 pm #Sohail Abid
Thanks Tehseen for reminding us a “collective responsibility”. Everything in this world is not done for money-making. So is this.
This will be some sort of ‘association’ or startups and startups-to-be and mentors. And I believe progress is already taking place. The subscription fee will sustain it. We should keep visiting Jehan Ara’s blog for updates in this regard.
June 18th, 2008 at 2:37 am #Tehseen Baweja
I agree with the subscription based model to create/maintain the platform. Whereas the mentors would surely come just to share their knowledge and not for the monetary purpose. But big question is, who would implement this?
I for one can definitely use such a service and would be willing to pay.
On a related note, what names would you guys list as these mentor-like-people if such a platform exists?
I can think of a few:
- Monis Rehman
- Faizan Buzdar
June 18th, 2008 at 10:22 am #Fariha Akhtar
@Tehseen
Mentors may include people from the StartUp Insiders also for they are some of those people who really want to help the young/aspiring entrepreneurs out there. Some of the regular SI panel members are:
JehanAra(PASHA), Jawwad Farid(Alchemy Technologies), Osama Hashmi(CDF Software and Green&White), Faisal Qureshi(Kolachi Technologies), Imran Zia(Vahzay) etc.
I’m sure once such platform is up, we’ll be to get the attention of a lot many :)
June 19th, 2008 at 12:18 am #Muhammad Qasim Pasta
I similar model is underway …
June 30th, 2008 at 6:22 pm #V
Dude, where do you live?
Name *one* successful startup that is recognizable.
All you get at Startup Insiders is free drinks and sometimes free Pizza. Nothing more.
July 1st, 2008 at 1:23 am #Tehseen Baweja
Don’t quite agree there V.
Successful start ups that are recognizable:
Naseeb.com
Rozee.pk
Scrybe
July 1st, 2008 at 2:01 am #Vaqas Ashraf
Do you use any of these regularly and depend on that?
Like people do on Facebook, Twitter, Blogger etc?
July 1st, 2008 at 2:29 am #Tehseen Baweja
Thats besides the point. Facebook, Twitter, Blogger are not the only successful companies.
Plus, I am sure Naseeb and Rozee reaches millions of people.
Lastly, even somebody with a failed start-up can teach people a thing or two. Specifically, what not to do.
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:19 am #Asma
With due respect What I thought SI should be mentoring was not what I got by attending it. Probably the one I attended was a failure as said by teh organizers too. Still when Startup mentoring is talked about I can think of few basics:
- How to think on startup ideas
- How to narrow the search down to top 3-4 prospective choices
- How to choose the one best choice considering the pros and cons, finances involved.
- What to worry and what not to about the Finances
- Finance gathering / cause thats one of the biggest hurdles
Something on this line, I can see the MOTIVATIONAL videos on my own machine at home too. There’s a hesitation in starters so how come Entrepreneurs, established ones, can help you in overcoming that. How can socializing in such circles can help?
Point is the true mentoring: are we talking about?
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:18 pm #Tehseen Baweja
Asma,
The personal hesitation you mentioned might be the case with a couple of people but I am thinking more in lines of:
- How to narrow down your idea and scope it out strategically.
- How to develop it
- How to form/register an organization
- How to patent it (if applicable)
- How to get an adviser/(permanent mentor)
- How to make a good business plan and slide deck
- How to approach VCs
- When to approach angel investors and when to approach VCs?
- How to test your stuff and for how long before you come out of the
beta?
This is the kind of stuff that you cannot get through motivational videos and lectures. It needs a one-to-one or a Y-Combinator.com like approach. Now there are definitely resources available if you are targeting a global market but none whatsoever if you want to focus on Pakistan.
July 5th, 2008 at 6:06 pm #Fariha Akhtar
@Asma and Tehseen
Both of you have come up with some really great points. You can suggest some of these topics to be covered in the upcoming SI session here
October 31st, 2008 at 10:56 pm #Faizan A. Laghari
A few months ago I was lucky enough to purchase the domain name technopreneur.asia, mostly because of it’s value due to the ever-increasing breed of entrepreneurs that are technically inclined nowadays.
Since a while now the same idea had come to mind regarding having an online “community” of sorts, where-in start-ups may be helped in many ways possible.
The point that Tehseen makes is that something like this is required ONLINE, and I totally agree.
I am all for the creation of something like this and would be more than happy to set it up! The business model would be definitely worked upon and figured out in due time.
Gurus of industry, or even people who have tried and failed at start-ups like Tehseen points out, everyone would be invited to join in and lend a helping hand providing pointers and help of any sort to newbies on such a website.
So I ask all the people here discussing on the topic, besides the things that go without saying as far as the main purpose of it, what do you want from such an online community? What should it allow you to do? What nitty gritty would you like it to have? :)
More than welcome to email me at flaghari@viaduct.net.pk, or faizan@technopreneur.asia.
God willing, will do my best to set it up!
Tehseen, if all goes well, consider your wish granted ;)
Lets just hope things go smooth enough to realize this idea into a reality.
*fingers crossed*
February 9th, 2009 at 4:47 pm #Muhammad Arbab
Any progress in it (the Startup Mentoring program) ?
I have an idea and i can implement it (infact implemented the alpha).
March 1st, 2009 at 12:25 am #Awais Naseer Keyani
@Vaqas Ashraf
Yep! I rely on iScrybe as I do on Facebook!
March 2nd, 2009 at 12:08 am #Fariha Akhtar
@Muhammad Arbab
Sohail and I had a few things in mind but sadly havn’t yet started implementing them. Would be great if u could share about what you are working one….I’m sure a lot of budding entrepreneurs are looking for such program! :)
March 2nd, 2009 at 12:17 am #Muhammad Arbab
@ Fariha Akhtar
Thanks for replying. Yes, I’ll share it soon.At this time we are working hard to make it even better and available to launch. We are also working on a short video too. When this will be done then surely we’ll have to share :)
March 2nd, 2009 at 12:19 am #Fariha Akhtar
@Muhammad Arbab
Sounds cool! I wish u good luck and ‘am looking forward to see your project :)
March 24th, 2009 at 4:42 pm #Arshad Ali Sakhi
@Muhammad Arbab
Thanks we are desperately waiting for that stuff ..