Rizwan Mujtaba and Muhammad Muzzammil Munaf from Empirica Ventures carried out business assessments at the Sindh Enterprise Incubation Center, giving startups an outside evaluation of where their ventures stand and where they can grow. The assessments were designed to help founders judge their own potential, strengthen their business models, and identify opportunities for growth, which is a different exercise from a pitch or a workshop since it asks each company to be examined individually rather than taught in a group.
Assessments of this kind matter at a stage when most founders are too close to their own ventures to see weak points clearly. An experienced reviewer can test whether a revenue model holds together, whether a target market is large enough to support the ambitions in a pitch deck, and whether the team is spending its limited time on the right priorities. Mujtaba and Munaf come from a venture firm, so their feedback reflects how investors read a young company, which gives founders an early look at the questions they are likely to face when they begin raising capital.
Both assessors were already known to SEIC’s founders, having appeared among the expert names tagged around the center’s Final Pitching Round for its second cohort, which brought panels from venture capital, banking, marketing, and industry in front of the startups. Returning for one on one assessments allows that earlier scrutiny to turn into more detailed guidance, since the founders now have more time to discuss specific numbers, customer segments, and growth plans.
SEIC said it is committed to supporting founders as they build, refine, and scale their ventures, and the assessments fit that approach by pairing structured programme sessions with direct expert review. The center operates under the Government of Sindh’s Science and Information Technology Department and has been running a steady series of sessions for Cohort 2, covering topics such as business models, unit economics, and market research. The assessments add a personalized layer to that sequence, giving each startup a clearer picture of its strengths and gaps as it moves through the programme.
Follow the SPIN IDG WhatsApp Channel for updates across the Smart Pakistan Insights Network covering all of Pakistan’s technology ecosystem.
