In this special episode, the host turns the spotlight on the founder of PakLaunch, Aly Fahd. A graduate of GIKI, Aly has been in the USA for 20 years, but it was only last year that Paklaunch was formally launched by him and a group of his friends from GIKI. Knowing Pakistanis around the world who are working for some of the biggest global companies, their mission was to invest in Pakistan, to transfer knowledge into the country and also help Pakistanis to build a sense of community.
“Over the last 2 decades that I’ve been away, we’ve all seen brand Pakistan take a lot of beating over the years and I think there were not that many role models who stood up and raised their hand and represented Pakistan. In April 2020 during one of our Zoom meetings with my friends in GIKI, 7 of us, we said ‘why don’t we create a Whatsapp group and let’s see how we can invest in Pakistan together and we can transfer knowledge.”
The first PakLaunch WhatsApp group started during Covid19 in April 2020, which has now turned into 15 WhatsApp groups focused on different areas including Investors, Startups, EdTech, AgriTech, Social Innovation, Public Policies and more. Only 30% of all Paklaunch group members are based out of Pakistan, whereas 70% members are outside of Pakistan.
An exclusive community of founders, investors (angel & VC), and experts, Paklaunch has been determined to raise the bar. Aly quotes the example of his learnings from Amazon, and strives to bring the concept of constantly raising the bar with this platform. The philosophy of PakLaunch is based on questions like “Are you going to bring the whole culture down, are you going to keep the status quo, or are you going to raise the bar?” and that’s what truly sets the platform apart.
Speaking about the virtual conference coming up on 8th September 2021, Aly elaborates,
“Our concept for Pakistani Startups The Next Big Thing is that we (Pakistan) is at a point where we want to showcase Pakistan as it is ready for investment, we want to show to the world that we are ready, don’t sleep on us. The idea is to showcase the talent that we have and the great startups that we have and why we really believe in them. We wanted to show a very confident Pakistan to the world and we want to invite everyone to join and listen in.”
The conference has 15 global VCs speaking, 3 unicorn Pakistani founders in the making and a stellar panel of Enablers from the Pakistani ecosystem. 6 of the highest funded startups are also part of the panel, and the President of Pakistan is expected to join the conference. The organizers want to keep the conference short and sweet, spanning across 2 hours only, but in the words of Aly “we want it to hit hard”.
The conference will be showcasing how Pakistani entrepreneurs are building companies that are changing lives locally while also attracting attention globally through innovative solutions in sectors such as healthcare, education and financial services. Reserve your seat for free: https://paklaunch.com/conference21/
Tune in to the full episode of an exclusive interview with DEMO here.
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