National Incubation Center Faisalabad’s next Founder Institute session addresses a distinction many early-stage founders have not yet had to confront, that building a startup is one thing while knowing how to turn that startup into a scalable and sustainable business is where genuine growth actually begins. The session’s framing treats these as two separate skill sets entirely, pushing founders to recognize that the instincts and improvisation that get a venture off the ground often need to be replaced by more deliberate, structural thinking once a company moves toward scale.
The session features Zain Farooq, managing director of barq Pakistan, and Raza Afzal, co-founder of Truck It In, who will share practical insights drawn from their own experiences on what it takes to build, grow, and scale a venture in today’s competitive market. Farooq’s presence carries particular relevance given barq’s parent company recently closed a 329.5 million dollar Series A at a 1.85 billion dollar valuation in Saudi Arabia, officially achieving unicorn status, giving him direct, current exposure to what disciplined scaling looks like at a stage far beyond where most NIC Faisalabad founders currently sit.
Afzal brings a complementary perspective through Truck It In, a logistics-focused venture whose scaling challenges likely differ substantially from those facing a consumer fintech platform like barq, giving the session two founders whose operational realities span distinctly different sectors and growth mechanics. Pairing a senior leader from a newly minted unicorn with a founder actively building and scaling a logistics startup gives NIC Faisalabad’s founders exposure to both an aspirational, large-scale outcome and a more immediately relatable, in-progress growth journey within the same session.
From identifying the right growth opportunities and strengthening business strategies to scaling operations and navigating the challenges that come with expansion, the session will explore the key decisions founders need to make as they take their startups to the next stage. The Growth Session continues NIC Faisalabad’s ongoing Founder Institute curriculum, following earlier sessions on cofounder and team building, and is supported by Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication and Ignite National Technology Fund.
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