Day 4 of National Incubation Center Karachi’s Cohort 16 Incubation brought together an accomplished panel of industry leaders and ecosystem experts who evaluated startup ideas, engaged directly with founders, and shared perspectives to strengthen business models, products, and growth potential. The day’s founders had the opportunity to present ideas, minimum viable products, and live products across the same rigorous format used throughout the induction week, receiving thoughtful questions and constructive feedback tailored to each venture’s specific stage of development.
The panel included Ziana Sakhia, chief executive officer of Bechlo.pk, herself a startup incubated at NIC Karachi whose own journey through the center gives her direct, lived insight into the exact induction process the Cohort 16 founders are currently navigating. Ashifa Paracha, chief executive officer of Brand E. Technologies, and Syed Azhar, chief technology officer at Contrivus, added technical and brand-building perspectives distinct from the more commercially focused viewpoints represented elsewhere on the panel.
Amber Shamsi, a journalist, brought a notably different lens to the panel compared to the operators and investors who typically evaluate NIC Karachi’s pitching sessions, offering founders feedback informed by how a venture’s story and public communication would land with a broader, non-specialist audience rather than purely an investor’s technical scrutiny. Syeda Saeeda Bano, founder president of the Karachi Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s East district, and Shabista Bakhtiar, president of the Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry Korangi Karachi, brought direct grassroots business community representation to the panel, while Nadia Patel Gangjee, chief executive officer of FEMPROW, added a women’s economic empowerment focused perspective.
Sidra Jalil, president of OPEN Islamabad, rounded out the panel, extending the diaspora-linked entrepreneurship network’s involvement into NIC Karachi’s own cohort evaluation process and reinforcing the kind of cross-chapter, cross-organization collaboration that has increasingly characterized Pakistan’s incubation ecosystem this year. NIC Karachi described the panel as bringing diverse expertise across entrepreneurship, technology, business, media, and the wider ecosystem, a composition that gave Day 4 founders exposure to a notably broader range of evaluators than the more sector-specific panels convened on earlier days of the same induction week. The session was supported by Tech Destination Pakistan, Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication, Ignite National Technology Fund, LMKT, LuckyOne Mall, and Orbit Ventures.
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