NIC Sialkot will host a Personal Branding Workshop with Muhammad Sarmad Hafeez on Friday, October 2, 2026, from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM at NIC Sialkot, giving its current cohort a dedicated session on how founders present themselves beyond the product they are building. The workshop forms part of the incubator’s ongoing weekly programming aimed at rounding out its founders’ skills in areas that often sit outside the core technical and financial work of launching a startup, but that can still meaningfully shape how far a venture is able to go once it starts seeking outside support.
Muhammad Sarmad Hafeez is an Innovation Consultant specializing in AI, startup investments, valuation and venture funding, giving him a vantage point that blends technical understanding with the financial and investment side of the startup world in a way that few branding specialists typically bring to this kind of session. His background means he is not simply teaching founders how to look polished on paper or online, but is instead speaking from direct experience with how investors and ecosystem players actually evaluate the people behind a pitch, which gives the session a more grounded, practical edge than a generic personal branding talk might otherwise have.
In the session, founders will learn how to position themselves to stand out to investors, partners and the wider tech ecosystem, honing their unique skills, strengths and values in the process. For many early stage founders, the ability to clearly communicate who they are, what drives them, and what sets them apart can matter just as much as the strength of their product when it comes to catching the attention of a potential backer or collaborator, particularly in a crowded ecosystem where multiple startups may be pitching similar ideas within overlapping sectors. Learning to carve out a distinct personal identity alongside a distinct business identity can therefore become a meaningful differentiator at exactly the moments that matter most, whether that is a pitch competition, an investor meeting, or a casual introduction at an industry event.
The workshop continues NIC Sialkot’s pattern of layering soft skills training alongside its core startup support, with backing from the Ministry of IT and Telecommunication Pakistan, Ignite National Technology Fund, Mobilink Bank and CyberVision International. As the cohort moves through the week’s programming, the session on personal branding adds one more dimension to how founders are being prepared to engage with the broader ecosystem around them, reinforcing NIC Sialkot’s broader approach of building well rounded founders rather than ones who are strong on product alone but underprepared for the relationship building and self presentation that so much of early stage fundraising and partnership building ultimately depends on.
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