Sidra Qasim, a Pakistani founder who grew up in a small town in Okara, has built Atoms into a New York based sneaker startup valued at 36 million dollars and backed by venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins. Vogue has described her shoes as among the most thoughtfully designed sneakers available, a distinction that marks a striking arc for a founder whose early ambitions ran against the expectations placed on her in Pakistan.
Qasim’s path into entrepreneurship began with Markhor, a footwear startup she co-founded that became the first Pakistani startup ever accepted into Y Combinator. Working directly with local craftsmen in her hometown in Pakistan, Markhor built its early momentum through a successful Kickstarter campaign before receiving backing from Y Combinator in 2015, giving Qasim and her co-founder an early foothold in the international startup ecosystem well before Atoms existed.
Building on that foundation, Qasim and her co-founder formally launched Atoms as a startup based in New York in 2019. Over the following three years, the company relocated to New York City, navigated the disruptions of the pandemic, grew 300 percent year on year, and built a global community of customers around its product. Atoms reached profitability in 2023, a milestone that reflects sustained operational growth for a startup founded by a Pakistani entrepreneur rather than a single breakout moment.
The company’s momentum accelerated significantly in January 2021, after Humans of New York featured Qasim’s personal story, publicising the fears she confronted while taking charge of her own path in life. The feature, shared on a widely followed street photography page, resonated broadly and translated directly into business growth for the startup, illustrating how a personal narrative told through an unconventional platform can shape a young company’s trajectory. Qasim has spoken about proving wrong an earlier assessment from her father, who once suggested she would not amount to much given her academic performance in school.
Qasim’s journey from Pakistan to leading an internationally backed sneaker startup has been highlighted by Connected Pakistan as part of its ongoing effort to spotlight Pakistani achievers, with the organisation framing her story as a reminder that neither geography nor gender needs to define what a founder from Pakistan can build on the global stage.
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