‘Devising innovative strategies key to success’

Speakers discuss challenges, opportunities for potential start-ups

KARACHI: Instead of competing with current players in mainstream businesses, devising new strategies to solve problems effectively and efficiently is the key to success in the existing business environment, Karachi’s potential entrepreneurs stated on Wednesday.

During a panel discussion organised by The Bullpen, a shared workplace set up recently, they said while competition increases overall welfare of the consumers, businesses themselves tend to suffer due to increased saturation which wipes out relatively small and new players.

Kumbar Hussain from Chotu ChaiWala, Mohsin Faquih and Hassan Ali from Mocca, Mateen Ahmed from Intwish, Anns Ali from AT&R and Irtiza Rizvi from Meta-Tags shared their journey of entrepreneurship and start-ups in Pakistan during the Renaissance Week - a week-long series of lectures hosted by The Bullpen.

“In 2013, there were only three e-commerce websites,” Bullpen’s founder and co-owner Syed Ali Haider Raza said, while analysing the changes in Pakistan’s entrepreneurial landscape.

“Now, there are over 465 online stores and all of them have more or less the same products to sell.”

“Around half a dozen tech incubators are nurturing start-ups providing working space, laptops and internet connectivity along with guidance from experts in the field,” he said.

Explaining his decision of opening up a joint working space, Raza said dozens of start-ups are entering the country’s economic fray every year, many of which do not require permanent offices. “To cater to such businesses, we came up with The Bullpen,” he stated.

“Despite the especially aggressive competition in Karachi, people start entering businesses perceived to be flourishing without realising how much effort and technical knowledge is needed to maintain quality,” the session’s participants stated.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 16^th, 2018.

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