Way forward for start-ups to create space in country

Entrepreneur advises seeking highest quality investors as co-founders

KARACHI: We live in a time where change is the only constant; hence a framework for upgrading start-ups has become a need of the hour. Entrepreneurs need to realise issues, within the country or a city, and see it as an opportunity.  Each start-up becomes a unit, contributing towards providing their services needed by a greater audience.

"Each one of you is a unit and can be contributing in a much more dynamic way," said Network for Global Innovation (NGIN) CEO Fred Walti, while addressing potential entrepreneurs at the 021Disrupt conference on Saturday.

He said cities follow a model similar to the one entrepreneurs follow for success.

The main focus of start-ups is to innovate or start a new product, which then takes the form of a new company and promotes new jobs. Revenue generation also plays an important role in encouraging start-ups, which in return generates more taxes. This is exactly what the goals of a city are.

"Harnessing innovation equals developing new products, new companies, new jobs, new revenue and more taxes," said Walti, adding that the major objective of all mega cities is to help people become successful, generate revenue, which could turn into taxes.



Citing an example of Karachi, he said there are around 1,000 new cars taking up space on roads, people waiting at each bus station struggling to commute, issue of affordable housing etc. "We cannot continue to build what we did in the past. These problems have been around for a while, and entrepreneurs should capitalise on it."

The NGIN CEO said entrepreneurs make things happen, they participate in a vision, buy a product and create a market. In the light of recent episodes of data breaches, customers are increasingly relying on cash on delivery for online purchases, which made a perfect opportunity for Alipay to capitalise on the e-commerce market.

"That's what entrepreneurs need to do: they need to build stuff and they need to bend metal," Walti remarked.

Fundamentals of building a start-up

Although investment plays a great role in kick-starting any start-up, one must not be hasty in attracting investors. Entrepreneurs can be impatient and impulsive with seeking an investment, which can actually become a reason for disabling their future funding.



Speaking on the occasion, Popinjay Founder Saba Gul said, "We are so hungry to find an investment that we don't seek the highest quality investor, which can disable us from future funding."

Greater focus should be provided to possible demonstrations of the start-up model, assessing the available funding and looking until you cannot bootstrap anymore.

"Start-ups should begin as late as possible. Find the one who feels accountable for your portfolio and have an appetite for risk as well," she added.

Moreover, finding a co-founder can also be beneficial as it helps you share the load and move faster. The Popinjay founder said everybody is doing the job of five to 10 people, which can be distributed between co-founders.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 11^th, 2018.

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