Inspiration: ‘Failure is part of entrepreneurship’

Local edition of MIT Technology Review launched

LAHORE: “Pakistan’s environment is conducive for entrepreneurs. The youth are the country’s biggest asset,” said Jason Pontin, the publisher of the international edition of MIT Technology Review.

Pontin was speaking at the opening of Urdu edition of MIT Technology Review Pakistan Edition, at the Information Technology University (ITU).

The speakers talked about the impact of failure while setting up a new business and in the entrepreneurship culture. They were of the view that failure was a part of the path to starting and running a successful business.

Pontin said the next wave of innovations would likely originate in developing countries. “Start-ups learn from failures. This is the most important part of the entrepreneurship culture,” he said. Sharing his own experience, he said that he had started a publication on technology. “It failed and eventually led me to the MIT Technology Review,” he said.

Pontin said the failure had made him realise the mistakes he had made and led him to build a better product. He said the review’s Pakistan edition had local content in Urdu giving it the potential to reach a wider audience.

MIT Entrepreneurship Centre Managing Director Kenneth Morse said entrepreneurship, with its failures and success, should be celebrated.

He said that an entrepreneurship culture could only prevail in Pakistan if failures were seen as part of learning and celebrated along with the successes.

Morse, too, shared stories of his failures with the audience. He said that the MIT Technology Review was part of the beginning of entrepreneurial culture in the country.

ITU Vice Chancellor Umar Saif said the current edition focused on global as well as local entrepreneurship culture.

He said the goal of launching the Pakistan edition was to make it an authentic source of information related to technology.  He said the local edition featured 60 per cent content of the international edition. The remaining 40 per cent was created locally and reviewed by an editorial team of the international edition, he said. He said 10 per cent of the content was in Urdu. Saif said the Punjab government would launch a Rs30 billion venture capital fund in the next three months to support startups.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 13^th, 2015.