Islamabad-based Kashif Jadoon is a 38-year-old computer engineer by profession. He was a fighter pilot in Pakistan Air Force and later became commercial pilot. He then joined the IT industry where he has been ensconced now for the last 16 years working with fortune 500 companies all across the globe.

In an informal chat (over email) with Dawn, he tells about his 18-people start-up company, which is all about unlocking data and making sense of the numbers to help his clients make informed decisions. He does agree though that where technology may have brought a lot of comfort and innovation to our lives, our privacy has been compromised.

What is the process of a start-up?

There is no one-size-fits-all process. If you go back to the history of successful start-ups, interestingly most of them got famous for something they had not initially focused on. Sometimes success is just a click and by-product of your luck.

Having said that, one must have deep knowledge of the industry they want to operate in. Then there must be a lot of research on their idea and to make sure that they are not reinventing the wheel.

No one can really predict the future or if the start-up business will be a success or a failure. No one aims to fail but at the end it’s your hard work, commitment, falling down but quickly getting up and, last but not the least, you have got to be lucky!

Is their ultimate goal to be bought out by bigger companies? 

It is one of the goals but not the ultimate one. It all depends on your will to keep going and making it a bigger company yourself or sell yourself short and walk away.

What’s a typical day like for you?

Within a day you smile, laugh, feel sad, even feel like quitting. There are no set working hours. It’s more about how productive you are for how many hours and then take a break. It’s a hard journey with lot of commitment. When your friends are doing 9-5 jobs and enjoying a social life, you will more than likely be stuck with your bandwidth fully choked!

You hardly find any support around you, no one believes in you and all you have is hope and that, too, lives in the future. Sometimes you feel that you are moving in circles and you are digging a hole in which you are standing.

How do you keep sane?

There is only one way to keep sane and that is to believe in yourself. Your mind will work towards making it a success.

Is picking up the right investor important?

Those who want to make a quick buck will pick whoever comes first but then you are already selling yourself short. Sooner or later, you will realise that even money is not getting you anywhere and hence you are back to square one. Money is not the first or even second reason why a start-up fails.

Do you find out on the way that you really didn’t know much?

You definitely learn on the way. And I believe it’s very normal to look back and even laugh at yourself. The important thing is to learn, make swift adjustments and move on.

Was money your goal?

Money is important and whosoever doesn’t agree is plainly lying; having said that, I was never desperately running after money. For me, recognition from my family, friends and society is more important. Leaving a legacy is more important to me. I don’t want to be known as someone who left the world without a mark.

Is Pakistan a good place to initiate a start-up and is having a huge youth bulge good for a start-up culture?

Ideally every country wants their youth to be entrepreneurs. Start-ups are the oxygen for growing, innovating and disrupting any industry. Now let’s consider Pakistan. The simple answer is “yes” and like any country it’s good to be a start-up here. But there are quite a few challenges.

Having a huge youth population should not be a gauge for the blooming of a start-up culture, neither is giving internet, a desk and three months of office space. How many acquisitions happen in Pakistan? How many big companies are helping start-ups? How much is the government helping them except giving laptops?

Having said that, on the positive side, there are a few leaders in this market who are really helping start-ups to be successful and giving them guidance. Again, it’s more individuals than institutions nourishing the start-up culture. If you ask me, educational institutes can play a very important role to produce more entrepreneurs than job-seekers.— Z.T.E.

Published in Dawn, EOS, May 28th, 2017