TIE holding TieCON 2007 in KHI with VC companies

Rozee TIE Karachi and TIE Lahore seems to have pulled together an impressive arsenal of partners for what seems to be an impressive event.

TieCON Karachi 2007 seems to be one of the biggest planned event for Entrepreneurs that I have heard of in recent years.

From the advert sent out by Rozee, the key speakers of the event are as under:

Arif Naqvi CEO, Abraaj Capital, UAE
Asad
Jamal Founder, Chairman & CEO, ePlanet Ventures, USA

Zouhair Khaliq President and CEO, Mobilink, Pakistan

Harpal Randhawa Founder and Chairman, Gem Group, UK

Shaukat Tarin Chairman, Sinthos Capital Advisors, Pakistan

Monis Rahman Founder, Chairman & CEO, Naseeb.com &
Rozee.pk
Seema Aziz Founder, Care & CEO, Bareeze,
Pakistan
Ghouse Akbar Chairman, Princely Jets, Akbar Group,
Pakistan
Amir Adnan Founder, Amir Adnan & FNK Asia,
Pakistan

Pakistani Startup Scrybe named Cool Vendor by Gartner

A promising web-based software startup that I have covered before, Scrybe, was named Cool Vendor in PC Technologies by Gartner research group. 

This is a bit interesting since Scrybe has still not officially launched yet so there is very little that Gartner has to evaluate them as a Vendor.

The Scrybe team has been busy in a lot of branding and PR activities as of late, and is also trying to race through its beta to get all of the kinks out of the system.

I would love to review their product to see if it holds up to the rating, but I supposed when you’re being covered by CNet and TechCrunch who cares about a Pakistani blog covering you, hmm?

Pakistani Startup Profile: WiXD

WiXD is a one of the first community based web startups focused on the Pakistani market, and I think it could be on to something.

It is a community where people in Pakistan can upload their music and share it with their friends.

The idea isn’t new, especially globally, but I like the super-clean treatment of it on the website. I also really like the embeddable music player they have made, which lets you embed a song of your choice from WiXD onto your website and blog.

What gets really interesting, however, is the potential this platform can have in promoting underground music in Pakistan. If WiXD adds a few more features — such as a better rating system (think Digg) and dedicated artist pages (think MySpace) then it will have the potential of giving the underground music talent in Pakistan a spot to shine and breakthrough.

After building up its platform, WiXD plans on supporting underground bands even with a virtual storefront — which would be interesting to see as a business model. I think that can work in particular among ex-pats looking for the latest music from Pakistan.

Targeting the underground is also important because upcoming artists are much more open to their content being shared. Without such a model, WiXD runs the risk of becoming another distribution channel for piracy, which can put them in pretty serious copyright infringement waters.

Even if that becomes an issue, one good thing they have on their side is that they do not actually allow downloading or digital distribution of copyrighted music, only playback. That in itself could create some interesting business models that play with the quality of the files.

Finally, it will also be interesting to see if their community thinks of more interesting uses of their platform — such as sharing poems and thought ala The Chowk, or sharing and promoting audio lectures in universities.

Regardless, I think they have a great technical engine that can allow them to do a lot over the next few months.

Side Note: Some additional things I like about WiXD is the fact that they are using a blog to communicate right from day 1, and are updating it frequently — that is a great way for a company to connect with communities.

Next: I’ll write my analysis of WiXD as a product (I told you I can’t resist that)

Cogilent Systems launches brilliant white labelled hiring product in the US

The number of Pakistan based companies vying for success in the online US market is increasing. This supports my ongoing thesis that nowadays it is possible to do so with a few catches.

Brightspyre is an interesting corporate hiring portal that companies can rebrand for their own websites. It is an interesting model, and Cogilent has racked up an impressive client list, especially because of their delicate focus on business relationships over technology.

Recently, however, they have lauched something in the US that I feel is even better.

www.personforce.com is a completely white labeled online hiring product that allows any company to host their own little version of monster.com for themselves.

You can see what that means here: http://stanforddaily.personforce.com . If you want candidates from Stanford, then post a job there (you know our telecos could afford them too).

This comes at the right time, when fully monetizing web traffic is becoming realizable — some notable ones include www.techcrunch.com, blog.guykawasaki.com, www.gigaom.com and others, who are actively run job postings on their blogs.

Why is this interesting? Because it has the potential of breaking out into the edge — if all types of event managers in Austin, Texas visit austin.citysearch.com in their to day to day work, then citysearch.com can put up a job board just for them. Then companies who want event managers know the best place to look for those people.

Another interesting thing about this is that Cogilent removes the burden of creating a brand for the board from itself — most of the website owners themselves will actively promote and expand their brand, and Cogilent should benefit from providing the platform.

Now all Cogilent has to do is figure out how to make their sales and business management automated as well — unleash an army of niche-focused resellers or managing partners and they can just sit back and enjoy their sales rack up.

Ideally, make a web-enabled portal to let the average Joe home-worker run “sales and business management” for his white-labelled HR portal business that he can promote in his specific communities — wow that would be something. Imagine the small Joe in a small town in Ohio running around selling personforce to local churches, high schools or community colleges.

Good product Cogilent, and good luck with it.

How hard is it to get US VC funding for a Pakistani Shop?

A question from the ages then. US VC Funding for startups is already hard enough as it is, but how hard is it for a Pakistan-only company to be able to do that?

Intel has a VC fund for “Middle East and Central Asia” totaling $50MM that they have been investing over the past year. Even though Pakistan was included on this, most of this money went to India.

Clearly we are making innovative products in this country, but why the difficulty raising VC funds. Is it because a lot of us never try? Is it an image problem that makes the investors uncomfortable?

When it has worked for people such as Pixsense, what has been the general approach and formula? If there standard requirement seems to be a US Presence, then are there any US based Incubation Centers for Pakistani Companies that local entrepreneurs can connect to?

I want comments from some people from the industry.

I pose this question to the following people:

• I ask this to Mr. Monis Rehman, CEO Naseeb Networks / Rozee, who I believe has a VC funded venture based out of Silicon Valley (but now mostly in Lahore)
• I ask this to Mr. Jawwad Farid, CEO Alchemy Associates, who is successfully managing a bootstrapped local startup on the verge of expanding overseas.
• I ask this to Mr. Faizan Buzdar, CEO iScrybe, who are ramping up for launch of their innovative product Scrybe

Please give me your insights through the comments.

Pakistan is leading on the web 2.0 front?

These are the type of efforts I love to hear about — a Pakistan-based startup that isn’t afraid to become a big brand against the largest competitors. I keep advocating that it is possible in today’s virtual world, and it is great to hear about other people who get it.

 

Enter Scrybe, a web2.0 application that is focusing on creating value through rich interfaces, not just on cerating better web.1.0 businesses. Right now, they are tying the change the way people think about Calendar appointments and context of those appointments. I had seen their video two months ago but I thought it was just an indian startup. Turns out they’re based in Islamabad!

 

Their product — built on Flex — looks fancy and promising in a few areas where they create unique value. Microsoft’s Outlook team could take a lot of pointers from the engineers in Islamabad working on the concept.

 

Faizan, please send me a Beta test link - I would love to review your product.

The Dot-Boom that never will… and innovations that say otherwise

I meant to write about this a few months ago.

For a few years now everyone from local startups to the government have been trumpeting the hopes of a dot-com revolution starting in Pakistan. Most of the time it is considered a simple cause-effect relationship between lower bandwidth rates and dot-com success.

I always advocate local startups to think global — be the next YouTube or Ebay or Yahoo. There are some operational hiccups in doing that but those can easily be overcome by connecting to a business-support network in the US, such as ex-pats.

But will a dot-com effort creating local solutions see success? In a word: no. In a few words: not with traditional solutions.

In fact, I would likely label what can happen in Pakistan as a Dot-Puff.

Read the rest of the post for reasons.

 

A web 2.0-based business idea that works for Pakistan, and any place that needs it

Note: I was supposed to post this back in early September but just remembered it was lying here. Enjoy.

I was reflecting recently on how flat even the playing field really is for Pakistani entrepreneurs: Can you become a $MM success starting in Islamabad today, as compared to starting in, say, Palo Alto?

I was also thinking about a business that can truly use the internet for its strengths. Not something that is online for the sake of it, but somethign that uses everything good about 2.0 technology to create value for online Pakistanis.

And with that I got an interesting idea.

Since Green & White is all about sharing free advice and ideas, here is the paper-napkin sketch.

Note: Think of this post as having an open-source license : you can use it if you want, but please dont plagiarize — at least let me know.

 

Ebay leaving China? Some related thoughts on PK

Not much to add of my own on this one, but Ebay has agreed to sell of Ebay China to tom.com

Here is the bit I found very interesting.

Two reasons are cited. First, eBay, which had as much as 90% market share in China for C2C transactions, has lost significant market share to upstart (and free) rival Taobao. eBay is now left with just less than 30% market share for C2C transactions, even after moving to eliminate transaction fees in China a few months ago.

The above would now be my response to every “bozo” I have met who thinks its impossible to sit in PK and compete against ‘the giant companies with more than 2000 engineers working on the problem’.

Three sentence answer to them:

• The market always accepts new value creation.
• Take the right product to the right people with the right message (the “story” from anyone who has taken my professionalism course)
• Focus on surviving through the long uptake cycle — i.e. keep your cash flows balanced.

So, does that mean that there is an opportunity for a local Ebay version to be successful? No. Not unless you deliver a solution relevant to Pakistan built around Pakistanis.

 

On a related but different stream of thought — there is one possible reason this would be happening.

See I have heard this briefly from some PK firms as well. Coming in to this country as a foreign investor is still difficult in some ways — if in nothing else, than because you have some more regulations, and have to be governed by the local embassy. (Side note : ofcourse foreign firms continue to pour money in Pakistan because there is so much growth and almost no initiative fails).

Some firms counter this by wrapping up the ‘PK branch of foreign company’ and register a new ‘local company’.

Maybe Ebay is doing something similar? Who knows.

4.2 : Here is the one presentation every entreprenuer and professional should watch. Period.

How many Apple Machintosh Division employees does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

One. The employee holds the lightbulb up and expects the universe to revolve around him.

…

How many Microsoft employees does it take to screw in a light bulb?

None, because Bill Gates has declared Darkness the new standard.

Guy Kawaski presented this last May at TiECON 2006 about entrepreneurship and startups, and his keynote is worth watching.

Not only does he cover the basics of presenting (Prof series 4.0) very well, he also has some great advice to give in a way people can absorb it.

See it here

The most relevant section (in my view):

The whole presentation is great, but Section 1 “Make Meaning” was more relevant.

The section I personally related to the most (because… well.. I have met plenty of “bozos” in my life)

Dont let the Bozos grind you down

- “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers” - Thomas Watson, Chariman, IBM, 1943

- “This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no use to us.” - Western Union internal memo (1876)

- “There is no reason why anyone would want a computer in their homes.” - Ken Olsen, Founder, Digital Equipment Corp. 1977.