women
According to Forbes, women are now making up a whopping 40 per cent of new entrepreneurs, indicating that more women are turning to entrepreneurship than ever before. Over the past 2-3 years, there’s been a big surge of start-ups in Pakistan as there is a lot of progress being made in Pakistan to support women entrepreneurs through incubation and one such initiative is taken by Ladiesfund through its Buraq Center.
This charitable organisation is taking its vision of ‘Watch her fly’ seriously to give Pakistani women start-ups the insight into becoming unicorns. Their ‘How To Build a Buraq’ trainings continue with Sameer Chishty, partner, SparkLabs, a network of tech start-up accelerators and tech venture capital funds in Greater China, Korea, Australia, USA, and Oman. SparkLabs has invested in more than 280 tech companies.
Recently, a 90-minute exclusive session was held which included an intense 60-minute PowerPoint followed by 30 minutes of invigorating Q&A with Chishty. He patiently answered questions regarding when, how and where to get funding from, and particularly which first steps to take. Almost 100 unique attendees participated over the course of the call, with an average of 75 participants actively engaged for an hour or more.
“The most successful entrepreneurs have extreme passion,” stated Chishty. “If you’re wondering how to get funding, investors look for growth and performance. Show me your path and what you will do with the extra money. What is the use of these additional funds? Show me where you are today and where you need to be. Show me how you are going to get there. And then you can say, here is what I need in capital,” he enunciated a practical approach to explaining the topic.
“Very few women start-ups know that they can get funded, let alone how,” said Tara Uzra Dawood, President, Dawood Global Foundation Ladiesfund. “Sameer is a guru on start-up funding and is the perfect person to bring this insight to our members,” she added. Chishty guided everyone through what he calls the ‘4 Ts of Investment Criteria - TAM (target market), Team, Technology and Transfer.’ According to Chishty, one must find the problems that are hard and that you can fix through technology, as the same industry has the same problem in other countries that someone is trying to solve.
“For the first time we faced such a lockdown in Karachi, family life was disturbed, schooling came to a standstill and I felt the weight of uncertainty for the future. Lockdown started to ease in phases, but of course, it is far from business as usual,” shared Syeda Raafia Mamujee, a Ladiesfund member and Founder of SRM Couture. “We initiated the first LF Virtual Zoom Meetings on the 8th of April 2020 - a valued initiative that helped members to interact. I remember the date well because it was my first chance to dress up since the lockdown. I found myself feeling energetic, positive, relaxed and geared up for the future. I then started to launch virtual initiatives and earning opportunities of my own. #LFVirtual is a motivation initiative, a revival of thinking creating new modules on how to help and support women entrepreneurs (especially us home grown businesses),” she enthused.
Currently, ‘How to Build a Buraq’ series continues on Wednesdays and you can see Chishty’s talk and others’ on the official YouTube channel, Facebook and website of Ladiesfund.
–– A. Jafri