Waqar Rashid Nagi:The Ambitious Entrepreneur

Waqar Rashid Nagi,is an alumni of SZABIST and ex-treasurer of  SZABIST  Entrepreneurial Society.
He started his venture with zero capital in 2012 and evolve’s functioning  philosophy can be summed up with their Tag line “Be Better. Be Customized”.They  are the pioneer’s in the online industry in bringing out a brand that caters to customer’s requirements and provides a “custom fit”/stitched product that continues to change the perception about buying products made of high quality Egyptian fabrics online . They currently deliver shirts all over Pakistan and  they have quite a big number of loyal customers who Waqar calls his  ‘Evolvers’.

Waqar says that believing in yourself is the key to launching a start-up. He further comments that “Accepting challenges and always being ready to accept change is fundamental. I design the posters for Evolve myself, I learned Photoshop from Youtube (at the time it used to be open) and yes, I have learned it to the extent that I know all what is taught at the SZABIST workshops. I made sure that when I start, I don’t have an excuse to say ‘No’ to something”.

In 10 years time, Waqar sees Evolve to be one of the Best and well renowned brands for men’s clothing in Pakistan with more than 100 SKUs or unique products.

In the end he adds ,”We have a long way to go, as our imagination is not limited as is the road to success”.

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Harris Jaliawala

Coming from a business background family, Harris searched for self -employment which he achieved with his business partner ,Aftab Dhanani, on October 2012, with their start-up Infinity Design. Infinity design is an IT and design solution company  that deals with customized IT solutions for organizations and individuals. It also provides design and branding services including content creation and social media campaign designing. It started by serving student societies in SZABIST only but now they have corporate clients as well in an expanding list of clientele. Studying Mechatronics at SZABIST Haris believes that best way to launch a  start-up is to go for it as soon as you think of an idea .He always focused on customer satisfaction instead of marketing gimmicks and this got him good reputation in the industry.  Harris ,who is also the treasurer in SZABIST Student Council wants to stay busy and prosper with his start-up in the years ahead.

Farrukh Bhabha:The Specialist

The journey started when Farukh bhabha was an intern in an institution that worked with 3D printers. Farukh learnt all that there was about 3D printing. He realized that Pakistan is lacking behind in this amazing technology and this motivated him to start his own business in this field. So it began with a group thesis project where each member contributed 25000 to work on their first 3D printer. With encouragement from Dr Imran Amin and initial capital injection of Rs450000, Farrukh later turned this assignment into a successful start-up.

Today, he is working from his home with two employees and have been serving their customers for 6 months now. From a student making a robotic arm to an average household consumer, they can print anything one can imagine.

Farrukh wants to create magic with his 3D printing and let his competitors know that they are a major force in this industry.

Humza Syed: The Passionate Entrepreneur

Humza Syed

Humza Syed, SZABIST student

As a kid he was always fascinated by how some pictures looked so amazing. He always wondered how photography and editing made people look more radiant in their pictures. His curiosity in arts made him choose his career in this field. Syed got a film camera from his grandfather and somehow managed to buy a DSLR as well from saving his lunch money.

Humza started off by giving free services in various societies of SZABIST which helped increase his networking opportunities. Launched in 2010, Humza Syed Photography now covers brand launches and wedding shoots etc. This success did not come easy as he had to sacrifice his family time in order to achieve his goal because studying and pursuing career at the same time is not a piece of cake. In future he would like to see himself shooting for magazine covers and fashion shows.

Safwan Ummer Butt: The Avant Garde Entrepreneur

Being a Computer Science student Safwan knew exactly what it takes to be an IT developer. When he entered the corporate world, he realized that the IT department was not appreciated enough for their hard work. So he along with his friends Syed Faraz Meer, Hamza Nagi, Shariq Burney decided that they would start a company of their own where such de-emphasized workers would be given their due credit.

Sub-Tech Solutions provide start-ups with an IT infrastructure, business plan and help in setting their goals at knock down prices. His business had a very rough start but eventually everything turned out to be exactly as it was supposed to.

According to Safwan, entrepreneurs are more far sighted than people who work for others. They make their place in the future and affect people with their actions instead of words.

Fareed Ahmed: The Prodigious Entrepreneur

Not everyone is made for a 9 to 5 job, Fareed Ahmad is one of them. With entrepreneurship in his genes and a drive to achieve something big, the computer science prodigy from SZABIST is working hard every day for the success of his start-up. He alongside his friend Mohammad Ghazanfar launched ‘Digixtron’ in 2011 with no office and just 3 employees. Today ‘Digixtron’ provides solutions to firms in technology software and cyber- security and has a big office with a workforce of 15.

They function on the belief that entrepreneurship is all about the adrenaline rush which comes from putting the idea into execution and for this they have a thing called NBT (Next Big Thing) where everyone, from a peon to the manager, shares his or her idea once a week and this is how they have managed to survive and thrive in the market.

Atta Azad: The Innovative Entrepreneur

Atta Azad

With his father’s retirement coming close, Atta realized that he had to become financially stable so that he could support his family. Being in just the 7^th semester of BBA, Atta is the founding person of two companies and he recently launched his own online store as well.

SceneOn.pk is the only website in Pakistan that provides online auction of exceptional products. Launched this year only in June, the website is growing rapidly with increasing traffic and bids for various products offered. They don’t just offer local products but international brands as well like Adidas and Armani etc.

Atta believes that by applying theory into the real world, SZABISTIANS will start to enjoy their studies as well.

Also he emphasized,”Don’t wait for the right time; make this your right time”.

INNOVATE: SZABIST’s Only Entrepreneurial Magazine

This semester, INNOVATE brings you true stories of entrepreneurs, advice on how to start your business and the profiles of the successful men in Pakistan. INNOVATE started from a group of students who wanted to bring about a magazine dealing with the difficult and often crushing task of starting a business. One of the toughest challenge, which we found through our research and interviews, was amongst the hardest too which turned out to be none other than our self. The desire to quit again and again is overwhelming and the solution is to simply endure the hardship until you find that the desire to quit is superseded by the desire to succeed. It is why we covered the stories of entrepreneurs so much.

INNOVATE’s stall at 100 Campus

To ensure that you overcome the various challenges which come your way. We have also provided articles helping you on how to overcome major challenges when launching your start-up and we hope that they will be of any help to you. Furthermore, we would like to thank all our sponsors for their contribution. Good luck and we hope you enjoy the magazine!!

INNOVATE’s Sponsors

Danial Haider: The Opportunist

After winning the SZABIST Marketing Competition in 2014, Danial Haider along with his friends Asad Ayub and Taqi Raza realized that if they could transcend the 8 universities that took part in the competition then they could start their own business too. The competition, sponsored by Raymond, was about creating a completely new product and making an analytical report of the finance, marketing and design of the product and the winning team was given 30,000 as cash prize. Shortly after winning this competition their startup came into existence.

Danial never underestimated himself and always believed that in order to enlarge the future comfort zones one must let go of his present comfort zones. He decided to market his product at the Ideas Explosion’14 which gave him the opportunity to meet the representative of kaymu.pk who took his brand onboard and now Mystery Clothing has grown so much that it exports women clothing abroad and sells its product range via facebook.

He’s proud to be a SZABISTIAN and SZABIST is proud of students like him.

Tahir Rasul: The Perseverant Entrepreneur

Tahir’s entire perspective about life changed when he lost his father. At a very young age, he had his entire family to take care of unlike most of today’s teenage generation.Tahir took on his responsibility in a very mature way and decided to start a business but at the same time he didn’t let go of his education. He got himself registered in a bachelor’s program at SZABIST where he readily embarked on a bold new venture to challenge himself and change the fate of his family.

Thus, in January 2011 he started a courier business  with the name of “Chartered Mail and logistics (CML)”. The business had a very modest start because not a lot of people knew about it so he decided to market it by setting up a stall at the Ideas Explosion’12 held at SZABIST on 6^th of October 2012. This event took his business to a whole new level as of now about 95 percent of all SZABIST start-ups and businesses are his clients. Today CML provides Courier, Cargo and Logistics Services to over 300 destinations from Karachi and has its revenue in millions. This is all due to his mother’s blessings, her prayers and his hard work.

Tahir had faith in the potential of his start-up that’s why he didn’t get distracted when he got job offers from companies that were willing to pay him very tempting salaries. He also didn’t let the world demotivate him by rejecting his partnership proposals.

He proved to everyone that with perseverance you can achieve your dreams.