Archive for October, 2009

And the reviews keep rolling in

After much arm twisting and threats from unknown origin, Adnan Haider, ex student, fellow judge, old friend weighs in with his opinion on Reboot. It appears that Adnan has been spending too much time with Richard Morgan since he has also started speaking like Takeshi Kovacs. That and I think his new prescription glasses are [...]

October 29, 2009   Posted in: Alchemy stuff  2 Comments

Robert Ferrigno, Reboot and me…

My favorite hangout is a large format bookstore. Think anywhere in the world, think library stacks, think of Borders, think of me. Three years ago on a business trip to Malaysia, a new fiction release caught my eye. It had an interesting cover, sort of a patchwork of the US flag and the Islamic Crescent [...]

October 27, 2009  Tags: , , , , , ,   Posted in: Alchemy stuff  No Comments

Glenn Hubbard, Reboot and me

I was a brash and ambitious desi with a business plan at Columbia. Glenn was part of the entrepreneurial faculty at the school. We met and exchanged notes on the sidelines of Amar Bhide’s chat about his upcoming book, “The origin and evolution of new businesses”. A few months later when I lost out during [...]

October 27, 2009  Tags: , , , , , ,   Posted in: Alchemy stuff  No Comments

Jehan and the TieCon Speaker’s interview series

Jehan goes on the road with her flip to capture the TieCon speakers before they put on their show in Karachi on 4th November. Jawwad Ahmed Farid talks about his Entrepreneurial experience from Jehan Ara on Vimeo.

October 25, 2009  Tags: , , ,   Posted in: Alchemy stuff  One Comment

The things I need to do…

When Mohtashim and Jehan both rubbed my nose about not being active on face book post the PASHA Tech Crunch Buzz, I finally gave up on my two year vow to abstain from any non-linked in social media/marketing opportunity. The desi back to desh dude is now open for business on Facebook. First reaction. Talk [...]

October 21, 2009  Tags: ,   Posted in: Alchemy stuff  3 Comments

Remembering Salman

I knew him as the Dear Salman I inscribed on his copy of Reboot. ZAK woke me up with his post tonight and I found out that he was also a blogger and just like the rest of us, someone as fascinated by life as he was by code. Didn’t have all the details and [...]

October 20, 2009  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Alchemy stuff  No Comments

Infrastructure update

Can you guess the name of this city? Courtesy MB’s post on metblog. A quick look through the selected pictures shows how far we have come on the infrastructure side in the last four years.  

October 18, 2009  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Alchemy stuff  No Comments

And the winner is

MindStorm Studios and Cricket Revolution did a clean sweep today at the PASHA ICT Awards. In addition to picking up the winner slot for the digital media category they also sweeped the PASHA Tech Crunch Gong Award for a 1,000 US$. Mindstorm/Babar combo was deadly enough for Chairman PASHA to give up his welcome address [...]

October 14, 2009  Tags: , , , ,   Posted in: Desi Startup, PASHA, PASHA ICT Awards, Pakistan, Startup, entrepreneurs, new ventures  One Comment

Steve Jobs in Karachi or why I feel old or welcome to the future

Yesterday for the first time in many years I actually felt old and irrelevant. As part of the pre-PASHA Award event we took a sneak peak at the 10 odd companies that were competing at the PASHA TECH CRUNCH GONG show on 14th October. Two of participants were very good. The first pitched their idea [...]

October 14, 2009  Tags: , , , ,   Posted in: Desi Back to Desh, Desi Startup, Karachi, PASHA, PASHA ICT Awards, Pakistan, Startup Insiders, entrepreneurs, small business  One Comment

Springfield/Vimble/Umair Khan Jadoon

How to break into social media when you are underpaid, under appreciated over worked blogger. The return of Lassi as a key presentation theme

October 14, 2009  Tags: , , ,   Posted in: Desi Back to Desh, Desi Startup, Failure, PASHA, PASHA ICT Awards, Pakistan, entrepreneurs  No Comments

Pakistan Maps

NED student, puts CDGK information on Google Maps. Pilot launched with Gulshan Iqbal Town dataset.

October 14, 2009  Tags: , , , ,   Posted in: Alchemy stuff  No Comments

Mamoo in Pakistan

A project of the team behind Tohfay.com. Aimed at expat Pakistani’s but now also serving local customers with local needs. Getting your own birth certificate from Lahore when you are sitting in London. No images but still a great pitch by Mehdi. Technology, Trust, Alliances and Branding.

October 14, 2009  Tags: , , , ,   Posted in: Alchemy stuff  No Comments

Txtanium

SMS for the enterprise. Starts off well but then gets into a technical pitch. Prop Hardware that allows messages to go out at a rate of 5000 messages per minute. Focus on SME sector and branded communications for groups and subgroups.

October 14, 2009  Tags: , , , ,   Posted in: Alchemy stuff  No Comments

Gangwars, Geniteam

Impressive numbers but just went off track. Great product and idea but the pitch could have been better.

October 14, 2009  Tags: , , , ,   Posted in: Alchemy stuff  No Comments

Readers Club Karachi

Online library service with home delivery in Karachi. Promoting the culture of reading, Netflix for books. Two kids with operations and logistics management background optimizing library sciences for a Not-For-Profit business in Karachi.

October 14, 2009  Tags: , , , ,   Posted in: Alchemy stuff  No Comments