One big step forward for PTA (the Pakistan Telecom Authority), a time warp portal for 160 million Pakistanis. In the worst days of a dictatorial government this wasn’t done. An overzealous judge and an equally incompetent regulator have rolled back Pakistan into the dark ages. Suddenly without Wikipedia, without you-tube and without Google, the internet…
Category: Alchemy stuff
Karachi Status update
Roads are open, some schools are closed, traffic is variable depending on the neighborhood, given the unrest in the city last night. Lighter traffic in Gulshan going towards NIPA, reasonable going towards the city. I filled up from a PSO petrol pump on University Road and then drove through the Baloch colony express way onto…
The Google checkout update
One plus of the travel bug is that my body is thoroughly confused about the time zone I am in and the right time for me to sleep (these days it is anytime, all the time). Insomnia and Google Checkout go well together as I found out tonight experimenting with the checkout gadget. Took four…
27,000 Kilometers and counting
On 19th April when I boarded the Emirates flight to JFK, I had no idea that for the next three weeks I will be on the road. My one week trip to the US to explore new markets somehow mutated into a three week trek involving mid night flights to UAE, early morning wakeup calls…
New copies of Reboot in stock
I have managed to siphon twenty copies of Reboot from the most recent print run in Singapore on its way to Dubai and the US. Please grab your copy for 1,100 plus shipping costs from the Reboot site before they run out.
Crude Oil price outlook: Euro breaks 1.3, Oil slide to 82
Euro slides to 1.2960, while crude oil prices fall on inventory update and strong dollar after staying in the 86 neighborhood for the last few trading days. More pain ahead for Euro and Oil bulls?
Confessions of a Luddite
All these years I thought I needed a decent cell phone to be on twitter…Last night when I finally took the plunge, it was painfully apparent that as I get closer to 40, my need for a brain transplant is becoming more visible and apparent. My antiquated Nokia was not a necessary or sufficient condition……
Startup Trek: Pitching lessons
If possible always have multiple sales pitches for a meeting. A pitch could be for a product, a service, a referral or even information about the industry that isn’t widely available. For the US trip it was Alchemy Risk Manager, Outsourced research, two investment banking deal and selling Pakistan as an investment destination (product ideas…
Startup Guide: Darden Reboot Chat – transcript of the EVC, DSAS event
Thank you very much for showing up for my chat. My name is Jawwad Ahmed Farid and I am a failure. Before I became a member of Failure anonymous, I always wanted to be a winner. I wanted my own world record; see myself where you see Mr. Usain Bolt; ideally with a medal or…
Startup Mentor: Darden Reboot DSAS, EVC event
It takes a lot to fill up an empty room. Specially with smart people, who are paying good money to get a great education at a top ranked business school and have already had a roster of highly ranked speakers appear before them. But the Darden EVC and DSAS societies managed to do just that…