Salman Altaf, a techie at heart and a leader in the making, secured his first technical project on Freelancer when he was just in Grade 9th. He started off as an ethical hacker and later moved to build his expertise in digital marketing and search engine optimization.
By Grade 11th, he was earning a decent revenue to buy his first car. Little did he know that Freelancer will shut down his account for being under-age, blocking access to his earnings. He later enrolled in the Institute of Southern Punjab to study Computer Science. However, life has something else planned for him. Altaf was expelled from the program after failing an e-commerce course. He scored only six points out of 100. That’s when he decided to pursue his entrepreneurial dream.
What is Blue Cascade?
In 2017, Altaf launched Blue Cascade, an e-commerce solutions agency. Blue Cascade sources e-commerce products from China to sell in American and European markets. They are operating multiple brands offering a diverse range of products on global e-commerce websites.
Altaf’s first goal was to build a highly motivated team. Due to his age, sometimes Altaf faced difficulty convincing employees to join his team, but when he would share about his past experience, it would no longer be a challenge. Starting with just 10 team members, Blue Cascade grew to 40 employees in just six months. Currently, the company boasts a team of over 100 employees. Altaf shares,
“We can still add a lot of people, but now my motivation is different. I want to empower the team I have already built, with a purpose to do only meaningful and quality work.”
Just in a year, products of Blue Cascade are being sold on Amazon, eBay, Alibaba, and a few more. The e-commerce agency has also acquired a US-based company, Phaiser, that manufactures Bluetooth headphones. Phaiser’s products enjoy growing popularity on Amazon. Blue Cascade is also signing a partnership to operate the e-commerce extension of a German brand, d.ventures.
Altaf shares that he is not serving local clients and his maximum work are for Amazon users. He finds the local e-commerce system very challenging to work in. He shares,
“When I started this venture, it made sense to me how vendors were bypassing taxes. Therefore, I decided to focus on Amazon and started selling products. In the coming months, I am launching more products for Amazon.”
Building an e-commerce solution comes with its own challenges. Altaf finds digital marketing to have become more tricky over the years. With stricter content guidelines in place, it becomes difficult when Facebook and Instagram block accounts with little information. Getting patents and registrations also slow down the operations sometimes. He also finds leadership to be a daunting task when his real passion lies in tech.
What’s next for this young entrepreneur?
When asked, if he’d like to back to school and complete his education, Altaf shares,
“No, I am not going back to school. I believe, educational institutes only teach basic skills such as language and mathematics that can be learned in one to two years. To become a skilled professional, all you need is to practice the skill.”
Moving forward, the young entrepreneur wants to reflect upon his weaknesses to become a better leader and grow his team. He advises young entrepreneurs to,
“Increase your exposure and do not rebuild ideas. See how you can add value in the local market. Focus on the idea instead of overthinking about the directions to make it work. It is absolutely an amazing feeling when you build something on your own and people use it.”
This piece has been published with the collaboration of Blue Cascade and doesn’t necessarily reflect the views of TechJuice editorial staff.
