Pakistan’s first Lean Startup Circle Meetup!

In 2011, Eric Ries authored “The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses” based on his experiences as an entrepreneur in highly uncertain industries and the scientific approach he formulated to create and manage start-ups in order to get a desired product to customers’ hands faster. The methodology suggests tools on how to drive a (metaphoric) start-up vehicle – how to steer, when to turn, and when to persevere – and grow a business with maximum acceleration.

Pakistani serial entrepreneur and tech guru, Faizan Laghari of Textually fame, applied the Lean Methodology to immense success with a few of his ventures over the years, based off the teaching from Eric’s blogs since 2008 and later the book as well. He swears by it and funded an information & awareness building session at Karachi’s DotZero last Sunday with an open invite to current, former and aspiring entrepreneurs to come learn the theory and hear from an entrepreneurial success story who also utilized the methodology. While Faizan covered the theoretical aspects of the framework, Babar Khan of Sociality 360 fame shared his experiences with the digital think tank, a brand called Uth Oye and Trango.co – which he formed with Adam Dawood in June 2013.

Based on audience reactions to his use of humor and analogies, the most well received take-away from his talk was the emphasis and revelation that an understanding of a B2B interpretation to the “Business Buying Decision Process” was critical to the success of Sociality 360, such that instead of creating strategies (product) that would work well for the customer (user), his firm shifted its approach to formulate strategies that worked within the confines of the brand brief (buyer) thereby lowering time between brief – presentation and campaign sale. He even talked about failing in the first few months and learning quickly that agencies planning to launch digital wings were the go-to hot spots for sales & insights, instead of opting for direct brand pitches. He even spoke about his disruptive B2B projects with Uth Oye and Trango.co, highlighting the validated learning and MVP aspects gauged by applying the methodology, ending with how the framework’s “innovative accounting” concepts played a critical role in adding a revenue model to his latest venture “Ephlux Insights” at which he is an Entrepreneur in Residence.

Notable attendees included Jehan Ara of P@SHA, Shahrukh Chaudhry of DealToday.pk, Danish Ayub of oBeeble, Hammad Bawany of Daraz.pk, the board of directors at Symbios.pk, aspiring entrepreneurs and those seeking venture partnerships. The event was exclusively sponsored by Mini Ventures with The AppJuice as the exclusive media partner for the event while Sadia’s Kitchen was the venue & refreshments partner. Media files from the event can be found here and video clips are to be uploaded soon!