Pakistan — The Time Is Now
Pakistan, home to more than 200 million people, is one of the fastest growing economies in Asia.
With 4X growth in data-enabled mobile connections in the past three years, and the economy projected to grow at ~6% per year through 2026, Pakistan should have a blossoming start-up ecosystem. There should be a natural pipeline of entrepreneurs, growing venture capital investment, and promising start-ups with a clear path to becoming scalable and sustainable businesses.
The reality, however, is that Pakistan is still in the initial stages of the s-curve of Entrepreneurship. Let’s unpack this~
Pakistan is ready for liftoff, but continues to stall its own explosive growth because of the following:
- Lack of government-driven digital infrastructure
- Lack of venture funding due to lack of compelling businesses with high growth potential and ability to scale
- Lack of skilled talent to build, operate and grow successful businesses
In a post-COVID era, society cannot go back to the way things had been before. Too much was lost, both in lives and livelihoods, with a ripple effect across entire communities all over the world. In response to this, we are looking to help Pakistan recover and build our society ‘back better’ post-pandemic, in an inclusive and sustainable way
This raises the question: How has a country with a burgeoning middle class, rising digital maturity and growing internet penetration, as well as existing incumbents in key industries that are ripe for disruption, avoided the eye of Silicon Valley’s finest for so long?
What will unlock the true potential of Pakistan’s ecosystem and fuel the emergence of local-grown high growth, sustainable, technology businesses?
A McKinsey report on entrepreneurship in Pakistan stated: “ […] the government and the private sector must work together for the country to reach its full potential. While the government can create a facilitating environment for startups to flourish, the private sector should be looking to create value through funding the next big disruption. Collectively they can cultivate the right talent to unleash a digital revolution in a country that is equipped to take off.”
The sixth most populous country in the world, Pakistan, also has the fifth largest youth population in the world absolute terms, with roughly half the population under the age of 25..
Entrepreneurship in Pakistan is already on the rise — since 2010, ~720 startups have been established (67% still active) with ~100 successfully raising funding (more funding [$70M+] in the last year than in the past decade)
World class tech talent is hard to find and venture capital talent is rarer, and attracting this pipeline requires a different approach to talent acquisition, development, and performance management best practices.
In the near-to-medium term, to develop the startup ecosystem: you need to develop talent to drive innovation — not to mention there is a wide & increasing gap between the number of undergraduates enrolled and the internships available each year, which means finding and securing one is a cumbersome process.
This is a huge call to action and with COVID-19.. THE need of the hour; the only way to sustain and supercharge Pakistan’s next wave of economic opportunity..
Pakistan’s tech ecosystem is growing exponentially and will lead the country’s next economic revolution. Pakistani startups have raised more funding (~$80 million) in the last year than they have in the past decade. More funding means more opportunities, and a growing need for talent — enter Venture For Pakistan.
We are the platform to help cultivate local talent and build Pakistan’s tech ecosystem from the ground up.
Our initial offering, the Venture for Pakistan Fellowship, recruits top pakistani early career talent, puts them through rigorous training supplemented with a robust industry-focused curriculum and matches them with hands-on internship opportunities at startups. Fellows then receive 1:1 coaching and mentorship from industry professionals at top technology companies such as Google, Facebook, Amazon, Uber etc, on how to break into tech, its various career paths and the art of packaging work experiences on to resumes and in interviews.
Globally, there have been three models leveraged to cultivate talent for startups: tapping into the university ecosystem; digital skills and industry-focused learning; and connecting expats with innovation in their home countries — our offering combines all three to produce the kind of talent needed to engage the digital revolution in a country that is ready to takeoff..
This is Entrepreneurship 2.0 for the Developing World.
This is Venture for Pakistan. Fellows Today. Founders Tomorrow
Early Career Talent — if you’re ready to be a fellow today, a founder tomorrow — apply here and join the community
Partners — strong startups depend on great talent. build your team with VFP Fellows and train the founders of tomorrow.
Reach out at partnerships@venturepakistan.co to build Pakistan’s ecosystem from the ground up.
