5th Feb, 2018 / 2018 PAK-US Tech Exchange — Powered by Startup Grind

Twenty-two Technology Entrepreneurs Represent Pakistan at 2018 Startup Grind Global Conference

Arzish Azam
Ejad Labs
Published in
3 min readFeb 6, 2018

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Twenty-two tech entrepreneurs; selected through an extensive criteria; represented Pakistan at the 6th annual Startup Grind Global Conference, which took place February 12–14, 2018 in Silicon Valley, USA.

They were joined by more than 5,000 founders and investors from around the world and participated in more than 40 keynote and fireside sessions to exchange ideas and best practices for how to start and grow their businesses and increase job creation in Pakistan.

2018 Group at Facebook HQ

This delegation marked the launch of the 2018 PAK-US Tech Exchange, which is a week-long immersion program in Silicon Valley to create global opportunities for Pakistani technology entrepreneurs, powered by Startup Grind Pakistan and supported by Draper University, OPEN Silicon Valley, Motwani Jadeja Family Foundation, Virgin Teez and Careem Erupt. As part of this exchange program, the tech entrepreneurs had campus tours of tech giants like Google, Facebook and Apple. They also participated in the World Bank event featuring “The potential of BPO in KPK Pakistan” arranged by OPEN Silicon Valley.

Silicon Valley’s top entrepreneurship program Draper University arranged a workshop on “Exponential Thinking” for the tech entrepreneurs to get a preview of their Entrepreneur Immersion Program. The entrepreneurs were joined at the Conference by famous Silicon Valley based technology entrepreneurs, including Reid Hoffman from Linkedin / Greylock Partners, Cal Henderson from Slack, Steve Huffman from Reddit, Guy Kawasaki from Canva, and Dr. Andrew Ng from deeplearning.ai /Stanford / Coursera.

Voice of America Urdu News featuring the 2018 PAK-US Tech Exchange

“We hope to make PAK-US Tech Exchange a gateway for Silicon Valley to connect with Pakistan’s emerging entrepreneurial ecosystem.” said Chapter Director Startup Grind Islamabad; Arzish Azam, who is leading this delegation and envisioned the PAK-US Tech Exchange Program. “This is the largest independent Pakistani delegation traveling to Silicon Valley, which indicates the need our entrepreneurs face to scale their startups globally, and the help provided by Embassy of the United States in Islamabad is proof of the strong ties that exist between America and Pakistan”.

2018 Startup Grind Global Conference is Startup Grind’s largest event ever. Startup Grind is the largest international independent startup community designed to educate, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs. It is powered by Google for Entrepreneurs. Startup Grind hosts monthly events in more than 300 cities and 115 countries featuring successful local founders, innovators, educators and investors who share personal stories and lessons learned on the road to building great companies.

For more information on PAK-US Tech Exchange, please visit https://www.pakustech.com/

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Arzish Azam
Ejad Labs

CEO - Ejad Labs, Founder - PAK-US Tech Exchange, Director - Startup Grind Pakistan, Founder - Pakistan Tech Summit, Founder - Startup Grind Pakistan Conference