Kalsoom Lakhani on Her Life, Startups and Impact Entrepreneurs Can Create
The founder of invest2innovate Kalsoom Lakhani talks to Shahrukh Wani about what matters to her the most
Kalsoom Lakhani has had a global life, born in Dubai, to a Bangladeshi mother and a Pakistani father, Kalsoom was raised in Dhaka and Islamabad before receiving her B.A from University of Virginia and an M.A from George Washington University. She has kept the global nature of her life alive, and divides her time between Washington D.C.and Islamabad where Invest2Innovate’s Pakistan office is based.
She has steered Invest2Innovate, which she founded in 2011, to become one the leading supporters of the startup community in Pakistan. Over the coming years, Kalsoom aims to expand i2i as the one stop shop for both investors and startups in growth markets.
Shahrukh Wani sat down with Kalsoom.
The content is produced independently by millennialpk as part of its Startup Series which is supported by the National Incubation Center and the Invest2Innovate.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Shahrukh: Tell me a bit how you started your career and how you got interested in Pakistan.
Kalsoom: After graduate school in 2006, I was hired by a strategic communications firm doing work in defense contracting, because I felt my voice as a Muslim working with the U.S. military in the middle of two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was important. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot of change I could make, especially at my level.
While I was working at this job I hated, in early 2008, right after Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, I decided to start a blog called CHUP, which was a critical analysis blog on what was happening in Pakistan. I used my skill set that I had developed at work as a research analyst, but repurposed that to not only analyse politics in Pakistan, but also writing about artists, change-makers and filmmakers, the topics not covered in the Western news about Pakistan. Running this website exposed me to so many people and perspectives on the ground in Pakistan and it really fueled me.So for almost four years, I was working during the day and writing at night.
Shahrukh: Thats quite interesting. So why that career switch?
Kalsoom: In 2008, I switched jobs and worked in venture philanthropy, and began to dive deep into the global impact space — attending conferences, administering grants, and trying to learn as much as possible. It’s then when I realised the gaps that existed in the social impact space globally. There was so much opportunity in markets like Pakistan, Nigeria, Vietnam, and other growth markets, but no one was paying attention to them because it was Pakistan, it was Nigeria. They are countries we find to be messy. But I see beauty in the mess. I see potential and opportunity in that.
In 2011, there was some activity in Pakistan’s startup space, but things were still fairly nascent. I launched i2i then, and ran our first accelerator program in 2012. i2i has grown organically — we’re not just an accelerator program anymore, but also are moving into investment and build & release comprehensive and groundbreaking research and data to help people understand this market.
Shahrukh: The space has really blossomed over the past few years.
Kalsoom: Yes. There’s a lot of activity but also noise in the space right now, which is not a bad thing, but is a symptom of entrepreneurship becoming “sexy.” The reality is that this work is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. We won’t see results or success tomorrow. So if you want to be in this space, it takes real work.
Shahrukh: How do you see the explosion of these incubators and accelerators across the country?
Kalsoom: I think the problem is there’s a general focus on outputs versus outcomes, i.e., on the number of startups these programs are graduating versus on the quality of the companies at the end of our programs, which is also indicative of how much value incubators & accelerators provide to their cohorts.
Shahrukh: In Pakistan, we tend to focus on the size, the hardware, not so much on the quality.
Kalsoom: Yes. If you look at the startup map i2i released a few months ago, you may be impressed with the numbers of initiatives happening in Pakistan’s major cities. But the question we should be asking is about the quality of those initiatives and if they provide real value to the startup space. The reality is that you have to ignore the noise in order to actually know who’s doing things well. We need more accountability in our startup space as a whole if we really want to see success stories emerge from Pakistan.
Shahrukh: So whats the holding the space back?
Kalsoom: We need to ask the right questions, Why aren’t investors investing? Why do they take so much equity? There is also a lot of perceived risk in this space, so we need to mitigate that risk, and design solutions to allow for more transparency.
The problem isn’t liquidity. We have money in this country. The problem is that it’s not all smart money. I think there’s a lot of education needed on all sides in order for us be able to have a space that is able to mature properly and grow.
Shahrukh: I remember reading it somewhere, that the ecosystem in Pakistan is becoming a bubble.
Kalsoom: I think to a certain degree, yes. There’s a lot of money that’s coming into this space because it’s cool to work with startups. The problem is what happens when that money runs out.
I think there is a bubble where there are so many incubators producing companies, but are all of those startups investable? We are doing a disservice to young entrepreneurs if we’re not focused on creating better value for their companies. I wouldn’t want to invest in a startup that’s only jumping from program to program, but that happens too often in Pakistan right now.
Shahrukh: I think startups forget that it’s a business at the end of the day.
Kalsoom: Yes, it’s a business! It’s a hard market to be in, but at the end of the day for these entrepreneurs, it is not good for them to be put in a place where they’re constantly being patted on their back and told: “you’re awesome”. I’m not accusing anyone as much as I am holding a mirror to ourselves.
Shahrukh: What advise would you give to individuals wanting to start a startup?
Kalsoom: Don’t start a startup because it’s cool to start a startup right now. Don’t start a company justbecause you want to make a lot of money;the reality is that you won’t make money for a while, if you do at all. Build a business because you love the idea; because there’s an urgent problem that you are looking to fix with your solution, and the way you aim to do it is different and better than your competitors. Focus on execution.
Ask yourself, can you imagine waking up and not working on your idea. The minute you stop loving what you do, loving it from the core of who you are, is the day you should stop working on it. I think that’s for me why I’ve been doing this for so long.
Shahrukh: Do you think that the startup ecosystem can be a catalyst for greater gender equality?
Kalsoom: Of course! I remember I was on a panel a few years ago and the moderator asked the paneli sts, “What industry should women go into?” My answer was, “Every Industry!” The sky’s the limit.
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