Monis Rahman

entrepreneur and engineer behind Dukan

Compiled from 1 recorded interview. Every statement below is drawn from the passage cited beside it.

Monis Rahman is the founder of Naseeb Networks, Rozee.pk, Finja, Dukan.pk. Rahman moved from Lahore to the US at about three and a half years old, because his father was there. His father was doing a PhD in the US, and the family moved there with him.

Early life and background

Rahman moved from Lahore to the US at about three and a half years old, because his father was there. His father was doing a PhD in the US, and the family moved there with him. The family moved to Riyadh when Rahman was eight, because his father had a UN job there. [1]

Education

Rahman did his elementary schooling in the US. He also moved to Karachi and attended a school there. He earned engineering and computer degrees in Wisconsin. [1]

Intel and AMD

Rahman joined Intel in 1993. He worked in San Jose. At Intel he worked on the microprocessor team that builds the Pentium and Pentium Pro, and his team was working on a new chip called Itanium. He has said he received some patents. He moved from Intel to AMD, where he worked on another chip. [1]

Internet startups

Rahman has said he was in the middle of the dot-com bubble. He quit his jobs to start an internet startup during the bubble. At that startup he was a hardware engineer who also wrote software. He has said the startup's early product streamed live camera video through a web browser, and that it planned cameras in all US daycare centres and installed about 3,000 of them. [1]

According to Rahman, the startup raised venture capital from major investors, and one of the investors used to sit on his board. He has also said he helped create several startups earlier in his career. [1]

Rozee

Rahman describes Rozee as his first venture in Pakistan's online internet space. He has said Rozee was not the first in its field and was the 30th one. Rozee started when job ads were still printed in newspapers. He calls himself a dinosaur because he was among the first in online ventures in Pakistan. [1]

Finja

According to Rahman, Finja holds an EMI licence and an NBFC licence. He has described it as the only fintech in the country with both of those licences. He has said Finja built the first smartphone-based mobile wallet and offers early wage access against salaries. He has also said retailers grew 40 percent on Finja when they borrowed to buy stock. [1]

Rahman has said 50,000 loans have been given to small stores, with a repayment rate of 99.6 percent. He has said the loans carry no collateral, and late payments are followed up by phone call. He has also said banks take no risk on small merchants because there is no data on them. [1]

Dukan

Rahman has described Dukan as his newest venture and said it is growing well. He has said Dukan and Finja are separate companies, and that loans from Dukan will go out as a partnership with Finja. He has described Dukan as the e-commerce operating system for MSMEs in the country, and as a Lego block for e-commerce. [1]

According to Rahman, Dukan has a point-of-sale (POS) system built in. He has said the POS lets eight people work in one branch and 100 people across branches. He has said a seller can open a shop on a smartphone within one minute and 29 seconds, and that there is no cost to open a shop on Dukan. He has said his company will never charge its sellers a transaction fee, and that charging a fee would go against the company's goal and mission. [1]

Rahman has said the number of sellers on Dukan was about 100,000 two months earlier and has since doubled, and that Dukan now has about 200,000 sellers. He has also said orders are not coming in because sellers do not know how to get them, so the order rate is low. [1]

Rahman has said his team has launched a social media advertising platform inside the product. It includes an ad creator that makes a seller's ad look good. He has said the ad buying is entirely automated with no human involvement, and that ad campaigns are optimised dynamically by AI. He has also said experts review each transaction before the ads are switched on, and that some of these new things may fail. [1]

According to Rahman, partner services including Trax are being integrated into the app. He has said credit card, JazzCash and EasyPaisa payments come pre-integrated, and that incoming cash goes into the user's wallet instantly. He has said a mapping service is integrated into the back end for GPS address mapping. [1]

Jobs and training

Rahman has said his team is starting a boot camp. He has said they will guarantee trainees a starting salary of 60,000 rupees, and that participants have to pay 60,000 rupees. The boot camp promises that salaries will rise to 75,000 rupees within three months. Rahman has described it as a test to see how many people they can train. [1]

He has said about 2 million new people enter the job market each year without the skills they need. He has also said his team has a site for blue-collar jobs. [1]

Views

Rahman has said Pakistan's largest asset is its population, and that the same population becomes the biggest liability if there are no jobs. He has said he has always been optimistic about Pakistan. He has said China lifted its whole population out of poverty, and that a similar change could happen in Pakistan, which he does not see as impossible. He sees education as a massive opportunity and has said that one day he will do something in education. [1]

On startups, Rahman has said collaboration gives faster growth for all players in the startup ecosystem, and that Pakistani companies should work with Pakistani companies. He has said failure should be embraced because the one who failed was a hero, and that many startups will raise money and fail. He has said PayPal was the most fascinating part for him, and that retail and fintech attract funding because they are proven models elsewhere. [1]

Personal life

Rahman has said he is 51 years old. He has said he moved back to Pakistan and calls it his country. He has also said that after his mother died he wanted to make her nihari reach the world and let people feel her love. [1]

Timeline

1993
Joined Intel[1]

Appearances

DateTitleWhere
2021-10-20 Why Monis Rahman won't charge sellers on Dukan Thought Behind Things

Frequently asked questions

What does Monis Rahman do?

Monis Rahman works on ventures including Dukan, which he describes as his newest venture. He has described Dukan as the e-commerce operating system for MSMEs in the country. He has also said Finja holds an EMI licence and an NBFC licence.[1]

Where did Monis Rahman study?

Monis Rahman did his elementary schooling in the US and also attended a school in Karachi. He earned engineering and computer degrees in Wisconsin.[1]

Where is Monis Rahman from?

Monis Rahman moved from Lahore to the US at about three and a half years old, because his father was there. The family moved to Riyadh when he was eight, and he also attended a school in Karachi. He has said he moved back to Pakistan and calls it his country.[1]

What did Monis Rahman do at Intel?

Monis Rahman joined Intel in 1993 and worked on the microprocessor team that builds the Pentium and Pentium Pro. His team there was working on a new chip called Itanium. He later moved from Intel to AMD.[1]

What is Dukan, according to Monis Rahman?

Monis Rahman describes Dukan as the e-commerce operating system for MSMEs in the country. He has said there is no cost to open a shop on Dukan, and that a seller can open a shop on a smartphone within one minute and 29 seconds. He has also said his company will never charge its sellers a transaction fee.[1]

What is Finja, according to Monis Rahman?

Monis Rahman has said Finja holds an EMI licence and an NBFC licence. He has described it as the only fintech in the country with both of those licences, and has said it built the first smartphone-based mobile wallet.[1]

What was Monis Rahman's first venture in Pakistan?

Monis Rahman describes Rozee as his first venture in Pakistan's online internet space. He has said Rozee was not the first in its field and was the 30th one. He has also said it started when job ads were still printed in newspapers.[1]

References

  1. Why Monis Rahman won't charge sellers on Dukan . Thought Behind Things , 2021-10-20.
Show the source passages (86 statements)
  1. He describes Rozee as his first venture in Pakistan's online internet space. Rozee, uh, was my first foray into the online internet venture space in Pakistan
  2. He calls himself a dinosaur because he was among the first in online ventures in Pakistan. I guess we were the first, which is why, you know, I disparagingly call myself a dinosaur, and people think it's a compliment.
  3. He says his newest venture is Dukan, which he says is growing well. I'm spending a lot of my time on, uh, on the newest venture with dukan.pk, which, uh, you know, is growing very well.
  4. He says Finja holds an EMI licence and an NBFC licence. Finja has two. It has a EMI license and it has a NBFC license.
  5. He says Finja is the only fintech in the country with both of those licences. It's the only fintech in the country jiske paas yeh do licenses hain SECP aur State Bank se.
  6. He says Finja and Dukan are separate companies. Do separate companies hain obviously.
  7. He says loans from Dukan will go out as a partnership with Finja. Toh dukan ki yeh jo loans jayenge as a partner with Finja
  8. He moved from Lahore to the US at about three and a half years old, because his father was there. Jab main saade teen saal ka tha, main Lahore se US chala gaya kyunki mere abbu wahan par thay.
  9. His father was doing a PhD in the US, and the family moved there with him. Woh apna PhD udhar woh kar rahe thay toh unke saath hum bhi ho gaye, shift ho gaye.
  10. He did his elementary schooling in the US. Aur phir meri saari elementary schooling US mein hui thi.
  11. The family moved to Riyadh when he was eight, because his father had a UN job there. Jab main aath saal ka tha toh hum Riyadh chale gaye kyunki mere walid sahab ki wahan par job thi, UN mein.
  12. He moved to Karachi and attended a school there. Main Karachi aa gaya tha, American School in Karachi.
  13. He earned engineering and computer degrees in Wisconsin. Wisconsin, apni engineering aur computer ki degrees wahan se ki.
  14. He joined Intel in 1993. 1993, uh, main Intel chala gaya.
  15. At Intel he worked on the microprocessor team that builds the Pentium and Pentium Pro. Aur Intel mein maine naukri ki inke jo microprocessor team jo hai, wohi team jo banati hai, the Pentium jo banati hai, Pentium Pro.
  16. At Intel his team was working on a new chip called Itanium. Us waqt hamara ek new chip tha, uska naam tha Itanium, latest and greatest chip.
  17. He says he received some patents. I got some of the patents, did some very cool things.
  18. He worked in San Jose. Yeh, uh, tha San Jose mein tha.
  19. He moved from Intel to AMD. Aur phir wahan se main AMD, I moved to AMD.
  20. At AMD he worked on another chip. Udhar I was working on also another chip.
  21. He says he was in the middle of the dot-com bubble. I was right in the middle of the bubble.
  22. He quit his jobs to start an internet startup during the bubble. Kyunki us waqt kya hua tha ki maine apni saari jobs quit karke, haan, uh, maine kaha ki I'm doing an internet startup.
  23. At that internet startup he was a hardware engineer who also wrote software. halanki main hardware engineer tha, but software mein bhi I was enjoying doing things in software, so I would program.
  24. He says the startup's early product streamed live camera video through a web browser. Humne toh yeh browser ke through live streaming, jo ki aaj, aaj aam hai
  25. He says the startup planned cameras in all US daycare centres and installed about 3,000 of them. Humne kaha ki we will put up cameras in all the daycare centers, US ke andar ek lakh ke kareeb hain. Toh takreeban 3000 mein humne apne install kar diye
  26. He says the startup raised venture capital from major investors. We raised VC funding aur humne bade zabardast investors se us waqt raise kiye thay paise.
  27. He says one of the investors used to sit on his board. Toh us waqt woh investor aaye toh he used to be on my board
  28. He says he helped create several startups earlier in his career. yeh jo startups jo maine earlier in my career that I have helped, uh, create
  29. He says Finja built the first smartphone-based mobile wallet. Finja mein when we made the first smartphone based mobile wallet
  30. He says Finja offers early wage access against salaries. Finja also does uh advanced uh early wage access for your salaries.
  31. He says 50,000 loans have been given to small stores, with a repayment rate of 99.6 percent. 50,000 loans humne diye hain chote chote stores ko aur hamara repayment rate 96, sorry, 99.6% hai.
  32. He says the loans carry no collateral, and late payments are followed up by phone call. No collateral, phone call ki basis pe ji aapki late payment aapne deni hai.
  33. He says banks take no risk on small merchants because there is no data on them. is mulk mein masla yeh hai ke data nahi hai aur kyunki data nahi hai, banks inke upar risk nahi lete.
  34. He says Dukan has a point-of-sale (POS) system built in. Yaar woh actually already hai toh dukan ke andar ek POS hai.
  35. He says the POS lets eight people work in one branch and 100 people across branches. aath log ek saath kaam kar sakte hain ek branch mein across branches, 100 people kaam kar sakte hain
  36. He says a seller can open a shop on a smartphone within one minute and 29 seconds. koi bhi apne smartphone ke upar within one minute, 29 seconds we say, aap apna shop khol sakte hain.
  37. He says there is no cost to open a shop on Dukan. Zero. Aapke liye koi cost nahi hai
  38. He says his company will never charge its sellers a transaction fee. hum apne seller se kabhi koi fee nahi lenge transaction ki
  39. He says charging sellers a fee would go against the company's goal and mission. Kyunki agar unse fee lenge, yeh hamare poore jo goal hai, jo mission hai, uske yeh against hai.
  40. He says the number of sellers on Dukan was about 100,000 two months earlier and has since doubled. yeh number do mahine pehle 1 lakh tha toh yani ke do mahine mein it's doubled
  41. He says Dukan now has about 200,000 sellers. Toh yeh jo 2 lakh ka number hai haan isko I'll brag it all the time everywhere ke 2 lakh hai
  42. He says orders are not coming in because sellers do not know how to get them, so the order rate is low. We've got a very high but order rate is low kyunki orders nahi aa rahe kyunki they don't know how to get orders.
  43. He says his team has launched a social media advertising platform inside the product. Jaise abhi humne ek um ek social media advertising platform uske andar launch kiya hai
  44. He says it includes an ad creator that makes a seller's ad look good. uske andar ek ad creator hai jo aapka ad khubsurat kar dega aapke liye
  45. He says the ad buying is entirely automated with no human involvement. And this is entirely automated, like there is no human involvement with the ads and media buying and all of that.
  46. He says ad campaigns are optimised dynamically by AI. toh aapka ad campaign dynamically AI ke through optimize ho raha hai
  47. He says experts review each transaction before the ads are switched on. hum har transaction ko examine kar rahe hain, toh hamare interface mein aa jata hai, hamare experts usko dekhte hain ke theek hai aur phir usko on kar dete hain.
  48. He says some of these new things may fail. Yeh jo hamari hui hain all of these things, ho sakta hai inmein se kuch cheezein fail bhi hon.
  49. He describes Dukan as the e-commerce operating system for MSMEs in the country. is uh the e-commerce operating system Right. of MSMEs in the country.
  50. He describes Dukan as a Lego block for e-commerce. It is a Lego block for e-commerce.
  51. He says partner services including Trax are being integrated into the app. Usmein aapke Bykea hai, Trax abhi aa raha hai, MyGlue, yeh sab jo hain, yeh usi app ke andar ab integrate ho rahe hain.
  52. He says credit card, JazzCash and EasyPaisa payments come pre-integrated. uh, credit card, JazzCash, EasyPaisa, online IBFD, yeh saari cheezein uske saath pre-integrated hain
  53. He says incoming cash goes into the user's wallet instantly. Jab bhi aapka koi cash aata hai, aapke wallet mein instantly gir jaata hai.
  54. He says a mapping service is integrated into the back end for GPS address mapping. ek toh TPL maps integrated hain dukan mein back end for the mapping GPS addresses.
  55. He says he is 51 years old. Yaar, aapne, aapne insult kar di meri, haan. I'm 51.
  56. He says he moved back to Pakistan and calls it his country. I love Pakistan. I moved back to Pakistan. This is my country.
  57. He says that after his mother died he wanted to make her nihari reach the world and let people feel her love. Bahut achi thi, jab inka inteqal hua toh I thought ke is Nihari ko ab let's make it reach the world and feel the love of ammi.
  58. He says Rozee was not the first in its field and was the 30th one. Rozee was not the first one by the way. Rozee was the 30th one.
  59. He says Rozee started when job ads were still printed in newspapers. starting with Rozee when, um, all of the job ads were in print in newspaper.
  60. He says his team is starting a boot camp. ab hum yeh kar rahe hain ke we are starting a boot camp
  61. He says they will guarantee trainees a starting salary of 60,000 rupees. hum kahenge ke we are we are guaranteeing you guaranteeing you starting salary of 60,000 rupees.
  62. He says participants have to pay 60,000 rupees. You have to pay us 60,000 rupees.
  63. He says the boot camp promises that salaries will rise to 75,000 rupees within three months. Aur yeh bhi keh rahe hain ke within 3 months we guarantee ke your salary will be raised to 75,000 rupees.
  64. He says it is a test to see how many people they can train. Toh yeh ek example hai, it's a test we're doing, we're going to see ke how many we can train.
  65. He says about 2 million new people enter the job market each year without the skills they need. 2 million new people, 20 lakh log aa rahe hain the job market har saal unke paas skills nahi hain.
  66. He says his team has a site for blue-collar jobs. we've got rozgar.pk for blue collar jobs
  67. He says Pakistan's largest asset is its population. Yar dekhein, hamara sabse the largest asset hamara jo asset hai, sabse jo bada woh hai hamari awam.
  68. He says the same population becomes the biggest liability if there are no jobs. Woh liability is isliye ho jati hai ke agar unke liye jobs nahi hai aur koi aamdani ka matlab nahi hai
  69. He says he has always been optimistic about Pakistan. To I've always been optimistic in Pakistan.
  70. He says China lifted its whole population out of poverty. China ne apni poori awam ko gurbat mein se nikal diya hai.
  71. He says a similar change could happen in Pakistan, which he does not see as impossible. Pakistan mein bhi ho sakta hai, impossible nahi hai.
  72. He sees education as a massive opportunity. I think ke uh education hamare liye ek massive opportunity hai
  73. He says that one day he will do something in education. Toh ek din inshallah kuch na kuch education ki taraf main karunga.
  74. He says collaboration gives faster growth for all players in the startup ecosystem. collaboration essentially allows for a faster growth for all players rather than
  75. He says Pakistani companies should work with Pakistani companies. Toh Pakistani companies need to work with Pakistani companies.
  76. He says failure should be embraced because the one who failed was a hero. ke failure aapne iska embrace karna hai kyunki woh hero tha.
  77. He says many startups will raise money and fail. ek theme yeh hai ke bahut se startups honge aur woh raise karenge paise aur unmein se bahut se fail honge.
  78. He says PayPal was the most fascinating aspect for him. Mere liye sabse fascinating aspect tha PayPal, right?
  79. He says retail and fintech attract funding because they are proven models elsewhere. because these are proven models jo ke baaki duniya mein
  80. He says he researched live-stream selling and found sellers in villages and peri-urban areas. Maine iska research karna shuru kiya, pata yeh laga, log baithe hue hain, gaon mein baithe hue hain ya chote, uh, peri-urban mein baithe hue hain.
  81. He says many Pakistanis now sell on WhatsApp. They're doing sales on WhatsApp.
  82. He estimates about 110 million adults in Pakistan. is mulk mein takreeban, um, 110 million adults hain, approximately.
  83. He estimates about 80 million unique internet users, out of around 105 million subscribers. Internet subscribers toh 105 ke kareeb honge, magar uniques un mein se koi 80 million honge.
  84. He says about 50 million smartphones arrived in the last five years. Kyunki 50 million smartphones aaye hain in the last five years.
  85. He says retailers grew 40 percent on Finja when they borrowed to buy stock. Toh Finja mein humne dekha hai ke 40 feesad growth aayi hai retailers ki jab woh humse udhaar leke aur saman khareedte hain
  86. He says he hopes that one day they can say they have helped increase Pakistan's GDP by 40 percent. one day we can say ke ji we have helped increase the GDP of Pakistan by 40%.