Saad Riaz

Early life and background

Riaz was born in Chakwal, a small district in the Pothohar region. He was born in a village about 40 to 45 kilometres from Chakwal city. He describes Chakwal as a rain-fed district with limited agriculture. [2]

He was the youngest of his siblings, and his family members worked in government jobs. His two older brothers left home to study, one at a cadet college and one at a university in Lahore. Riaz attended a private school in the nearby town. He studied in his home area until matric, then moved to Lahore for FSC. [2]

Education

In Lahore, Riaz went to a government college. He says his time at the government college changed his mindset. He spent a lot of time in its library, and he came to feel he was as good as anyone from elsewhere. [2]

Riaz studied at LUMS. He prepared for the LUMS test with books and did not take counselling. He also applied to FAST and, probably, to NUST in Islamabad. At LUMS he joined the social sciences school and was given an economics major. Alongside economics he took courses in literature, political science, psychology and marketing, and an Intro to Finance course. [2]

Career

Riaz set up an event management company during university. He began looking for jobs because he had bills to pay. He has said he had not thought at that time of starting a business as such. He wrote things for people and took on gigs to pay his bills. [2]

Kickstart

Riaz has said they could charge about 6,000 or 7,000 rupees per person if they gave people the office, and that the furniture was kept simpler to match what the market would pay. They had run a validation and knew they could collect that much money from people. A space for about 35 to 40 people was built, and they went to specific places in person and handed out pamphlets. [2]

Riaz has said Kickstart opened another small space that still operates today. Callers often said they needed a private space. Kickstart also opened another, much bigger space with room for close to 200 people. In one of its spaces it built private offices for the first time, and teams started taking them. He has said Kickstart began offering private offices in 2017 or 2018, and that it has been, from day one, a flexible office that is fully furnished and fully serviced. [1][2]

Riaz has said that instead of giving equity in the company, Kickstart gave equity in each space. The founders put in a significant part of their own capital, and the fund raised went into building the space. He has said that in 2017 there was little venture capital in Pakistan. [2]

Business model and growth

Riaz describes Kickstart's model as managed real estate, which has existed for a long time. He has said Kickstart's DNA has been close to a conventional business since day one. He has also said each Kickstart building is a separate partnership and operates as its own business unit, and that Kickstart's risk is spread across all its locations. [1]

Riaz has said Kickstart's product is real estate, and that demand for a location holds at all times. He says a downturn mainly lowers rental yield for a period, and that it is a loss of income that does not change the business's resilience or risk profile. He has said Kickstart does not run a property unless it is profitable and EBITDA positive. Running many spaces in one city, he says, makes Kickstart's operations more efficient and lowers its costs. [1]

Riaz has said Kickstart first used a landlord partnership model in 2021, and that its first property in Karachi dates to 2021. He says Kickstart realised during COVID that its long-term health depended on working with landlords. In one of its models the landlord invests alongside Kickstart and carries the capex, and he describes Kickstart as an enabler that generates good yield for the landlord on the landlord's investment. He has said the fixed option gives landlords a lower yield, which suits landlords with low risk appetite. [1]

Riaz has said Kickstart slowed down in 2023-24 and sped up again in 2025. He says the main problem in Kickstart's particular model was on the supply and capital side, and that interest rates were around 22%, so landlords kept their capital elsewhere. [1]

Riaz has said COVID lockdowns did not close any of Kickstart's spaces. He says the lockdown showed him that fixed costs are a big risk for a business. He has also said a successful operator runs close to full occupancy. [2]

Customers and offices

Riaz has said startups have never made up more than 20 to 25% of Kickstart's desks. He says corporates first came to coworking as satellite offices, and that corporate was the segment that grew most in the last two years. Kickstart has provided desks to companies including Unilever. [1]

Riaz has said companies of 30 to 150 people need customised space, and that over ten years small companies of 5 to 30 people have tended to have similar space requirements. He says Kickstart is building several purpose-built offices in Karachi, including one for an insurance company, and premises for HugoBank, which is a customer. Riaz calls these custom offices a purpose-built, bespoke, managed office segment. He has said Kickstart built a customised floor for a client, which holds 125 people. [1]

Expansion and ownership

Riaz has said Kickstart has been operating for about ten years and that its planning horizon is now 20 to 30 years. He has also said Kickstart has 10 locations where about 2,000 people work daily, and that a Kickstart space in Karachi has capacity for about 250 to 300 people. He says the team's call and customer data drives where Kickstart expands. [1][2]

Riaz has said Kickstart is opening new properties in Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore, and that it is opening six to seven new properties in 2025. Three of those new properties are already open and four more are coming. He says Kickstart aims to add only as many desks as it can fill. Riaz has also said Kickstart recently closed a deal for a building not yet developed, and that it is buying inventory in that building and will partly own some office real estate. [1]

Riaz has said most of Kickstart's current staff joined in the last two to three years, and that employees weigh personal growth and future value in a workplace. Kickstart already has an SPV structure in place, and he says it is considering letting employees hold ownership in that structure. It is also considering an ESOP structure for its core company. He says Kickstart sees four further verticals linked to its business as intrapreneurship opportunities with its people. [1]

Views

Riaz has said cultural and social issues make Pakistan's living market hard to serve. He notes that furnished offices were available in Karachi before the coworking wave, and that developers Kickstart leases office space from are also building apartments. He says many government bodies rent property to house their employees. On short-stay units, he says running one short-stay property need not be a full-time job, and that running a unit well requires ownership at unit level. [1]

Riaz has said Pakistan's population bulge is large and education is not keeping pace, and that he fears Pakistan could stay stuck in a messy middle. He says young people using technology are doing remarkable things. On workplaces, he says many freelancers in Pakistan are missing a social experience that co-working can provide, and that large global companies now use co-working spaces. He says the usual Pakistani rental practice of large advances and deposits creates a liquidity problem for tenants. [1][2]

Timeline

2016

Kickstart started as a small coworking space with 40 desks.[1]

2017 to 2018

Kickstart began offering private offices.[1]

2021

Kickstart first used a landlord partnership model, and its first property in Karachi dates to this year.[1]

2023 to 2024

Kickstart slowed down.[1]

Appearances

Frequently asked questions

References

1. Why Kickstart stopped buying buildings and let landlords pay instead . Thought Behind Things , 2025-10-20.
2. The coworking space that started with a sublet . Thought Behind Things , 2022-04-13.