Shehryar Hydri

venture investor and tech executive

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

Shehryar Hydri is a venture investor and technology executive, and the primary partner of an idea-stage rolling fund. He headed operations in Pakistan for Convo, an online collaboration platform, and served as Secretary General of P@SHA, based in Islamabad.

Early life and background

Shehryar Hydri was born in Pindi. He describes his father as old school, from the British Army generation of World War II. He attended a school for a few years before moving to Islamabad. [1]

Education

Hydri spent five years at a school for his O-levels. He did his A-levels in the first batch of a school, in the early 1990s. He went to Karachi for university, at IBA, where he studied for four years in a combined bachelor's and master's programme. He chose IBA for its marketing part. [1]

He joined a university for two years on an MPhil leading to a PhD in Islamic economics. He did not complete that degree, left after two years, and joined corporate banking. [1]

Banking and early technology career

Hydri says he wanted to do grassroots work in Islamic finance and micro lending. He joined corporate banking at an Islamic bank, which he says was the only Islamic bank at that time. He left banking to join the tech industry without being a techie. [1]

He joined a US-based Pakistani-American company with offices in Pakistan. There he worked on strategic marketing with its global teams. He gives his reason for joining as wanting to understand tech better. He describes an itch to do something creative. [1]

He set up a small production studio that did animation, post-production, music videos and documentaries. His partner at the studio was a singer. [1]

Trango

Hydri says Trango, a game development and CGI studio, was born as a subsidiary of another company. He says that in 2004 it had a team of 50 to 60 or more people doing international projects for Fortune 500 companies. The first IP that Trango planned, he says, was based out of Pakistan. He says its engine was feature for feature comparable to Unreal at that time. [1]

He says Trango worked with top studios, including LucasArts, and worked on content for Tomb Raider. He links Quixel to Trango and calls it the biggest success story out of Pakistan, acquired by Epic Games. [1]

He says Trango shifted to services to stay alive, and survived on services for nine years, until 2013. He says the 2008 financial crisis started its decline, when two major clients went bankrupt. [1]

Convo

In 2013 Hydri moved to Convo, where he was on the founding team and later headed operations in Pakistan. He headed the Pakistan operation, which more than doubled the team. He says Convo raised about 15 million dollars from Silicon Valley. He describes Convo as an online collaboration platform and a precursor to Slack. He left Convo around 2017. [1]

P@SHA

He says public policy work cannot be a part-time volunteer thing on the side. He says that in the role he was at the table as the representative of the entire tech industry, and policymakers were listening to him. [1]

Venture investing

Hydri describes himself as the primary partner of his firm. He says the firm started before the 2021 funding frenzy and was about two years old at the time he described it. He says it is a rolling fund that has not yet raised from institutional LPs. He says it makes idea-stage investments. [1]

He says his firm's partners are former or current startup founders. He says founders do not need a product to pitch to his firm. He says the firm's approach is that no warm introductions are needed, and that it says so on its website. He says that for 90 out of 100 Zoom calls he takes, he knows he will not evaluate the company. [1]

He says his firm has done about 10 companies over more than 18 months of active investing and is sector agnostic. He says it caps its ticket size at 300k. His firm made an investment in tourism and hospitality, and invested in Truck It In, a freight and logistics company, which he describes as a trucking marketplace connecting shippers with truckers. His firm has also invested in a Sharia-compliant micro-lender. He says Metric is a bookkeeping SaaS for SMEs and solo entrepreneurs. [1]

Views on venture capital

Hydri says early-stage companies need someone who writes the first check, a few notches above angels and a few notches below the large VCs. He says the angel syndicates and angel investors that should have developed in Pakistan did not develop. He says capital is the least valuable part of the equation, and that a venture deal must be scalable. [1]

He expects micro private equity with revenue-share deals to grow in Pakistan over the next five years. He calls the startup boom a new phase of wealth creation that never existed in Pakistan before. He says SaaS products can be treated as global products, with Pakistan as just another market, and that Pakistan itself is not a big enough market to justify this valuation. He says a Canva- or Figma-style product could become Pakistan's first unicorn. [1]

Views on the technology sector

Hydri says that in rupee terms revenue goes up, but operating expenses rise as well. He says IT talent supply is a massive issue. He says nobody was busy making talent, and everybody was busy offering to double someone's pay to bring them over. He says roughly 25,000 graduates come out of Pakistan each year. He says that if a three to six month bootcamp can get someone into places like Google, they can definitely work at a top company in Pakistan. [1]

He says the IT opportunity will not go away because global demand and supply keep mismatching. He says Pakistan became the second or third largest pool of freelancers in the world. He says Google, Facebook and Microsoft are not yet building campuses in Pakistan, and ties that absence to laws, data protection and IP. He says startup culture is creating a new generation that did not exist in Pakistan before. [1]

Outlook

Hydri describes himself as an unfazed optimist and a realist. He says he is comfortable with two steps forward and one step back at the macro level. He describes Pakistan as a permission-based culture. [1]

Timeline

2004
Trango had a team of 50 to 60 or more people doing international projects for Fortune 500 companies, according to Hydri.[1]
2008
The financial crisis began Trango's decline, when two major clients went bankrupt, according to Hydri.[1]
2013
Hydri moved to Convo, where he was on the founding team.[1]
2017
Hydri left Convo around this time.[1]
2018
Hydri joined P@SHA in late 2018 and stayed about two years.[1]

Appearances

DateTitleWhere
2022-10-05 The VC who writes the first check in Pakistan Thought Behind Things

Frequently asked questions

Who is Shehryar Hydri?

Shehryar Hydri is a venture investor and technology executive. He describes himself as the primary partner of his firm, an idea-stage rolling fund. He also headed operations in Pakistan for Convo and served as Secretary General of P@SHA.[1]

What does Shehryar Hydri do?

Shehryar Hydri is the primary partner of a firm that makes idea-stage investments. He says the firm is a rolling fund that has not yet raised from institutional LPs. He also says its partners are former or current startup founders.[1]

Where did Shehryar Hydri study?

Shehryar Hydri went to Karachi for university, at IBA. He studied there for four years in a combined bachelor's and master's programme. He also joined a university for two years on an MPhil leading to a PhD in Islamic economics, but did not complete that degree.[1]

Where is Shehryar Hydri from?

Shehryar Hydri was born in Pindi. He attended a school for a few years before moving to Islamabad.[1]

What did Shehryar Hydri do at Convo?

Shehryar Hydri moved to Convo in 2013, where he was on the founding team. He later headed operations in Pakistan, which more than doubled the team. He describes Convo as an online collaboration platform and a precursor to Slack.[1]

Does Shehryar Hydri's firm need a warm introduction?

Shehryar Hydri says his firm's approach is that no warm introductions are needed, and that it says so on its website. He also says founders do not need a product to pitch to the firm.[1]

What companies has Shehryar Hydri's firm invested in?

Shehryar Hydri says his firm has done about 10 companies over more than 18 months of active investing and is sector agnostic. It made an investment in tourism and hospitality and invested in Truck It In, a freight and logistics company. It has also invested in a Sharia-compliant micro-lender.[1]

References

  1. The VC who writes the first check in Pakistan . Thought Behind Things , 2022-10-05.
Show the source passages (76 statements)
  1. He describes himself as the primary partner of his firm. I'm the primary partner so I am also drowning in inbound
  2. He says his firm started before the 2021 funding frenzy and was about two years old at recording. So we're about 2 years old right now so we started before the craziness of 2021.
  3. He says his firm is a rolling fund that has not yet raised from institutional LPs. we are a rolling fund aur humne institutional LPs se abhi raise nahi kiya hua
  4. He says his firm makes idea-stage investments. so we do idea stage investments.
  5. He says founders do not need a product to pitch to his firm. You don't need to have a product to pitch to us, right?
  6. He says his firm's partners are former or current startup founders. we were operators who were ex-founders or current founders and jitne partners hain, we are actually startup builders ourselves.
  7. He says early-stage companies need someone who writes the first check, a few notches above angels and a few notches below the large VCs. you need somebody who takes that early risk, who need who writes that first check and who writes it a few notches above angels and a few notches below the large VCs.
  8. He says the angel syndicates and angel investors that should have developed in Pakistan did not develop. woh angel syndicates aur angel investors nahi develop huye jo ke ho jaane chahiye the.
  9. His firm made an investment in tourism and hospitality. the first one we did in tourism and hospitality was Rumi
  10. He says his firm has done about 10 companies over more than 18 months of active investing and is sector agnostic. So, we've done 10 companies over the last 18 months plus of active investing and being sector agnostic.
  11. He says his firm caps its ticket size at 300k. we'll do deals as a ticket size, we'll cap it at 300k.
  12. His firm invested in Truck It In, a freight and logistics company. Uske baad freight and logistics ke andar we did Truck It In.
  13. He describes Truck It In as a trucking marketplace connecting shippers with truckers. It's it's a trucking marketplace and it is basically connecting shippers with truckers
  14. His firm has invested in a Sharia-compliant micro-lender. we have CreditPer, which used to be called CreditFix. They're a Sharia compliant micro-lender.
  15. He says Metric is a bookkeeping SaaS for SMEs and solo entrepreneurs. Metric is a SaaS which is bookkeeping accounting play for SMEs and you know, solopreneurs.
  16. Shehryar Hydri was born in Pindi. Born in Pindi. Father was in the army at that time, retired a bit after that.
  17. He describes his father as old school, from the British Army generation of World War II. He was old school, British Army, World War II in Burma, kind of generation
  18. He attended a school for a few years before moving to Islamabad. St. Mary's initially for a few years, moved to Islamabad.
  19. He spent five years at a school for his O-levels. There was a school called Convent of Jesus and Mary, so started with that for five years, for O-levels
  20. He did his A-levels in the first batch of a school, in the early 1990s. A-levels kiya, ISAS ke hum log pehla batch thay early 90s mein, 92.
  21. He went to Karachi for university, to IBA. Karachi for university, IBA.
  22. He studied at IBA for four years, combining a bachelor's and a master's programme. IBA for four years. They used to have a bachelor's and master's program. Did that in one go.
  23. He chose IBA for its marketing part. I applied to IBA for the marketing part and I didn't want to go to business school
  24. He joined a university for two years on an MPhil leading to a PhD in Islamic economics. joined the Islamic University for two years. It was an MPhil leading to a PhD in Islamic economics
  25. He did not complete that degree, left after two years, and joined corporate banking. There are lots of faculty issues, didn't complete my degree, left after two years, joined corporate banking.
  26. He wanted to do grassroots work in Islamic finance and micro lending. I wanted to do grassroots level work, Islamic finance, micro lending, sort of
  27. He joined corporate banking at an Islamic bank, which he says was the only Islamic bank at that time. joined corporate banking. Faisal Bank was the only Islamic bank at that time. Joined Faisal Bank
  28. He left banking to join the tech industry without being a techie. Yeah, I left banking and that's when I joined the tech industry without being a techie.
  29. He joined a US-based Pakistani-American company with offices in Pakistan. So there used to be a company over here called Elixir Technologies. It was a US-based Pakistani-American company, offshore
  30. At that company he worked on strategic marketing with its global teams. So obviously I was on the strategic marketing side and I was working with their global teams
  31. He says he joined that company to understand tech better without being a techie. I think it was just based on trying to understand tech better without being a techie.
  32. He describes an itch to do something creative. So I think just just the whole itch to do something creative and the whole NCA and and that whole DNA which I felt I had sort of compromised on
  33. He set up a small production studio that did animation, post-production, music videos and documentaries. set up a small production studio, a bit of animation in there, bit of post-production in there, just started doing local work and got into music videos, got into documentaries. And what was that called? Mystic Media.
  34. His partner at the studio was a singer. Abbas Ali Khan then later on was my partner at the studio jo singer hai.
  35. He says Trango, a game development and CGI studio, was born as a subsidiary of another company. that's where Trango Interactive, which was a game development plus CGI studio was born as a subsidiary of Trivore
  36. He says that in 2004 Trango had a team of 50 to 60 or more people doing international projects for Fortune 500 companies. Us waqt 2004 mein when there was nothing in a place like Islamabad and you know, 50, 60 plus people ki team us waqt uh doing international projects for Fortune 500 companies.
  37. He says the first IP that Trango planned was based out of Pakistan. our first IP that we planned was based out of Pakistan and it was called Shera Jatt
  38. He says Trango's engine was feature for feature comparable to Unreal at that time. Our engine feature to feature was actually matchable with something like Unreal at that time.
  39. He says Trango shifted to services to stay alive. that's when we shifted to services to stay alive
  40. He says Trango survived on services for nine years, until 2013. we could have survived and and that's what we did for for nine years, right? So So nine years 2013 tak.
  41. He says Trango worked with top studios, including LucasArts, and worked on content for Tomb Raider. worked with the top studios, worked with Lucas Arts, worked on Tomb Raider for content
  42. He links Quixel to Trango and calls it the biggest success story out of Pakistan, acquired by Epic Games. the team Trango chart jo hai usme Quixel the biggest sort of success story out out of Pakistan to be acquired by Epic Games
  43. He says the 2008 financial crisis started Trango's decline, when two major clients went bankrupt. the downfall for us started when unfortunately 2008 ka financial crisis hua and two of our major clients went bankrupt in Europe and America
  44. In 2013 he moved to Convo, where he was on the founding team and later headed operations in Pakistan. So 2013 was that time where you know we decided ke um I moved on to Convo. Convo mein because I was part of the founding team initially and and then I was heading operations for Convo in Pakistan.
  45. At Convo he headed the Pakistan operation, which more than doubled the team. I was heading Pakistan um more than doubled the team here
  46. He says Convo raised about 15 million dollars from Silicon Valley. raised about $15 million from the valley by that time.
  47. He describes Convo as an online collaboration platform and a precursor to Slack. Convo as a product is an online collaboration platform. It it's the precursor to Slack.
  48. He left Convo around 2017. so I left that around 17.
  49. He joined P@SHA for a little over two years as Secretary General, based in Islamabad. I joined Pasha for a little over two years. Um secretariat Islamabad mein establish karna tha, took over from Jahara. Headed that as the Secretary General uh out of Islamabad
  50. He says he was setting up his own venture when the P@SHA role came up. post convo I was looking at starting my own new gig and I was talking to few friends and we were actually setting up something and then the Pasha opportunity came.
  51. He says the Secretary General role was a paid, full-time post equal to running the association. So the secretary general position is a paid position is equivalent to being the CEO of the association.
  52. He says public policy work cannot be a part-time volunteer thing on the side. you need to jump in. It can't be a part-time sort of volunteer thing on the side.
  53. He says that in the role he was at the table as the representative of the entire tech industry, and policymakers were listening to him. So they are listening to you. You are there at the table and you are the representative of the entire tech industry.
  54. He joined P@SHA in late 2018 and was there for about two years. So I was there um 18 ke end mein join kiya. So I was there in 19 and do saal.
  55. He says that in rupee terms revenue goes up, but operating expenses rise as well. Your revenue goes up in terms of in terms of rupee, lekin at the same time aapki yahan opex bhi badh rahi hoti hai
  56. He says IT talent supply is a massive issue. I think supply side ka massive issue hai, just like any industry but specially iske andar
  57. He says nobody was busy making talent, and everybody was busy offering to double someone's pay to bring them over. Nobody was busy making talent. Everybody was busy ke yaar main usko double karke le aaun.
  58. He says roughly 25,000 graduates come out of Pakistan each year. roughly 25,000 graduates roughly hamare paas har saal nikalte hain, jiske andar se internally humein pata hai ke uske andar se takreeban 5,000 aise honge
  59. He says that if a three to six month bootcamp can get someone into places like Google, they can definitely work at a top company in Pakistan. Teen mahine, che mahine ka boot camp karke aap agar Google jaisi jagahon mein ja sakte hain to definitely aap Pakistan mein kisi top company mein kaam kar sakte hain.
  60. He says the IT opportunity will not go away because global demand and supply keep mismatching. the opportunity will never go away because globally demand and supply ka mismatch hamesha rahega
  61. He says Pakistan became the second or third largest pool of freelancers in the world. you became the second, third largest pool of freelancers in the world.
  62. He says Google, Facebook and Microsoft are not yet building campuses in Pakistan. Lekin Google, Facebook, Microsoft abhi Pakistan ke andar campuses nahi bana rahe.
  63. He ties the absence of big tech campuses to laws, data protection and IP. Because of our laws, because of data protection, because of IP
  64. He says startup culture is creating a new generation that did not exist in Pakistan before. startup culture se ek literally nayi generation create ho rahi hai jo pehle Pakistan mein nahi thi
  65. He describes himself as an unfazed optimist and a realist. I'm an unfazed optimist, but I'm I'm a real I'm I'm a realist as well.
  66. He says he is comfortable with two steps forward and one step back at the macro level. So, frankly, at the macro level, I'm totally comfortable. It's unfortunate, but I'm totally comfortable with two steps forward, one step back.
  67. He describes Pakistan as a permission-based culture. hum ek permission based society hain, hamara jo culture jo hai na woh ek permission driven culture hai
  68. He says capital is the least valuable part of the equation. And actually capital is the least valuable part of the equation.
  69. He says his firm's approach is that no warm introductions are needed, and that it says so on its website. our sort of DNA is no warm intros needed and and we have that literally on our website
  70. He says that for 90 out of 100 Zoom calls he takes, he knows he will not evaluate the company. But 90 out of 100 zoom calls that I do, I know for a fact ke main inko evaluate nahi karunga.
  71. He says a venture deal must be scalable. So venture deal needs to be scalable.
  72. He expects micro private equity with revenue-share deals to grow in Pakistan over the next five years. Aur agle 5 saal mein aapko Pakistan ke andar isko micro private equity ya micro PE kehte hain jahan actually aapko is tarah ki deals milna shuru hongi jahan rev share hoga.
  73. He calls the startup boom a new phase of wealth creation that never existed in Pakistan before. this is a new literally a historic new phase of wealth creation that was never never there in Pakistan before.
  74. He says SaaS products can be treated as global products, with Pakistan as just another market. as a global product treat kar sakte hain and Pakistan is just another market
  75. He says Pakistan itself is not a big enough market to justify this valuation. Pakistan itself is not big enough market to actually justify this valuation
  76. He says a Canva- or Figma-style product could become Pakistan's first unicorn. Canva ya Figma ya koi bhi aisi cheez banate hain, it can become the first unicorn out of Pakistan