Thought Behind Things · Mar 20, 2023
Pakistan's IT exports vs one Tata subsidiary
Qasim Asad Salam built Remotebase out of a San Francisco garage with 45 days of runway left. He talks talent pipelines, the buddy system, generative AI, and why Pakistan's political collapse might not matter.
with Qasim Asad Salam
10 min read
From Lahore to a San Francisco garage
The episode opens with Muzamil framing the conversation around a single economic argument: Pakistan’s most urgent need is to shift toward export-oriented industries that bring dollars in rather than push them out. Of all the options available, he says, IT services is the lowest-hanging fruit. That framing sets up the guest — Qasim Asad Salam, co-founder and CEO of Remotebase — as a practitioner of exactly that thesis.
Qasim was born and raised in Lahore, educated at Beaconhouse Defence and then LUMS, where he studied economics and political science rather than computer science. The reason was bureaucratic: Pakistani universities require physics and chemistry for a CS degree, and Qasim hadn’t taken chemistry. He had, however, been building websites since he was eleven. By the time he reached LUMS, he was already freelancing and saw little utility in a degree whose selling point — a 40,000 to 50,000 rupee starting salary — he was already exceeding on Upwork.
What LUMS did give him was societies. “Societies operated like full businesses,” he explains. As a freshman, Qasim became director of IT and creativity in seven different societies simultaneously, running events, managing budgets, and leading teams of two to three hundred people. It was, in effect, his first operator training.
Campus Feed and the angel investor who opened the door
While still at LUMS, Qasim built Campus Feed — an anonymous social network for university students where taboo topics like religion and politics could be discussed freely. Within two weeks, 80% of the LUMS campus was on the platform. Daily engagement exceeded Facebook’s at the time, running above 25 minutes per user per day. The app eventually scaled to ten universities and over 20,000 daily active users.
Campus Feed never made money. But it made something more useful at that stage: it got Qasim to Silicon Valley. An angel investor from the Valley attended a startup event where he pitched, paid for his visa and flights, and put him in a house with 18 other founders — half Indian, half Pakistani. “As long as I can get you from Pakistan to The US and from the airport to my house and back to Pakistan, I have done my job,” she told them. The rest was pressure-cooker learning.
Qasim describes the cross-border friendships that formed in that house as one of the more striking moments of the conversation: “Nations fight against nations but the connection at a personal level — there is no animosity there.” Those friendships, he says, are still active today when he visits Silicon Valley.
Campus Feed also built his O-1 visa case. The extraordinary ability visa requires meeting three of eight criteria. Media coverage from the app, his leadership role in an organization, and his mentorship work at Plan 9 filled six or seven of the eight criteria before he even applied.
Plan 9, Plan X, and the limits of Pakistan’s early startup ecosystem
Muzamil asks Qasim about his time at Plan 9, the government-backed incubator in Lahore. Qasim is measured in his assessment. Plan 9 gave him a place to work, 100,000 rupees a month split across five people, and trips abroad. He slept there on some nights. He is grateful for it.
But he is also honest about its ceiling. “Your mentor should be somebody that’s two steps ahead of you or one step ahead of you,” he says. In 2016 and 2017, Pakistan’s startup ecosystem was too young to produce those mentors. The people who came in to advise were often at the same stage as the founders they were advising. Pataari, the most advanced startup in the cohort at the time, had not yet raised two or three million dollars. Nobody in the entire Plan 9 program had.
Later in the discussion, Qasim notes that the quality of startups entering Plan 9 has actually declined since his time — not because the program got worse, but because better alternatives now exist. NIC at LUMS, improved access to capital through 2021, and better external mentors have drawn stronger founders elsewhere.
How a software house became Remotebase with 45 days of runway
After Plan 9 and Plan X, Qasim moved to the US on a tourist visa, registered a company, converted to an O-1, and spent eight and a half months visiting cities with no fixed base, distributing flyers at co-working spaces to find clients for his software house, CreativeMorph.
Then COVID hit. Two of their largest clients disappeared. The startup they were running alongside the software house — a performance tracking tool for engineers — was not gaining traction. “We were down to about thirty, forty-five days of money left,” Qasim says. He was sleeping in a garage in San Francisco, eating three-dollar meals from Trader Joe’s, and burning everything he earned.
He came back to Pakistan and started writing to his US network. Friends needed engineers. He placed them manually. Then he and his co-founder decided to stop operating like a software house and start building a platform. Every manual step in the matching process became a target for automation. That platform became Remotebase.
The platform model: 12,000 applicants, 8% make it through
Muzamil asks Qasim to explain how Remotebase actually works — both for engineers looking for work and for companies looking to hire.
The model is a bench-based staffing platform. Engineers apply, complete technical assessments calibrated to their experience level, and go through video interviews — all on the platform. Ninety-two to ninety-three percent are screened out automatically. The remaining eight percent are interviewed by engineers already working at Remotebase. Those who pass are hired onto an internal bench. When there is no client work, bench engineers build Remotebase’s own internal tools. When a client needs someone, the match is made.
“Last month, over 12,000 people applied,” Qasim tells Muzamil. “A software house in an entire year might not see that many applicants.” The model is explicitly designed to avoid the inventory mismatch problem Muzamil identifies — where an engineer goes through the full process but there is no immediate opportunity. The bench absorbs that gap.
Clients get longer-term engagements at a lower price point than competitors like Toptal or Andela, which focus on short-term, high-premium placements. Remotebase’s earliest clients, if they have not gone out of business, are still with the company today.
The talent gap and why software houses are making it worse
Muzamil pushes on the hardest question in the model: Pakistan produces roughly 5,000 computer science graduates a year, and Qasim estimates that only 2,000 to 2,500 of those are genuinely technically capable. The entire market — Systems, IBM, Teradata, and everyone else — is competing for the same small pool. How do you go from 2,500 to 25,000?
Qasim’s answer has two parts. The first is structural: the gap between universities and the job market is enormous, and most software houses are making it worse. He describes a common pattern where a senior engineer with five or six years of experience takes on ten different clients simultaneously, puts junior engineers underneath him, and those juniors never interact with a client directly. Their exposure is zero. “The entire industry is running on jugaad,” he says, “but that is not the solution.”
The second part is the buddy system. Every Remotebase engineer has a clause in their contract requiring them to give one hour a day back to the company. That hour goes toward mentoring one or two junior engineers. “You are not growing linearly. You are growing exponentially,” Qasim explains. Five becomes a hundred, a hundred becomes three hundred, three hundred becomes nine hundred. The compounding is real — but it requires someone to absorb the cost of the unbillable training period, which is where government could theoretically help and, in Qasim’s experience, consistently fails to follow through beyond the press release.
He gives Muzamil a concrete proof point: one of Remotebase’s first hires started at 70,000 to 80,000 rupees as a fresh graduate from NUS. Two and a half years later, he is at Amazon earning over $200,000 annually. Another is at Tesla. The grooming works when the exposure is real.
Pakistan’s IT exports versus one Tata subsidiary
One of the sharpest moments in the conversation comes when Qasim puts Pakistan’s IT sector in global context. Pakistan’s total IT exports are approximately two to two and a half billion dollars. Tata Consultancy Services — a single subsidiary of a single Indian conglomerate — exports twenty-five billion dollars in IT services annually. That number, Qasim points out, exceeds Pakistan’s entire current account deficit.
Muzamil adds a related point about textile exports: the headline number of fifteen to sixteen billion dollars carries significant input costs — imported cotton, dyes, raw materials — that reduce the net figure considerably. IT services, by contrast, are almost entirely net. “Every dollar earned is a dollar in,” Muzamil says. Salaries stay in the country. Even energy costs, the largest non-salary expense, go toward productive consumption rather than imports.
“All it takes is one company,” Qasim says. The opportunity has not been lost. He sees 2020 to 2030 as a decade of innovation, driven partly by the wave of engineers laid off from large US tech companies who will now go out and build.
Generative AI: the gold rush that has already started
Qasim is direct about where he sees the next platform shift. Generative AI has already inverted the expected order of automation. The assumption was that repetitive, low-skill tasks would be replaced first and creative, high-skill work last. The opposite has happened. ChatGPT passes conversational tests. Stable Diffusion generates original art. “AI has already passed the Turing test at the highest tier,” Qasim says.
His advice to younger people is to treat generative AI the way early mobile developers treated the iPhone in 2007 — a five-to-ten-year window before the space becomes crowded. He gives two examples from his own network. A friend built a WhatsApp integration with the OpenAI API in eight to ten hours; it now has 20,000 to 25,000 users. Another company lets users photograph a room and generate interior design options from a text prompt. Jasper AI, which trained OpenAI’s model to write blog posts, raised $120 million and started as a weekend project.
“Get into this,” Qasim says. “This is the next transformational platform.” The skill required is not deep AI research. It is the ability to identify a narrow problem and use existing models to solve it.
By the end of the conversation, Muzamil asks Qasim where he sees Pakistan in 2050. Qasim is blunt: the political system will continue to deteriorate and he has zero hope for it. But he sees governments globally losing jurisdiction as remote work makes taxation and borders harder to enforce. Countries like Pakistan — sixth largest population in the world, one of the highest English-speaking populations, one of the youngest median ages — stand to benefit disproportionately from that shift. “I see a lot of hope that economic growth will be quite significant,” he says, “but absolutely zero hope from the political system.”
The bet, in other words, is on the people rising without waiting for the system to fix itself. Remotebase is, in a narrow sense, a test of whether that bet pays off.
Full transcript
सानवास्वतीर नाज़रात welcome back to another episode of thought behind things. आज मानसभा मौजूद है एक बहुत ही ख़ास मेहमान जिनको बुलाने का मक़सद एक ख़ास यह था कि जो कि आपको थोड़ी सी theme इस season में ख़ासकर नज़र आएगी और मिलेगी. वह यह है कि Pakistan में Pakistan की economy जिस point पर खड़ी हुई है उसमें it's becoming increasingly important कि हम अपनी पूरी की पूरी direction जो है वह export oriented करें. And more than that we basically make sure कि we are you know connected to an industry जहां से dollar inwards जाएं rather than dollar outwards जाएं. जाहिर इसमें बहुत सारे areas आते हैं, इसमें textile भी आता है, इसमें बहुत सारी चीज़ें आती हैं but I think the easiest and the lowest hanging fruit is the services business particularly the IT services business. And for that, we have today with us कासिम असद सलाम. Sir, thank you so much being part of the show. Yeah. Thank you for having me, मुझे अमिल. And कासिम is the cofounder and CEO of RemoteBase. So this is very interesting. What these guys do is they connect local engineers Yes. Not just in Pakistan but many other countries but also in Pakistan. Yes. Two opportunities in The US. Exactly. You know, so so we're we're gonna talk about that. कास्यम, you know, again, thank you so much for part of the show and पहले तो मुझे यह बताएं a starter where were you born and early life आपने कहां गुज़ारी? अगर आपने पैसे व income के बारे में परेशान है, ख़ासकर आजकल की economy में है जहां पर already cash continuously burn हो रहा है और inflation हमें मार रही है. तो I'm proud to announce that this video is in partnership with समाया Financials. They're offering two very very cool trainings. Capital market fundamentals जिसमें आप stocks और mutual funds में invest करना सीखेंगे और understand करेंगे कि आखिर एक company के अंदर क्या ऐसे fundamentals होते हैं जिनको आपने देखा होता है to figure out कि वह एक अच्छी company है to invest in. और दूसरी training है technical analysis master class जिसमें आप सीखेंगे कि किस तरीके से हम different tradable assets like commodities, forex, stocks, crypto के अंदर थोड़े से पैसे लगाकर बहुत ज़्यादा पैसे बना सकते हैं. Personally यह training मैंने भी ली है and it's absolutely phenomenal. The link to the trainings are in the description below. Check them out and become financially healthy and now back to the podcast.
Born and raised in लाहौर. Lived my pretty much my entire life in लाहौर before I moved to The US. तो ज़्यादा time इधर ही lawyer में गुज़रा. इन्हीं defense के around ही literally सारी ज़िंदगी इधर गुज़री. Right और आपने education कहां से ली? So, House School and then Lums University. Beacon House कौन सा? Defense. अच्छा अच्छा. BDC end to end? End to end BDC. Start to finish. And then university,
lumps. What was the thought behind that? Yeah. So, beach में I did
go to LAC for a bit, but eventually transferred back into lumps. Thought अच्छा so I always wanted to not do university. And then first year of college, I wanted to, drop out as well. But family pressure and people wanted कि जी अच्छा जी lumps का बहुत नाम है so, you know, just something that Why did you not want to do university? I think, for me at that time I was working as well. अच्छा. While I was in school, while I was all through college as well freelancing, website बना ली, कुछ So कर I didn't see a lot of like Utility. Utility के lumps की जब हमारे school में आई थी कोई, some people came to our school and said कि you know the average salary of a lums grad is like 40,000 या 50,000 उस ज़माने में. So I was like you know यह freelancing से तो यह you can make while you're still in school right? इतना मुझे कोई fascinate नहीं किया. Plus अब this is like might go on a tangent but I'm not very not a big fan of यह जो पूरा education structure है factoryयों के अंदर different लोग different cities background से आते हैं और सबको एक Nestle के juice की factory की तरह डाल दिया जाता है classroom के अंदर and then you are like you know churning out the same product different लोगों को आप you know एक homogenous product के अंदर convert करें which is something
that doesn't like sit well with me. And in in your experience, did you find lumps to be similar?
Education वाले जो courses wise, yes, very similar. अब अगर maths का है for example Calvin तो अब वह different background से है अब एक बंदा उसकी math उसको नहीं आती वह भी वही course पढ़ा है और एक बंदा जिसकी math बहुत अच्छी है वह भी वही course पढ़ा and they're being judged on a standard model. Right. Which for me I think doesn't work. But lums की जो एक खास बात थी which really really helped me as well and start kick off my career is कि societies का बहुत scene था. So outside courses societies जो है वह पूरे businesses की तरह operate करते थे और हर society के अंदर directors होते थे, हर society के अंदर two three hundred लोगों की पूरी एक company जो है वह चल रही होती थी जिसके अंदर आपने events करानी होती थी and you had to make money from those events. Right. फिर आपने वह पैसे कमा के आपको lumps tours पर भी भेजता था. So in my freshman year I was director in seven different societies. So usually I have director अपने final या third year में बनते हैं. But because I really loved, you know, IT and technology. हर हर society में I was director of IT and creativity. अच्छा, interesting. So I mean you were into IT.
I would have assumed you would have gone to lumps for computer science. That's what Econ and Palsat? Yeah yeah. So so why did that happen? Yes. So, again,
Pakistan के अंदर if you want to get into, computer science, you have to do physics, chemistry, math. Right. So I had planned to go abroad but then I couldn't go abroad और फिर lumps के अंदर I couldn't apply for SSC because मेरे वह chemistry नहीं पड़ी हुई थी. हालांकि chemistry is dumb like why do you even need chemistry for? I have no idea. तो तो exactly तो मेरे पास option ही यह थी कि मैं वह करता और उसके बाद में transfer in करा सकता था SSC में. वह फिर एक और बहुत मुश्किल और different ball game थी. It was funny कि मैं CS के course के जो मेरे दोस्त हैं उनका they were using my O levels का project for their course but मैं खुद like I was just doing everything on my own जो CS related थी. Interesting and when did you graduate?
2015. और उसमें उसके दरमियान में I mean you mentioned you were working. Were you still freelancing or doing other work as well? Yeah, I have been doing that pretty much my entire life like like website पहले भी नहीं थी जब ग्यारह साल का था तो. अच्छा interesting. वह तो कुछ ना कुछ I have always been doing, yeah. And so again freelancing साथ साथ चल रही है वह सारा twenty fifteen you graduate.
What do you do after that? So Lums भी मैंने एक app start की थी. It was another startup. So सिर्फ़ lums के अंदर ही I did like three, four, five different startups while in lums. So the last one I did was called campus feed. Right. So it was a social network for university students, जो कि आप जुकू ही and it was anonymous. So you could talk about any taboo topic in society, चाहे वह you know religion है, चाहे वह politics है, किसी भी चीज़ के बारे में बात कर सकते तो वह बिल्कुल viral होगी. So within the first two weeks lumps के अंदर 80% पूरा campus was on the platform. हमारी daily user engagement उस सुक्त at one point Facebook से ज़्यादा थी twenty five, twenty six minutes से ज़्यादा लोग every single day उसको use कर रहे थे. फिर we scaled it to 10 different universities. So जैसे ही मैं lumps से graduate हुआ I continued doing that. It wasn't मैं पैसे नहीं कमा रहे थे उससे. But it opened a lot of doors for me. Portfolio
wise it was, you know, useful कि I mean, so did you ever sell it? Did you ever make money out of it? Or did you use that as a launching pad for for whatever you did आगे? Yeah, I didn't sell it. I couldn't sell it but ये हुआ कि मुझे एक angel investor मिल गई. एक दो
startup events में मैंने participate किया उसमें एक angel investor आई हुई थी Silicon Valley से. तो उसने कहा कि I want to take you to Silicon Valley और तब मैं यह startup pitch करा था. Then I went to The US for the first time. I told her मेरे पास पैसे भी नहीं है और कुछ भी नहीं है तो she's like no I'll pay for everything. So I'd say कि that kind of you know because of campus feed I ended up in The US for at least two three months. अच्छा. फिर दो तीन दफा में आता जाता रहा वहां पर, different programs, etc. So yeah, it was a good launch launching pad for a lot of things. And what were you doing at I mean in The US? वहां पर वह क्या events वगैरह थे startup type के या कोई course था? Yeah, दो different programs में गया था back to back. So जो पहले वाला गया था जो यह angel investor थी यह बहुत ही interesting था कि there were like 18 different people living in the same house. सारे founders थे और अच्छा. कोई उसका like planned कुछ भी नहीं था. बस हम सारे जो हैं. It's like a big brother sort of a put everybody together and see Exactly, what exactly. ठीक है. अब सारे इकट्ठे होते थे. खाना भी इकट्ठे खाना है, उठना भी इकट्ठे है, लोगों से भी इकट्ठे मिलना है. फिर कभी कभी कोई mentors आ जाते थे that would help us you know answer our questions but generally जिस angel investor में लेकर गई थी she said कि मेरा main motive यह है कि as long as I can get you from Pakistan to The US and from the airport to my house and my house back to the airport and back to Pakistan I have done my job. की मतलब मैंने अपना काम कर लिया आपको US पहुंचा दिया visa लगवा दिया आपके वो दरवाज़े खोल दिया अब आगे आप लोग जो है
शधि दी जैसे कहते हो ना pressure cooker बना के बनेगा आप देख भाई कर दीजिए तू नहीं करना है. So आधे Indian थे और आधे पाकिस्तानी. And so how was that? It was amazing. अच्छा. मतलब के
एक चीज़ आप understand करते है कि जो like nations fight against nations के Pakistan और India के आपस में वो नहीं होंगे लेकिन जो इंसान का जो connection है ना at a personal level उसमें कोई वो animosity या कोई लड़ाई या कोई वो नहीं है इतना flawlessly आज तक वो मेरे like बहुत अच्छे दोस्त हैं और you know when I go there कहीं अभी भी Silicon Valley में तो उनसे मिलते हैं सब कुछ करते हैं और बहुत ज़्यादा चीज़ें आप सीखते हैं you know learn I learnt a lot from them I would say. Makes sense.
So you came back 20 again 2016 में ये सारा कुछ चल रहा था. Fill the gap for me from 2016 to 2020. अच्छा so '20
when I when I graduated उसके बाद यही campus feed continue किया. एक co working space में गया. अच्छा यह gap में बड़ी एक interesting तीन हज़ार तीन सौ रुपए मैं दे रहा था और उस पर भी मैं discount लेने की कोशिश कह रहा था जो कि मुझे उन्हें नहीं दिया. तीन हज़ार तीन सौ per month? Per month per seat. Per month? Per month per seat, yeah. Wow.
आजकल तो मेरा ख़ैला वह पच्चीस तीस हज़ार रुपए आ जाता है
और वो इतनी छोटी थी कि हमारे side like you couldn't like work like this. You had to work like this. तो वो दस हज़ार, दस हज़ार उसका था जिसमें तीन हज़ार तीन सौ मैं देता था और बाकी वो देते थे. अब interesting चीज़ ये हुई वहां पर कि I was doing campus win and I met my co founder there. तो जब randomly randomly मैं गया और एक AC के सामने एक table है जिसकी उस table की cost थी कोई 20 से 25,000 जिसमें चार बंदे बैठ सकते थे. तो मैंने कहा इस तो एक freelancer था. Right. That's how I met him. फिर campus feed से I got into plan nine. जो एक incubator है. Again पैसे नहीं होते थे तो जो मैं freelancing करता था ना उसी से I would like paid developers online. Freelancers ख़ुद भी hire करता था, कुछ काम ख़ुद करता था, UI UX से ख़ुद करता था तो उस तरह से होता है. Then plan nine also supported a lot. तो उधर 100,000 एक लाख रुपया मिलता था महीने का, 20,000 for five people. अच्छा. हां तो लेकिन आप 20,000 में कोई developer तो रख नहीं सकते. तो फिर हम मैंने क्या किया कि मैंने दो developers रखे और बाकी तीन अपने दोस्तों के नाम लगा लिया. तो उनका फिर उनके नाम पर check आते थे और फिर उनके सारे पैसे मिलाकर जो मैं कुछ freelancing से करता था वह developers को जाते थे. Right. So then I started scaling campus feed up. फिर वह कोई दस different universities में गया. At one point it had over 20,000 daily active users.
So काफ़ी interesting था. How was the plan nine experience? Again उसकी बड़ी एक अच्छी अच्छी वह भी आती है जो लोग वहां से हैं but for a lot of people outside उनकी critique यह होती है कि यार they haven't they've spent a lot of money but they haven't been able to essentially build success stories. यानी कि success stories इतना जल्दी ज़रूर आ गई कि लोग गए वहां पर, वहां से सीखकर निकले and then eventually that second or third startup worked out. But the ones who went in there, वह पहले इस पटारी को बहुत success करते थे but वह कोई nobody was able to really create a sustainable, scalable, active model. What were your, what was your experience?
I think, I'd agree with what you're saying. But I would also say कि एक आपको right out of college ना आपके पास कोई office है, coworking space आप use कर रहे हैं, आपके पास कोई facilities नहीं है और आपको कोई आकर कहता है कि कोई हम आपसे equity नहीं लेंगे. So zero equity और हम जो है आपको space दे रहे हैं, mentors ok, कुछ Pakistan में ecosystem ही नहीं है तो mentors कहां से लेकर आएं? तो उस हिसाब से I give them a lot of regard because they gave me a place to stay. I spent many nights sleeping at Plan 9 very different from a government वो और अगर आप success stories की बात करें तो I'd say कि most startups जो है वो fail कर गए थे plan nine में. लेकिन retailer के founders नौकेज़ मेरा दोस्त बना you know plan nine के अंदर और काफ़ी startups हैं जो. Do you think networking में it helped in a way कि जब when you met other startups they you learn from each other and you grew with each other? Each other yes लेकिन actual I think startup के अंदर आपको जिसकी help चाहिए होती ना उसकी चाहिए होती है जो आपका mentor Mark Zuckerberg नहीं होना चाहिए. आपका mentor होना चाहिए somebody that's two steps ahead of you or one step ahead of you. Right. अब मसला यह है आपके Pakistan में startup ecosystem उस वक्त exist ही नहीं करता था. This is twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen मुझे exact याद नहीं है but exist ही नहीं करता था कोई mentors honestly थे ही नहीं. तो हम एक दूसरे से तो बहुत कुछ सीख रहे थे but जो लोग आते थे वो भी almost हमारी ही position में होते थे कि अब पटारी जो है वो हमसे दो तीन हाथ आगे था like दो तीन steps पर वह उस तरह से नहीं था. They hadn't raise like पटारी ने कुछ दो तीन million dollar raise नहीं किए हुए थे. तो I think in a nutshell पूरे हमारे PAN nine के उसके अंदर किसी ने पैसे दो तीन million भी नहीं raise किए होंगे. Mentors included. हां. तो उस हिसाब से उस तरह से mentors नहीं थे but I wouldn't blame that on them. Pakistan में थी I guess वह the
ecosystem, maturity of the industry will impact the quality of, you know, the service provider. Makes sense. And so plan nine में आप कब से कब तक थे?
I think about a year or a little over a year. Twenty eighteen? Six months का I think program था. फिर वह plan nine के बाद I also stretched it quite a bit. दो तीन महीने मैंने कहा please रखकर अभी भी ना निकाले मत. Then I got into plan x. वह उसी building में उसके नीचे होता था. What's the thought behind like what's the difference there plan nine and plan X for an average user? It's very similar plan nine को incubator कहते हैं, plan X को accelerator कहते हैं, plan nine के अंदर आपको 100 k per month मिलता है, plan X में नहीं मिलता आपको.
अगर आप incubator accelerator में differentiate करके बता सकें कि what that means?
Pakistan का एक different concept है incubator का वह मैं बता देता हूं globally हर कोई accelerator ही कहता है. अच्छा. ठीक है? So, so Y Combinator is an accelerator. अब वह plan nine और Y Combinator same चीज़ है but for some reason I think globally incubator is university focused कि university बिल्कुल ही fresh fresh ideas को आपने कुछ ना कुछ direction देनी है. बिल्कुल, so Pakistan में अगर हम बात करें तो वह यह है कि जी बिल्कुल fresh startup ideas जो ideas stage पर है वह incubator में जाता है और उसके बाद plan x जो है वह accelerator में जाता है कि आपने उस idea को scale up करना उसको grow करना है. But globally यह इस तरह की इतनी clear definition नहीं है जिससे आप Pakistan में लोग use करते हैं. Right and plan x कैसा था? I think it was good. Plan nine I think receive को सबसे ज़्यादा funding भी मिलती थी. Plan nine के सबसे ज़्यादा products भी होते थे. Plan nine के through मैं trips पर भी गया हूं, Turkey गया हूं free और अच्छा different things. हां वह funded not funded by the government but वह उनकी team भी Plan बड़ी थी X जो है वह I think अच्छा था but उसमें इतनी ज़्यादा वह नहीं थी. Like you didn't have a lot of resources 100 के महीने का उसको बड़े पैसे होते थे. वो भी नहीं आपको मिलते थे. उसके अलावा जो उसकी पूरी co working space है, वो भी काफ़ी छोटी होती थी, crowded होती थी. तो there was a difference between the two programs. Have you gone there recently? Yeah. Are they still running? They are still running. मुझे बुलाते रहते हैं काफ़ी ज़्यादा. अच्छा, do you now do you return the favor by mentoring people? Yeah yeah, all the time. So हमाद भाई अब वहां पर होते हैं. So जब हम लोग थे हमाद भाई और हमारा जो है वह he had joined as a business development you know, person और हम लोगों का वह था. Same हमारा time period था जब हमने plan nine join किया. तो now he runs plan nine. Interesting and,
have you seen the difference in the quality of input
या वह same है? I think unfortunately the quality of startups has gone down. अच्छा. हां, over a Because, period of Why do you think so? So जो plan nine के अब startups हैं versus जो पहले होते थे पहले वाले startups के पास और कोई access to capital तो दूर दूर तक सोच भी नहीं सकते थे. अब I think और avenues आ गई हैं. अब startups जो है वह अगर कुछ भी करते हैं, कुछ थोड़ा बहुत करते थे till 2021 not 2022, 2023.
They had access to capital. They had better mentors outside plan nine. So, वक्त it was the only thing, right? अब I think कि काफ़ी ज़्यादा खुल भी गए हैं. I think NIC भी खुल गई alarms के अंदर तो वह काफ़ी लोग वहां भी चले जाते Exactly exactly. Alternate पर वह है. Right, so twenty eighteen तो so plan x से आप निकले 2019 में?
2018 के around I think मुझे exact dates नहीं आते. सही है and then
so it was basically campus feed and then it was remote base?
Was there anything in between? So campus feed किया फिर उसके बाद I was traveling like I said US किया, वापस आया. Free programs और यह सारी चीज़ें तो I realized कि there has to be a better way, right? I can't live for free based on different programs. तो फिर my cofounder and I यही जो मुझे मिला था इसको मैंने reach out किया. अब campus feedback भी वैसे नहीं कमा रहा था. उसका startup भी नहीं चल रहा थी he was freelancing and also doing a startup at the same time. तो वह भी नहीं चल रहा तो we decided to open a software house कि हम इतने पैसे तो हों कि हम US move करना हो कर सकें. कुछ खाना हो कुछ पीना हो, कुछ करना हो, we should have enough capital, right? So फिर हमने एक software house start किया by the name of CreativeMorph
and then that software house right in the middle of COVID turned into remote base. नहीं, so what was the interesting? So what was the what was the software I was doing at the time? Or it was just plain old services? हां हां services project लेते थे और करते
थे in Pakistan. और वह projects कहां से आप acquire कर रहे थे? शुरू में उसकी upwork profile बहुत अच्छी थी तो उससे करते थे. But eventually फिर I move. Network वन गया है. Network भी वन गया फिर I move to दिवस on a tourist visa. अच्छा. हां, so हुआ यह था कि हम लोग we start making good money. Good के मतलब enough to live a good life, right? But फिर हमने कहा this is not the end, right? अब क्या ऐसा करना है? तो मेरा tourist visa लगा हुआ था तो उसने कहा तुम US चले जाओ. तो मैंने कहा like क्या कहां जाऊंगा, क्या करूंगा? And he was like कि बस चले जाओ देखी जाएगी कर लेंगे figure out. तो बस मैं दो हफ्तों के लिए गया US और नौ महीने बाद या eight eight and a half months बाद I came back. How do you do the visa run six months वाला? Visa अपना मैंने change of status कराया, O-one visa लगवाया, work permit किया, immigrant, it's like a dual intent visa. वह figure out किया. City भी नहीं पता थी so I literally visited different cities. I had nowhere to go, right? हां. तो वह फिर वह सारी journey की network कोई नहीं था. तो वह flyers लेकर co working spaces में जाकर distribute करने से लेकर वह सारी journey की and after eight, eight and a half months we were again software house भी अच्छा बेहतर चल रहा था और हमारे पास we started doing another startup also
but मैंने सारा अपना visa और work permit और वो सारे problem solve थे. So how were you able to do that? Like did you register a company there then? Did you register this company as a US company and then got an O one out of that? हां exactly. So यह register की थी plus O one के अंदर आपको again
campus feed ने कैसे help किया कि o one के अंदर eight criteria में होते उनमें से आपने तीन fulfill करने होते हैं. Right. So campus feed itself की वजह से majority सारी fill हो चुके हुए थे. Like मेरे Media
की coverage and so on and so forth. Exactly, media coverage भी थी. Your
role in an organization which is very important like an important role in your in the organization. वह भी मेरा से fill fulfill हो गया. Judge and mentorship मेरी plan nine की जैसे fulfill होगी. So वह eight के अंदर से मेरे को six या seven पूरे थे. Right. सारा research paper मैंने लिखा हुआ था उसके अलावा सारे almost पूरे थे. और वह यह होता है ना कि Oven में I think Oven requires a sponsorship from a company there. बिल्कुल. वह आपकी अपनी company थी. अपनी company थी exactly और मेरी company ने ही मुझे hire किया था on a salary तो बस यह सारा match करके continue. Interesting. Did you ever convert that Oven into because वह कहते हैं कि Oven eventually it's the easiest route to a green card. Exactly exactly. So अभी मैंने अपना green card करना है. उस वक़्त यह हुआ कि फिर COVID आ गया. Right. COVID के बाद मैं Pakistan आ गया and I wasted a lot of time. So that's on me. तो फिर मुझे O1 renew कराना पड़ा. सब मेरा renew हुआ हुआ अब मैंने जाते साथ green card apply करना. Right and you're based out of The US right now? Yeah, you. I'm fifty-fifty between both. Forty-forty
and then 20% in Dubai. अच्छा. Dubai maybe do you have a setup there as well? हां, मेरी team हमारी
team जो है वो across the world है ना, so six different countries है I think over 30 up to शायद maybe even 40 different cities है. So दुबई में भी हमारा जो VP of growth है, one of the smartest people I have ever worked with, he is from दुबई. Right. हमारी VP of,
people and culture is joining us on the April 10. She's also in Dubai. Right. तो वहां भी एक setup वन रहा है. Very cool. And, so so tell me about remote base. What is it? कहां से आया यह? Because you're doing us an IT services business and that business is a seemingly good business.
So how why do you decide to pivot और है क्या exactly? बिल्कुल. So pivot से start करते हैं कि यह हुआ कि हम एक US में उसी story को अगर continue करें तो we were doing another startup and doing यह software house at the same time. Software house से पैसे कमाते थे और कोई concept of saving तो था नहीं तो सारे पैसे startup में लगा देते थे and we were burning a lot. Everything we were earning we were burning. Right. San Francisco में मैं एक garage में सो रहा था और उस garage के अंदर like mattress और पूरा मैंने एक छोटा सा घर बनाया हुआ था. खाना Trader Joe's खाता था कुछ तीन dollar, चार dollar में पूरा हो जाता है बाकी सारे पैसे उधर invest करते थे फिर COVID आ गया. So we lost two of our biggest customers जो software उसके थे. Right. और usually early days में एक या दो customer पर पूरा software उस चल रहा होता है और startup जो है उसकी traction नहीं आ रही थी. So that was performance tracking for software engineers. Similar domain but वह नहीं चल चल पा रहा था. So we were down to about thirty, forty five days of money left. एक salary रह गई थी हमारे पास और अब हमने कहा अब क्या करना है? So came back to Pakistan because I couldn't afford to live there anymore. पूरी journey के बाद वापस Pakistan आया and then started frantically writing to my friends in the USKG. किसी के पास, networking हुई थी उन्होंने कहा कि हमें चाहिए engineers and then we decided कि हमने अब इसको as a software house लेकर नहीं चलना. अब हमने इसको as a you know proper techs technology startup लेकर चलना है और हमने इस तरह सारे manual process को automate कर देना. So उस वक्त तो हमने manually दे दिए उनको बंदे. But then every step of the way from that day to today जो है हमने हर process को automate किया और एक platform बना दिया for software engineers for companies to hire remote software engineers. Right. और अब क्या होता है कि you know it's a very simple so we are a platform that matches companies with software engineers. So companies जिनको engineers चाहिए अच्छे जो remotely काम कर सके वह हमारे platform पर आते हैं और हमें कहते हैं हमें यह react, node, what not engineers चाहिए और फिर engineers भी हमारे platform पर आते हैं वह कहते जी हमारा पांच साल का react का experience है, तीन साल का कोई और experience है and then we as a company kind of match them together But अभी सारा unlike a software house automated है. Right. जो हमारा platform है उस पर इस वक्त last month बारह हज़ार से ज़्यादा लोगों ने apply किया था. एक software house में I think साल में भी बारह हज़ार शायद लोग नहीं होते जो apply करते हैं और उन बारह हज़ार के बारह हज़ार लोगों को हम software के through filter करते हैं. Right. वह platform पर आते हैं उनको अपनी technical assessments देनी पड़ती हैं based on their experience. उनके video interviews होते हैं on the platform based on their experience. तो वह सारा जो vetting process है ना वह full like top ninety, ninety two, 93% जो है वह वैसे ही screen out हो जाते हैं. Right. यह जो 8% होते हैं वह हमारे ही remote bases जो different companies में काम कर रहे वह उन 8% का interview लेते हैं. So it's like a scalable model जो कि unlike a software house operate करता है. नहीं and so let's say 12,000 people come in to
sort of join or rather इसको मैं इतना break करता हूं. So so एक funnel है जिसमें एक आपके input और एक output है, right? On the output side you've you've got the clients who require, the engineers. And then the on the input side, let's say there's a viewer who's watching and he wants to go in and he wants to work with, you know, remotely for a company in The US. पहला तो सवाल यह है कि do does the engineer come to you, goes through the screening? If he's eventually good enough, do you hire him or you just connect him to the opportunity? And what happens when the when there's a mismatch between availability and requirement. क्योंकि my understanding is कि ठीक है I'll let's say मैं उठता हूं आज और मैं कहता यार मैं Node JS का जीता हूं. Mhmm. मैंने apply कर दिया but आज opportunity नहीं है. IVR session आए हुए whatever opportunity नहीं है. मैंने apply किया I went through the entire process. There's nothing there. Now I go I find something else and then tomorrow an opportunity comes and you're like oh यह बंदा बड़ा फिरता let's connect.
But I'm not available. So how does that work? Yeah, I think that's a great question. So जो remote base का model है उसके अंदर हम hire करते हैं और फिर यह जो inventory management की problem आपने identify की है we solve that और उसको हम कैसे solve करते हैं कि हमारी एक internal bench होती है जिसके ऊपर जो हमारे अपने tools हैं यह जो पूरा मैंने आपको platform describe किया ना यह सारे उन लोगों ने ही बनाए हैं जो कि available जो कि हमने hire किए हुए हैं for matching लेकिन अभी उनके लिए for example काम नहीं है. तो वह फिर हमारे ही platform बनाते हैं so it's like a microservices architecture so different languages के अंदर उसकी different वह बनते हैं and that's how we're able to, you know, balance balance And it so it's basically my my understanding is a global delivery center model. It's sort of like Teradata and IBM and except they're exclusive to to their own companies. What you've done is you've taken that and you've given it to any and everyone out there
You hire the resources remotely. You and there's essentially accounting bench model you know, you sublet them as consultants. Billable hours हैं. Unbillable hours के ऊपर there's a premium that you can take and sort of invest back into the company and then take through profitability. Mhmm. And, eventually, it's the billability that's important. Do these people, when they plug in to a particular client Mhmm. Is it always a long term contract? Or sometimes it could be, you know, oh, I I immediately so pay as you grow sort of a model where you're like, yo, listen, like, I need 50 engineers for this microservice for, let's say, the next three months. Do you have requirement? Give me the engineers and three months later I'm able to let go of it because that is much more efficient. Mhmm. Versus like जो आजकल tech का मसला हो रहा है कि they grew too fast and they grew too big and there was a lot of fat, inefficient fat. And in a lot of ways that could have been avoided if they had just gone with कि यार अच्छा हमने इस area में growth लेकर आनी है. Let's go and hire people on these sort of short term contracts, build this and then they can leave rather than them coming in and then just wandering around waiting for the next recession. So so what are the different models there? हां जी, so
different किसी के models होते हैं जो हमारे global competitors हैं top trial, tiering, indelial, उनके ज़्यादा short term contracts हैं. So they charge a very big premium. बहुत ही ज़्यादा expensive होते हैं but लोग उनको hire करते हैं जहां पर कोई भी bandage fix चाहिए, कोई problem आ गई है, you know things are not scaling, कोई consultant type चाहिए to help them out, systems architect चाहिए. So super senior resources but extremely expensive और हमारा जो model है वो different है its longer term so हम लोग बहुत ज़्यादा long term काम करते हैं हमारे जो average client lifetime है वो over जितनी अभी company को you know two and half three years हुए हैं so over two years तो already हो चुका है so हमारे जो earliest customers है if they have not gone out of business they are still with us today. Right. So वो है और दूसरा हमारा price point भी काफी कम है from these competitors which makes it a very you know, sustainable way to grow a company rather than कि जी सौ million dollar raise की है और पचास million के tech resources रख लिया or whatever the numbers are, right? Right. And but how do these people get plugged in?
Because and this is important because post COVID this is becoming this is a very interesting time जिसमें आ पाए हैं because post COVID as people began to work from home I think जो real हम कहते हैं ना nineties and early two thousands were the time for tech outsourcing and you know India boomed and so on and so forth. मुझे personally यह लगता है कि वह तो net practice थी. जो real real impact आया क्योंकि वह mostly BPO की तरफ़ गया वह really operational brain dead काम को उन्होंने you know outsource कर दिया. But the real I think game started when they started work from home for majority of their, teams and then eventually hybrid में गए और काफ़ी तो fully remote है. And they began to realize कि यार, you know what? Productivity is still there and this is working out. And so now with the recession, it's it's going to be increasingly more, useful to actually hire cheaper talent. Doesn't matter because दुनिया में किधर है as long as it's cheaper. But then उसके अंदर मसले आते हैं दो तीन. पहला यह आता है कि जो you know so how do you plug in people as consultants to your team? Are they plugged in as employees? So for example, when I used to work at Teradata, हमारा पास similar model था. फ़र्क है कि we were exclusive to Teradata. तो जब हम जाते थे as consultants और I was working on the Volvo project, तो we used we would come in as essentially Volvo employees ही वन जाते थे. You know, we will get the email address, we will get the entire system access and VPN वगैरह के ऊपर चल रहा होता था. So, एक तो how does that work? And then दूसरा financially how does it work? The way that I see it, I think with with metaverse and with the future of work generally जिस तरह design हो रहा है borders more or less ख़त्म हो चुके होंगे और वह financially वह जो element है ना कि you know work visa and then you know आपको उसके against एक bank account मिलेगा और पैसा मिलेगा वह उसके ऊपर service लेरे का चुकी होगी जिसमें doesn't really matter where you are and money moves. But right now obviously we're not there yet and so how does that work? Do you have companies in every every place where the client is and then they're able to, you know, pay you because for a lot of clients जो कि पहली दफ़ा कर रहे होंगे, they're used to a payroll that runs within the company or at the very least within the country.
And so suddenly गाना से कोई आता है customer. How how do you service them? So I think the world now is very very different. पहले हमेशा कहते थे कि जी the future is remote, the future is remote. The future अब today is remote. It's no longer the future. आपकी जो companies build हो रही हैं, deal for example, which is also gonna answer another question of yours, is our payment processor. So, पूरी दुनिया का global payroll जो है ना, वह हमारा manage करते हैं, वह हमें help करते है run करने के लिए no matter where the people are. The entire company is remote within I think two two and a half years they have gone from $1,000,000 in annual recurring revenue to I think अभी कुछ तीन सौ चार सौ million dollar उनका annual recurring revenue है they just raise at a valuation $12,000,000,000 और उनकी पूरी company भी structurally remote है. इसी तरह जो नई companies gitlab हो गई, zpr हो गई these aren't new companies but they were like the pioneers of remote work. वो totally remote companies है और अब की जो दुनिया है न वो बहुत ज़्यादा different form तरीके से चल रही है तो companies that are being formed right now या जो covid में form हुई थी they can't go back to the office. अब deal ये नहीं कर सकता के 100 different countries के अंदर उनकी employees हैं उनको कहे जी कल सुबह office आ जाओ. It's impossible right? So ये पूरी companies structurally इस तरह build होने शुरू होगी जिसके अंदर आपकी you know capex और opex कम होती जा रही है दफ्तर क्या आपने खर्चे देने नहीं है और I think that it is not only that. Operationally very efficient ना कि खप पैसे चले एक बात है खप भी बहुत ज़्यादा उसके management was was very took a lot of productive hours and and that that you minus that and suddenly now you are focused on building and working. Exactly exactly और इसके अंदर अब एक और बड़ा transition है जो कि मुझे नज़र आ रहा अब हमारी company में हो रहा है कि you're not your work life does your your life does not revolve around your work anymore. Your work revolves around your life. अब आपको move नहीं होना क्या आप लोहौर में है तो आपको नौकरी कराची में मिल गई है तो आपने उसी laptop को उठाना है आपने कराची move होना है उस कराची के office में जाकर उसी laptop को खोलना और उस पर काम करना शुरू कर देना which makes no sense to me right? अब तो वो change हो गया. अब you can still be with your friends, you can still be with your family, you can travel by choice not that you are forced to do it और उससे अब I think ज़्यादा effect क्या होगा globally companies even companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc. कहते हैं जी we want to hire the best talent in the world लेकिन वह talent forty five minutes की vicinity में होना चाहिए. तो that makes no sense right? आपने दुनिया का best talent अगर hire करना है Pakistan से उसको अगर visa नहीं मिल रहा तो
can't hire the best talent, right? Yeah. अगर Pakistan से करना है, गाना से करना है, talent तो talent है वह दुनिया में कहीं भी if you nurture it, Yeah. It can do wonders. And I think I mean in a way they, I mean so one of the reasons, one of the backbones of the American success was that they were in a way doing that by you know tapping into I mean the entire H1 program was that right कि पूरी दुनिया से best talent को ले आओ. Difference यह आया है कि there is a there is a political economy shift as well both in The US as well as Europe. More so in Europe. US में वह Trump के time पर थोड़ा ज़्यादा ज़्यादा आया था, थोड़ा सा ज़्यादा mild हो गया. But in a way, you know, populations are no longer very happy with the mobility happening in the physical world. And so the companies or the capitalist requirement definitely is there to get the best talent. But in a lot of ways, just the political structures aren't allowing for that immigration to happen, जो कि पहले वक़्त में हो रही थी. बिल्कुल. And so that's going to make it more and more difficult for companies to be able to hire, you know, that that best talent that you speak of. And therefore, remote then makes the most logical sense. It's cheaper, it's efficient and you don't have to go through all of the crappy paperwork,
जो कि आपको पहले में करना पड़ता. I agree 100%. I think जो governments है ना there's like slow giants whether it's US, ठीक है? आप US लोगों को लगता है कि बड़ा you know progressive है यह वह है. उनकी भी government level पर कोई काम कराना है ना तो आप बस भूल जाएं because because they move very very slowly. On the other hand जो capitalistic mindset है या जो भी आप उसको कहेंगे they're efficient, they move fast और जो मुझे दुनिया नज़र आती है ना वह उसी तरह के अब it doesn't matter where you come from, it doesn't matter what your skin color is, it doesn't matter you know कोई भी वो जो सारी चीज़ें है they don't matter if you're talented you can work across the globe, you can work for the best companies. आप सबसे अच्छी companies का काम कर सकते हैं. दुनिया में कहीं से भी आप काम कर सकते हैं और आपको उन companies की भी advantage में है कि आपको hire करें और आपके भी advantage में है कि आप उन companies के लिए काम करें. जिसका next phase यह है कि अगर हमारी government भी जांग जाए तो Pakistan जैसे मुल्कों को बहुत advantage हो सकता है क्योंकि हमारा worst passport in the world है और क्या नाम है one of the worst not the worst third Afghanistan I think Somalia और Iraq या कोई इस तरह के हैं जो हमसे नीचे आते हैं. So उन सारी चीज़ों के लिए हमारे जो लोग हैं वो bypass कर सकते हैं. We have one of the highest English speaking populations in the world. We are the sixth largest population in the world तो हम बहुत ज़्यादा इससे फ़ायदा उठा सकते हैं. Comparison भी आपको थोड़ा सा दे देता हूं. हमारी जो total IT की export I think दो ढाई billion dollar की है. India के अंदर tata एक बहुत बड़ी company है. उस tata बड़ी company की subsidiary है tata consultancy. उस tata consultancy की जो सिर्फ IT export है ना वो पच्चीस billion dollar की है. So हमारी जो total current account deficit है हमारे accountओं में तो सिर्फ अभी तीन चार billion रह गया but एक बड़ी company की एक जो subsidiary है उसकी $25,000,000,000 which is more than our total current account deficit not in the past but जो हमारा साल का होता है उससे ज़्यादा है और
all it takes is one company to solve And this that opportunity definitely is still there because there's I mean लोग कहते हैं यार यह opportunity lost हो गई. I don't agree with that. I think with 5G with I mean I think twenty twenty to twenty thirty is the decade of innovation happening again. जो आपकी twenty twenty to twenty thirty was the decade of consolidation in a way कि, you know, you you innovate and then the Facebooks of the world will buy you out. Now these companies are a little more conservative and a lot of these newly, क्या कहलाता है? Newly laid off engineers from these big companies in my opinion are going to go out there and are going to innovate now and be opening the doors for the future of let's say web and future of technology and future of digital and and so there is a lot of productivity, value and wealth to be made चाहे वह 5G हो, चाहे वह AI हो, चाहे वह there is a lot happening there and अब तो सच्ची बात है I have always been ना blockchain crypto cynic. But I think अब वह finally were at that point where, post the crash. तो वह जो.com crash आया था ना कि जब वह clowns घुसे हुए थे and then the crash happened and that's when the real folks sat down and started building and then the googles of the world came out. तो तो there is a lot of that wealth to be generated in this decade and आज भी अगर हम उस opportunity को समझ जाएं तो हम पहुंच सकते हैं. बिल्कुल. You know at at at let's say twenty five, thirty, forty, fifty billion dollars. And then इसमें एक एक मैं इसमें दुनियान में एक और add करना चाहूंगा. A lot of people cite our textile exports as $15.69 और आपके भी दोस्त हैं वहां पर तो. I don't wanna poke them but I mean they're good doing good work, exports are important but लोग यह नहीं समझ पाते कि textile requires an input as well. So when they have a $15,000,000,000 export number, there is a cost of input there as well where, you know, you're importing cotton, you're importing a lot of other raw material, dyes, so on and so forth. And so it's always going to be $1,516,000,000,000 minus cost of input maybe $45,000,000,000, maybe even more. And so the net that you're actually receivables में आपके जो है ना दस, ग्यारह, बारह हैं. On the other hand और उसके ऊपर there's a lot that lot of focus जो हमारी general language में आता है daily life में textile वालों के लिए क्या हो रहा अब तो ख़ैर चारों के साथ मार पड़ रही है उनको gas भी महंगी होगी but otherwise बहुत ज़्यादा आता है. IT के अंदर net जो आपकी export है ना वह सारी सारी in lieu of तनख्वाहें मुल्क में आ रही हैं. Exactly. Right? Even आपकी जो costs हैं वह भी मुल्क के अंदर ही जा रही हैं जो आपका जो बिजली है सबसे बड़ी cost आपकी क्या यार energy की cost है, right? तनख्वाओं के अलावा वो energy की cost भी effectively जो है वो आपका जो capacity payments है उनको कम करके productive units of बिजली इस्तेमाल कर रहे हैं. So I think it's an incredible opportunity and now with the new economic situation जो बनती जा रही है we're also priced very well with against the dollar to compete in the global market. इस सारे के साथ अब मेरा सवाल आएगा मैं सबसे पूछता हूं. ठीक है, आपका एक hybrid model है, it's a software house hybrid into consulting, hybrid into, remote work growth on steroids.
बिल्कुल.
In a way जब हम बाहर की बात करते हैं तो हां, as a global startup, I think it's a it's a 10 on 10. You've raised funding recently as well and you know you can really scale this up to wherever. But जब हम Pakistan की बात करते हैं तो उस पर सबसे बड़ा सवाल यह आता है कि ठीक है you're at a 140 maybe right now. Yeah. Right? Maybe even आप जो है वह उसको इधर जैसे talent को तोड़ तोड़कर 500 पर चले जाएं, thousand पर चले जाएं. You really wanna scale, you know, you really wanna go to tata consulting. You need the talent. Your raw material is the talent and the fact is you know this better than I do. बारह हज़ार में से कितना percent आपका genuinely sellable talent है जो कि global markets में आप sell कर सकते हैं. So couple of questions. First, what's your experience with the talent? You know, कितना वह वाकई ऐसा है कि जो आपके पूरा system है उसके अंदर से वह cracks से जब गुज़र कर आता है तो वह वाकई ऐसा है जिसको आपको मज़ीर trend करने की ज़रूरत नहीं है. You can sell them immediately and this would include both of the things, right? Consulting model का सबसे बड़ा problem यह है. Problem कह लें उसको वह यह है कि आपको fifty fifty talent in terms of technical skills and communication skills चाहिए. बिल्कुल. You can't have like a you know back office of a 100 people who can't speak English but the manager is great and he can interface between them. You are effectively selling an entire product to the customer and they'll be communicating directly. ऐसा वह वाला element भी है. और दूसरा जो है वो
चलिए let's let's forget about the second one मुझे आप पहले इसका बताएं कि how do you like what's the what's the talent looking like right now? बिल्कुल इसकी मैं आपको exact examples देता हूं कि जब हमने start किया हमारे पास again पैसे नहीं थे तो हमने fresh graduates hire किए. Let's look at where those fresh graduates are today. So चार पांच लोगों की छोटी सी team थी जिसको तलहाल जो है lead कर रहे थे. One of them worked with us for two and a half years. Started off at I think $7,080,000 rupees as a fresh graduate. उस ज़माने में इससे भी कम होते थे. I think, I don't remember exactly. After two and a half years of working with us, he is currently at Amazon and his annual is over 200 k dollars. दो लाख dollar ज़्यादा वह इस स्वगत को मार रहे हैं. और वह कहां से graduate हुआ था? Nas. Right. इसी तरह हमारे पास एक दो और लोग थे. एक इस स्वगत जो है वह Tesla के अंदर है. एक जो है unfortunately उसकी job rescind हुई है मेटा से. तो जो जो लोग हैं ना उनको right उनकी grooming हो जाए ना तो I think there's a lot of things that can happen. अब वो क्यों नहीं होती? That's the question right. तो सबसे पहले तो हम कोई magic तो करते नहीं है. जो gap between the universities and the job market is huge. सही है? वही चीज़ जो हम करा रहे हैं क्या करें? हम उनको पानी में फेंकते and we give them problems to solve and train them how to solve problems, number one. Number two Pakistan के अंदर अगर जो back office वाला scene है जिसके अंदर आपको exposure ही नहीं मिलता जो कि हमारे case में ऐसे नहीं होता you work with the client आपकी day to day interaction होती है. अब Pakistan में कोई Google's Facebook's of the world तो exist ही नहीं करते. तो जो हमारा talent है उसने कभी scalable applications पर काम ही नहीं किया हुआ. जब उन्होंने काम नहीं किया हुआ तो how can you expect them to you know work on something जिसके चार million user होंगे, दस million user होंगे. और when you do what we are doing then you get that training and then you get exposure to so many different companies जिनके पांच पांच दस दस बीस बीस million dollar बीस बीस million users हैं वो जब फिर Facebook और Google या Amazon में apply करते हैं तो then it's like you know they it sets them apart and they can get into these companies. अब इसका जो आपने सवाल पुछा कि दो किस्म के models हैं and we're working on both एक तो remote base का model है और एक talent league का model है. Remote based के model के अंदर जिसके अंदर एक ज़्यादा curated service होती है और हम ज़्यादा thorough waiting process के through लोगों को गुजारते हैं, हम अपनी bench पर लेकर आते हैं, उनकी comm skills check करते हैं, सब कुछ करते हैं. उसके अंदर भी हम बहुत just give us these three things कोई हमें gas नहीं चाहिए, कोई हमें raw material नहीं चाहिए, कोई हमें धागा नहीं चाहिए, कोई कुछ नहीं चाहिए so it is a very different industry all we need is these raw materials and अगर if the government wants to do it at scale like government help करना चाहती है which they have approached me a couple of times and the worst experience ever and I don't want to name the organizations but सिर्फ PR है, सही है? वह आगे कहते कि जी अच्छा दस हज़ार बंदे train कर दो, लाख बंदे train कर दो which is possible by the way. How is that possible? That was gonna be my next question कि देखिए एक तो current आपने मुझे बता दिया कि यार इस
वक़्त जो talent है उसको आप किस तरह से deal कर रहे हैं but then वह talent आपने बोला I get it. You showed them a better direction but वह बच्चा नष्ट का था यार. Total बच्चा पांच हज़ार है साल का, right? Maximum और उसमें से भी पांच हज़ार to be very honest forty fifty percent end up realizing वह हमें तो computer science करना ही नहीं था. तो जो actual technical बच्चा आता है वह मेरा ख़याला दो ढाई हज़ार बच्चा आता है. जिसके लिए पूरी market compete कर रही है. So systems is there and IBM is there and Teradata is there and you know Temple and so on. It's just a huge market, net sold. How do you scale from 2,500 to 25,000? जो आपने बोला वह आपने यह बोला कि यार give me a child who can do the basics and I will tell him how to be a professional. Mhmm. मेरा question यह है how do you bring a child to the basics? Because right now majority of the talent that is being produced by the universities are not even ranking on the basics. वो आते हैं वो कहते जी हमने अपनी चार साल की degree में CE पर काम करना सीखा है और हमें वो basic एक जो है ना Pac Man बनाना आता है it's like यार ये दुनिया बहुत आगे जा चुकी है what are you talking about? So so this thing that you mentioned कि you know we can train 25,000, a 100,000, how does that work? बिल्कुल. So अभी
universities क्या करती हैं कि एक professor लेकर आती हैं. वह professor जो है दो सौ बच्चों को पढ़ाते हैं. चार को समझ आ रही है, चार को समझ नहीं आ रही. डेढ़ सौ को पता ही नहीं है क्या हो रहा है. सही है? And then cheating कर ली, किसी और का project ले लिया और feesें full up भर रहे हो and then you and then they pass और फिर end पर क्या होता है? उनको कुछ भी नहीं आता. Again like I said हम कोई magic तो नहीं करते ना? So internally I think the way this can be scaled a lot which is again something we've done in the past is कि we introduce like a buddy system. सही है? कि जो remote bases जो है ना अब हमारे पास एक professor नहीं है. अब हमारे पास you know 100 professors हैं जो कि already remote base के पास हैं जिनके हर contract with the client के अंदर यह लिखा हुआ है कि वह दिन का एक घंटा remote base को दे सकते हैं. You attach one or two people to each mentor and then वह डेढ़ सौ बंदा जो है ना आपकी अगली तीन सौ, चार सौ, पांच सौ train कर सकता है and it's going to be such a curated experience for each kid के आपका जो professor है जो कि professor नहीं है वह आपसे सिर्फ जिसा startup से हम पहले बात कर रहे थे somebody that's only two three steps ahead of you. Right. वह आपको train कर रहा आपके तीन बच्चे दो बच्चे वह एक बंदा train कर रहा है and then you you're not growing linearly. Growing exponentially. Right. क्योंकि आपके अगर हम से पांच तीन सौ रुपए जाते हैं तीन सौ से. हमने पांच start किया था हम सौ से ऊपर चलेंगे. Right. अब वो सौ जो है आगे से अगला तीन सौ generate करेगा. वो अगला तीन सौ जो है आगे से अगला नौ सौ generate करेगा. So jumps जो है वो बहुत बड़ी jumps लगती है but इसमें एक problem exist करता है कि जो आपने identify किया है कि जो demand for experienced resources है that is extremely high and demand for fresh graduates is extremely low. जिनको इतना काम ज़्यादा नहीं आता. So जो पूरी market है वह उस experienced या अच्छे fresh graduates के पीछे भाग रही है जो कि वह global demand है कि भाई बंदा तैयार दे दो हमें, हमें तैयार हमने करना नहीं है. उसके लिए फिर आपको programs establish करने पड़ेंगे जो कि initial cost उनकी उठा सकें कि जब तक वह बच्चा यह जो है वह train नहीं हो रहा उसको आप या तो salary दो. You don't like एक बच्चा है वह fresh graduate हो रहा है उसे कोई abctechnologies.com hire कर लेती है और वह उसको PHP पर काम कराती है तो वह बच्चा भी अपने साथ जाती कर रहा और वह company भी उसके साथ जाती कर रही है because they're training him in old technologies और just because that kid is getting $20.30, 40,000 ये let's say 60,000 rupees a month वो अपना career भी तबाह कर रहा है. Instead आप पूरा एक program design करो आप उन बच्चों को खुद train करो through the format that I have given and you absorb the cost जिसको government भी fund कर सकती है जो कि मुझे कोई मेरा ख्याला सौ दफा कह चुके हैं कि हम करने के लिए तैयार हैं लेकिन उसपे total progress ये होती है कि जब भी कोई meeting होती है round table तो मुझे लाया जाता है और कहता कि जी हम इनके साथ partner कर रहे हैं और वह meeting के बाद भी कोई बात नहीं होती till the next meeting. So I think one of the things that I have learnt
over time looking at the industry for at least twenty years. मेरे बड़े भाई वगैरह बहुत पुराने graduates हैं तो मैं उनको भी देख रहा था कि किस तरीक़े से वह कर रहे हैं, maneuver कर रहे and then eventually I myself graduated in the same industry. Government नहीं करेगी. Mhmm. And in a lot of ways when I look at मुझे इसके ऊपर look, people give me a lot of flack as well के, you know, it's it's not right कि even India में government didn't do it. Yes, government built IITs. Yes, IIT का produce direct जाता है, land करता है. वह they're the biggest beneficiary of H1 system and the L1 system and so on. But they're the ones that that are being exported as human resource and they're more often than not now a lobbying tool less than an actual form of revenue. जो India में export का पैसा आ रहा है ना tata consulting का तो you know और इन सारों का, वह आ रहा है इनकी जो private sector है when the economics began to make sense, the private sector started helping itself rather than saying so for example and I I get it 2013 to 2018 नहीं हो सकता था. आपने dollar को ऐसे control किया हुआ था कि आपका जो है ना वह justify नहीं करती थी software houses बेचारे बस चल रहे थे. Mhmm. Whatever उससे पहले terrorism का problem था scale का वाला मसला था. Now your conditions are ripe कि आप जो है वह like मैं एक छोटी सी एक मज़ाक देता हूं. आप dollar versus PKR base के ऊपर जब जाते हैं ना और यह मैंने ख़ुद personally देखा जब यह devaluation, grand devaluation of 2019 hit की. So I saw companies जो कि तीन सौ चार सौ employees पर बैठी हुई थी, जो कि annualized revenue करनी थी 5 to $10,000,000 का. यार एक महीने के अंदर पचास रुपए का फ़र्क़ आया, ठीक है? Turn around जो था ना आपका अगर आप पांच million, छह million पर उठाएं तो that means that makes roughly around $500,000 per month. $500,000 per month का और average turn around जिसमें वह जो पांच करोड़, पांच करोड़ और multiply नहीं पांच लाख ढाई करोड़ रुपए महीने का. Mhmm. ठीक है? ढाई करोड़ रुपए महीने का जो buffer हमके पास आ रहा था ना वह छह महीने का आप उसको लगाए वह automatically वन जाता है कोई तक़रीबन take talent and, you know, train them and then get them ready for the next stage of growth. Unfortunately and I'm speaking to a lot of tech folks here. मुझे आज तक यही सुनने को मिल रहा है कि यार I mean and I am talking to like let's say the सलीम उखरी of the world and the systems and the वह सारा कि oh you know like the government is not doing good enough and हमारा scale का मसला है कि government का कोई Tax करना है tax करें, नहीं tax करना ना tax करें. हम एक accounting बनाएंगे उस accounting के हिसाब से हम चलना शुरू हो जाएंगे. Let us figure it out. So so personally I have been focused on figuring out the private sector solution कि what could that possibly look like if if one was to scale and this is the body system is an interesting model but this still doesn't answer the question. You can't give a I mean एक एक एक Node JS का एक experience developer experience भी नहीं सामा experience developer है. उसको आप एक लड़का दे देते हैं कि यार यह लो यह इस लड़के ने जो है ना वह वह कहता कि मुझे जो है ना एक instructor साहब बैठे हैं बैठ के पूरा guide करें और जब तक वह छह आठ महीने लगा के मुझे guide नहीं कर देंगे तब तक तो मैं I don't even have the ability to self learn. So so मैं उस part of the pie की बात कर रहा and I think that's the majority of it right because these are मेरे opinion में ये सारे वो लोग होंगे जो कि आपके इस वक़्त घुसे में हैं different different digital services के अंदर Amazon वाली crowd है जिसको आप upskill करके बहुत आराम से इस तरफ लेकर आ सकते हो. So how do you think that solution would look like? देखिए अभी सिर्फ़ numbers की बात करते हैं ना if around 12,000
people are applying to remote base every month और पूरे बारह हज़ार के बारह हज़ार तो अच्छे नहीं होंगे. आपने उसको layer wise breakdown करना है. आपके पास top tier आ गया that you know you know कि जी यह top 1% है या top 2% है या top 3% है. उनको आप कम training time period के लिए जल्दी से तैयार करके आगे बेच सकते हैं. Internally हमने अपना एक remote base basic के नाम से भी start किया हुआ है which which is के early stage companies in The US जो bicombinator में है या किसी अच्छी accelerator में उनको फिर आप next year आप filter पर चले जाते कि जी अच्छा अब ये top 5% है या ये top 10% है. अब इसको कितना time चाहिए और इसको हम कहां पर place कर सकते and then you keep going down the funnel right but उससे overall जो पूरी industry का फ़ायदा यह होता है कि when their friends, family, etc start seeing कि यह जो बच्चा है जो सत्तर हज़ार रुपए या let's say तीस हज़ार रुपए में किसी I was about to take a name but किसी किसी MNC में काम कर रहा है, किसी बड़ी company में काम कर रहा है versus कि यह remote base के through डेढ़ लाख, दो लाख, तीन लाख रुपए कमा रहा है then that starts motivating the entire generation to you know get into tech etcetera etcetera as well. But जो आपका early question है कि if it was that easy तो यह आज हो चुका होता and मेरा यह बहुत deep मानना है कि if it will be done which is very fascinating to me कि जो आज के software houses है ना वह tech companies है that don't function like tech companies. ठीक है? आप मुझे बताएं कोई ऐसी tech company except चलिए नाम लेते हैं RB Soft जो कि ये layering system create करती है. जो कि ये you know and remote- remote base of course जो कि हर बंदे के skill set के हिसाब से उसको एक position करती है वो शायद 100% accurate ना हो लेकिन then you have a bucket of people that you know कि आपने उनको कैसे train करना है, कैसे train नहीं करना. अभी के software houses क्या होते हैं कि जी बंदे उठाओ और जो अच्छा उसको आगे लगा दो पीछे and this is a very unfortunate thing and again don't want to take any names कि एक senior बंदा रखते हैं ठीक है? बीस पच्चीस तीस साल के experience experience कह रहा sorry एक senior बंदा रखते हैं that has a lot of experience तीन चार पांच साल whatever the number is उसके नीचे दस बंदे रखते हैं. ठीक है? And this is very unfortunate वह बंदा जाता वह interview देता है वह कहता है जी मेरा नाम अहमद है मेरा छह साल का experience है मैं Node.JS का जीता हूं आप मेरे साथ काम करें. जब उसको और वह same चीज़ दस different companies को कहता है. That guy gets 10 different work जो भी और वह अपने नीचे बच्चे रखता है जिनका exposure zero हो जाता है. क्यों? क्योंकि अब उसका कोई contact नहीं है client के साथ. अब एक जो अहमद है उसकी जगह नीचे दस अहमद काम कर रहे होंगे उसकी जगह तो पूरी industry जो है वह जुगाड़ों पर चल रही है but that's not the solution. You have to build it in a very scalable way. So यह हमारा एक remote base आ गया और दूसरा जो talent लिया वह तो है ही scalable कि वो it is all through scale के ये जो buckets बनाई हुई है वो buckets का मैं आपको as a company access देता चाहे आप एक पाकिस्तानी company है तो जो पूरा process है जिसके अंदर आपके छह से आठ घंटे लगने है उसको interview करना है, कुछ करना वह बंदा एक दफा interview करता वह talent leap पर आ जाता है कोई भी बंदा जाकर उसको hire कर देता और जो उसकी subscription fees is less than what you pay a recruiter. So you start building tools that can operate at scale rather than कि आपने पचास बंदे का एक software house बनाया हुआ है और छोटे छोटे बच्चे रखे हुए हैं जिनके under काम करें, जिनका exposure भी आप ख़त्म करें और फ़ायदा भी as a whole economy नहीं हो रहा होता Makes sense.
Tell me something, जो आपकी pricing है, if you were to compare that to local software houses, would you say कि they're the same? Or would you say they're higher or lower?
I think, pricing wise it would probably be similar. Mhmm. But, salary wise it is much much higher.
So, If I were to compare to system, system is just going nuts, right? So they're growth growth growth, they're doubling, वह market से जाते हैं, वह जाकर double two and a half offer करते कहते हैं आ जाओ. And so in a in a lot of ways वह market बड़ी ख़राब हुई है पिछले दो तीन सालों के अंदर because talent जो था वह produce वही वाली बात है जो मैं again कह रहा हूं मसला कि एक दूसरे को खाकर everybody wants to grow but nobody is really increasing the overall size of the pie. So if you were to compare it compare it to that like again context of the question is what happens when you become big enough that the left and right side की sharks start to bite at you? Where they come in and they say कि ok like we're all also an export based company and हम भी जो है वह आपका जो बंदा है आपने बड़ी मुश्किल से बड़ी system के through train किया है वह एक लाख पर हम उसको दो लाख offer करते ही ले जाते हैं. या do you think that your economics is more efficient
to ensure that you'll always be paying higher than any competitor otherwise? Yeah, I think Jeff Bezos बड़ी अच्छी बात करता है कि your margin is my opportunity. अगर हम लोग scale पर काम करें और हम लोग and our pace of growth is pretty good compared to even systems systems को चालीस पचास साल हो गए हैं being in business. So जब आप अपने हम लोग at scale margins ही shrink कर देते हैं और हम लोगों को ज़्यादा pay करते हैं they'll obviously go for let's say remote base. So then for a new player to come in and offer those kinds of salaries. अब देखिए आपने अपने हृदयगिर्दय एक वह बनाना है, moat बनाना है and barriers to entry होने चाहिए. So for example if we have let's say 5,000, 10,000, 20,000 engineers working through remote base that are getting paid far more than any competitor can afford to pay them क्योंकि उनके माने हमने अपने margins shrink कर लिए and at the same time आपका brand loyalty से लेकर, training system से लेकर सारी चीज़ें operate हो रही है it's going to be very hard for competitors to come in and take the resources. क्यों? क्योंकि पहले उन्होंने business लेना है ठीक है? अगर आपकी company के पास दस, बीस, तीस हज़ार tata consultancy अगर आप हैं आप जाते हैं Microsoft के पास आप maze पे बड़े आराम से बैठ के बात कर सकते हैं लेकिन अगर आप a b c technology हैं जो कि आके सिर्फ हमारी trained resource खाना चाह रहे हैं उसके लिए Microsoft के साथ काम करना भी they can't go after the higher budget projects very easily. So I think in our case scale is gonna solve a lot of problems and we're thinking on those lines कि आपने scale के ऊपर जाकर करना है और जो barriers to entry है वह यही है कि आपने अपने margin squeeze कर दिए हैं ताकि जो बंदा वह आप ही के साथ काम करें क्योंकि देखिए I think एक चीज़ और बड़ी, again unfortunate है कि industry में लोग कहते कि जी market ख़राब कर दिए और लोगों को ख़राब कर दिए. सही है? हर इंसान का यह incentive है. एक जो let's say job कर रहे कि एक अच्छी job हो, training हो, career growth हो और ज़्यादा पैसे मिले. सही है? और आप जितना भी कह देना कि आपकी money motivation नहीं होनी चाहिए, यह motivation होनी चाहिए, यह motivation तो they all sound great for the entrepreneurs or for the capitalist sitting at top क्योंकि अगर वह यह बातें install कर देंगे ना culturally के you know, don't chase money तो they'll make the most money, right? तो अगर हम and and I support like EKG cultural बड़ा important है and हमारी company का भी culture बहुत अच्छा है but pay them well. सही है आप यह ना करें कि आप you know किसी को लाख रुपया देकर उसके लिए बीस बीस लाख रुपया ले रहे हैं और what not, right? So margins आप shake करो, आप scale के ऊपर जाकर खेलो. You're not only helping one person, you're helping the entire ecosystem.
Makes sense and in terms of जो अभी क्योंकि जैसे space में आप operate कर रहे हैं उस space के अंदर
यह तो मेरा I think बड़ा I don't know if I should say biased answer but I'm very like I said anti जो not anti education at all. Love education, love learning but the way the system has been structured. So I think degrees को जला देना चाहिए सबको और you know computer पर बैठना चाहिए. Google आपको मिला हुआ है. जो सीखना चाहते हैं आप दुनिया में सीखें. And degrees are money making machines जिनका total हमारे पास बंदा आता है हम उसको you know salary देते हैं to train them. Right. University में बच्चा आता है वह उसको university को pay करता है to waste for their four years of their lives. Yes, social element is very important and I am very big believer in that. But यह courses और यह किताबें और यह जो remote base के अंदर, this is a funny example. Professors ने apply किया हुआ they couldn't get in. Right. So, आपका professor नहीं आकर काम कर सकता तो फिर आपको वह क्या सिखा रहा है? हां, नहीं so just to confirm and and the reason why I asked this question was because I see an incredibly huge opportunity
in the freelancers right now. Again, not in the technical space. Yes, technical space immediately आपको जो है ना वह technical लोग ही मिलेंगे जो कि freelancing कर रहे थे और वह आकर they can have more security, you know, in their profession. But, separately आपके जो, बहुत सारा एक freelancing का एक पूरा एक समझ लें कि I don't know the word बड़ी community पूरी develop हुई है जो कि Amazon FBA एक भी कर रही है, जो graphic designing भी कर रही थी वग़ैरह वग़ैरह वग़ैरह. अच्छा इन लोगों को tech background ऐसे ऐसे नहीं था. But there is no reason why they cannot do basic data engineering starting from Python. There is no reason why even with proper guidance and training they can't do, you know, web or front end or there are lot of, I mean, design के बड़े सारे लोग हैं जो कि UI UX में बड़े useful हो सकते हैं if they have the right technical skills. And what's happening is कि because the good thing that's happened is that a lot of these sort of televangelists have, have gotten this idea instilled and people कि listen, digital services are the future. And so there's a huge population who are right now looking towards digital services to make their money, right? और वह कहेंगे जैसे जी पांच सौ dollar, हज़ार dollar कमाएंगे 1,000,000 लोग and suddenly you got a billion dollars right there. But all a lot of these people were focused on very specific areas. जो उन्होंने जहां पर ख़ुद successfully उन्होंने कहा कि अरे सब आओ और यह कर लो and इस तरह होता नहीं है, right? कि आप Amazon Amazon FBA पर लाते हो कहते कि यार 1,000,000 बंदा आएगा और आकर कर लेगा ऐसा नहीं होगा. Success rate होगा 3%, बहुत पर generous हो रहा हूं 4%. But then the 96% have come in. They've understood the fundamentals of कि digital क्या होता है? दुनिया की global marketplace में किस्त नापने करना है? यह सारा क्या करना है? They will be required over the next decade to be converted into more actionable, more higher value, services and technical skills. A lot of people, unfortunately, do not have degrees, or maybe they have, like, a two two year diploma of civil engineering or, you know b.com औरi.com and वह commerce के थे. मतलब उन्होंने जो भी Pakistan में आपको जो नज़र आया किसी चाचे ने बोल दिया आपने कर लिया, right? Yeah. Do you think they they have people like those have a future with remote base and all also more you know future तो चलो वह है मैं अगर immediate की बात करूं maybe there's someone watching who might not have a degree but have the grit and the passion. वह सोचता है कि यार अच्छा ठीक है remote base में जाता हूं जाकर देखता कि यह लोग किस किस्म की services offer करते हैं उसके बारे में मैं अपने आप को पूरा का पूरा well versed करता हूं. मैं यह करने के तीन चार पांच महीने बाद में जो आ भी गया. Can he apply and can he get placed? बिल्कुल 100%.
So एक तो हम software engineering से आगे भी जा रहे हैं so designers हमने start कर दिए हैं. So we'll you know incorporate more stacks as well but हम लोग conversions भी कराते हैं so if somebody comes into remote base for example mechanical engineer, हमारी company में leading a team working for Silicon Valley company, started software engineering. आप थोड़ा सा अगर far off बात करें कि my co founder तलाज़ executive assistant is now learning programming right now. As being part of that ecosystem when you have those kind of resources तो आप कर सकते हैं but to answer your question like shortly we don't look at degrees. If you are somebody that is looking to apply to remote base as a software engineer आपको किसी degree की ज़रूरत नहीं है. आप किसी भी online platform पर जाएं Code Academy हो गया, Code Academy I really like या CS 50 कर लें, edX के ऊपर basics आप अपनी set कर लें, you will pass the problem solving या वो वाला and once that is done हम आपको client के साथ directly बिल्कुल place नहीं करेंगे. हम आपको पहले internally bench पर hire करेंगे. आपको एक buddy बना देंगे. आपको थोड़ी training देंगे and then you can definitely work और ये सारे पर we will actually be paying you. ये free इसमें कुछ भी नहीं है. Interesting.
Where do you see your yourself? What's the vision here? What's the five year road map?
I think, sorry, before I tell you the vision एक और चीज़ on the parallel चल रही है. On top of the last question you asked कि generative AI जो है जिसके ऊपर ख़ैर it's another total podcast altogether but generative AI is taking off so coding is going to become easier. So now coming back to the vision, the idea is for to have millions of individuals all across the world. Doesn't matter what their skin color is. Doesn't matter what their, you know, backgrounds are, culture is, religion is. They should be able to work for the best opportunities in the world. And our vision as a company is to create that match. So to find that great talent and match them with companies or find high potential people and match them with companies globally ताकि पूरी दुनिया को you know you uplift it because आज अगर Pakistan के अंदर एक बंदा छह महीने लगाकर court academy पर सीख कर remote base के through place हो जाता है ना तो ना सिर्फ वह अपनी ज़िंदगी change करता है but they change the lives of people around them and I can give you examples again. So one of the first hires that I have ever made was getting paid. वह पंद्रह हज़ार रुपया कमा रहा था अपने professor के पास काम करने के लिए as an intern out out of college, ठीक है? पंद्रह हज़ार रुपए के अंदर sir गोदा से था. Like you know not very well of family सारा कुछ आया. आज वह एक Silicon Valley company के लिए काम कर रहा है. उसकी salary जो है वह लाखों में है not हज़ारों में but लाखों में है और क्या नाम है? अपनी भाई की उसने पिछले साल शादी कराई है. अभी उसने अपने अपना घर बना रहा है खुद से और like parents are proud and this completely transformed the entire. वह imagine if we could do that and replicate that for not not 1%
but millions of लोगों के लिए आप replicate कर सकते हैं तो इससे ज़्यादा ख़ूबसूरत क्या चीज़ होगी? Interesting and you talked about generative AI and and encoding becoming easier. For a lot of people today when they look at skills, it's hardcore skills. And again, when I when I speak to people particularly in the IT services sector, वह यह कहते हैं कि यार मेरी बात हुई है. मैंने कहा यार वह किसी अपनी skills चाहिए. तो जो बड़ी companies है ना again, Arbisoft हो गई, you know, Ten Pearls, इतना ही companies हो गई. आप उनसे पूछें वह कहते यार हमें भाई हमें skill वाला बंदा नहीं चाहिए. हमें problem solvers चाहिए and lot of people miss that. And so what I see a decade from now is that the skills could really rapidly be transforming honestly वह singularity reach करके जिस point पर भी आप जाते हैं but what you really need is कि एक बंदा brain dead ना हो क्योंकि हम zombies बना रहे हैं unfortunately. Our current system of mass market training model is zombies. यह लटा लगाओ, यह करो. Even यह भी करना शुरू कर दिया कि यह email है, यह email copy paste करो, client को भेजो, spam करो और वह तुम्हें काम मिल जाएगा. ऐसा नहीं होता. You know, you have to with the in the age of AI the only utility a human being has is the creative human element that a human being has, right? Otherwise everything has the AI can do. तो उस case में जो what what do you see as the primary skill जो कि छोटा बच्चा जो है ना वह अगर बैठा है let's say FSC metric O levels में वह देखकर बड़ा सोच रहा है कि यार मैंने job market में छह साल सात सात बाद घुसने हैं और दो बच्चे भी आजकल घुसने but for example उसके लिए what do you see the core skill you know once the the age of AI kicks off?
I think age of AI जो है ना बहुत different है from like people thought it would be right? अच्छा यह साल age of the AI है अब जो सब लोगों को लगता था ना कि जो repetitive tasks होंगे, जो you know basic tasks in our minds वो AI पहले replace करेगी और बाद में जाकर ज़्यादा complicated coding for example, creativity, art all of these things that were thought to be human वो AI end पर करेगी. It has gone in reverse already. सही है इसको कहते है आप ChatGPT पर चले जाएं, conversational ले की बात कर लें या आप you know stable diffusion एक art generating type वो है जो कि creativity भी show करता है. So, turing test एक test होता है जिसके you know if you can distinguish, if you cannot distinguish if it's a machine or a human you've passed the test right? So, AI जो है वो सबसे मुश्किल highest tier की जो है ना वो test pass करें तो I think अब अगर if I had to say anything to the younger generation वो ये था कि there was a five to ten year time period दो हज़ार सात में iPhone आया mobile became popular and it was a breakthrough और हज़ारों लाखों companies बनी जिन्होंने उसको इस्तेमाल किया and then उसके बाद क्या हुआ कि हर चीज़ जो है ना वो was kind of done there was a lot of competition अब एक नया transition आ गया which is generative AI जिसके अंदर आपको AI के basic models और algorithms नहीं लिखने पड़ते. So you can work on something that's generative AI. You can use the open AI model और वह simple अंग्रेज़ी का model है. आप उसको train करके कुछ niche products, tools बना सकते हैं जिससे आप लोगों की every single day की problems को solve करें. अब उसकी examples क्या है? So a friend of mine did this very interesting कि उसने I think दो हफ्ते पहले जो है ना एक simple चीज़ बनाई की जो chat GPT है ना उसको उसने WhatsApp के अंदर लिया है. कैसे क्या उसने OpenAI का model लिया. WhatsApp के ऊपर आप message करो कि यार any any question, right? Give me a good performance marketing techniques for a beard brand या something as simple as what is the capital of Pakistan. कोई भी आप सवाल लिखेंगे वह आपको यही जवाब दे देगा. वह simple सा model है. It took him about eight to ten hours to build. I think एक दिन लगा था उसका पूरा और अब उसके 20,000, 25,000 users के around इस वक़्त आ चुके हैं. इसी तरह और काफ़ी लोगों ने छोटे छोटे tools बनाना शुरू कर दिए हैं जिससे AI के through वह problems को solve कर रहे हैं. There's another company, what they're doing is कि आप किसी भी अपने घर की picture लें और उस picture को वो आप लिखेंगे जी मुझे interior design for a kitchen चाहिए. उस picture के अंदर वो kitchen बनाकर वो दिखा देगा like छोटी छोटी problems but it's now going to be a gold rush. अब थोड़ा larger scale पर बात करते हैं Jasper AI एक company है जिसने OpenAI का model train किया और आप कहते मुझे blog लिखते हैं that company just raised a $120,000,000 और वह weekend project था Jasper AI. So अगर कोई भी आ रहा और वह कुछ भी कह रहा है ना AI से डरना नहीं है अब पहले डरने वाली चीज़ थी अब डरना नहीं है. There are hundreds of things you can do with AI, Generative AI search करें, OpenAI के ChatGPT पर जाएं. कुछ आपको नहीं समझ आ रही ना आप ChatGPT पर जाकर लिख लेंगे how can I get started in Generative AI? आपको जवाब मिल जाएंगे but get into this this is the next, you know, transformational platform. This is next,
but interestingly आपने बोला कि don't use, don't think of AI as the one to replace you. Use AI as what, as something that can aid you. Right? So it's something that can push you forward rather than just replace you altogether. थोड़ा सा मुझे बताइएगा. How do you feel about web three point o and blockchain and a lot of that jazz?
I think it's interesting. I'm not, people will hate me for it but not a huge believer in like NFTs और यह सारी चीज़ें distributive distributed systems की कोई use case है. Currency for example एक kind of वन गया bitcoin and a lot of other things but अगर कोई चीज़ जितनी उसकी hype है ना उतना उसकी use cases नहीं है. Anybody that's trying to sell you know fly NFT या वो they have to work really really hard to explain कि जी यह क्या you know यह NFT क्या करती है and how is it different from a million other NFTs. So talking about web three, I think it's a good rebrand for the blockchain. Gave it a lot of hype as well. I do see कि future में there is value in a decentralized system. उसके भी बहुत मसले हैं, that still need to be solved and basically giving power to the people, right? कि for the people, by the people, वह वाली सारी चीज़ है. But if I had to, if you gave me a billion dollars today to bet on something, I'd bet on AI versus
any other Of course. I mean, AI is at the I think किसी भी technology का एक curve होता है and AI is at that point where you know that that as a as a economics major, you would always bet on the one that you know will give you the fastest return. I think blockchain again, five years ago, no, eight years ago, when I graduated from college, AI was very similar where people would be like AI is gonna change the world and there wasn't a lot happening and अगर उसमें किसी ने बैठ किया होता तो आठ साल भी ज़्यादा ज़रूर रहा था. शायद वह last year निकल गया होता और इस इस time पर वह फट रही है. So, I mean, it's definitely behind the curve, versus AI. I'm gonna wrap this up, क़स्यम. I'm gonna ask you one last question that I generally ask all of my guests. You're based out of The US now or you're based out of multiple places? You're hopping around. But you've been in Pakistan for most part, growing up as well. And interestingly, भी आप जो है, although I think it's it's only a matter of time, but अभी भी you're still focused on Pakistan in a in a or or rather you're you're very well invested in Pakistan in your work and your banking on Pakistan. I I I still see, a a a fairly good amount of hope there. How do you see Pakistan twenty seven years from now in 2050 knowing what you know now, seeing what you've seen, and experiencing, you know, some of the the the the radical ideas that you had coming to fruition in the same country, जो कि हम बहुत सारे और लोग देखते हैं और कहते हैं कि आज पता नहीं कुछ होगा, नहीं होगा. Pakistan ने good scene है, bad scene है. How did see Pakistan in 2050?
I think, politically unfortunately the country is like going down the drain and that will continue to happen for again need another podcast for that. But globally I feel like countries के अंदर they're gonna start जो governments हैं उनका role थोड़ा सा कम होता जाएगा और governments जो हैं उनकी जो jurisdiction है वह थोड़ी कम होती जाएगी because people will start working remotely, people will start working across the globe. Taxation करना भी मुश्किल होगा और काफी चीज़ें होंगी जिसे countries like Pakistan will get the most advantage out of it. So I am not just saying Pakistan only. So we have people in Nigeria, have people in a lot of other countries as well लेकिन उसकी वजह से मुझे लगता है कि twenty fifty के अंदर जो global ecosystem create होगा, remote workhouse के अंदर I see you know full fired up पाकिस्तानी is working globally improving their livelihoods, improving the livelihoods of people around them and the governments as a whole globally weakening. जब वह governments weak होंगी ना तो फिर इस मुल्का सबसे बड़ा मसला ही है कि you know the political ecosystem is so bad कि it's causing so many problems तो वह थोड़ा सा बेहतर होना. I see a lot of hope कि वह बेहतर होना शुरू हो जाएगा. अब क्या what is the what what do I envision Pakistan as is कि हमारी IT की exports बहुत ज़्यादा होंगी. हमारी know, not just software engineers but designers, anybody that can do work उसकी बहुत ज़्यादा export होगी. They'll be working remotely और उसकी वजह यह है कि one of the youngest populations in the world, जो 20, I think youngest population जो इस वक़्त Pakistan के अंदर है, I think 23, 24 average or something और उसके अलावा यह है कि six largest country in the world, one of the highest speaking, English speaking nations in the world. So यह सारी चीज़ें जो है अगर इनको empower कर दिया जाए, इन लोगों को empower कर दिया जाए, इनकी training कर दी जाए. So I see a lot of hope कि economic growth काफी ज़्यादा होगी but absolutely zero hope from the political system, from the government, from all of those but But you're you're basically saying कि even if you minus the political and all of that negativity,
the the evolution is going to allow for the people to rise irrespective. Now we're at that point. क़ासिम, thank you so much for coming in. This was very very insightful, and I hope, inshallah, that we can see the people rising without without without the intervention of the the big folks but thank you. Thank you so much miss अहमिल. Was a pleasure speaking to you. Likewise and for all of you guys thank you so much for watching. अगर आपका episode पसंद है आप इस दोस्तीयां से ज़रूर share करिएगा. नीचे comment section में आके बताएं what do you think about remote working? What do you think about working in the IT services sector? Are you working in the IT services sector? Let me know in the comment section below how your experience has been so far? आगे आप Pakistanओं किस तरह देखते हैं space के अंदर and किस तरह से आप growth को envision कर रहे हैं? So that there is a certain barrier to entry because we want to make sure that we have the creme de creme of the viewership. It is going to be a leadership community where we're going to be sharing certain insights and a lot of other things जो कि you know that can help you become leader in this globalized world. You know, stay tuned for that as well. But anyways, यहां पर कहीं पर easy पैसा jazz कैसा ज़्यादा पर आ रहा होगा. If you'd like to support the channel, we accept anything from one to two as much as you'd like. It's the thought that counts. But anyways, this was सैयदिमा ज़मेदा सिंह ज़ेदी. Are watching thought behind things. Thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you in the next one.
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