Plan9 celebrated the GEW from 14 to 21 of November. As part of the celebrations, Plan9 hosted a delegation from Austin, City of Texas. The delegation was able to witness the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Pakistan. A group of 10 delegates from Austin came to Pakistan and belonged to different domains. Local startups were given the opportunity to learn from their diverse and international experience and to draw parallel conclusions.
Dr Umar Saif, Chairman PITB while addressing the delegation from Austin highly appreciated their visit to Pakistan and the steps they are taking to expand the entrepreneurial ecosystem all across the world. He said: “This partnership means a lot to us. It is a wonderful opportunity for our startups to learn and gain experience from.” He further added: “I think this is just the beginning of something great. It has only been possible because of the wonderful team of PITB, that today we stand here partnering with exceptionally amazing companies at Austin.”
The delegation consisted of Alexis Taylor, Program Manager at 3 Day Startup; Ali Syed, Touchdown Austin Coordinator at Capital Factory; Alicia Dean, Senior Public Info. Officer and Founder of the ATX+Pak Launch program; Christopher Scheetz, CEO of 1839 Ventures LLC Investment Fund; Joe Troyen, Founder of PenPal Schools; Kevin Koyme, Founder and CEO at Tech Ranch; Kim Moore, International Program Manager of ATX+Pak Launch Program; Preston Stewart, Global Business Expansion Coordinator at the city of Austin; Ricky Holm, CEO of Chocolate, Milk & Donuts; and Severine Cushing, Director Operations at Tech Ranch.
During the Global Entrepreneurship Week different panel discussions and workshops were conducted to promote entrepreneurship. Plan9 hosted a panel discussion on public transportation and ride sharing. With big names like Uber and Careem leading and paving a pathway for transportation networking companies in Pakistan, this industry is now the talk of the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The panel included Talaal Burny, the Fleet Manager and Special Operations Manager at Careem and Bilal Chaudhry, the Operations and Logistics Manager at Uber. They shared their perspective on what works in the market and the problems that the two giants face.
Mr Nabeel A. Qadeer, the Director for Entrepreneurship gave the Austin delegation and his class at Information Technology University an image of the incubator setup and entrepreneurial ecosystem in Pakistan. He gave an in-depth look at why Pakistan is poised to be the world’s next centre for innovation. The talk was called Innovation Nation.
The growth opportunities that entrepreneurship presents have paved way for more scope for females and new domains to venture into. Today, we have success stories of female entrepreneurs that have defied traditional assumptions and expectations. Plan9 held a panel talk on the opportunities available for females in entrepreneurship as well as the problems that they face in the working environment. The panel comprised of Sadaffe Abid, Co-founder Circle, Alexis Taylor, Program Manager at 3 Day Startups, Severine Cushing, Director Operations at Tech Ranch and Mahrukh Sarwar, Editor/Writer at MIT Technology Review, Pakistan. The session was an interactive one and had representations from both genders. The audience was responsive to the idea to make workplaces more comfortable for females.
The session 'Beyond the Valley’ was set to give the audience an overview of Austin's growing entrepreneurial structure. The panel included Mr Abbas Yousafzai, CTO at YotaScale, Mr Kevin Koym, Alexis Taylor, Ali Syed, Christopher Scheetz and Preston Stewart from Austin Delegation.
Plan9 scheduled a panel discussion on 'The Adventures of EdTech - how startups are reshaping the learning experience for students globally'. The panel talk covered the use of various technologies available to facilitate education and the appropriateness of the integration of EdTech in Pakistan. Joining the panel they had Mr Joe Troyen, the Founder of PenPal Schools, Mr Ricky Holm the CEO of Chocolate, Milk and Donuts, Waqas Halim, the Team Lead of The e.Learn Initiative and Aamir Rashid, the CEO of Uninama. The panel talk was interactive and the audience were able to get an idea of the education ecosystem in the US as well as technology that can be integrated into the education infrastructure in Pakistan. The panellists also touched upon the problems startups face operating in the EdTech domain as well as steps the government is taking to ensure improvement within the sector.
The delegation from Austin also extensively mentored Plan9’s currently incubated and alumni startups and startups from outside Plan9. They had a one on one mentoring session with startups. The startups got a chance to get advice from the best of Austin that specialises in different domains.
The 8 days culminated in partnerships and MOUs with different bodies from Austin. We feel this interaction has opened gateways to more cultural and entrepreneurial exchange and collaborative learning for both states.
Plan9 collaborates with 3 Day Startup
The 3 Day Startup program provides organisations with the tools they need to cultivate student entrepreneurs. At its core, the program is designed to teach students how to start companies and bolster entrepreneurship in their communities in a rapid and sustainable manner. The flexibility of the model and the expertise of the 3DS team allow many organisations to tune and calibrate the program to a wide range of outcomes.
Dr Umar Saif signed the MoU on behalf of Plan9 while Alexis J Taylor represented 3 Day Startup. Plan9’s collaboration with 3 Day Startups hopes to maximise the following objectives:
1. Create entrepreneurs and companies focused on scalable, high-impact ventures
2. Strengthen the breadth and reach of Plan9’s entrepreneurship connections in Lahore and the global 3DS network
3D Startup will act as facilitators where 3DS team members will travel to Lahore to facilitate the 3-day workshop. Their professional team members will be available for calls and video conferences to support ongoing engagement duties. 3DS will also provide website hosting, organiser project management tool, digital branding, application infrastructure, communications and marketing asset templates. 3DS will be sharing content including slide decks, frameworks, communications, copyright license, trademarks, etc. 3DS will customise program modules to address local challenges that can scale globally and the advantages and disadvantages of different social venture business models. 3DS will measure the entrepreneurial mindset change of participants before and after the program, deliver data-driven mentoring and coaching, and conduct a post-program review session. The 3DS organisation will deliver the 3DS Playbook and 3DS Success Kit to the entrepreneurs.
Plan9 collaborates with Capital Factory
Capital Factory’s mission is to be the centre of gravity for tech startups and entrepreneurs in Austin, Texas. It is a full-service incubator, accelerator, investment fund, educational facility and more, supported by a network of the most experienced entrepreneurial partners and mentors in the Austin area and beyond. Entrepreneurs, programmers and designers from around the community gather day and night for meetups, classes and co-working. Capital Factory also has developed a soft-landing program for advanced startups and small-medium enterprises (SMEs) to expand into the USA market via Austin.
The primary purpose of this MOU is to establish a strategic relationship between the Parties that will facilitate the development of opportunistic business growth linkages between the tech and creative industries in Lahore and Pakistan, with those in Austin and Texas and, through those principal bases, further into the whole of South Asia and North America.
The commercial purpose of this MOU is to provide the framework for any future binding contract between the Parties. The Parties recognise the significant set of shared values, missions, goals and constituencies of their organisations. The purpose of this MOU is to probe, define and develop commercial, cultural, educational and joint-funding collaborations and to promote mutual understanding between the Parties. The Parties agree to explore collaborations including, but not limited to joint programs, staff or startup exchanges, research programs or possible joint and/or cross-funding opportunities.
This MoU was signed between Dr Umar Saif representing Plan9 and Ali Syed, Touchdown Austin Coordinator at Capital Factory.
Plan9 collaborates with Tech Ranch
Dr Umar Saif, Chairman PITB signed an MoU with Kevin Koym, Founder of Tech Ranch. Tech Ranch is a supportive community to help entrepreneurs move forward. Whether they are looking to land in their co-working / office space or increase their venture’s chance of success by taking one of the Tech Ranch programs, they are here to support them along the entrepreneurial journey.
Plan9 and Tech Ranch has agreed to all of the following postulates:
1. Tech Ranch will provide mentorship to startups focusing on social entrepreneurship and connect them to social entrepreneurs in Austin and in States.
2. Tech Ranch will provide mentoring toolkits to be used by Plan9 to mentor its startups.
3. Tech Ranch and Plan9 will provide access to startups to online mentoring sessions.
4. Plan9 will connect Tech Ranch to its huge network of professional industry experts within the government and Pakistan as a whole.
5. An exchange program shall be initiated where a social startup (impact innovation) from Pakistan will be incubated or accelerated at Tech Ranch, as well as creating opportunities for Pakistani entrepreneurs to leverage Tech Ranch’s world network of impact innovation global partners.
6. Knowledge sharing among teams, in terms of demographic behaviour, local user bases & other startup oriented valuable information via webinars and virtual events.
7. Plan9 and Tech Ranch will collaboratively work on a plan for building out a successful long term relationship with the intent of creating impact both in Pakistan and in the world through social entrepreneurs.