Islamabad, Pakistan – The Global Entrepreneurship Network is excited to announce the opening of a new Startup Huddle chapter in Islamabad, Pakistan, to support the growth of the local startup community while crowdsourcing advice and support for its entrepreneurs. The chapter will be hosted and organized by Cynia Ejaz, the Community & Partnerships Manager at Daftarkhwan, a premium coworking space and a community for entrepreneurs, startups, and enterprising companies. Islamabad joins a global network of more than 60 Startup Huddle chapters worldwide and will host its first event on June 15, 2023.
In addition to providing direct support to entrepreneurs, the Startup Huddle program addresses a critical element of success for all entrepreneur ecosystems – connectivity. According to GEN research, startup communities with higher levels of local connectedness translate to an increased number of startups – and that founders with high levels of connectivity grow their revenue twice as fast as those with lower levels.
Cynia Ejasz shares her insights, "Platforms such as Startup Huddle give people the opportunity to learn from each other and connect to share their stories. With the maturing startup ecosystem in Pakistan, this platform will foster a diverse and inclusive community, highlighting entrepreneurs from all walks of life and helping solve major challenges faced by growing businesses in Islamabad and Rawalpindi."
At each Startup Huddle event, local founders give six-minute presentations outlining challenges facing their companies. Each presentation is followed by a 20-minute conversation with an audience of peers, mentors, educators, and advisers who provide constructive criticism focused on finding solutions and increasing founder know-how. With new founders cycling through each gathering, and previous presenters joining the audience to give back, the community continues to expand while connections deepen.
Looking ahead, Cynia adds, "I am excited about the engaging stories and conversations that will emerge from this platform. I hope community members get to solve problems together and also build meaningful relationships. Inviting startup founders from Walee, Tin Tash, 1byte, EZBike and many others in our ecosystem, we aim to nurture an environment where knowledge and experiences are shared, fueling success."
Startup Huddle Islamabad is supported by Daftarkhwan. To learn more about Startup Huddle Islamabad or to join a local event, visit www.startuphuddle.co.
About Startup Huddle
Run by the Global Entrepreneurship Network in partnership with local organizers, Startup Huddle is a program designed to help one entrepreneur at a time while strengthening the local ecosystem. Entrepreneurs discover challenges to the solutions they face through purposeful engagement with a broad array of voices from their local community. Currently, there are local Startup Huddle chapters in more than 50 cities around the world. For more information, visit www.startuphuddle.co.
About the Global Entrepreneurship Network
The Global Entrepreneurship Network operates projects and programs in 200 countries to make it easier for anyone, anywhere to start and scale a business. By fostering deeper cross border collaboration and initiatives between entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, policymakers and entrepreneurial support organizations, GEN works to fuel healthier start and scale ecosystems that create more jobs, educate individuals, accelerate innovation and strengthen economic growth. For more information, visit www.genglobal.org.
