Host Sidra Iqbal in her morning show ‘Aaj Pakistan’ on Thursday discussed the scope of start-ups and entrepreneurs in Pakistan with a distinguished panel, which included businesswoman and IT guru Jehan Ara, start-up ecosystem enabler Omar Abiden, and consultant gastroenterologist, transplant hepatologist, and influencer Dr Affan Qaiser.

It is important to counsel young entrepreneurs in the country, Ara said while talking about the potential of startups.

“We sit with them [young entrepreneurs] and ask questions about their market research. Have you spoken to customers? Are they willing to give you money for your product or service? How much are they willing to give?”

“You can’t ask your family and friends these questions though, as they may just say yes for your sake,” she said.

The second step to a successful start-up is analysing what kind of people you want on the team and convincing them to join the founding members at a price that you can pay.

The next step is the marketing and launch.

“It’s not like you can start revenue generation the day after you launch a product. You need to approach investors for some sort of progress. For that, you need to refine your idea to an extent that it is enough to convince them to invest money,” said Ara.

Getting the right people on the team is the key to success for startups especially since the ecosystem is vastly different from a traditional business. There isn’t a lot of room to learn on the job, and the trajectories of promotions are also different.

“There’s a lot of difference between the two and they both have different attributes. Start-up is more related to technology, and other components like scalability and exponential growth play big parts,” said Abiden.

Pakistan has a fast-growing gig economy, with at least 20 to 30% of the people working on a daily pay scale.

This is very favourable as millions of students graduate each year but there aren’t many job opportunities available for them. The gig model ensures that these fresh graduates have ways to generate revenue, opined Umar.

Such a model is especially beneficial for Pakistan, especially in the case of women who may not necessarily be able to leave their houses.

“However, there’s a flip side,” said Omar. “These workers are often exploited. Now government and companies all over the work are working towards creating benefits for freelance workers, which include life insurance and health insurance, we must also urge companies in Pakistan to do the same.”