Techstars Startup Weekend Karachi took place from the 18th to the 20th of December, 2020. With the help of strategic partners NIC Karachi, Stimulus Private Limited, and SZABIST Karachi, the three-day program where aspiring entrepreneurs got to experience startup life was held online.
Participants spent three days building teams with like-minded individuals, working on their startup ideas, getting guidance and mentorship from local startup founders, and receiving feedback from industry experts. At the end of the three days, three ideas were chosen as best startups after intense pitching around in front of judges from the education and tech industry. The judges included Syed Azfar Hussain (Program Manager, NIC Karachi), Ramla Qureshi (CEO, Women Engineers Pakistan), Dr. Saqlain Raza (Assistant Professor, SZABIST), Moazzam Kamran (Director Business Transformation, REDTone Digital Services), Erum Kashif (Project Director, Cleaning Concepts Pakistan) Fasieh Mehta (Senior Business Manager Operations, Quixel).
Hira Wajahat (Program and Projects Manager, Stimulus) stressed the importance of hosting such events for young people in Pakistan to provide them exposure to new experiences and career possibilities.
At the end of the weekend, eleven ideas were presented as startups and ultimately that was the goal of the entire event, to provide an experience that enables and encourages young people to set off on the entrepreneurial journey.
Syed Azfar Hussain (Program Manager, NIC Karachi) at the closing of the event congratulated the participants on being able to come up with greats ideas that have the potential to become real startups.
