So DOT has been in Karachi, Pakistan for the last few weeks. We’re here because our founder, Yishel Khan partially grew up here and, more importantly, because of the amazing talent here. DOT is here for part of its development – and it has been an experience. We’ll elaborate on some of the challenges we’ve faced while here in an upcoming post (stay tuned!) but for now we’d like to start with a triumph.
Early on in our trip, DOT was experiencing a fairly typical startup-struggle: workspace. Specifically the lack of one! We’d been working out of home and coffee shops for far too long. Despite the various benefits of working out of coffee-shops – we needed proper work space. For weeks we drove and trudged from place to place in 40 degree plus (celsius) weather in pursuit of space. Co-sharing spaces are not prevalent in Karachi and we didn’t know where to begin our search. Eventually, we got one lead, then another, then some more … We reached out to people and we followed up. We made an effort to put ourselves out there. We spoke to people and picked multiple brains and along the way we received incredible advice.
One particularly sweltering day, we started the day with an early morning meeting following a long night with little sleep. Immediately after, a second meeting was sprung upon us and while we briefly considered reconsidering it, we prepared and showed up anyway. What we expected to be a quick conversation turned into a much longer session, at the end of which we had our new work space: The National Incubation Centre (NIC), Karachi – effective immediately.
At first we were thrilled to simply have a dedicated space to work out of, but as we started using it, it became clear that we’d stumbled onto a gem. The NIC management and staff have been incredibly supportive and accommodating to all the irregular and unconventional needs of our startup. Special shout out to: Shahjahan Chaudhary, Amber Batool and Yasir for their hospitality and assistance. The space itself is sleek, comfortable, inviting and inspiring, credit to Mustafa Rizvi and his team at Urbanist for designing and creating such a beautiful space. In short, it’s perfect.
Time and effort spent on the hunt was so worth it!
