Muhammad Raza SaeedTech Entrepreneur

Presenter:

Ehatsham Riaz

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Who am I …?Serial Entrepreneur. Founder & CEO of multiple software products & services

companies.

Mr. Raza is the founder & CEO of Pakistan’s #1 automotive portal PakWheels.com.

Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder of Confiz Limited.

Chief Operating Officer & Co-Founder of Simplicant, Inc.

Zero to Hero

A-levels from Bahawalpur in the year 2000 and then bachelors from LUMS

IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) competition-an idea to

implement wireless meter reading for electricity meters

year 2005, He opened a different company, Confiz is now employing more than

300 people.

They recently acquired another company, called Mantaq.

In 2008, they partnered up with the original owner of Pak wheels by purchasing

the majority stake in the business.

Definition of Success:

Success for him right now would be putting Pakistan’s IT companies on

the global front and achieving something noteworthy, something substantial.

He think we would be successful if we were to take Pakistan’s IT industry to

global grounds and create good examples from within Pakistan.

Work Life Balance:

He say about this:

I think all my waking hours are spent working.

Ideas are popping up in my mind all the time.

On a daily basis, about 10 to 12 hours are spent in the office. And apart from that,

because of mobile phones we always tend to stay connected.

Sunday is the only day I don’t work and so it is devoted to family time mostly.

Giving Time to the Team

“I think the integral aspect of a CEO’s job is to meet with the team, align them around

an idea and motivate them into action.”

He usually walk around the office floor and randomly stop to chat with someone

about what they are working on and how the process can be further improved.

Fear of Running Out of Cash

“80% of startups fail because they run out of cash.” – Harvard Business Review

He say about this :

Financials keep going up and down, but thanks to God we never ran out of cash.

I think because Confiz was generating cash, we had the money to push

PakWheels.com. Subsequently PakWheels.com started making money of its own.

So we are just moving towards expansion.

PakWheels

It the largest automotive classified site in Pakistan.

It serves as a online marketplace for car shoppers and sellers.

As of February 2015, it has 100,000 daily unique visitors

In November 2014, got 3.5 million dollars from an international investor for Pak

Wheels.

Money Making Model for

PakWheels.com

Advertising is a good source of income in the early stages.

They have other segments –have products both for new car dealers as well as used

car dealers

They also have partnerships with banks.

They do B2B lead generation for them.

PakWheels.com is free for consumers but for businesses they have paid products.

Confiz Limited

Confiz is a full service technology company producing high performance mobility

solutions and portal applications.

Founded in 2005

201-500 employees

Acquired Mantaq Systems, another technology company, in 2014 to increase

technology services

Signed multiple fortune 500 customers and well known startups as customers.

Specialties:

Portal Applications, Mobility, Cloud Computing, Content Management, Cross Platform

Frameworks, User Experience Design,.NET Frameworks, Windows 8, iOS/Android

applications etc

Simplicant, Inc

Simplicant is a next generation, cloud-based talent acquisition and recruitment

management platform to target and effectively engage talent

Our web-based functionality helps companies optimize the speed and cost per

hire.

Simplicant provides a complete end-to-end solution to cover all aspects of the

hiring process.

including sourcing, referrals, interviewing, applicant tracking, analytics and more.

Planning for the Future

For Confiz, we have a three year plan ahead of us – we want to go public and we

want to list it on the stock exchange.

In the long term, we have a very clear vision for Confiz that we want it to become

a global company from Pakistan.

There aren’t a lot of companies from Pakistan that are eminent in the global arena.

For Pak Wheels.com, our vision is “Think wheels, think PakWheels”.

If you are thinking about buying, financing, insuring, or maintaining a car, or

even a bike – we want to be the go-to place for all these questions.

Raza’s Thoughts:

Life, Path, Milestones and more

Life is more about enjoying the journey and not about reaching milestones ...

Path should be rewarding and meaningful and it will eventually take you to the milestones you

aspire for ...

Don't fret over milestones too much because if you do, you will always be disappointed, once

you reach one of them you will be worrying over the next one and the next one ..

Raza’s Thoughts:

How to be a great product development company ?

Technology is changing everyday, we have to as well. Spend time on upgrading yourself

and your team.

Nothing is impossible, everything around you is built by equally or less smart humans

(Steve Jobs). Just dive into it and you will figure it out ! Fear is bigger cause of failure then

lack of intellect.

Reaching top of the world can't happen overnight, give it due time. And neither it can be

done without a good team !

Revenue maximization should not be our goal, delivering maximum value to our customer

should be.

Raza’s Thoughts:

How to be a great product development company ?

We are delivering a product not just a working piece of code. There is a difference. A great

piece of code might not be a usable/workable/marketable product. We need to think like an

end user and advise our customers like that. "Thinking" can not be just the responsibility of

our customers/managers/seniors, it's for everyone to do. We have to be the greatest product

development compay in the world ! We need thinkers, opinions and voices !

Don't re-invent the wheel, enough has been done in the world that if we become really

good at putting things together, we will stun the world. From gems to twitter bootstrap to

open source libraries, a lot of stuff is out there for us to re-use. If you are building some

component yourself, stop, look around once more ! Be good at using google !

Raza’s Thoughts:

What leaders do ?

Leaders relentlessly upgrade their team, using every encounter as an opportunity

to evaluate, coach, and build self-confidence.

Leaders make sure people not only see the vision, they live and breathe it.

Leaders get into everyone's skin, exuding positive energy and optimism.

Leaders have the courage to make unpopular decisions and gut calls.

Leaders inspire risk taking and learning by setting the example.

Leaders celebrate.

Raza advises:

Those hoping to start up their own businesses to just do it.

"If you have a dream or a vision, then you need to keep following

that goal with hard work and focus. Always be very eager to learn,

have infinite curiosity and don't give up. You will reach your

desired destination!"

Reference:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/razasaeed

http://startup.org.pk/think-pakwheels-think-confiz-think-raza-saeed/

http://opensiliconvalleyforum.org/speakers/muhammad-raza-saeed/

http://www.razasaeed.com/

https://www.pakwheels.com/

http://www.confiz.com/

Thanks