fireside | Cricingif
Shahid Rasool makes it seem like he graduated from FAST with a degree in Computer Science with a clear vision for his future in mind: he was going to build a tech startup and he needed, as Mr. Neeson would put it, “a very specific set of skills”. Right out of college, he set about seeking to acquire those very skills. After a brief stint at Systems Ltd. and a not-as-brief stint as CTO of OffRoad Studios, Shahid was ready to create his first and (so far) only startup: Cricingif.
Cricingif arose from Shahid’s observation that the digital ecosystem surrounding cricket had frozen in the 20th century and needed a significant infusion of technology. Thus Cricingif was born: a platform that provides live highlights (a clip for each ball) along with the fastest live scores online. They also provide live streaming, cricket news, blog humor and opinions from all around the cricket world.
In the early days, Shahid proceeded with the pragmatic approach of delivering software services to fund the product. In that stage, the biggest challenge was to maintain the balance where the service-side of the business (i.e. ready cashflow that grew with each delivered project) would not begin to overshadow the product side (i.e. not so ready cash that would not flow for a few years, at the very least). That, according to Shahid, led to some very hard decisions. In order to do that and to be able to live with himself, Shahid had to constantly revisit why he made the company in the first place, say no to excessive incoming business and keep plodding on building Cricingif.
Right off the bat (pun intended), Shahid reached out to the top executive at TEN Sports to share the concept and seek investment. The executive in question, offered to buy off the company. Many more such offers followed based on laughably low (but, unfortunately, industry-standard) valuations. Some brazenly claimed that “this idea would never work and it will never see a dime” whereas others were kinder and said “maybe you should reconsider”. Pushing through all of that, Cricingif finally managed to raise a solid $2 million in investment back in 2016.
A two-year old Pakistani startup raised an investment of $2 million in 2016. Let that sink in…
Fast forward 3 years: Cricingif is now a team of 60+ employees and had a viewership of 7.5 million people during the World Cup and a whopping 20 million during the last Pakistan Super League. They are now at a point where Cricingif creates & structures cricket rights for Pakistan and the Middle East. They are also about to raise another round of investment. Suggest you get out your chequebook.
