dynamism of investment in technology
Pakistan: a G20 country by 2030s
When we hear the term “investment’’ we often go in circles thinking about what kinds of options are on the plate because it is automatically assumed that an investment means a return on whatever you’ve invested in. However, it is most often the minor details we tend to overlook in any investment process.
In order to seek clarity, we decided to bring on board the expert himself. The man behind 500 startups, Deloitte, and most importantly Lakson Venture Investments Capital (LIVC). Faisal Aftab has paved the way for some of the business setups in the country! LIVC has always put its best foot forward and invested in some spectacular startups such as bookme.pk, mandiexpress and knowledge platform with many more in the pipeline. During our discussion, Faisal imparted some valuable knowledge about technology paired with risk consulting.
“Always stay original is my advice’’ as he spoke about his journey in media television channels by taking the first substantial step to bring the MTV license to Pakistan in 2006, when Faisal was roughly about twenty-eight years old. “I have always been in technology’’ was an important factor to understand the diversity in Faisal’s portfolio.
The concept of moonlight was focused upon where Faisal cleared the misconception about the ideal example of a successful entrepreneur. There is a huge misconception that in order to venture out and do something new you must quit your existing career. This is not the case when using moonlight hours to explore your options, leaving one with the day to work on the tasks at hand.
From 2010 to 2014, Faisal experienced a dairy farm investment failure which only translated into how to become a better investor. “Every country has its local dynamics and its very important to understand those.’’
In addition to this, one of the most important things Faisal touched upon was the “exchange of value disruption” which in lay man’s terms is the digitization of money and crypto currency and how Pakistan is struggling to bring their fair share into this mechanism. In this case the lack of monetary digitization across the globe is what is causing hindrances and holding back the velocity of flow of capital throughout the world due to localized issues everywhere. If this could be regulated and solved more efficiently, we would be able to overcome many problems in our daily practice because the speed technology is moving faster than the flow of capital itself.
Faisal also happened to touch upon “the confluence of the two empires” which shed light on the importance of Pakistan’s strategic location. Apart from being the oldest Indus silk route, it serves as a pivot of the economic center of gravity for the world which so many are entirely unaware of. There is an array of neighboring countries dependent on us and who also benefit a lot in the process. It is not popular for many to know the correlation between Venture capital and geopolitics. Today’s age is an interesting area where digitization is disrupting the industrial revolution which also parallels China as a rising empire trying to disrupt the United states of America. Trade wars have now turned into digital daggers drawn such as “TikTok versus Facebook”.
Faisal’s keen eye for the future described China as the next superpower moving towards acquiring local organizations, for example Ali baba taking over Daraz. whereas, America could potentially remain a superpower moving in from the middle east and these occurrences could possibly last up to thirty years.
The ecosystem of technology is an under-running asset. Being the fifth most popular country on the planet gives us a lot to sit with but more to dwell on. Due to multiple regulatory issues, Pakistan compared to the rest of the world launched 4G LTE internet in 2014. From an investor’s perspective, it would make sense to invest in Pakistan based on the amount of smartphone users, not the compulsion to make the service popular in this part of the world.
In conclusion, apart from some extremely technical and valuable knowledge across the board. The bottom-line laid emphasis on long term thinking. It is actually most often the long-term thinking that creates empires of lasting value. Pakistan is destined to be a G20 country by 2030 and if anything, that only means our informal economy is heading towards serious spikes in growth within the areas of tech platforms. No effort is wasted effort, it only gets really tough before it gets much easier. Every single thing will be worth much more than it already is especially if all the hard work present for all times to come.
If you missed our conversation with Faisal Aftab, then watch our session here!
