Among others, the panelists were included PITB Director Entrepreneurship Atif Mumtaz, Head of NSPIRE Technology Incubator Ayub Ghauri and UET Programme Manager Technology Incubator Farhan Riaz who proposed solutions to the challenges being faced by the stakeholders.
PITB Director Entrepreneurship Atif Mumtaz highlighted past achievements of the PITB entrepreneurship wing and said both the projects (Plan9 and PlanX) have now become a common name among university and college students. Since there was lack of jobs in the market, the students have started thinking of establishing their own businesses in shape of startups right from the student days which was a big achievement for them.
Ayub Ghauri opined that along with more facilities like incubators and accelerators, it was also important for young startups and entrepreneurs to think out of the box, particularly during the product development stage. The out of the box thinking could help identify sustainable business ideas which can run in the long run, he added.
Farhan Riaz gave examples of successful startups and entrepreneurs who had gone through incubators and accelerators and highlighted the importance of learning especially from failures.
Mughees Tahir from PlanX in his concluding remarks said that the entrepreneurs were likeminded people with similar goals and even similar problems and the Pakistani startup should help out each other for the growth of ecosystem. The entire session proved to be a great opportunity and learning experience for budding entrepreneurs and other stakeholders. The panel discussion was followed by a question and answer session from the audience.