Startup Pirates is a one week acceleration program for entrepreneurs in the making. Basically, through a combination of training, mentoring and idea development they help participants structure and develop their ideas and in the end they give them the opportunity to pitch their ideas to investors and successful business leaders. Though I am a bit late on expressing my views on the pirate experience, but its never too late to do anything so here it goes.
It all started when I read somewhere on the internet that something was happening around Lahore to support young entrepreneurs developing their business ideas the name was so compelling that I decided to attend the event so I compiled my thoughts and filled out the form to participate. The event was planned to span over 8 days and 3 different locations, I was so excited to meet new people with great ideas.
The first three day were planned to be held at University of Lahore, the first day was for introductions and ice breaking sessions, I had some prior commitments on the first day so I couldn't attend hence I can't share much of what happened on the first day but the ones who attended the first day told me that it was an amazing experience, having a chit chat with the founding members #Rafael Pires. The second day started with a really energetic session by Mr. Sohail Zindani - Living your strongest life, his session was all about exploring the horizons and living your dreams, followed by the session the participants were told to pitch their ideas since I didn't attend the first day I was at first hesitant to share my idea but then I improvised and gave it a go to present the idea. I had a great opportunity to meet some of the very extra ordinary minds that very day including Anthony Williams, Muhammad Haroon, Muhammad Abbas, Fatima Rizwan, Muhammad Ali, Ijlal Baig they all had brilliant ideas. The third day started with meet-ups with industries success stories and interactive sessions from Irfan Elahi from TownTawks and Samir from Hybrid signals followed by a task based session by Dr. Umar Farooq on Competitor analysis and Strategic management this marked the end of the first three days of startup pirates at University of Lahore.
The next three days were held at University of Engineering and Technology, fourth day started with a session by Ms.Maryam Baqir Corporate Communications Specialist, Lahore Stock Exchange she was surprisingly forthright which resulted in her making a mark as someone one can never forget, after her session Mr. Muhammad Ali Information Security Professional, Lahore Stock Exchange shared some of his insightful thoughts on how to successfully manage projects after that we had some engagement activities among ourselves to refine our business ideas. The fifth day started with a working session by Mr. Muhammad Ali on project management activities followed by one of the very best sessions of the whole event by Mr. Arslan Larik he started with a bang and continued to be one of the very energetic session throughout. On the sixth day we didn't have to do much as Mr. Salim Ghauri didn't show up because he had some foreign delegation to attend to but the participants made full use of it by discussing the business models and the Lahore startup pirates team did a great job keeping the participants engaged.
The final two days were held at Lahore University of Management Sciences, with session by Mr. Jazib Zahir - Pakistan Business Development Advisor where he shared how the final pitch should be organized and afterwards had individual mentoring sessions with the participants followed by a session by Abbas Shahid Baqir from Student Shelter in Computers. On the eighth day we had to pitch our ideas to the judges and everyone was rated on the idea they had, everyone was a winner that day we all were transformed in a very good way.
Startup Pirates enabled us to tackle the challenges and overcome our fears of rejection and failure to make us true entrepreneurs at heart. The organizers did a great job Ali Awais Amin, Osman Ahmed, Sharjeel Nawaz, Umber Nawaz, Fatima Khurshid, Shoaib, Ali Raza and team.
It all started when I read somewhere on the internet that something was happening around Lahore to support young entrepreneurs developing their business ideas the name was so compelling that I decided to attend the event so I compiled my thoughts and filled out the form to participate. The event was planned to span over 8 days and 3 different locations, I was so excited to meet new people with great ideas.
The first three day were planned to be held at University of Lahore, the first day was for introductions and ice breaking sessions, I had some prior commitments on the first day so I couldn't attend hence I can't share much of what happened on the first day but the ones who attended the first day told me that it was an amazing experience, having a chit chat with the founding members #Rafael Pires. The second day started with a really energetic session by Mr. Sohail Zindani - Living your strongest life, his session was all about exploring the horizons and living your dreams, followed by the session the participants were told to pitch their ideas since I didn't attend the first day I was at first hesitant to share my idea but then I improvised and gave it a go to present the idea. I had a great opportunity to meet some of the very extra ordinary minds that very day including Anthony Williams, Muhammad Haroon, Muhammad Abbas, Fatima Rizwan, Muhammad Ali, Ijlal Baig they all had brilliant ideas. The third day started with meet-ups with industries success stories and interactive sessions from Irfan Elahi from TownTawks and Samir from Hybrid signals followed by a task based session by Dr. Umar Farooq on Competitor analysis and Strategic management this marked the end of the first three days of startup pirates at University of Lahore.
The next three days were held at University of Engineering and Technology, fourth day started with a session by Ms.Maryam Baqir Corporate Communications Specialist, Lahore Stock Exchange she was surprisingly forthright which resulted in her making a mark as someone one can never forget, after her session Mr. Muhammad Ali Information Security Professional, Lahore Stock Exchange shared some of his insightful thoughts on how to successfully manage projects after that we had some engagement activities among ourselves to refine our business ideas. The fifth day started with a working session by Mr. Muhammad Ali on project management activities followed by one of the very best sessions of the whole event by Mr. Arslan Larik he started with a bang and continued to be one of the very energetic session throughout. On the sixth day we didn't have to do much as Mr. Salim Ghauri didn't show up because he had some foreign delegation to attend to but the participants made full use of it by discussing the business models and the Lahore startup pirates team did a great job keeping the participants engaged.
The final two days were held at Lahore University of Management Sciences, with session by Mr. Jazib Zahir - Pakistan Business Development Advisor where he shared how the final pitch should be organized and afterwards had individual mentoring sessions with the participants followed by a session by Abbas Shahid Baqir from Student Shelter in Computers. On the eighth day we had to pitch our ideas to the judges and everyone was rated on the idea they had, everyone was a winner that day we all were transformed in a very good way.
Startup Pirates enabled us to tackle the challenges and overcome our fears of rejection and failure to make us true entrepreneurs at heart. The organizers did a great job Ali Awais Amin, Osman Ahmed, Sharjeel Nawaz, Umber Nawaz, Fatima Khurshid, Shoaib, Ali Raza and team.
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