Hundreds of applications poured in this season for The Foundation program at LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship, which is the university’s flagship experiential development platform for young businesses. After a thorough process of interviews and discussions between the Foundation Council members, LUMS Center for Entrepreneurship has inducted its 6th batch for its four month Foundation program.
The startups that made it to the sixth batch include:
- A*Star; an online learning portal that allows students from anywhere in Pakistan to access quality teachers at an affordable cost,
- Qisst.pk; An online marketplace specializing in providing the best buying and selling experience related to installment plans,
- Bookcity.pk; an online portal that allows customers to buy & sell books,
- Counsell; a mobile app that lets all users set their professional hourly rate, schedule consultation sessions that are conducted via our live video platform, and get paid for their time,
- Dasti is a convenient within city on demand delivery service and Edu-care; An online freelance learning website with free education for underprivileged children.
The other startups were
- Edlytica; a learning analytics program which collects, integrates and analyses educational data to improve learning management, to highlight learning gaps,
- Gemtech enhances the quality of gems and exports them,
- Grassroots Education Consultants; a school and education management company which addresses weak performance areas of their schools,
- HomeStove; a service that aims to deliver highly quality home-cooked food to customers across the city,
- IceCurl; Provides an experience of fresh icecream using fresh fruits and presentation in rolls form,
- Ilmistan; An online teacher portal to help teachers in their education and improves the learning culture of classrooms.
- Keep School safe; raises awareness & provide services for Students on Disaster Management & Safety Standards,
- Mahir; connects people with reviewed and rated local businesses/ professionals,
- Silicon Apocalypse Studios; a fiction themed board game bringing new concepts to the market,
- Sojourn; a platform for landlords and tenants to virtually meet and helps them find secure and quality abodes at affordable rates
- Thandi Chingari A roadside gola-cart that provides hygienic ice golas
The contract signing ceremony took place at LUMS, where the selected startups signed their Entrepreneurship Development Program contracts with Dr. Sohail Naqvi, Vice Chancellor, LUMS in a private gathering. The Pro-Chancellor of LUMS, Syed Babar Ali also attended the ceremony and stressed upon the importance of hard work, honesty and integrity as the fundamental foundation that supports successful and sustainable businesses. Syed Babar Ali along with the team at LCE wished the entrepreneurs luck and of words of wisdom for their success.
Addressing the young entrepreneurs at the induction ceremony, Dr. Naqvi said,
“We are proud to be supporting entrepreneurs from not only LUMS and Lahore but other universities and cities including Mianwali, Sialkot, Islamabad and Sargodha. I encourage all of you to work hard, persevere and stay committed to your dreams. Success will follow.”
can we start innovating? isnt it about time? We need the likes of Groopic. Not some copycats. Instead of numbers, incubators should go for quality, uniqueness and such virtues.
Extremely lame non-innovative ideas:
1. There are hundreds of messaging apps around, but lets build another one. WHATSAPP.
2. People are happy with Orkut and Myspace. Lets be non-innovative and copy this idea and create another such social portal. FACEBOOK.
3. Lets help people buy and sell old stuff. Wow so lame. EBAY
4. A portal to post about jobs. Not innovative. ROZEE.PK
You are very naive to think that innovation revolves around the idea only. It is the innovation in the BUSINESS around a simple idea that is always key.
Additionally, priorities differ. Creators of GROOPIC valued innovation in computer vision. Monis Rehman valued creating a highly profitable value adding business.
To understand what I am saying, go set up a simple chai ka stand. And see how much innovation you would have to come up with everyday to make it profitable.
Hope this helps!
That’s why Pakistani startups success is below 3%. Although these startup are going to solve problems but they are not up to date, they need to innovate.