Habib University Technology Management Pitch Week — 2017, 2019 and 2020
16 teams, 29 students. Pitch week starts today.
How do you teach graduating Electrical Engineers, Computer Scientists, Designers and future policy makers that product features and technology only go so far. In the end what really matters is our understanding of customer’s pain.
An idea is a powerful thing. While good ideas aren’t rare, ideas expressed and communicated well, are. More so in the world of university seniors. Welcome to pitch week.
This year we changed the rules. Pitches are limited to less than 90 seconds. No slide decks or power point presentations. Just a short video clip focused on underlying pain points. Intriguing enough for prospective customers to ask for more data or information. No product features, technical specifications or data sets. 10,000 views on youtube, if possible. Not the end of the world if you can’t reach that high.
Remember that this is a mix of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering students pitching on social platforms for the first time. Unlike the earlier years this year we only have a small number of design and policy students in the group. They have never taken a film making course or actively thought about their social reach in their entire life. They may have friends who did both but they themselves are newbies to this game.
Prior to this course they never explored commercial potential in the real world or worked as founders. Their ideas may be half baked and the videos may suck but there is no shortage of heart in this lot. Remember that before you beat them up. Kids with heart, with faith and a willingness to take risks. If their work disappoints you, the fault lies with me, not them.
Here is what you can do to help. Be gentle in your criticism and feedback. Feedback is a gift and is very welcome. If you like the idea, please share it on your time line and tag friends and family members who may be interested. If you are feeling generous, add a nice comment or a few words of encouragement. If you are interested, drop them a personal note. If you want to be a real life super hero, open a few doors, hold out your hand and say the magic words “How can I help.”
The ideas are in different stages of gestation. Some were literally thought up during this course. Others have customers. A few are just wild exploratory exercises that will end with course. At least one was done just for the sake of fun.
Its been an even mix with pitches. Some are serious, some off beat, some completely wacko. None are boring.
What was the objective? We wanted students in this course to take away three lessons.
a) Social Traffic is hard. Its getting harder as algorithms evolve. It cannot be taken for granted. Yet most marketing plan do. It’s just like running a half marathon without training.
Till you try yourself and test your reach you would never realize how difficult the click and conversion business is. Urban legends say otherwise. Reality is a completely different ball game.
If I could teach even one student this lesson, my job is done. The cardinal sin in this course was to say, we will use social media to reach our customers and market our products. No you won’t. Or most of you won’t.
b) Engineering programs don’t give students the opportunity to push their work out in the real world. I know we have demo days and project days and FYP days but that is in a controlled environment. We are so focused on making, we completely forget about the customer we are making it for and taking the time out to understand their reaction. Even when we say we do, we only spend a superficial effort. Like sprinkles on a cake.
c) It takes a great deal of heart to produce something that you are ready to show to random strangers. To open yourself to feedback and criticism from the entire world. Sometimes even abuse on your visible and exposed social timeline.
Within the range of production, videos are the most appealing. You can put together a make belief world and then see how your target audience reacts. They don’t cost as much. All you need is a halfway decent story board, an HD camera or a phone with an HD camera, a guide to how to shoot videos that don’t suck, a bit of creativity and the tenacity to get through your initial flops.
That was the idea here. Market validation at cheapest possible cost.
d) Good things come to those who iterate. Your first version without fail will suck. Your final versions will suck less as you get better and improve with feedback. Every little thing counts. Color, font selection, placement, cuts, background score and the copy you use to promote your video.
e) After all of the above, experience heart break. As the world goes by without noticing and applauding your hard work. Post launch anti-climatic failure to attract attention and customers is the leading cause of founder depression.
We told you it wasn’t going to be easy.
It takes heart to become a founder. Without heartbreak how could you prove that you have one.
Without further ado, the pitches.
Pitch #1. Insolution. Sustainable recycling of denim waste. Textiles. Construction. Social Impact
Insolution produces insulated bricks that use a layer of treated denim waste to keep homes cool in summers and warm in winter months. By using textile waste product it promotes sustainability, energy conservation and recycling.
The two models the team is exploring include a custom brick manufacturing facility which requires more capital versus a brick design lab that teaches masons and contractors how to convert conventional bricks into insulated ones.
Pitch #2. Myscooty. Mobility. Women empowerment. Gender equality.
A bike ride sharing service for women, by women. Using an app that brings bike riders and women bike owners together. Brought to you by Aneeqa and Haya. A project that the two had been working on for over a year.
When was the last time you sat on a bike in Karachi?
Pitch #3. Luminosity. Theater. Stage Lightning. Remote sensors. IoT.
One of the reasons why I love teaching the Entrepreneurship and Technology Management course at Habib University has been the diversity of student interests and backgrounds.
Luminosity is the prefect illustration of this point. Take a look at how Ali Askari and Mubasshir pitche their idea about smarter theater lighting systems.
Pitch #4. Bachao. Mobility. Women empowerment. Access. Mobile Applications.
What is easier to find? True love or a reliable car mechanic in Karachi?
Some would say that it is easier to find a son in law these days than a reliable dependable mechanic. Bachao is a platform that allows you to locate, find, rate and work with tried and tested Mechanics. Fatima Moin’s off beat clip is the first in the series of takes that illustrate her customer’s pain.
Pitch #5. Talaash. News. Media. Entertainment. Social responsibility
Talaash. Fake news verification tools. A two person team focused on technology to fight the spread of fake news.
From firstborns being struck by lightning to incidents between countries, desi myths and fake news have greatly affected our lives. Our initiative aims to solve this problem by not only providing a tool to verify news and myths but also to spread awareness regarding this matter.
Pitch #6. Buhat Hogiya. Harassment. Workplace safety. Access and women empowerment.
How do you address harassment, gender based biases, workplace abuse and blaming victims rather than perpetrators?
Bus! from Buhat Hogaya a social venture focused on carrying forward uncomfortable conversations. Acknowledges standard biases against victims of sexual harassment deeply rooted in our social and conversational norms.
It took 10+ cuts, reviews and changes to finally get a clip that we were comfortable sharing on our timelines. If this is how difficult it is to start a conversation about harassment for bystanders, imagine the pain victims and their families go through.
Pitch #7. Bhoka Nanga Software. Student empowerment. Income generation. Social Impact.
Bhoka Nanga Software. While as teachers we try not to favor a given group or student, there are some that win our heart with their commitment, dedication and their ability to rise from the back of the pack all the way to the front.
Bhoka Nanga (abject poverty) Software owes its inspiration to #StarvingStudents a moving company that supposedly used starving (bhokay) students as movers to cut down moving prices. Given the heatwave in Karachi, we also added nangay (naked or cloth less) to the mix because that is how most students feel the week before graduating.
Abject poverty leads to better prices for founders. That is what BNS Software delivers. No offense intended.
Pitch # 8. Gulistan Adab. Urdu. Education. Cultural preservation.
Gulistan-e-Adab by Maryam Taqvi — Gulistan e Adab — is the compilation of Urdu texts from the classical era to the modern period. It covers three themes as of now, which are Ethics, Creativity, Comedy, and Satire. This book is aimed at students from middle on wards and should be as good for an older audience.
When Maryam first proposed the ideas, I wasn’t sure if she would be able to deliver on her promise. Her clip dedicated to her grandmother was beyond what I expected. Well done.
Read more about Maryam’s work at https://medium.com/…/urdu-adab-se-hamara-rishta-f372eb91f5f7
Pitch #9. Alif-Bay. Education. Adult Education. Empowerment. Social Impact.
Alif-Bay | sab kay liye | is a social startup that aims towards educating the uneducated and less-educated members of our society, especially those members of our society that works in universities, and other educational organizations, and do the necessary work.
Pitch #10. Orion Advertisement. Social Media Marketing. Startups. Founders.
When Ateeb Ahmed first pitched his story board about running a Social Media marketing company I shot it down. Been there, done that. Sounded too complicated.
So I was surprised when his first cut had both me and Fawzia rolling on the floor. More impressive given the fact that Ateeb Ahmed and his partner in crime Atif Mehmood had never experimented with film before.
Of all the video pitches I have judged in my entire life as a mentor, coach, teacher, instructor and by stander,this one is the most memorable. For me mainly because of how raw it is yet, how accurately it captures our dreams as a founder and the challenges we face. Take a look.
Pitch #11. #CodeLikeaGirl. It so easy even boys can do it.
I have always believed that women are better than men when it comes to Computer Science. They are naturally talented, more focused, significantly more productive, less likely to get distracted, more committed to the work space and community and tend to be significantly better managers.
It took an entire semester to convince Mohammad Ali and Roomi Merchant that the future of our industry lies with getting more women to explore CS. Ideally at significantly younger ages.
We ran a informal survey of 100 companies across Pakistan that showed that women employment within this group of leading players stood at 26% (Dec 2018) compared to the PASHA Industry average statistic of between 12% — 14% (2012 survey).
Welcome to #CodelikeaGirl an initiative focused on helping school going girls explore CS as a #career option. Catch them young, they say.
But nothing beats their tag line, which I really really love — inspired by two old #FedEx and #Always ads.
Its so easy even an #MBA can do it (FedEx), and Throw like a girl (Always).
It’s so easy even boys can do it.
Pitch #12. Shafaf. Water conservation and recycled water. Save water for your next generation.
A team of electrical engineers that uses cascaded filtering to recycle waste water. Rafay and Nabiha like other technical groups in the class struggled with pitching the core product in less than 60 seconds. Since conservation was a strong theme and pain point for their product, they finally came at the problem from a different angle.
Pitch #13. D-Stack. Authentic Data
How many times do we run into trouble because we are not sure of our references and sources. Wi
Pitch #14. Bhook Mitao. Eliminating hunger. Social impact, poverty reduction.
Inspired by the work done by Rizq in Lahore and Robinhood army in Karachi Mehdi wants to eliminate wastage of food by household, restaurants and event managers by making it easy to donate excess food.
Pitch #15. Simplified Physics for O and A level students.
Saving the best for last. Not a video but two PDF files. An initial sample of a Physics study guide for A and O Level Physics. Initial topic sampler includes Electricity and Magnetism. Can be used as a refresher or a topic review guide by O and A level students.
Just in time for the O level Physics paper this Wednesday.
Are you likely to watch these videos and follow up as a customer or would you prefer the same old, boring power point slide decks? Are you likely to share the videos on your social feeds ?If the underlying ideas appeals to you, do you relate better to the videos or to the decks? Comment and vote below. And don’t hog the queue. Share and spread the love across your timelines.
These attention deprived kids can certainly use it.
How did they get here? Students enrolled in the Technology Management and Entrepreneurship course in mid January. They spent two weeks going through an idea selection phase as well as making themselves comfortable with business model and value proposition canvas. They spent the next four weeks building customer personas and evaluating strategic appeal of their ideas. The final four weeks were spent in creating, refining and finalizing a story board, shooting it with whatever resources they had, tweaking the footage, producing a first cut, testing the cut with limited audiences and releasing their final clip on YouTube. The last week of the course is focused on generated exposure and traffic for their core concept and following up on leads generated by that exposure.
There are three videos from earlier batches that I always remember and like to share. All three moved me when I first saw them and showcased the heart the teams behind them put into them.
The first. Taghiyur by Fizza Chughtai and Ramsha Meing. On labels, kids, aspirations and dreams. 2018. Fizza and Ramsha spoke about parental pressures, adopted and imposed dreams. Here is their short clip focused on that one message.
The second. A short story in Sindhi by Muneer Ahmed Manik rendered by Mudasir Hanif, Kainat Abbasi and team. 2020.
A powerful short story with sub titles brought to life by the narrator that should be a mandatory watch for all fathers. Mudasir and Kainat did this piece amidst the peak of Covid-19 lockdown in May 2020. They were one of the few teams that managed to get their video done at a level that left competing teams from earlier years far behind.
The third. A love letter to Karachi by Taimor and Aarti. 2018. The original winner of the annual prize for the best video all the way back from 2018.
