Entrepreneurship is not easy and the road to success has a lot of ups and downs. However, looking into the background of renowned and successful entrepreneurs you will realize how their will and determination and their ‘never give up on trying’ attitude has helped them to get to the position we see them in now. Arafatul Islam Akib, founder of Startup Chattogram is one of those persons. Even after life had thrown him a ton of hurdles, he overcame all of them with his willpower.
Hope you are doing well. Could you give an insight into how your journey to entrepreneurship has been like?
I was born and brought up in Chattogram. As I lost my father at a young age I had to take responsibility for my family and from then on I had determined to stand on my own feet and so something on my own. I always tried to associate myself with extra-curricular activities (i.e. debate competitions) to gain experience and knowledge. From that time, I also tried to do small businesses by selling accessories like Eid cards from time to time and helped my uncle with his business when I shifted to Dhaka for my college. These experiences helped me to learn a lot of first-hand skills. I used to watch different conferences and programs in Shilpakala and such academies in Dhaka from back stages. This made me think that now I have to do something of my own. Then my brothers started Bangladesh’s first-ever organic food venture ‘Khaas food’ and I started to work with them. At that time some of my friends told me how they want to establish something of their own, how they wanted to start their own business. This gave me the idea to build a type of ecosystem where I can share my knowledge that I had gained from my experiences and journey. With that idea, I moved back to Chattogram. I shared my idea with the like-minded people in my circle and try to make them understand what I am trying to achieve. First I tried to convince people from Chattogram that in Dhaka many are getting involved with entrepreneurship and startups. However, we didn’t get much response as they didn’t quite believe us because we didn’t have any strong background to support our cause. So what we did was go to different colleges and universities where we used to get 4-5 like-minded people with the same interest. Then we used to meet up and share success stories with them. Firstly we didn’t get much audience however gradually we started getting more and more people. As we talked with more and more people we realized how different the startup culture in Dhaka and Chattogram was. This posed a challenge for us as we had to change the culture and people’s mindset of entrepreneurship and startup. What we did was we started to teach what entrepreneurship is in its truest form and what does startup means. Finally, Startup Chattogram was established to help startups. As I worked with Startup Chattogram, I got the opportunity to represent both ‘Startup Chattogram’ and Bangladesh in Global Entrepreneurship Network. This is a conference for people who are engaged in community building and entrepreneurship. It made me proud to represent Bangladesh on a global platform along with other renowned people in the field. I got to learn that the key to community building is to do impactful works and to bring out some impactful success story at the end of the day. Last year I also got the opportunity to represent Bangladesh in Nepal where I learned how to share my knowledge and experience with them. I have built myself from the scratch without any support. I learned, participated, and experienced everything first hand that gave me the confidence to go on and inspired me to share my knowledge with others.
Tell Us A Bit About The Startup Chattogram.
As we started to get some audiences who were interested in our knowledge, we established a Startup Chattogram in 2017 and we started to invite renowned peoples associated who have been working with entrepreneurship from Dhaka. The startup Chattogram was first established as a learning platform and program. It was established to let people know what a startup is and what entrepreneurship entails. Gradually people started to get interested and come to our platform. Then we started a project ‘Startup School’ where many startups enrolled to understand the startup curriculum and to learn about startups. There were almost 300 participants and 10 startups are doing great works in the market currently. Then we started to provide some training programs and started to give out different educational materials to the universities. We also started consultancy for startups, mentoring them, and helping them with all the requirements of a startup especially funding. We tie up different startups with some corporate organizations and with the IDEA project of our ICT division for funding purposes. We also try to provide working spaces for some of the startups. Despite the name, Startup Chattogram is not limited to people in Chattogram, people from any part of the country can apply with their ideas. We arrange a monthly investor pitch deck so anyone can apply anytime.
Tell us something about the Startup Incubation Centre.
The latest project we have been working in is a startup incubation center. We selected some ideas to help them develop to be a sustainable business model and support them in their community building. The goal was to provide a platform for startups to work with their ideas and develop them.
What are some of the common challenges that Bangladeshi entrepreneurs face? How do you believe they can overcome these challenges?
Entrepreneurship itself is a challenge. However, one thing about entrepreneurs is that they cannot decide what they want to do or cannot identify what they are good at. They cannot recognize their abilities. Identifying oneself and your abilities are the foundation of a startup. Therefore you have to recognize yourself, what you want and what you can do is the way to get started.
Though it’s a bit irrelevant, would love to know if there are any books or movies or any person that motivated and influenced you that, would you like to share it with our readers?
This for me is quite interesting as I do read books and watch movies from time to time. However, what inspires me is talking with different types of people in my surroundings like the ‘tong mama’ in a nearby tea-stall or shopkeepers from the bazaar and trying to learn their real-life stories. Whenever I feel sad, I go to cancer hospitals to meet people and help those who cannot afford to buy medicines or who have no one to look after them. At the end of the day, I don’t need to take shelter in movies or know about stories from books when I know all the people in my surroundings have a story to tell and a lesson to teach.
What do you think of the future of the Bangladesh Business sector and the aspiring entrepreneurs or business enthusiasts?
Bangladesh for me is Asia Tiger. What tigers do is they hunt when they are hungry. My belief is our young generation is like that exactly. In my case, when it was needed I silently kept working, however seeing the opportunity I built something of my own. I have to hunt but before hunting, I have to understand the situation and how to use that in my favor. Bangladesh has a good future in entrepreneurship, but they have to expect the worst, have to expect failure so that it doesn’t stop them from working out their dreams.
What does success mean to you?
It is relative. But for me, it is an inspiration for me to go on. I believe I am successful when after a day of hard work, I can bring happiness to my family, friends, and acquaintances.
What is the one quality that was your driving force?
As my friend says, my consistency and hard work. I don’t give up easily. I keep going on no matter what and I keep trying however much I fall.
Lastly what advice would you like to give to the aspiring entrepreneur?
Entrepreneurs must be alert all the time. Before going on to something they have to know and understand their surroundings, use the full potential of their six senses. They also must keep going on no matter what, no matter how much failure comes in the way, and never give up.
