Arafatul Islam Akib, Founder of Startup Chattogram, is a startup ecosystem development and consultancy platform specialized in pre-seed and seed stage startups, with their amazing expertise and network.
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 determination and attitude have 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.
He was born and brought up in Chattogram. As he lost his father at a young age to take responsibility for his family and from then on determined to stand on his own feet and do something on his own. Akib always tried to associate himself with extra-curricular activities (i.e. debate competitions) to gain experience and knowledge. From that time, he also tried to do small businesses by selling accessories like Eid cards from time to time and helped his uncle with his business when he shifted to Dhaka for his college. These experiences helped him to learn a lot of first-hand skills.
Startup Chattogram has supported 75+ entrepreneurs since 2017 who have impacted the lives of more than 150,700 people and created 1000+ jobs. He is also a Chapter Director at Startup Grind Chittagong partnership with Google, which is the largest independent startup community, actively educating, inspiring, and connecting more than 1,500,000 entrepreneurs in 600 cities. Startup Grind Chittagong chapter will open huge opportunities for entrepreneurs to explore and expand their business and be connected with the world. It facilitates resource mobilization, technology transfer, exosphere visits and financial inclusion for the entrepreneurs who are eager to grow up. Over the last five years, Arafatul has led the company in engagements across 50+ businesses/development partners, 100+ SMEs/Startups and 7+ accelerator programs in multiple industries including Technology, Agriculture, Health, Energy and Manufacturing. Entrepreneurship is not easy and the road to success has many difficulties. 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 have helped them to get to the position we see them in now. Arafatul Islam Akib is one of those persons. Last 5 years Arafatul Inspired 50 thousand youth through startup ecosystem building in Bangladesh & globally. Moreover, Arafatul received an Achiver Joy Bangla Youth Award (JBYA) in 2020, recognizing his youth-led exemplary work in social transformation and community development, across Bangladesh and has studied at the University of Dhaka.
“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.” – Arafatul Islam Akib
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. This for him is quite interesting as he does read books and watch movies from time to time.
“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.” said Arafatul Islam Akib
