Email Marketing is not dead! Try Probaho, a homegrown ESP from Bangladesh ▶ Join Now

06 FS Interviews To Understand Bangladesh, Investment, Startup Ecosystem, And The Future

What does future hold for Bangladesh? How startup funding works? What makes a startup funding worthy? What is the state of startup ecosystem in Dhaka? Why Dhaka is not Bangladesh? How can we make better life? These 06 interviews are the ones that you and your fellow FS readers just can't stop reading and sharing.

****

sajid rahman
Click on the image for more

Sajid Rahman On Investment, Big Ideas, Great Founders, And Startup Eco-system

Sajid Rahman is an entrepreneur and investor. He is the director of Founder Institute Bangladesh. Mr. Rahman has an astounding body of work in finance. He has worked in a number of countries around the world and managed a few billion-dollar banking businesses in Asia and Africa. He is currently setting up the first wind turbine power plant in Bangladesh. He sits in the board of many financial services, technology and energy companies in US, Europe and Asia.

I personally look at the experience and track record of founders, whether there are 2 or more founders, whether they have launched and executed the product, traction beyond the idea-stage, and also how big the market is for the product/services in terms of customer and dollar value.

Read Full Interview Here.

*****

Hideki Fujita
Click on the image for more

Hideki Fujita On Bangladesh Market, Investment, Good Pitch, And More

Hideki Fujita is the founder of SEGNEL Ventures-a Singapore based venture capital firm with a deep interest in South Asian and Southeast Asian market. Prior to SEGNEL, Hideki was the co-founder of COENT Venture Partners. Hideki started his venture capital career at JAFCO and then he worked at GREE, inc., one of the largest mobile social gaming companies, as a director of Business Strategy. At GREE he assumed a corporate management position and was involved in strategic investments within the mobile gaming field with a focus on the Japanese and Chinese markets.

My career in venture capital industry started at JAFCO, Japan’s largest venture capital firm. I was involved in supporting promising entrepreneurs, growing them into successful investments. My most notable involvements were: Full Speed Inc. and SMS Co Ltd. JAFCO also have branches in China and Singapore. They are big and I spent 6 years at JAFCO.

Read Full Interview Here.

*****

Face To Face With Minhaz Anwar Of Better Stories

Minhaz-Anwar
Minhaz-Anwar

Minhaz Anwar is no stranger to the Bangladesh startup scene. He is the founder of Better Stories-an ideas agewency based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Minhaz calls himself a startup activist and he is one of the pioneers of Bangladesh startup movement which has been abuzz across the country of late. He has been working on business incubation, startup mentoring and opportunity brokering for the last 5 years through his dream venture BizCube, Bangladesh’s first incubator proper. He is the licensee of the Bangladesh StartUp Cup and host of this 7-month long mentorship driven business model competition in Bangladesh. Minhaz believes that it is the young entrepreneurs of Bangladesh who will change the game for Bangladesh.

My passion is to learn new things and try to find where the big gaps are and try to solve problems that seem too big of a challenge and when most of the people would shy away from them and would say that’s totally impossible and too big a thing and let’s not try it or aim for it. I want to tackle those problems.

Read Full Interview Here.

*****

Face To Face With Sean Griffin Of StartUp Cup

Sean Griffin
Sean Griffin

Sean Griffin is a Silicon Valley based serial entrepreneur. He is the CEO and Founder of StartUp Cup-a global business model competition that focuses on launching successful startups and building startup eco-system. Always thinking out of the box, Griffin dropped out of high school and started his own company at the age of 12.

I was born and raised in Silicon Valley and a typical high school dropout. I started my first business at the age of 12. Throughout my entrepreneurial journey, I have founded and co-founded 21 businesses and 3 non profits.

Read Full Interview Here.

*****

Interview With Jerry Nicholson And Fiona Nicholson of Tindercapital & OPEN Accelerator [Part 01]

Jerry & Fiona
Jerry & Fiona
Image by Tindercapital

Jerry Nicholson and Fiona Nicholson are the husband wife duo behind the wonderful impact investment firm Tindercapital and awesome accelerator program called OPEN Accelerator for rural entrepreneurs of Bangladesh. Jerry & Fiona came to Bangladesh four years ago to pursue their dream which is in simple: supporting people with dream of making ideas happen come true, especially in under-served communities of Bangladesh. We are immensely dazzled and incurably inspired by their initiatives.

Nine years ago we went to Tajikistan in central Asia and we looked at micro credit and how it was impacting lives of people. That’s how we came to know about Grameen Bank and got interested. We read ‘Banker To the Poor’ by Professor Yunis and we got interested to understand it more. From central Asia we came to Bangladesh.

Read The Full Interview Here.

*****

Face To Face With M.K. Aaref, CEO, EMK Center For Public Service And The Arts

M.K. Aaref
M.K. Aaref | Click Image for more

M.K. Aaref is the CEO of the EMK Center for Public Service and the Arts, also known as the EMK Center. Under his leadership EMK has become the epicenter of the city’s major change initiatives and events. Mr. Aaref is an Architect by profession & training and founder of Aaref& Associates-an Architecture firm that embodies his passion for entrepreneurship. Having the experiences of living in multiple cultures that include the Middle East, England and USA, Mr. Aaref understands universal commonalities of culture and human endeavors. He believes the next generation of Bangladesh is in the unique position to have it all for the country!

Every culture, every language, every country has its own pride and I think the more we accept that the bigger we will become.

Read The Full Interview Here.

In-depth business & tech coverage from Dhaka

Stories exclusively available at FS

About FS

Contact Us