Our latest collection of founder interviews contains everything you need to know to start, build, run a startup, and actually enjoy it, including struggles of early days, how products and ideas evolve, raising investment, what to avoid, how to navigate growth, and inspiration to keep you going.
Parvez Hossain is the Co-founder and CEO of SWAP, a Dhaka-based fast-growing reCommerce company. Launched in 2020, within just two years, SWAP has become an important player in Dhaka's recommerce space and has experienced excellent growth helping take the nascent industry to the consciousness of the mainstream. It is one of the four Bangladeshi startups that have been selected in the latest cohort of Accelerating Asia.
In this wide-ranging interview with Future Startup's Tithi Chowdhury, Mr. Parvez reflects on his journey to what he is doing today, talks about how SWAP came into being and has grown from a small operation to a dominant reCommerce player in Dhaka, the state of SWAP’s business today and ambition going forward, offers insight into the reCommerce industry in Bangladesh, shares his takes on building businesses from scratch, and reflects on the lessons he has learned from his journey so far, and much more.
Shuvo Rahman is the founder and CEO of Alice Labs, a Dhaka-based startup that provides multi-channel customer service solutions and virtual assistant to ecommerce and online businesses. Incorporated in Singapore in 2018, Alice Labs currently operates in South Asia and Southeast Asia including Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Singapore, Philippines, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka serving over 50 e-commerce stores and enterprises, including major brands and retailers like Unilever, Coca-Cola, Giordano, and Maybelline, among others.
In this interview with Future Startup’s Naziba Ali, Mr. Rahman gives us a peek behind the scenes of Alice Labs, his path to entrepreneurship, the origin of Alice Labs, the early days of building the product, putting together the team and resources, the state of Alice Labs today and its ambition going forward, the prospect of SaaS industry in Bangladesh, why panic hiring should be avoided by founders at all cost and much more.
Strides Co is a fashion e-commerce platform that curates high-quality, modern, and affordable wardrobe essentials from a mix of local and international brands, as well as private labels. The startup plans to serve the growing tech-savvy youthful fashion consumers in Bangladesh using deep expertise in apparel and technology. Bangladesh Angels Network (BAN) has recently backed Strides Co with a pre-seed investment. With the new investment, the company plans to widen the collection and range of its in-house brands, work with third-party sellers, expand its geographical coverage and become the go-to contemporary fashion destination for modern Bangladeshis.
In this wide-ranging interview with Future Startup's Ruhul Kader, tech entrepreneur and founder of Strides Co, Alavi Khondoker gives us a peek behind the scenes of his venture Strides Co, his path to entrepreneurship, the art of growing a fashion-tech company, the early days of building the product, putting together the team and resources, the evolution of Strides Co over the past few years, the operational mechanics of the business, the state of Strides Co today and its ambition going forward, the prospect of the fashion industry in Bangladesh, reflects on why it is critical to concentrate on your startup full-time rather than half-assing it and to have a mindset of doing everything on your own in the early stages of a business, and much more.
Alfa Bumhira is the co-founder and CEO of ProSpark, a Singapore-based e-learning platform for businesses. Founded in 2018, ProSpark provides a flexible all-in-one business-to-business learning management system (LMS) that helps large enterprises, SMEs, and gig firms in training, reskilling, and upskilling their staff, partners, and customers online. The company currently operates in two Southeast Asian markets: Indonesia and the Philippines and aims to expand into more markets in the coming years.
In this wide-ranging interview with Future Startup’s Ruhul Kader, Mr. Alfa talks about his path to entrepreneurship, the origin of ProSpak, the early days of building the product, putting together the team and resources, offers a peek into the state of ProSpark’s operation today and its ambition going forward, shares his take on growth, leadership, and running an early-stage company, reflects on the critical importance of determination in building companies and much more.
In this excellent conversation with Future Startup, Truck Lagbe co-founder and CEO, Anayet Rashid, shares about the latest developments at the fast-growing digital trucking startup, the impact of the pandemic on the trucking industry, and lessons he has learned in entrepreneurship over the past years. We cover Truck Lagbe’s growth, evolving product and operation, business model, expansion, strategic ambitions, growth plans, and priorities for 2021 and much more.
