There are very few people in Dhaka's internet entrepreneurship space quite as important—or as influential—as Fahim Mashroor, the Founder and CEO of Bdjobs.com, the country's first online job portal and several other companies. He has built one of the first successful local internet technology companies in Bangladesh. On top of that, Mr. Fahim continues to influence the tech ecosystem with his critical opinions, pro-bono support to founders in the form of mentorship, and angel investments in early-stage companies, and now increasingly active citizen activism.
Fahim started Bdjobs in 2000 when the internet was barely a household thing in Bangladesh. His journey offers profound insights into what it takes to build a sustainable technology venture in a challenging market. From facing unending challenges for 2-3 years straight to building one of Bangladesh's first successful internet companies, his experience shows the necessity of patience, passion, and principled persistence in building successful businesses.
In conversations with Future Startup over the years (these takeaways are taken from this and this interview with Mr. Fahim), Fahim has shared invaluable lessons about entrepreneurship, strategy, and life—insights drawn from nearly three decades of building businesses in one of the world's most challenging yet promising markets.
Here are 10 key lessons from his journey:
"Patience is the most important attribute for entrepreneurs especially in countries like ours," says Fahim. The fundamental reality of building a company is that Rome wasn't built in a day. Good things take time to happen.
For Bdjobs, this philosophy was critical. The company faced regular challenges for at least 2-3 years before establishing its position in the market. "We were convinced from the very first day that it would be a long journey and we were mentally prepared," Fahim recalls.
The cultural pressure toward shortcuts and instant success is strong. "We want to be rich overnight which is certainly not a good idea," he notes. While you may find examples of shortcut success prevalent in society, you should also look at the definite peril of this approach. Building a robust business requires patience because it is inherently a long and tough journey.
If you're building a business just for money, you won't last in the long run. "But if you love what you do and keep at it, you are sure to have the intended result," Fahim emphasizes.
His passion wasn't just about technology—it was about contributing meaningfully to society. "I wanted to create employment opportunities. We are lucky that a large portion of our total population is youth. This is both an opportunity and risk," he explains. Finding work that aligns with your values and interests is what sustains you through the inevitable difficult years.
Fahim describes himself as a passionate challenge taker who loves walking uncharted paths and prefers doing things that most people fear to do. This intrinsic motivation has been a permanent source of drive throughout his entrepreneurial journey.
An ideal entrepreneur must be an honest person. Whether you're running a business or working at a company, always remain honest in your conduct. Try to add value to society through your initiative.
Fahim rejects the notion that doing something honestly is impossible in Bangladesh. "Being honest still is an advantage," he insists. While you can make temporary achievements by unethical means, dishonesty wouldn't get you too far in the long run.
This principle of honesty extends to how you conduct business, treat employees, and serve customers. It's not just a moral stance—it's a practical business strategy for sustainability.
After successfully establishing itself in the white-collar job market, Bdjobs recognized that this segment has saturated. The major strategic priority shifted to the blue-collar job market for people with technical and vocational education.
"The market for the white-collar jobs has become saturated. The growth opportunity there is relatively slim now," Fahim explains. The blue-collar market is huge and largely unexplored, requiring specialized products with different UI and simpler application forms suited to the needs of these users.
This strategic pivot demonstrates the importance of continuously reassessing your market and being willing to move into new territories when your current market matures.
Given the limited nature of resources and capacity in emerging markets, focus becomes essential for optimizing their usage. Fahim emphasizes that there is no substitute for high effort and dedication in the early years of a venture.
"Work harder than the person next to you," he advises. It's a practical necessity when competing against better-funded, more established players. Dedication to the work is an element that seldom fails, especially when other advantages are scarce.
The challenge for entrepreneurs in Bangladesh is that they often lack the resources, networks, and institutional support available to founders in more developed ecosystems. What they can control, however, is their work ethic and ability to focus relentlessly on what matters most.
This means saying no to distractions, avoiding the temptation to chase multiple opportunities simultaneously, and channeling all available energy into making the core business work. For Bdjobs, this meant staying laser-focused on solving the job market problem for years, even when other opportunities emerged.
Beyond solving market inefficiencies, Fahim emphasizes a deeper entrepreneurial responsibility: adding genuine value to society through your initiative.
"I'm passionate about contributing to the greater good of my country. More specifically, I want to create employment opportunities," he explains. This isn't corporate social responsibility tacked on later—it's the fundamental purpose driving the business.
Fahim saw that Bangladesh's large youth population represented both an enormous opportunity and a critical risk. "A lot of young people who can really make a difference do not have the right skills to do so. This is a big disadvantage for us and detrimental for our growth as a nation. This is where I want to contribute."
This perspective shapes strategic decisions differently. Rather than simply optimizing for revenue extraction, Fahim thinks about systemic problems: How can Bdjobs help fix the mismatch between education and market needs? How can it create pathways for blue-collar workers who've been excluded from formal employment systems?
The principle is clear: sustainable businesses solve real problems for real people. When entrepreneurs focus on value creation rather than value capture, they build companies with deeper moats and longer runways. "It's easy to get a job and there is nothing special. It is easy to do things that everyone else is doing but that does not satisfy me," Fahim notes. "I always felt that I needed to do something more meaningful."
One of Fahim's defining characteristics as an entrepreneur has been his ability to see far beyond the horizon and act on that foresight. Starting Bdjobs in 2000 required believing in a future that most people in Bangladesh couldn't yet imagine.
"In 2000, using the Internet was a global phenomenon but unfortunately, nothing was happening in Bangladesh. We found that very frustrating," he recalls. "We thought about doing something appropriate to our context to fix it."
Back then, internet penetration was minimal, payment systems didn't exist, and the very concept of finding jobs online seemed foreign. Most people would have waited for the market to mature. Mashroor chose to build the market instead.
"I am a passionate challenge taker. I love walking uncharted paths and prefer doing things that most people fear to do," he explains. This willingness to move before the market is obvious requires a different kind of courage—not just the courage to execute, but the courage to believe in a future others can't see.
The lesson for entrepreneurs is: sometimes the biggest risk isn't in poor execution but in waiting too long to start. Markets don't mature on their own—they mature because pioneers invest years building infrastructure, educating users, and proving viability. By the time a market looks "ready," the window for building category-defining companies may have already closed.
A business can launch successfully with extremely minimal investment if internal dedication is strong. Bdjobs started in a single room with only 2-3 people. The first investment involved borrowing three computers from family members.
"Back then I just came out of university and money was not one of our strengths. We started with a very minimum investment," Fahim recalls. The lack of monetary strength initially did not stop the founders, who were convinced from the very first day that they were embarking on a long journey.
This demonstrates that the most important capital isn't always financial—it's conviction, clarity of purpose, and willingness to start with what you have.
One of Fahim's most important insights concerns the role of entrepreneurship in economic development. He argues that Bangladesh has experienced "jobless growth"—economic expansion that hasn't translated into sufficient employment opportunities.
"Unemployment is one of the key problems in our economy. Corporations are not being able to create enough jobs," Fahim observes. "But the solution for that isn't to attract as many multinational companies as we can."
Instead, the real solution lies in creating an environment where local entrepreneurs can start and build companies that create jobs for others. This requires the government to formulate and implement entrepreneur-friendly policies rather than simply courting foreign investment.
This perspective challenges the conventional wisdom that emphasizes attracting multinational corporations as the primary path to development. While foreign investment has its place, Mashroor argues that sustainable economic growth requires enabling local people to build businesses.
"We need to formulate and implement entrepreneur-friendly policies so that people can start and build companies and create jobs for others," he emphasizes. This shift in thinking—from being job seekers to job creators—represents a fundamental reorientation of how Bangladesh should approach its development challenges.
For entrepreneurs, this means understanding that their work has implications beyond their own success. Every job created, every person trained, every market inefficiency solved contributes to building a more robust economic ecosystem.
Entrepreneurs must recognize and fight against a cultural environment that views businesses negatively and discourage entrepreneurship. "The problem is cultural. The mindset of our society leans against business,” Fahim observes.
Social acceptance for young entrepreneurs is poor in Bangladesh. Families encourage their children to take traditional jobs and even prohibit them from starting businesses or something new. "Our society doesn't consider entrepreneurship as something socially valuable," he notes.
Overcoming these cultural hurdles requires substantial internal conviction. You need to be prepared to go against the grain, to do things that most people fear to do, and to persist even when those closest to you express skepticism.
Reflecting on his own journey, Fahim notes one regret: starting late. "I look at the business scene now and see a lot of young people becoming entrepreneurs very early in their life. Many of them are still at university. I, in fact, started my company a little late, after I've finished my study." He wishes he had entered the business arena earlier, allowing more time and energy to recover should the first attempt have failed.
The saturation in white-collar jobs created a specific problem: employers were receiving too many applications per job, making it increasingly difficult to sort out the best candidates.
Bdjobs responded by evolving into a complete recruitment solution service. Key innovations included implementing an online employability test (similar to GRE/GMAT) in collaboration with an Indian company, creating a scoring system to grade candidates on both qualifications and professional behavior (similar to Uber's rating system), and developing tools to help employers filter and manage the entire recruitment process from application to interview scheduling.
These solutions didn't just help Bdjobs differentiate itself—they created real value for both employers and job seekers.
Fahim Mashroor's journey building Bdjobs offers a masterclass in long-term thinking, strategic adaptation, and the power of principled persistence. In his own words about life and work: "Life is a journey. It should be lived that way. More than the destination, people should enjoy the course of their journey and do what they love."
For aspiring entrepreneurs in Bangladesh and beyond, these lessons serve as both inspiration and practical guidance—a reminder that while the journey is long and tough, patience, dedication, and a strong work ethic are some of the elements that seldom fail.
Read our interviews with Mr. Fahim from which these ideas are taken from here and here.
