Praava Health Founder, Managing Director, and CEO Sylvana Quader Sinha walks us through her childhood and early life in the US and how her upbringing at a cultural crossroads, exposure to Bangladesh and its culture early in life, shaped her outlook on life and the world, reflects on her journey from the world of law, politics and development work to entrepreneurship, talks about how a personal experience with the healthcare system in Dhaka led to her founding of Praava Health, Praava heath’s journey from idea and a tiny team of a few people to a team of over 100 people, what went into building the initial operation of Praava, building the initial Praava team and raising money, Praava’s membership scheme, how Praava has used a combination of personal network, word of mouth and efficient execution to grow its business, the state of Praava’s business today, how Praava operates as an organization and how it has built a learning culture, and Praava’s ambition going forward, shares her insights on how to raise money, deal with the challenges of being a founder, the infinite potential of human capacity to do good, the importance of having good people around you and why the meaning and joy of life lies in creating impact and connection.
Styline Collection Founder and CEO, Khobaib Chowdhury, explains the growth of the modest fashion company, how Styline is building a fashion retail brand at the intersection of online and offline, how Styline has grown to where it is today, Styline’s ambition, the most important job of a CEO and why smart people should take more risk.
Truck Lagbe Founder and CEO Anayet Rashid on the early days of Truck Lagbe, how it has evolved and grown from a mere idea to a team of over 25 people and 150 agents in a span of a year, how Truck Lagbe is using technology to change an age-old complex transportation industry, how Truck Lagbe works, its business model, challenges of Truck Lagbe, its business today and ambition going forward, the hard work and intricacies of scaling a business, the most critical aspects of transportation business, how Truck Lagbe operates as an organization and why having a good idea is a rather inconsequential part of building a company and why execution is what makes all the difference.
REPTO is one of the few ed-tech companies in Dhaka that are doing well. The Grameenphone Accelerator Program graduate and its precocious Founder and CEO Ishtiyak Sheyam have proved that it is possible to build a revenue-first digital education company in Bangladesh.
In this excellent interview, Ishtiyak Sheyam tells us how he came up with the idea of REPTO, how he taught himself programming and built the first version of REPTO platform and strategies he used to get into GP Accelerator Program. He explains the business of REPTO, struggles, and challenges he had to go through, how he has built a revenue-first digital education
company and how a sense of urgency and a mindset of getting things done have helped him throughout his journey.
Zantrik Co-Founder and CEO, Al-Farooque Shubho, reflects on his entrepreneurial journey, talks about how Zantrik came into being, explains Zantrik’s evolution to what it is today, how Zantrik is building a new kind of vehicle maintenance company in Dhaka, how it has grown to what it is today, Zantrik’s ambition, and shares lessons he has learned from his journey so far.
Light Of Hope Founder, and CEO, Waliullah Bhuiyan, on his journey to the world of entrepreneurship, how his passion for literature, art, and culture shaped his outlook towards life and the world, talks about Light Of Hope’s journey from idea and a small team to a team of over 60 people, what went into building the initial operation of Light Of Hope, how Light Of Hope has managed to find a sustainable business model to scale, how Light Of Hope has used a combination of hard work, hustle and efficient execution to grow its business, the state of Light Of Hope’s business today, how Light Of Hope operates as an organization and how it has built an entrepreneurial culture, and how Light Of Hope plans to shape the future of education in Bangladesh, shares his on challenges of entrepreneurship and how he deals with stress of being a founder, the infinite importance of having right people around you while building a company and why you should ignore what other people think of you if you are into making something meaningful and be obsessed with a seamless execution over having a beautiful idea.
