We revived our ambitious interview series Life’s Work with a brilliant conversation with Wahid Choudhury, Founder, Kaz Software. This conversation offers unique insight into this phenomenon of what produces consequential founders and organizations through the fascinating personal journey of Mr. Wahid and the remarkable story of Kaz Software.
In Insight, we uncover a refreshingly pragmatic approach to marketing and growth from an earlier interview we published with Afshana Rahman Diya, CMO at Startise,. While many tech companies chase growth at all costs, Startise has built an approach that has helped the company attract millions of users while prioritizing profitability from day one.
In Business Deep Dive, we examine the journey and evolution and breakdown the business of Younic Home, a bachelor hostel and short-term rental company based in Dhaka that has built an enviable business within a short time.
In Insight, mapping startup Barikoit founder and CEO Al-Amin Sarker Tayef reflects on building a sustainable business by focusing on frugality, consistency, efficiency, and grit instead of indulging in the dominant narrative that tells us to raise money and spend fast in the name of growth. Because growth rarely comes from vanity.
In Book Note, we published a review of late Harvard Professor Clayton Christensen’s The Innovator’s Dilemma, examining how organizational strength can become a liability for best-run companies.
All links are below.
Wahid Choudhury is the founder and CEO of Kaz Software, a leading software outsourcing company based in Dhaka, Bangladesh, serving clients from around the world as well as in Bangladesh. We discuss Mr. Wahid’s personal history and how it has shaped him as a person and entrepreneur, and how Kaz Software came into being and has become the company it is today. By Mr. Wahid’s account, one’s childhood and early education could have a profound impact on how we turn out in life. An early upbringing that mixes play, freedom, and opportunities for creative cultivation can help us grow into unique individuals who can take on the world and work with courage, openness, and relentless out-of-the-box thinking. Like his personal journey—dropping out of a PhD program in physics at King’s College London to pursue a career in software because he felt like it—Kaz Software also provides a model for this courage, openness to exploration, and out-of-the-box thinking.
Mr. Wahid's approach to company building has a meditative tinge to it. It reminds me of the Chinese concept of “wu wei,” which literally means “try not trying” or "effortless action". Flow with the flow of life, as he puts it. Take it when you find an opportunity to do the work you enjoy. Gather the like-minded, high quality, crazy people you would enjoy working with. Empower them with freedom and an environment to do their best work and grow. The rest should take care of itself.
There's a growing interest in entrepreneurship and venture building in Bangladesh. But most of these discussions miss the point that building consequential enterprises has a cultural component to it. On the one hand, this culture is about the kind of founders a society produces, which depends on the family and the education system we have. On the other hand, it is about a deep and intuitive understanding of the culture of building ventures.
In this conversation, Mr. Wahid and I try to demystify this phenomenon of what produces consequential founders and organizations through the fascinating personal journey of Mr. Wahid and the remarkable story of Kaz Software. Read the full interview.
In our earlier interview with Afshana Rahman Diya, CMO at Startise, we uncovered a refreshingly pragmatic approach to marketing and growth. While many tech companies chase growth at all costs, Startise has built an approach that has helped the company attract millions of users while prioritizing profitability from day one.
This piece extracts the most valuable growth and marketing insights from that conversation and structures them into mental models you can apply immediately. These aren't theoretical concepts, they're battle-tested strategies that helped Startise go from zero to multi-million users. Read the full article.
While hostel culture is common in many countries, it hasn't traditionally taken root in Bangladesh in a modern, scalable way. Existing accommodation options like traditional "messes" or hostels often present issues of insecurity, high cost, or poor hygiene. Many of these shared flats are notorious for poor hygiene and unsafe water, and are often the only option.
It was in one such flat, towards the end of her software engineering degree at Daffodil University, that Sharmin Sultana’s life took a terrifying turn. A severe bout of jaundice, a waterborne disease rampant in Dhaka's substandard accommodations, struck her down.
Doctors confirmed what many intuitively knew: inadequate water and washroom hygiene was the culprit, a scourge affecting a significant number of newcomers falling ill in the city.
Lying sick, a seed was planted. What if there was a better way? What if a hostel could exist that guaranteed clean water, proper sanitation, and a dignified living environment? This visceral, painful personal experience became the founding thesis of Younic Home, a Dhaka-based hostel/accommodation provider that aims “to redefine urban accommodation by combining affordability with a deep sense of care and community.”
In 2015, armed with nothing but conviction and a 56,000 taka loan from family (barely enough to rent a single flat and pay two months' advance), Younic Home was born. Within just seven days, their rooms were fully booked. By the end of the first month, they repaid 40,000 taka to their families and netted an 11,000 taka profit. The validation was immediate and powerful.
Starting with a single flat in 2015, Younic Home has since grown to five branches, serving approximately 20,000 customers yearly.
Younic Home provides a solution with all-inclusive hostel packages starting at 349 taka, offering food, laundry, WiFi, and 24-hour security. Their focus on safety, accessibility, and affordability sets them apart, making them a vital solution for Dhaka’s transient population. Read the full deep dive.
As founders, we're often driven by optimism and urgency. We want to launch fast. We want to grow fast. The startup hype—especially in today’s world—is real and relentless. But that same hype often pushes us into costly mistakes. Sometimes, those mistakes cost us our entire startups.
But a startup isn’t just about launching a product or raising capital. It’s about building a sustainable business—and there are many ways to do that. The current narrative tells us to raise money and spend fast in the name of growth. But growth doesn’t come from vanity. It comes from consistency, efficiency, and grit.
In this post, I’m sharing my journey of building Barikoi Maps, a tech-first business, as cash-efficiently as possible. Over the last 7 years, I’ve saved the company over $500,000 (BDT 6 crore)—money that helped us survive, grow, and compete against giants like Google and Mapbox. Read the full article.
Successful companies listen to their best customers and invest in high-margin products, leaving them vulnerable to disruptors that target overlooked or low-end markets. By the time the disruptive technology improves enough to threaten the mainstream, it’s often too late for incumbents to respond effectively. Read the full article.
