Ali and Vamek

Early life and background

Hassan says he was born deaf and cannot hear anything without a hearing aid. Shabbar says Hassan was taken out of school in fifth grade. Hassan says Pakistan had no speech therapy, which is why he went to the US. Speech therapy there taught him to communicate, speak and understand others. He says he relies mostly on lip-reading, because he has been doing therapy in the US. [1]

Education

Shabbar says he was the first blind person to take admission in an MBA. He says he completed an MPhil in supply chain management and went to Cambridge for one of the fellowship programs. Shabbar says Hassan became the first deaf person to do software engineering and came back to Pakistan. Hassan says that with the support of his parents he completed his education, which he describes as both easy and challenging. [1]

Career before DeafTawk

Shabbar says he worked with corporate and development organizations in Pakistan. He says he looked after CSR under corporate affairs. His main responsibility, he says, was the open mic training program. [1]

DeafTawk

Shabbar says the co-founders never wanted to be entrepreneurs. They saw a chance to develop apps for people with disabilities. He says the team organised a mobile app award with the Ministry of IT and Telenor. He says the team had to resign, because it had to choose between Jazz and Telenor, and that it chose Jazz because Jazz was helping the cause. [1]

Shabbar says the co-founders were incubated at NIC on 9 April 2018. He says the team's aim was to capture the Rawalpindi and Islamabad market, and that the co-founders had not planned to go beyond Islamabad. He says the startup ecosystem in Pakistan was not mature at that time, and nobody wanted to invest in Pakistani startups. He says DeafTawk's first investment was 100,000 dollars, and that the co-founders learned there was no funding, only mentorship. [1]

The co-founders say a deaf user gets an interpreter within a maximum of 30 seconds. They say DeafTawk interpreters are available 24/7, which they call their USP. Hassan says DeafTawk is integrating VoIP for non-smartphone users. The co-founders say DeafTawk has a partnership with global bodies for teaching sign language, and that they develop people into sign language experts within three months. They say one interpreter can easily handle 40 calls or 40 users a day, and that an interpreter working from home for up to four hours can earn up to 35,000 per month. [1]

Shabbar says DeafTawk's active users went from about 600 to 700 to about 3,000 to 4,000. The co-founders say DeafTawk had about 19,000 monthly active users in Pakistan, and that it has more than 28,000 downloads over three years. They say it has around 25,000 active users and about 6,000 daily active users. Shabbar says only 10 of 19,000 active users knew what daraz.pk is. [1]

The co-founders say DeafTawk has generated up to around 350,000 dollars in revenue across two markets, including Singapore. They say it is unit economics positive and that most of their revenue has come from B2B clients. They say they charge users and pay the interpreters, and that DeafTawk keeps a gross margin on each session. [1]

Shabbar says that in Singapore an interpreter cannot be had less than seven days ahead. One of the co-founders says that in the US market an interpreter has to be requested at least four to five days before an appointment. Shabbar says no bank was opening an account for them, because he is blind and Hassan is deaf. [1]

Shabbar says that at an event where Asia Pacific startups from almost 56 countries took part, DeafTawk secured first position. He says its first award in Pakistan was the I am the Change award, and that the co-founders won an award as the best startup of Europe. Shabbar says the National Assembly recently contacted DeafTawk. [1]

The co-founders say they expect a beta that translates voice into sign language within a couple of months. They say sign language is three-dimensional, which creates a hardware challenge. They say they have a partnership with Google and are also working with Facebook on a particular model. Hassan says he works full-time at DeafTawk. [1]

Shabbar says their mentor has a role in 80 percent of what the co-founders are today. The co-founders say they hold a daily morning session in which they review the numbers. [1]

Views

The co-founders say their vision is to be the Google translator for the deaf community worldwide. Hassan says he feels DeafTawk empowers the deaf community and that he has come to see AI and machine learning as the future. Shabbar says 99 percent of deaf people across the globe cannot read and write, and that the global market size for sign language interpreters as an industry is 75 billion dollars. He says a university has made all its content fully accessible to deaf people. [1]

Hassan says Pakistan does not have proper infrastructure for disabled people. One of the co-founders says people in Pakistan are humble and care about others. One of the co-founders also says he is very hopeful for Pakistan. [1]

Personal life

Shabbar says he has not seen anything in his 32 years, and that he enjoyed those years and had friends. He says he has never been alone in his 32 to 33 years, because friends are always there. He says he was part of the Pakistani cricket team that also won the World Cup. Hassan says it has been almost six years in Pakistan and that he is liking living there so far. [1]

Timeline

2018

DeafTawk started in Pakistan.[1]

2018

The co-founders were incubated at NIC on 9 April.[1]

Appearances

References

1. Sign language as infrastructure for half a billion . Thought Behind Things , 2021-04-09.