Arif Iqbal

co-founder and CEO of LAAM

Compiled from 2 recorded interviews. Every statement below is drawn from the passage cited beside it.

Arif Iqbal is the co-founder and CEO of LAAM, a fashion-tech startup. He has a background as an engineering leader at Facebook, Microsoft, Pinterest and eBay. He has said LAAM is the largest consumer shipment player out of Pakistan.

Early life and background

Iqbal spent about the first 24 years of his life in Lahore. He attended a small private school from nursery to matric and spent 11 years at it. [2]

Education

Iqbal completed FSC pre-engineering at Government College of Science, Wahdat Road, in Lahore. He studied computer science as his undergraduate degree. Friends recommended computer science to him, and he applied to FAST. He has said that getting into FAST was difficult at the time. He has also said MIT's open courseware gave him access to full courses, which he treated as a major learning opportunity. [2]

His FAST batch started with about 200 students, and about 140 graduated. He spent four years at FAST, which he remembers as a fun, great experience, and he graduated with a CGPA of 3.5. He says FAST had a culture of assigning many projects. He came to love core computer science courses, such as data structures and algorithms, in his third and fourth semesters. [2]

Career

Iqbal's first job was at Warid Telecom, where he worked for about a year. He has said he chose Warid Telecom because he wanted to work for a company that was building its own systems. He did not find IT services work for outside clients exciting. He says he became bored after six or seven months because the work felt too easy. [2]

He then decided to start a company of his own. His first startup aimed to connect people with similar mindsets. It was a social network of sorts that matched people by their interests. The startup asked users to install a browser plugin so it could learn their interests. [2]

The startup had a team of about five or six people and reached roughly 60,000 to 70,000 users. It later ran out of money. He learned information retrieval and machine learning while building it. [2]

In 2007 Iqbal was on the LUMS campus when Google came to recruit. He did not get in at Google. He says math mattered a lot for backend roles at Google's Zurich campus. He also says math is not important for every role. [2]

Microsoft and Bing

Iqbal passed a telephone interview with Microsoft and was invited to Dubai for interviews. He joined Microsoft's Bing AI and machine learning relevance team. Microsoft sent him to Canada after he joined, because a US visa did not come through. He worked in Vancouver for about 15 months before transferring. He moved to Seattle in early 2010. [2]

He worked on Bing for about four years. On Bing he worked on a team behind auto-suggest. [2]

eBay

Iqbal left Bing and joined eBay. At eBay he joined a new team building intelligence from scratch, along with seven to nine people from Bing. He says eBay had little AI or machine learning when he joined. He says his team's intelligence work grew eBay's GMV by multiple digits within six months. He says the team grew from five or seven people to more than 300 by the time he left. [2]

He worked at eBay for about two and a half years. He says eBay's CEO, who had strongly supported the team, also changed. He says the team did not know how much eBay would invest in intelligence. [2]

Pinterest

Iqbal has said that for three to four years he had wanted to join a startup, and saw it as the next step after big tech. At Pinterest he joined a new team to build the ads infrastructure and relevance. Pinterest wanted only senior people for the new ads team. Pinterest had told him it planned an IPO within two years. He says one reason he left Pinterest was that the IPO was delayed by about four years. [2]

Facebook

In 2016 Iqbal joined Facebook, this time as an individual contributor working as a software engineer. He joined the relevance organisation. He estimates Facebook had roughly 5,000 to 6,000 engineers when he joined. He says he personally interviewed about a thousand people for Facebook, Pinterest and eBay. [2]

He left Facebook in January 2021. He left to start a company in Pakistan's fashion space. [2]

Planner business

Iqbal has said that he and his wife started an e-commerce planner brand in 2017. The planner brand was made in Pakistan, with the factory found in Lahore. It could make between 2,000 and 5,000 pieces a month. The planner sold for about $50 abroad and about $10 in Pakistan. [1]

He has said that as a tiny enterprise he had no insight into where overseas consumers would be. He spent about 5% of his time building the planner product and 3% marketing it. He says logistics costs left the business with almost no margin. He has said the planner business was stopped in part because he could not deal with its logistics and fulfilment. [1][2]

LAAM

Iqbal has said LAAM began in January 2021. He says its vision is to digitise the South Asian fashion economy. He says LAAM wants consumers to discover and reliably buy South Asian fashion. He says it also wants businesses to focus on their strengths. LAAM's focus is fashion, especially ethnic fashion, for South Asian customers. [1][2]

He has said some of his family members were in the fashion industry, which kept the idea on his mind. His younger brother spent about a decade in the fashion industry. His wife ran her own fashion brand. He has said LAAM Technologies is one company that runs both LAAM and Octane. [1][2]

He has said LAAM supports more than 2,000 sellers and has shipped to more than 2 million customers in over 100 countries. He says LAAM ships to more than 7,500 cities. He says LAAM has empowered more than 1,000 businesses to go digital and created more than 10,000 direct jobs for its partner businesses. He has said LAAM is the largest e-commerce player in Pakistan's fashion market. [1][2]

He has said about 65% of the units LAAM sells are sold outside Pakistan. The split was about 60-40 before, and international sales have since grown to about 65-35. He has said LAAM's prices are mostly the same for buyers in and outside Pakistan, with duties added in some places. He has said there are more than 100 million South Asian expats living around the world. [1]

He has said LAAM learned in 2021 that it could not build a trusted brand without solving its fulfilment problems. He has said 2022 was when LAAM heavily invested in fulfilment technology. He has said LAAM pushed for global growth from 2023, once it had trust in its fulfilment. [1]

LAAM warehousing and logistics

Iqbal has said LAAM now works only on a warehousing model, holding stock before items go live. He has said LAAM runs one of the largest warehousing solutions in Pakistan. He has said its warehousing is powering more than half a million units. He has said about 80,000 to 90,000 SKUs are live for customers to buy at any one time. He has said LAAM holds close to 300,000 unique SKUs in total. [1]

He says LAAM's South Asian fashion catalogue has about 125,000 products. He has said LAAM's warehouse uses dynamic slotting, which tags any free space as an item's location. He has said LAAM sends a video when a seller claims items were missing, and 90% of such claims stop there. [1][2]

He has said LAAM does not run its own logistics team and works with solid logistics partners. He has said LAAM guarantees 48-hour delivery in Dubai under the break bulk model. LAAM ships about eight items per international shipment on average. He has said LAAM's average international delivery time is five business days. He has said LAAM has an algorithm that predicts which courier to use for each destination, such as Gujranwala. [1]

He has said LAAM has brought its cost to about 50% below the average cost, at around 30 dollars. He says bulk shipping cut LAAM's rates by 30 to 40 percent. He has said LAAM has a dedicated team tracking tariffs and working with couriers for its exporting sellers. [1][2]

LAAM team

Iqbal says LAAM's head office is in Lahore. He says LAAM has a small operations team in Karachi. He says LAAM has about 220 full-time staff and also works with about 60 to 70 contractors. He says a core team of 20 to 30 people runs LAAM, not him alone. [2]

He says LUMS and IBA graduates stood out in LAAM's business teams. He estimates about 95 percent of LAAM's product engineering team came from FAST. He says LAAM stopped burning cash and is now sustainable. He says LAAM may launch its own basics line in three or four years. He says LAAM is not manufacturing its own products now, because it has other work to do. [2]

Endeavor

Iqbal has said the Endeavor team contacted him early, when Endeavor was launching in Pakistan. He has said he went through about 15 interviews to join Endeavor, five of them with unicorn founders. He has said he attends two or three Endeavor gatherings each year. [1]

He has said Endeavor connected him to CXOs of four or five Middle East logistics companies within a week. He has said an ex-CXO of Louis Vuitton Group, met through Endeavor, has since given him mentor sessions. He has said a board member of Endeavor Pakistan was one of the people who interviewed him. He has said that one of the people who interviewed him came in about a year and a half later and led LAAM's round. [1]

Octane

Iqbal has described Octane as a technology infrastructure that LAAM uses. He has said Octane provides storefront, order management, inventory and customer management. He has said LAAM began opening Octane to other businesses slowly. He has said Octane is used by more than 100 businesses. He has said LAAM is one store among more than 100 stores that run on Octane. [1]

He has said Octane's businesses sell both locally and globally. LAAM first served sellers through LAAM alone and now serves other businesses through Octane. He has said Octane is an early-stage product that has moved from alpha to beta. He has said Octane has a pipeline of about 100 businesses and onboards 20 to 30 a month. He has said LAAM expects to open Octane to a much bigger market in 2026. [1]

He has said Octane is opening to fashion and lifestyle sellers, staying close to fashion for now. He has said Octane grows cautiously to keep retention very high. He has said he expects LAAM to need support for 4 to 5 million units once Octane opens widely. He has said physical infrastructure takes longer to scale than technology. [1]

He has described an Octane app button, called RFP or request for pickup, for collecting seller stock. He has described Octane generating a barcode or QR code for each product when it is uploaded. He has said the long-term vision is for Octane to be an e-commerce infrastructure play for global sellers. He has said he hopes Octane can act as a multiplier for entire industries. He has said sellers in emerging countries face a very different challenge from first-world sellers. [1]

Views

Iqbal has said the US de minimis rule is ending for the entire world, and the exact terms are not fully final. He has said the US tariff on Pakistani goods is 19%, against 50% for India. He has said a country with a lower tariff gains a major competitive advantage. He has said LAAM's South Asian clothing has few alternatives, so he is not too worried about tariffs. [1]

He has said economies of scale are the basic model that lowers shipping cost per parcel. He has said that when shipping passes about 15-20% of order value, customers generally leave the cart. He has said most e-commerce, including Shein and Temu, relies mainly on air shipments. He has said returns from abroad to Pakistan are very hard, so shipping traffic runs one way. He has said he lived in the US, where five-day delivery counted as fast a decade ago. [1]

He says small package exports from Pakistan have long been a problem. He says local logistics in Pakistan has been a disappointment. He has said LAAM aims to minimise cost and pass savings on to consumers while keeping delivery within five days. He says China Post has helped Chinese businesses a lot. [1][2]

He has said e-commerce is an entirely different game from content creation and influencing. He says stability is the most important need for a business in Pakistan. He lists political stability, currency stability and a positive public mindset as missing in Pakistan. He says many startups die in a downturn, and the fluff goes first. He says startup failures often come from the operations team more than from the founder. [1][2]

He says Careem created a bubble in Pakistan's startup ecosystem. He says Shein's manufacturing network can take a concept to production in three to four days. He says fashion technology has not yet truly evolved. [2]

He has said he believes LAAM could become an organisation worth tens of billions of dollars. He has said he would like LAAM to have served hundreds of millions of customers globally. [1]

On hiring, he says a good CGPA takes discipline, and that skill matters far more than CGPA. He says he has interviewed graduates for 16 to 17 years and does not recall asking anyone for their CGPA. [2]

He says FAST graduates of his time were mainly engineers, while LUMS graduates often moved into product management. He says FAST did not have a culture of students contributing to society through projects beyond computer science. [2]

Personal life

Iqbal married in 2011. He moved from Seattle to San Francisco for the Pinterest role. His daughter was about one and a half years old when the family moved to San Francisco. He found the move to a big city overwhelming. [2]

He moved back to Seattle, where the family had good memories. He relocated to Pakistan with his family. [2]

Timeline

2007
Google comes to recruit on the LUMS campus, where Iqbal is present; he does not get in.[2]
2010
Moves to Seattle in early 2010 after working in Vancouver.[2]
2011
Marries.[2]
2016
Joins Facebook as a software engineer.[2]
2017
Starts an e-commerce planner brand with his wife.[1]
2021
Leaves Facebook in January to start a company in Pakistan's fashion space; LAAM begins in January.[1][2]
2022
LAAM invests heavily in fulfilment technology.[1]
2023
LAAM pushes for global growth.[1]
2026
LAAM expects to open Octane to a much bigger market.[1]

Appearances

DateTitleWhere
2025-10-03 Why Pakistan's next unicorn ships from a warehouse, not a website Thought Behind Things
2023-10-04 Why a Facebook engineer left Seattle to digitise Pakistani fashion Thought Behind Things

Frequently asked questions

Who is Arif Iqbal?

Arif Iqbal is the co-founder and CEO of LAAM, a fashion-tech startup. He has a background as an engineering leader at Facebook, Microsoft, Pinterest and eBay. He has said LAAM is the largest consumer shipment player out of Pakistan.[1]

What does Arif Iqbal do?

Arif Iqbal is the co-founder and CEO of LAAM. He has said LAAM's focus is fashion, especially ethnic fashion, for South Asian customers. He has said LAAM Technologies is one company that runs both LAAM and Octane.[1]

Where did Arif Iqbal study?

Arif Iqbal completed FSC pre-engineering at Government College of Science, Wahdat Road, in Lahore. He studied computer science as his undergraduate degree and spent four years at FAST.[2]

What company did Arif Iqbal found?

Arif Iqbal is a co-founder of LAAM, a fashion-tech startup. He has said LAAM began in January 2021. He says its vision is to digitise the South Asian fashion economy.[1][2]

Where has Arif Iqbal worked?

Arif Iqbal's first job was at Warid Telecom, where he worked for about a year. He later worked at Microsoft on Bing, at eBay and at Pinterest, and joined Facebook in 2016. He left Facebook in January 2021 to start a company in Pakistan's fashion space.[2]

References

  1. Why Pakistan's next unicorn ships from a warehouse, not a website . Thought Behind Things , 2025-10-03.
  2. Why a Facebook engineer left Seattle to digitise Pakistani fashion . Thought Behind Things , 2023-10-04.
Show the source passages (182 statements)
  1. Arif Iqbal is the Co-Founder and CEO of LAAM, a fashion-tech startup. Arif Iqbal, the Co-Founder & CEO of LAAM, a fashion-tech startup transforming how South Asian brands scale globally
  2. Arif Iqbal has a background as an engineering leader at Facebook, Microsoft, Pinterest and eBay. With a stellar background as an engineering leader at Facebook, Microsoft, Pinterest, and eBay
  3. Arif has said he lived in the US, where five-day delivery counted as fast a decade ago. The definition of fast a decade ago when I was living in US was ke yaar paanch din mein mil gaya na, zabardast.
  4. Arif has said LAAM is the largest consumer shipment player out of Pakistan. we are the largest consumer shipment player out of Pakistan
  5. Arif has said LAAM supports more than 2,000 sellers and has shipped to more than 2 million customers in over 100 countries. We are supporting over 2,000 different sellers aur inke through we have shipped Pakistani product to more than 2 million customers in 100 plus countries
  6. Arif has said LAAM now works only on a warehousing model, holding stock before items go live. I think last time we spoke, we had made to order and so now we have everything in our warehousing before we make it live.
  7. Arif has said LAAM runs one of the largest warehousing solutions in Pakistan. we have one of the largest warehousing solutions in Pakistan today
  8. Arif has said LAAM's warehousing is powering more than half a million units. which is powering more than half a million units
  9. Arif has said about 80,000 to 90,000 SKUs are live for customers to buy at any one time. We are talking about close to like 80,000, 90,000 unique SKUs that are live at a point
  10. Arif has said LAAM holds close to 300,000 unique SKUs in total. So in unique we have like close to 300,000 plus SKUs.
  11. Arif has said about 65% of the units LAAM sells are sold outside Pakistan. Abhi hamare paas takreeban 65% of the units that we sell are outside of Pakistan.
  12. Arif has said the split was about 60-40 before, and international sales have since grown to about 65-35. hamara yeh jo split tha yeh takreeban 60-40 ke kareeb tha, the international in the last year or so has grown a bit farther. So ab 65-35 ke kareeb hai.
  13. Arif has said LAAM's prices are mostly the same for buyers in and outside Pakistan, with duties added in some places. Generally, majority of the places the prices are the same, but kuch jagah pe hum log isko simplify karne ke liye we add the simplified duty and taxes in the prices
  14. Arif has said the US de minimis rule is ending for the entire world, and the exact terms are not fully final. woh de minimis ka rule jo hai, woh it's ending for the entire world. Aur phir har country ke tariff ke mutabiq. By the way abhi iske upar I think there is some debate going on, it's not 100% final.
  15. Arif has said the US tariff on Pakistani goods is 19%, against 50% for India. jis tarah India ka 50% hai, Pakistan ka 19% hai ya kisi aur country ka 15% hai
  16. Arif has said LAAM's South Asian clothing has few alternatives, so he is not too worried about tariffs. Uske andar majority of the time there is not a lot of alternates available. So we are agar jitna bhi lag raha hai tariff jiska bhi humein andaza hai, iski hit hogi but we are not too worried about that
  17. Arif has said a country with a lower tariff gains a major competitive advantage. Toh ek bahut major competitive advantage aa jata hai us jagah ko jahan ka tariff thoda kam hoga.
  18. Arif has said LAAM has a dedicated team tracking tariffs and working with couriers for its exporting sellers. we have a team dedicated who is looking into it day in day out, who are trying to understand, working with all the couriers as well
  19. Arif has said economies of scale are the basic model that lowers shipping cost per parcel. Achha ismein the the the basic model that works out is economies of scale, right?
  20. Arif has said LAAM does not run its own logistics team and works with solid logistics partners. humne logistics mein apni team nahi deploy ki hui, we work with solid partners.
  21. Arif has said LAAM guarantees 48-hour delivery in Dubai under the break bulk model. Dubai mein matlab we deliver within 48 hours guaranteed with this break bulk model.
  22. Arif has said LAAM ships about eight items per international shipment on average. So we ship on average eight items per shipment
  23. Arif has said LAAM has brought its cost to about 50% below the average cost, at around 30 dollars. uske case mein bhi cost hum log average cost se mera khayal hai 50% kam lekar aa gaye hain. It's like around 30-ish dollars or so.
  24. Arif has said LAAM's average international delivery time is five business days. hamare is time average jo delivery time hai is five business days across the world.
  25. Arif has said that when shipping passes about 15-20% of order value, customers generally leave the cart. Jab shipping ki price usse upar chali jaati hai toh customer is not matlab generally leaves the cart and doesn't go and 15% of the order value. 15-20% of the order value, yes.
  26. Arif has said most e-commerce, including Shein and Temu, relies mainly on air shipments. chahe woh Shein, Temu jitne bhi aaj kaam kar rahe hain woh majority kaam air shipments ke upar hi kar rahe hain.
  27. Arif has said returns from abroad to Pakistan are very hard, so shipping traffic runs one way. Pakistan is a place where bringing a package back is very very tricky. So the traffic is only one way.
  28. Arif has described Octane as a technology infrastructure that LAAM uses. Octane is a is a technology infrastructure jo ke Lam utilize karta hai.
  29. Arif has said Octane is used by more than 100 businesses. Uh so it's used by 100 plus businesses today.
  30. Arif has said LAAM began opening Octane to other businesses slowly, as of last year. As of last year, we opened up this technology slowly slowly to be used by other businesses as well.
  31. Arif has said LAAM is one store among more than 100 stores that run on Octane. So Lam is in terms of Octane, Lam is just another store. So we have 100 plus stores that are utilizing it.
  32. Arif has said he hopes Octane can act as a multiplier for entire industries. we have that ability to be that multiplier effect for the entire industries
  33. Arif has said there are more than 100 million South Asian expats living around the world. there is like 100 million plus South Asian expats that live all all across the world
  34. Arif has said LAAM's focus is fashion, especially ethnic fashion, for South Asian customers. hum Lam ka jo focus hai woh bilkul wahi hai targeting the the fashion, especially the ethnic fashion.
  35. Arif has said LAAM Technologies is one company that runs both LAAM and Octane. Acha abhi ek hi company hai uh Lam uh Lam Technologies uh jiske dono product hain.
  36. Arif has said Octane is opening to fashion and lifestyle sellers, staying close to fashion for now. Acha abhi hum closer to fashion hi reh rahe hain. Is tarah fashion and lifestyle.
  37. Arif has said Octane grows cautiously to keep retention very high. we are very cautiously growing it because we want the retention number to be very very high.
  38. Arif has said the long-term vision is for Octane to be an e-commerce infrastructure play for global sellers. the core vision behind it is that it's an e-commerce infra play that allows you to be a great global seller.
  39. Arif has said Octane provides storefront, order management, inventory and customer management. Aapko chahiye hota hai aapka storefront chahiye, aapki order management chahiye, aapki inventory management chahiye, customer management chahiye.
  40. Arif has said sellers in emerging countries face a very different challenge from first-world sellers. emerging countries ke seller jo hai woh bahut farq hai first world ke country ke seller se.
  41. Arif has said he and his wife started an e-commerce planner brand in 2017. ek 2017 mein actually um hum log maine aur meri begum ne ek planner ka brand banaya e-commerce ka
  42. Arif has said the planner brand was made in Pakistan, with the factory found in Lahore. humne made in Pakistan banaya, hum gaye, humne jaake factory dhoondi Lahore ke andar
  43. Arif has said the planner brand could make between 2,000 and 5,000 pieces a month. anywhere between 2000 to 5000 pieces aap mahine ke nikal sakte hain
  44. Arif has said the planner sold for about $50 abroad and about $10 in Pakistan. woh wahan pe on average $50 ki thi aur Pakistan mein woh product jo hum retail kar rahe the woh 10 8 se $10 ki thi
  45. Arif has said that as a tiny enterprise he had no insight into where overseas consumers would be. as a as a tiny enterprise I have zero insight on ki yaar actual mein consumer kis taraf zyada hoga
  46. Arif has described an Octane app button, called RFP or request for pickup, for collecting seller stock. Aap chup karke apni app pe ek button pe click karte jisko aap jiska naam hai button ka naam RFP, request for pickup.
  47. Arif has described Octane generating a barcode or QR code for each product when it is uploaded. Let's say you come in, you upload a product and the moment you upload a product there is a uh uh inlay and there is a barcode QR code generated for you there.
  48. Arif has said LAAM's warehouse uses dynamic slotting, which tags any free space as an item's location. Dynamic slotting mein it doesn't matter aapke paas jahan pe bhi space hai na warehouse mein koi bhi ek ek inch jahan ki space hai aap wahan pe jaake item daal dein usko location tag kar dein.
  49. Arif has said LAAM sends a video when a seller claims items were missing, and 90% of such claims stop there. Woh claim aa jaata hai aapne teen item nahi bheje do item bheje. Hum ek dum se video bhejte hain. 90% claim wahin pe chup ho jaate hain.
  50. Arif has said LAAM began in January 2021. when we started Lam uh now January 2021, the first couple of years we had to really solve this problem well
  51. Arif has said LAAM learned in 2021 that it could not build a trusted brand without solving its fulfilment problems. we would never be able to build a trustworthy brand if we are not going to solve this problem well.
  52. Arif has said LAAM pushed for global growth from 2023, once it had trust in its fulfilment. Us problem ke baad I think 2023 onwards we really focus and push for global growth just because of we had trust on this.
  53. Arif has said 2022 was when LAAM heavily invested in fulfilment technology. especially 2022 was the time when we really invested in this area and really invested in this tech.
  54. Arif has said the planner business was stopped in part because he could not deal with its logistics and fulfilment. aaj puche ke tumne kyun band kiya aur bahut achha paisa bana raha tha main us pe was the logistics and the operations and the fulfillment and that just I couldn't deal with that.
  55. Arif has said e-commerce is an entirely different game from content creation and influencing. it's one thing to be content creators and influencers it's another thing it's an e-commerce is an entirely different ball game
  56. Arif has said he spent about 5% of his time building the planner product and 3% marketing it. I was spending 5% of the time building the product. I was spending 3% of the time marketing the product
  57. Arif has said LAAM has an algorithm that predicts which courier to use for each destination, such as Gujranwala. So hamara kya yeh algorithm hai that predicts which courier do we want to use for Gujranwala.
  58. Arif has said LAAM first served sellers through LAAM alone and now serves other businesses through Octane. Hum through pehle toh hum sirf Lam ke through kar rahe the ab hum Octane ke through aur business ke liye bhi kar rahe hain.
  59. Arif has said Octane is an early-stage product that has moved from alpha to beta. it's an early stage product isko hum abhi beta beta stage mein alpha stage se hum qualify karke beta mein aa chuke hain.
  60. Arif has said Octane has a pipeline of about 100 businesses and onboards 20 to 30 a month. we have a pipeline of let's say 100 plus businesses we bring in 20 30 every month.
  61. Arif has said LAAM expects to open Octane to a much bigger market in 2026. 2026 mein I think we will open it up for a lot lot bigger market.
  62. Arif has said he expects LAAM to need support for 4 to 5 million units once Octane opens widely. if we can support a million million and a half units we know ke the moment we open it up we will have to support 4 million 5 million units.
  63. Arif has said physical infrastructure takes longer to scale than technology. technology can scale much faster. There is some time that's needed for the physical infrastructure to scale out
  64. Arif has said he believes LAAM could become an organisation worth tens of billions of dollars. I truly believe we are can able to create an organization which could be worth tens of billions of dollars
  65. Arif has said he would like LAAM to have served hundreds of millions of customers globally. we can claim hundreds of millions of customer globally have been served through what we have built.
  66. Arif has said the Endeavor team contacted him early, when Endeavor was launching in Pakistan. Endeavor team reached out to me almost two and a half years ago jo bilkul early when they were launching in Pakistan.
  67. Arif has said he went through about 15 interviews to join Endeavor, five of them with unicorn founders. I had to go through 15 sort of interviews of sort with 15 different people and five of them were unicorn founders.
  68. Arif has said he attends two or three Endeavor gatherings each year. I try to make sure there are two or three gatherings where I go to every year.
  69. Arif has said Endeavor connected him to CXOs of four or five Middle East logistics companies within a week. in a week I was connected with the top CXOs of four or five top logistic companies in Middle East
  70. Arif has said an ex-CXO of Louis Vuitton Group, met through Endeavor, has since given him mentor sessions. wahan pe I met one of the CXOs of uh uh Louis Vuitton Group. Uh ex-CXO and she came to me and she told me how to build a great global fashion business and since then she has given me like multiple mentor sessions.
  71. Arif has said a board member of Endeavor Pakistan was one of the people who interviewed him. he uh Aaqib was one of the board board members of Endeavor Pakistan. So he was the one jo maine 15 logon ke interview kiye hain
  72. Arif has said that one of the people who interviewed him came in about a year and a half later and led LAAM's round. But he was one of the person who interviewed me and eventually one and a half year later down the road he was coming in and leading our round
  73. Arif has said Octane's businesses sell both locally and globally. Um so wohi yeh saare businesses jinki 100 plus ki maine baat ki jo octane pe hain, they are selling locally and globally.
  74. Arif has said LAAM is the largest e-commerce player in Pakistan's fashion market. Obviously we are the largest e-commerce player of local market as well fashion mein.
  75. Arif has said LAAM aims to minimise cost and pass savings on to consumers while keeping delivery within five days. We want to minimize the cost as much as possible and then pass it on to the consumers and that enables all of these businesses to grow.
  76. Arif has said China Post has helped Chinese businesses a lot. China Post has helped Chinese businesses a lot.
  77. Arif Iqbal spent about the first 24 years of his life in Lahore. Lahore. Takreeban pehle 24 saal Lahore hi guzre the.
  78. He attended a small private school from nursery to matric and spent 11 years at it. ek small private school mein jahan se maine nursery se leke matric tak kiya tha. To 11 saal ek hi school mein guzare the
  79. He completed FSC pre-engineering at Government College of Science, Wahdat Road, in Lahore. Maine ki thi ek Lahore mein Government College of Science, Wahdat Road ke upar. Wahan se maine FSC pre-engineering.
  80. He studied computer science as his undergraduate degree. Uske baad FSC, pre-engineering aur phir computer science mein undergrad.
  81. Friends recommended computer science to him, and he applied to FAST. kuch logon ne recommend kiya ke yaar computer science is a good field aur woh interesting lagi
  82. Getting into FAST was difficult at the time. It was pretty tough back then to get into FAST
  83. His FAST batch started with about 200 students, and about 140 graduated. mujhe yaad hai mera batch 200 ka start hua tha, shayad 140 graduate hue the
  84. He says FAST had a culture of assigning many projects. ek culture yeh tha ki they they would make you do a lot of projects
  85. He came to love core computer science courses, such as data structures and algorithms, in his third and fourth semesters. typical data structures, object-oriented programming, algorithms. To wahan mujhe yaad hai jab main third semester, fourth semester mein aaya to I started loving them.
  86. He spent four years at FAST, which he remembers as a fun, great experience. 4 saal was fun, great experience aur I look back at that time and FAST woh 2001 to 5 amazing faculty
  87. He graduated with a CGPA of 3.5. [Arif] Mera CGPA 3.5 tha.
  88. He says a good CGPA takes discipline. Ek to yeh acha CGPA lene ke liye you have to be disciplined.
  89. He says skill matters far more than CGPA when hiring. Chahe main Microsoft mein liye hon, Facebook mein liye hon ya LUMS mein liye hon. Aah, skill pe hai, 100%.
  90. He says he has interviewed graduates for 16 to 17 years and does not recall asking anyone for their CGPA. Main pichle 16-17 saal se interviews le raha hoon computer science graduates ke ya different graduates ke, mera nahi khayal aaj tak maine kisi se CGPA pucha hai ya CGPA dekha hai.
  91. His first job was at Warid Telecom, where he worked for about a year. Pehli job maine ki thi Warid Telecom mein. Acha. Yes. To maine, maine join kiya tha aah takreeban maine ek saal kaam kiya tha
  92. He did not find IT services work for outside clients exciting. Usmein mujhe aisa lag raha tha ke koi aap se bahar se kaam karwa raha hai aur woh hota hai na ek personal level pe aapko excite nahi karta.
  93. He chose Warid Telecom because he wanted to work for a company that was building its own systems. mujhe hua maine jis company ke liye kaam karna hai na woh apna kuch bana rahi hogi
  94. He says he became bored after six or seven months because the work felt too easy. main thoda sa 6-7 mahine baad bore ho gaya tha, theek thaak bore ho gaya tha, ke woh hota nahi ke koi aapko challenge nahi mil raha. It felt too easy.
  95. He then decided to start a company of his own. I decided ke aah want to do a startup
  96. His first startup aimed to connect people with similar mindsets. the idea was we will connect people with similar mindset
  97. The startup was a social network of sorts that matched people by their interests. A social network of sorts jo ke logon ke interest ko understand karke unko connect karega.
  98. The startup asked users to install a browser plugin so it could learn their interests. hum aapke browser mein kahenge aap ek plugin install karein
  99. The startup had a team of about five or six people. Toh hum paanch che ladkon ki team thi, humne milke is tarah ki cheez banayi.
  100. The startup reached roughly 60,000 to 70,000 users. hamare saath 60-70 hazaar users bhi ho gaye
  101. The startup later ran out of money. Lekin phir jab bilkul hi halaat aise ho gaye, paisa bilkul nahi hai.
  102. He learned information retrieval and machine learning while building the startup. Information retrieval padhne ke baad pata laga ki machine learning bhi duniya mein cheez hoti hai
  103. In 2007 Arif was on the LUMS campus when Google came to recruit. 2007 mein na main LUMS ke campus mein tha ki ek dum se aaya ki Google is coming.
  104. He did not get in at Google. Toh wahan se phir mujhe I did not get in.
  105. He says math mattered a lot for backend roles at Google's Zurich campus. jis tarah for example jo Google ka Zurich ka campus tha, uske andar bahut zyada back end pe jin cheezon pe kaam kar raha tha, unmein math bahut important tha un logon ke liye.
  106. He says math is not important for every role. Not true for every role, jis tarah uske baad maine zindagi mein kuch aisi cheezin ki thi jahan pe mujhe jaake khud pata laga tha yeh kitna important hai.
  107. He says MIT's open courseware gave him access to full courses, which he treated as a major learning opportunity. mere liye toh zindagi ki sabse badi learning opportunity yeh thi ki MIT ke aap saare courses le sakte ho
  108. He joined Microsoft's Bing AI and machine learning relevance team. ek infra team hai aur ek ek AI, ML relevance ki team thi. Right. So I joined that team.
  109. He passed a telephone interview with Microsoft and was invited to Dubai for interviews. woh telephonic interview clear ho gaya toh unhone wahi Dubai bula liya
  110. Microsoft sent him to Canada after he joined, because a US visa did not come through. mera Vancouver mein Microsoft mein hone ke baad US ka visa nahi laga toh unhone Canada bhej diya tha
  111. He worked in Vancouver for about 15 months before transferring. Takreeban 15 months. Acha. Relatively early ho gaya.
  112. He moved to Seattle in early 2010. Aur phir 2010 mein, early 2010 mein I moved to Seattle.
  113. He worked on Bing for about four years. Maine takreeban chaar saal kaam kiya.
  114. On Bing he worked on a team behind auto-suggest. ek toh meri team woh wali thi jisme aap jab Bing mein jaa ke koi type karte hain toh neeche suggestions aati hain jisko hum log auto-suggest kehte hain
  115. He left Bing and joined eBay. Uske baad phir maine, I joined eBay.
  116. At eBay he joined a new team building intelligence from scratch, along with seven to nine people from Bing. Toh hum koi saat, aath, nau log the jinhone Bing se join kar ke phir woh build kiya
  117. He says eBay had little AI or machine learning when he joined. Koi AI, koi machine learning, koi data-driven cheezein nahi ho rahi thi
  118. He says his team's intelligence work grew eBay's GMV by multiple digits within six months. pehle 6 mahine mein humne multiple digits of GMV grow kar diya tha
  119. He says the team grew from five or seven people to more than 300 by the time he left. Toh hum paanch, saat logon ki team ne grow kar ke hum jab maine chhoda hai hum 300 plus log the.
  120. He worked at eBay for about two and a half years. Taqreeban two and a half years.
  121. He says eBay's CEO, who had strongly supported the team, also changed. inke CEO jo hamein bahut zyada support karte the woh bhi change ho gaye the
  122. He says the team did not know how much eBay would invest in intelligence. Toh hamein yeh bhi nahi pata tha ke intelligence pe kitni investment honi hai, nahi honi hai
  123. For three to four years he had wanted to join a startup, and saw it as the next step after big tech. mere zehn mein yeh chal raha tha yaar main startup karta tha, startup mein jaana hai
  124. At Pinterest he joined a new team to build the ads infrastructure and relevance. Toh hume poori ads ka infrastructure, relevance, sab kuch khada karna hai.
  125. Pinterest wanted only senior people for the new ads team. they were looking only for senior people
  126. Pinterest had told him it planned an IPO within two years. unhone kaha tha yaar hamara vision hai ke humne do saal mein IPO kar lena hai
  127. He says one reason he left Pinterest was that the IPO was delayed by about four years. Toh that was also one of the reasons I went out of Pinterest. Kyunki mujhe pata lag gaya tha ke yaar yeh toh inhone plan kar diya char saal tak IPO nahi ho raha
  128. He moved from Seattle to San Francisco for the Pinterest role. Toh woh aur main move bhi ho gaya tha San Francisco.
  129. He found the move to a big city overwhelming. thoda sa city mein jaana aur woh overwhelming from that perspective hona
  130. He joined Facebook in 2016. Phir I joined them in 2016.
  131. He joined Facebook again as an individual contributor, working as a software engineer. I joined in again as an IC as a software engineer
  132. At Facebook he joined the relevance organisation. maine wahan pe unki join ki thi jo relevance org thi
  133. He estimates Facebook had roughly 5,000 to 6,000 engineers when he joined. Jab maine Facebook join kiya tha na toh I think we were around Facebook mein 6000 engineers, 5-6000 engineers us time the roughly
  134. He moved back to Seattle, where the family had good memories. Toh we had good memories of Seattle toh I moved back to Seattle.
  135. He left Facebook in January 2021. Facebook maine quit kiya tha Jan 2021 mein.
  136. He left Facebook to start a company in Pakistan's fashion space. Pakistan ke andar fashion, hamari South Asian fashion industry mein bahut opportunity hai
  137. He says some of his family members were in the fashion industry, which kept the idea on his mind. my some of my family members were in this industry
  138. He married in 2011. Meri shaadi hui thi 2011.
  139. He had a daughter who was about one and a half years old when the family moved to San Francisco. Meri ek beti thi jo hum San Francisco move hue hain. She was one and a half years old.
  140. His younger brother spent about a decade in the fashion industry. woh takreeban ek decade fashion industry mein guzar chuka hua tha
  141. His wife ran her own fashion brand. meri jo apni wife hain, woh bhi apna ek fashion brand run kar rahi thi
  142. He relocated to Pakistan with his family. you've relocated to Pakistan as well with family? With family.
  143. He says LAAM's vision is to digitise the South Asian fashion economy. ki fashion jo South Asian fashion hai na iski economy ko hum digitize karna chahte hain
  144. He says LAAM wants consumers to discover and reliably buy South Asian fashion. we really want them to be able to discover and reliably buy our fashion
  145. He says LAAM wants businesses to focus on their strengths. we really want businesses to focus on their strength
  146. He says LAAM has shipped Pakistani products to more than 100 countries in the last 12 months. we have shipped it to 100 plus countries
  147. He says LAAM ships to more than 7,500 cities. Uh 7500 plus cities in the world.
  148. He describes LAAM as the largest global consumer shipment company out of Pakistan. we are the largest uh global consumer shipment company out of Pakistan
  149. He says LAAM has empowered more than 1,000 businesses to go digital. Humne 1000 se zyada businesses ko empower kiya hai to go digital.
  150. He says LAAM's South Asian fashion catalogue has about 125,000 products. Hamare paas 125,000 product hain jo ke with data attributed hain
  151. He says LAAM has created more than 10,000 direct jobs for its partner businesses. we have created more than 10,000 direct employment for them
  152. He says LAAM has about 220 full-time staff. Hamari FTE takreeban is time 220 hain.
  153. He says LAAM also works with about 60 to 70 contractors. Aur hamare paas jo contractors hain, woh bhi takreeban 60-70 ke qareeb hain
  154. He says LAAM's head office is in Lahore. Hamare paas jo uh, jo head office hai woh Lahore hai.
  155. He says LAAM has a small operations team in Karachi. Jo hamare paas operation ki ek small team hai Karachi mein.
  156. He says LAAM stopped burning cash this year and is now sustainable. based on this year we are not burning money anymore
  157. He says LAAM hosts inventory for about 1,000 businesses and ships it worldwide in real time. usmein hum is time 1000 businesses ke inventory host kar rahe hain jo real time mein puri duniya mein ship ho rahi hai
  158. He says bulk shipping cut LAAM's rates by 30 to 40 percent. humne usko 30-40% kam kar liya bulk ko karke
  159. He says LAAM may launch its own basics line in three or four years. maybe three four years later we'll launch our basics line
  160. He says LAAM is not manufacturing its own products now, because it has other work to do. we don't want to be doing that because is time I think ke we have a lot of other work to do
  161. He says a core team of 20 to 30 people runs LAAM, not him alone. Woh 20-30 logon ki core teams hain jo run kar rahi hain
  162. He says LUMS and IBA graduates stood out in LAAM's business teams. Lums and IBA really stood out.
  163. He estimates about 95 percent of LAAM's product engineering team came from FAST. engineering mein I think 95% is fast, engineering product pure mein
  164. He says stability is the most important need for a business in Pakistan. as a business to sabse zyada aapke liye important yeh hota hai ki there should be some stability
  165. He lists political stability, currency stability and a positive public mindset as missing in Pakistan. political stability keh lo, currency stability keh lo, uh logon ki positive mindset ki stability keh lo, woh saari missing hai
  166. He says many startups die in a downturn, and the fluff goes first. bahut saari startups jab bhi down wave aati hai na to they die. The fluff dies essentially.
  167. He says startup failures often come from the operations team more than from the founder. startups ka failure has been the operations team, less the founder
  168. He says Shein's manufacturing network can take a concept to production in three to four days. from a concept to something coming out of production is like 3-4 days
  169. He says fashion technology has not yet truly evolved. jo fashion tech hai, uski abhi true evolution hui hi nahi hai
  170. He once ran a small business making Made in Pakistan paper planners. We used to do made in Pakistan paper planners
  171. He says logistics costs left his planner business with almost no margin. Mera koi margin hi nahi bach raha.
  172. He says small package exports from Pakistan have long been a problem. small package exports has generally been a sore point
  173. He says local logistics in Pakistan has been a disappointment. local Pakistan ki logistics has been a disappointment in my opinion
  174. He says Careem created a bubble in Pakistan's startup ecosystem. Careem ne even yahan ke ecosystem mein woh bubble create kiya
  175. He says he personally interviewed about a thousand people for Facebook, Pinterest and eBay. main ne taqreeban hazaar banda hire kiya hai Facebook, Pinterest, eBay mein khud interview kar ke
  176. He says FAST graduates of his time were mainly engineers, while LUMS graduates often moved into product management. Fastians were just engineers. Um and then LUMS wale jo the woh product management mein nikal jaate the
  177. He says FAST did not have a culture of students contributing to society through projects beyond computer science. kyunki FAST mein un conversations hui nahi hoti hain. Itna zyada yeh bhi culture nahi hai ki log societies mein contribute karenge, koi projects is tarah ke thode out of the computer science jaake kar rahe honge
  178. Arif Iqbal is the Co-Founder and CEO of LAAM. Arif Iqbal is the Co-Founder and CEO of LAAM.
  179. He worked at Microsoft. 21:40 Joining Microsoft
  180. He worked at Bing for four years. 51:09 4 Years in Bing
  181. He worked at Pinterest. Switching to Pinterest
  182. He worked at Facebook. Joining Facebook & How It Went?