Asad Mehmood
UI/UX designer and agency owner
Compiled from 1 recorded interview. Every statement below is drawn from the passage cited beside it.
Asad Mehmood is a UI/UX designer who landed a full-time job at the open-source company Mattermost right out of his O levels and runs his own agency. He is an expert vetted talent on Upwork, where he says he has earned 1.8 million dollars. He says he may be the first Pakistani on Upwork to hit a million dollars.
Early life and education
Mehmood started working soon after his O levels, because his family's financial situation meant he could not pursue his career further. He has a bachelor's degree. [1]
Mattermost
Mehmood got his job at Mattermost before he had A levels. He worked full time at Mattermost. He says he first went to the US only recently, after perhaps 10 or 11 years of working at Mattermost. He says many people who contributed to Mattermost's open-source project later joined the company. [1]
Design work and teaching
Mehmood has a YouTube channel, and people come to him for design work through it. He says he has done a lot of remote work and is comfortable not charging clients by the hour. He teaches Pakistanis and people from other regions in the design industry. [1]
He says he has built connections with top designers, and they have been very helpful. He says he had few followers when he started building those connections. [1]
Agency
Mehmood says he considered setting up an agency as a way to serve clients without losing them while he worked full time. He says his agency tries to work at an international level. He lets his employees do freelance work of their own. He says people in his agency hold master's degrees. [1]
He says most of his agency's client relationships last for years, and the agency does not take on many clients. He says he treats agency clients as partners, not as ordinary clients. He describes his business as a service business that gives clients value rather than extracting it. He says a service provider is there in the long term to make clients successful. [1]
He says he is slowly trying to build a customer-focused culture in his agency. He says an agency owner carries a lot of responsibility as the face of the agency. [1]
Mehmood says AI now builds the landing pages his agency used to make for clients. He says the kind of jobs his agency used to get have become less frequent. He says his agency recently worked with about three clients who had built products and needed help launching them. He says some of those clients' products had reliability, performance and security problems, and his agency took ownership of them. He says he is not looking to improve landing pages and wants long-term contracts with SaaS companies. [1]
Finding clients
Mehmood says his main sources of business are his YouTube channel, partnerships and referrals. He says people come to him through LinkedIn, YouTube and referrals. He says he has built a persona around himself, and clients keep coming back to him. [1]
He says his focus has moved more towards LinkedIn. He says his ideal clients, Series A and Series B founders, are not on Upwork. He says he relies less on cold outreach than on inbound work, referrals and building a network. He says he does not sell to a prospect right away and first builds credibility over several contacts. [1]
Views
Mehmood says building a product is no longer hard, because everyone is building one. He says work has to be outcome driven, because clients can now create things themselves. He expects the security and performance problems of AI-built products to improve. He says many people are sceptical that AI can produce good work. He says he asked other people to compare two outputs side by side, and the ChatGPT output was judged better. [1]
He says opportunities are emerging that people did not know about before. He advises designers to learn new tools and AI rather than only thinking of themselves as designers. He says people should look at the world as it is, not as they think it is. He says expertise, selling yourself and making a real impact are enough. [1]
On visibility, Mehmood says the first thing he would do is build an evidence trail. He says it does not matter if your work is not yet good; you should still post it. He says building a community matters more than posting. He advises posting at least one or two times a day. He says he has seen people get jobs at large corporations once they become visible. [1]
Appearances
| Date | Title | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-06-09 | How Asad Mehmood landed Mattermost from Pakistan before A levels | Thought Behind Things |
Frequently asked questions
Who is Asad Mehmood?
Asad Mehmood is a UI/UX designer who runs his own agency, which he describes as very small. He landed a full-time job at Mattermost, a major open-source company, right out of his O levels. He is also an expert vetted talent on Upwork.[1]
What does Asad Mehmood do?
Asad Mehmood is a UI/UX designer and runs his own agency. He says he has done a lot of remote work. He also teaches Pakistanis and people from other regions in the design industry.[1]
Where has Asad Mehmood worked?
Asad Mehmood landed a full-time job at Mattermost, a major open-source company, right out of his O levels. He worked full time at Mattermost. He also runs his own agency.[1]
Is Asad Mehmood on Upwork?
Asad Mehmood is an expert vetted talent on Upwork. He says he has earned 1.8 million dollars there. He says he may be the first Pakistani on Upwork to hit a million dollars.[1]
How does Asad Mehmood find clients?
Asad Mehmood says his main sources of business are his YouTube channel, partnerships and referrals. He says he relies less on cold outreach than on inbound work, referrals and building a network. He says his focus has moved more towards LinkedIn.[1]
What is Asad Mehmood's two-engine framework?
Asad Mehmood's framework has two engines: being undeniably good and becoming visible. He says becoming undeniably good means studying the leaders in your space and the level of work they do.[1]
References
- How Asad Mehmood landed Mattermost from Pakistan before A levels . Thought Behind Things , 2026-06-09.
Show the source passages (60 statements)
- Asad Mehmood started working soon after his O levels, because his family's financial situation meant he could not pursue his career further.
jab maine O level kiya tha usi ke baad se maine kaam shuru kar diya tha because meri jo financial situation thi hamari family ki woh aisi nahi thi ke main aage jaake careers apna zyada pursue kar sakoon
- Asad Mehmood got his job at Mattermost before he had A levels.
Jab mere paas A levels bhi nahi tha tab hi meri ye Mattermost ki actual job lag gayi thi
- Asad Mehmood landed a full-time job at Mattermost, a major open-source company, right out of his O levels.
landing a full-time job at a major open-source company (Mattermost) right out of O-levels
- Asad Mehmood worked full time at Mattermost.
kyunki jab main Mattermost mein gaya obviously I have to serve full time there
- Asad Mehmood says he first went to the US only recently, after perhaps 10 or 11 years of working at Mattermost.
Mattermost mein maine itna kaam kiya lekin abhi recently shayad 10 saal ke baad ya 11 saal ke baad main US gaya hoon usse pehle main aaj tak US nahi gaya
- Asad Mehmood is an expert vetted talent on Upwork.
I am an expert vetted talent on Upwork.
- Asad Mehmood says he may be the first Pakistani on Upwork to hit a million dollars.
I may actually be the first Pakistani on Upwork that has hit a million dollars.
- Asad Mehmood says he has earned 1.8 million dollars on Upwork.
I've earned over a million dollars, 1.8 million dollars there
- Asad Mehmood is a UI/UX designer.
a UI/UX designer and expert vetted Upwork talent
- Asad Mehmood runs his own agency, which he describes as very small.
it's very hard to find talented individuals. Isi liye meri agency bahut small hai.
- Asad Mehmood says he considered setting up an agency as a way to serve clients without losing them while he worked full time.
obviously I'm working full time. How can I actually service them without necessarily losing them? Toh phir maine socha kyun na ek agency bana li jaye
- Asad Mehmood says people come to him through LinkedIn, YouTube and referrals.
bahut saare log alag alag channel se LinkedIn se YouTube se referrals purane log ab aate hain mere paas
- Asad Mehmood says he has built a persona around himself, and clients keep coming back to him.
I also have to again serve some of the clients that keep on coming back to me because I build a persona around myself.
- Asad Mehmood has a YouTube channel, and people come to him for design work through it.
I obviously have a YouTube channel as well so a lot of people come to me in terms of anything that really that they want in terms of design.
- Asad Mehmood says he has done a lot of remote work and is comfortable not charging clients by the hour.
kyunki maine remotely bahut kaam kiya hai and I am very comfortable in terms of again not necessarily just charging people hours
- Asad Mehmood lets his employees do freelance work of their own.
Maine apne freelancers apne jo employees hain unko bhi allow kiya ke woh freelancing karein.
- Asad Mehmood says his agency tries to work at an international level.
Matlab hum log jis level pe kaam kar rahe hain na hum log international level pe kaam karne ki koshish kar rahe hain aur bahut had tak us level pe kaam kar rahe hain.
- Asad Mehmood teaches Pakistanis and people from other regions in the design industry.
kyunki main is industry mein obviously Pakistanion ko aur doosre region ke logon ko sikha raha hota hoon
- Asad Mehmood says he has built connections with top designers, and they have been very helpful.
Duniya ke best designers se connection banata hoon and they're very helpful.
- Asad Mehmood says he had few followers when he started building those connections.
Meri koi bahut zyada us waqt following nahi thi when I actually started building connections with these people.
- Asad Mehmood says his main sources of business are his YouTube channel, partnerships and referrals.
Toh mera jo YouTube channel hai, meri jo partnerships hain, mere jo referrals hain
- Asad Mehmood calls himself an introvert but says he has to be outgoing to bring business.
even though main apne aap ko introvert hi kahunga but I have to be outgoing to actually bring business
- Asad Mehmood believes that being present in person speaks for a person.
Mujhe personally lagta hai ke if you actually are present somewhere, your presence speaks a lot.
- Asad Mehmood says he relies less on cold outreach than on inbound work, referrals and building a network.
Toh main zyada cold outreach pe itna rely nahi karta jitna main zyada thoda inbound ke upar aur building connections, building referrals, building a network usse clients laane pe karta hoon.
- Asad Mehmood says his ideal clients, Series A and Series B founders, are not on Upwork.
Ab meri jo ICPs hain, woh Upwork pe nahi baithe hue. Series A aur Series B ke founders Upwork pe nahi baithe hue.
- Asad Mehmood says his focus has moved more towards LinkedIn.
so my focus has changed more towards LinkedIn.
- Asad Mehmood says AI now builds the landing pages his agency used to make for clients.
Log hamare paas aate the landing pages banwane. Ab wo landing pages actually AI se banwa rahe hain.
- Asad Mehmood says his agency recently worked with about three clients who had built products and needed help launching them.
abhi takriban teen clients ke liye jo humne recently kaam kiya hai wo ye hai ke un logon ne product bana liya hai ya for example kuch bana rahe honge. Ab unko hamari madad chahiye us product ko launch karne mein.
- Asad Mehmood says some of those clients' products had reliability, performance and security problems, and his agency took ownership of them.
their application was not reliable, it had a lot of performance issues, it had a lot of security issues. Then we basically took that, we took ownership of that
- Asad Mehmood expects the security and performance problems of AI-built products to improve.
Abhi jo security issues hain obviously they're gonna get better. Abhi jo performance issues hain obviously AI is gonna develop much much better to reduce these performance issues as well.
- Asad Mehmood says building a product is no longer hard, because everyone is building one.
Ab product banana badi baat nahi hai, product har koi bana raha hai.
- Asad Mehmood says work has to be outcome driven, because clients can now create things themselves.
it has to be outcome driven because they themselves can create something.
- Asad Mehmood says he is not looking to improve landing pages and wants long-term contracts with SaaS companies.
I'm not looking for improving the landing page. I'm actually looking for a long term contract with them to actually improve their SaaS product.
- Asad Mehmood says he does not sell to a prospect right away and first builds credibility over several contacts.
I have to be seen multiple times, I have to develop credibility. Once I do that, they're interested in the conversation, then they start following me. I'm not looking to sell to them right then and there.
- Asad Mehmood says most of his agency's client relationships last for years, and the agency does not take on many clients.
Zyada tar hamare clients ke relationship bahut lambe lambe hote hain, saalon saalon ke hote hain because aur hum log bahut zyada clients bhi lete bhi nahi hain.
- Asad Mehmood says he treats agency clients as partners, not as ordinary clients.
Toh wo meri agency ke clients ko just normal clients ki tarah treat kar rahe hain. I actually treat them as partners.
- Asad Mehmood describes his business as a service business that gives clients value rather than extracting it.
It's a service based business. You're serving them based on their needs, on their problems and you're actually giving them something of value rather than actually extracting value out of them.
- Asad Mehmood says a service provider is there in the long term to make clients successful.
You're there in the long term to make them successful.
- Asad Mehmood says he is slowly trying to build a customer-focused culture in his agency.
abhi ye main aahista aahista ek culture inculcate karne ki koshish kar raha hun apni agency ke andar
- Asad Mehmood says an agency owner carries a lot of responsibility as the face of the agency.
When you're owning the agency, you obviously have a lot of responsibility, you obviously are the face of the agency.
- Asad Mehmood says opportunities are emerging that people did not know about before.
There are opportunities emerging that we did not even know about.
- Asad Mehmood advises designers to learn new tools and AI rather than only thinking of themselves as designers.
Learn Claude, learn how to create workflows, learn learn how to create systems, leverage this particular technology rather than just thinking about being designers
- Asad Mehmood says he asked other people to compare two outputs side by side, and the ChatGPT output was judged better.
Maine doosre logon ko bulaya. Maine bola idhar compare karna side by side aur batana kaun sa behtar hai. ChatGPT ka behtar tha.
- Asad Mehmood says many people are sceptical that AI can produce good work.
Bahut saare logon mein ek skepticism hai ke nahi yaar AI achchi nahi ho sakti.
- Asad Mehmood says people should look at the world as it is, not as they think it is.
You have to start fresh and you have to look at what the world is for what it is rather than what you think it is.
- Asad Mehmood says a claim of expertise needs proof behind it.
Aapka kuch proof toh hona chahiye ke you are what you say you are.
- Asad Mehmood's framework has two engines: being undeniably good and becoming visible.
Ek toh engine hai you have to be undeniably good and the second one is becoming visible.
- Asad Mehmood says becoming undeniably good means studying the leaders in your space and the level of work they do.
You have to actually check out some of the leaders in this space and the level of work that they're doing.
- Asad Mehmood says that to compete with the best, you should study the best outputs in the market and find out who is behind them.
if you really want to compete with some of the best then you have to look at some of the best outputs in the market and then see who's behind them
- Asad Mehmood advises filling your daily environment with strong work and trying to recreate it.
What you have to do next is fill your environment with this great work. You have to see that again and again daily to develop an innate understanding of their particular work.
- Asad Mehmood says the first thing he would do is build an evidence trail.
The first thing is I would actually build the evidence trail.
- Asad Mehmood says it does not matter if your work is not yet good; you should still post it.
It doesn't matter ke wo kaam abhi thoda sa kachra hai ya kitna bura hai ya kya hai.
- Asad Mehmood says building a community matters more than posting.
Aur posting se zyada aapne ek community build karni hai.
- Asad Mehmood advises posting at least one or two times a day.
Aapne har din kam se kam ek post, do post karni hai chahe wo choti se nuggets hon.
- Asad Mehmood says he has seen people get jobs at large corporations once they become visible.
I've seen how people actually get jobs in these large corporations. You have to become visible.
- Asad Mehmood says many people who contributed to Mattermost's open-source project later joined the company.
like Mattermost was an open source project. A lot of the people who started contributing on that project actually ended up as employers, as employees in that particular organization.
- Asad Mehmood has a bachelor's degree.
Mere paas abhi bachelors hai kyunki maine bachelors kar liya tha
- Asad Mehmood says people in his agency hold master's degrees.
I had people in my agency and I have them right now as well jo masters hain.
- Asad Mehmood says expertise, selling yourself and making a real impact are enough.
If you know your if you know if you have your expertise, if you know how to sell yourself, if you know how to make an actual impact in the space that you're in that's sufficient.
- Asad Mehmood says the kind of jobs his agency used to get have become less frequent.
ke is tarah ki jobs aana kam ho chuki hain and that is a reality that we have to face