Izzah Zaman and Neelam Shreyas

Early life and background

Zaman was born in Kahuta. She grew up in an Air Force family and did not stay in one place. Her schooling began in Abu Dhabi and continued in Sargodha, Shorkot and Murree. [1]

Neelam was born in Quetta, Balochistan, and grew up in a military family. Her family moved from Malir to Gujranwala, Bahawalpur and England, and last to Pindi. She had 47 rabbits as companions while growing up, and she has said she has enjoyed chess since childhood. Her eldest brother is a software engineer, which gave her some idea of the field. [1]

Education

Zaman did her matric and FSc in Kahuta. Her parents thought architecture was a dream profession for a girl. She applied to FAST and GIKI and was not admitted to GIKI. She sat the NUST entry test again and earned her bachelor's degree in software engineering from NUST. Her master's is interdisciplinary, covering data analytics, public policy and management. [1]

Neelam's schooling was mostly at Beaconhouse, and she went back to an army school for FSc. She chose pre-engineering for FSc because she loved maths. She enrolled in architecture. She received a Fulbright scholarship for her master's, which is in systems engineering with a sub-specialty in cognitive systems. [1]

Zaman and Neelam did many projects together and graduated in 2017. [1]

Career

After graduating, Zaman rested for three or four months. She then joined Teradata as a graduate trainee and worked in the managed services team. [1]

Neelam applied to several companies, Zong among them, and joined Zong as a graduate trainee officer. She worked on mobile financial services as a developer. She says she realised she was not suited to corporate work, and she quit Zong because her classes were in the afternoon. She says she spent almost a year at Zong before moving to Jazz. [1]

Shadiyana

Zaman and Neelam worked full time on Shadiyana from fall 2021, and both are co-founders. Zaman is the chief executive officer and Neelam is the chief operating officer. They handle the chief technology officer role themselves. Neelam leads marketing and Zaman leads sales, though both share the work. [1]

Shadiyana is a website that lists photographers, makeup artists and wedding venues on one platform. It lists deals that vendors do not offer anywhere else. The co-founders say customers who use the site often book all three vendor types. Shadiyana does not yet take bookings through its platform, and the co-founders want to add bookings at some point. It plans to add caterers, decor and henna artists soon, and it has not pivoted since it started. [1]

Shadiyana does not charge the couples planning weddings; it charges vendors. Vendors pay a fixed monthly subscription, like Netflix, and subscriptions range from 500 to 20,000 rupees a month. Wedding venues pay 10,000 rupees a month on the basic plan and 20,000 on premium. Zaman says the fixed price does not depend on how many clients a vendor gets. The co-founders say Shadiyana already generates revenue. [1]

Around 35,000 users have visited Shadiyana's website so far, and the average visitor session is about three minutes. Its active marketing is only in Islamabad for now, and Lahore is the next city the co-founders plan to target. Shadiyana is incubated at the National Incubation Center, and its incubation cycle started in January. [1]

Shadiyana is currently self-funded, and the co-founders are spending their own money to run the business. They are thinking about funding in the next few months. They say that while people are paying them, they must keep the service running. [1]

Views

Zaman says her strengths have always been maths and technical subjects, and that coding feels easy to her. Neelam says the women who rise are the ones with a bigger vision. Zaman hopes that in 30 years people will say entrepreneurs, not female entrepreneurs. [1]

Zaman says COVID has pushed many people toward buying things online. She sees a flaw in commission models: customers and vendors can deal directly. She says Shadiyana will add other business models over time. She says the biggest reason startups fail is trying to target too many segments at once, and that the same services could also serve birthdays, but the co-founders wanted a wedding identity established first. [1]

Timeline

2017

Zaman and Neelam graduated.[1]

2021

Zaman and Neelam began working full time on Shadiyana in the fall.[1]

2021

Shadiyana went live on 8 October.[1]

Appearances

References

1. The startup trying to plan your wedding in three minutes . Thought Behind Things , 2022-04-11.