Mutaher Khan

founder of Data Darbar

Compiled from 1 recorded interview. Every statement below is drawn from the passage cited beside it.

Mutaher Khan is the founder of Data Darbar and a business columnist. He says he started Data Darbar and later moved into the digital economy and financial services. He has spoken about the startup sector, venture capital, business media and artificial intelligence.

Education

Khan attended university. Recalling that period, he has said that journalism seemed to be more about sharing opinions than reporting. [1]

Data Darbar

Khan says he started Data Darbar and then moved into the digital economy and financial services. He has said that startups did not represent a large enough segment, as a market or in terms of consumers and business. He has also said that Data Darbar faces the problem of deciding which country to classify funding under in its reports. [1]

He has said that Claude helps with analytics and data pipelines. He has also said he began interacting with and covering VCs about nine to ten years ago. [1]

Personal branding

Khan offers a personal branding consultancy. He says he has helped more than 500 thought leaders, professionals, founders and business leaders with personal branding over five years. He has said that the people he helped generated over $50 million in value. He has also said it is increasingly important for people to build authentic, human personal brands. [1]

Views on startups and venture capital

Khan has said that the startup space has become practically meaningless. He has said that, measured by employees and revenues, startups have never been big, and that the space is much smaller but also far more talked about. He has said startups have always been sexier than service businesses, which gets them press. In his view, a company without a $5 million or $10 million round struggles to get placed in international publications. [1]

He has said that venture capital has always been outrageous in its expectations. He has said that investors set expectations and that startups followed them to some extent, and that Pakistan's startup scene has been an investor market, not a founder market. He has also said that more than half of global VC funding now goes to AI. [1]

Khan has said that VCs are part of the problem and that their ideas and expectations do not suit Pakistan. He has described VCs as a major part of the problem, and has said they would tell founders that an idea was bad and ask how they would scale it. He has said that Careem showed that a little effort could make someone a millionaire, and that everyone then went that way. [1]

Views on the economy

Khan has said that the last seven to eight years may be the longest stretch of economic turbulence in Pakistan. He has said that busts have grown longer while booms have grown shorter. He has said that Pakistan looked to India's example when thinking about its historical pathway to growth, and that there has been some effort to move towards exports. [1]

He feels that Pakistan's entrepreneurship culture has improved considerably, and has said that anyone starting a business needs a certain level of optimism. He has described Vietnam as one of the biggest success stories of the 21st century and has said that it can take moments to change one's trajectory. [1]

He has said that an obsession with country-specific revenue is the wrong way to think about it. He has said that companies have shell companies all over the world that cannot really be addressed, and that the connection to Pakistan and its history has been very clear. [1]

Views on business media

Khan has said that business media is still pretty much non-existent and that there is hardly any business story, with perhaps Profit as the exception. He has said that people want to read stories, not always numbers, and that the media is not strong enough to pick up people early. He has also said there is incredible opportunity for people who create quality content. [1]

He has said that business journalism has never been attractive and that its pipeline has been very weak historically. He has said there have been some very good reporters and that he knows a few, but that reporting itself was never that strong. In his view, trying to optimise for opinions rather than original reporting is a problem, and reporting itself is not sexy enough. [1]

Khan has said that the concept of a reporter does not exist on the web. He describes reporting as going out, speaking to eight people and finding one useful detail. [1]

Views on AI and professional services

Khan has said that AI gets most tasks to about 80 percent, and that the real value is in the remaining 20 percent. He has asked whether there are enough people with the right expertise. He has said that Pakistan has the skill set for lawyers, but perhaps not for management consultants. [1]

He has said that in regulated fields AI cannot fully automate the work, so a human layer is needed. He has said that for a lawyer, legal position can matter more than the advice itself, and that accountants and auditors still need an official stamp. He has said that firms that meet licensing requirements in several jurisdictions have an interesting opportunity, and that one can buy AI companies and move into infrastructure or the application layer without building everything from scratch. [1]

Appearances

DateTitleWhere
2026-05-15 Pakistan's startup space has become practically meaningless Thought Behind Things

Frequently asked questions

Who is Mutaher Khan?

Mutaher Khan is the founder of Data Darbar and a business columnist. He says he started Data Darbar and later moved into the digital economy and financial services.[1]

What does Mutaher Khan do?

Mutaher Khan is a business columnist and the founder of Data Darbar. He also offers a personal branding consultancy. He says he has helped more than 500 thought leaders, professionals, founders and business leaders with personal branding over five years.[1]

What company did Mutaher Khan found?

Mutaher Khan founded Data Darbar. He says it moved into the digital economy and financial services. He has also said that Data Darbar faces the problem of deciding which country to classify funding under in its reports.[1]

What does Mutaher Khan think about venture capital?

Mutaher Khan has said that VCs are part of the problem and that their ideas and expectations do not suit Pakistan. He has said that Pakistan's startup scene has been an investor market, not a founder market. He has also said that VCs would tell founders that an idea was bad and ask how they would scale it.[1]

What does Mutaher Khan say about AI and professional services?

Mutaher Khan has said that AI gets most tasks to about 80 percent, and that the real value is in the remaining 20 percent. He has said that in regulated fields AI cannot fully automate the work, so a human layer is needed. He has also said that accountants and auditors still need an official stamp.[1]

What does Mutaher Khan say about business journalism?

Mutaher Khan has said that business journalism has never been attractive and that its pipeline has been very weak historically. He has also said that business media is still pretty much non-existent. He has said there is incredible opportunity for people who create quality content.[1]

References

  1. Pakistan's startup space has become practically meaningless . Thought Behind Things , 2026-05-15.
Show the source passages (62 statements)
  1. Mutaher Khan is the founder of Data Darbar. sits down with Mutaher Khan, founder of Data Darbar and business columnist
  2. Mutaher Khan is a business columnist. sits down with Mutaher Khan, founder of Data Darbar and business columnist
  3. Mutaher Khan says he started Data Darbar, then moved into digital economy and financial services. I started Data Darbar to do this and then eventually we had to, uh, do digital economy and financial services at large
  4. He says startups did not represent a large enough segment, as a market or in terms of consumers and business. we did not think ke startups represented a large enough segment, uh, both as a market, both in terms of consumers and business
  5. He says the startup space has become practically meaningless. woh practically ab meaningless ho gayi hai
  6. He says startups have never been big, measured by employees and revenues. I would think about employees, I would think about revenues. Uh, in both metrics, the startups were not that big and have never been big.
  7. He says the startup space is much smaller but also far more talked about. much, much, much smaller but also far more talked about space, which is the startup space
  8. He says startups have always been sexier than service businesses, which gets them press. startups have always been sexier than a service business. And that, that gets, that gets them the press
  9. He says a company without a $5 million or $10 million round struggles to get placed in international publications. aur unko kisi international publication mein lagani hogi, good luck if you, if your company doesn't have any $5 million round or $10 million round
  10. He says the last seven to eight years may be the longest stretch of economic turbulence in Pakistan. Pakistan ke pichle saat-aath saal jo economy ke rahe hain, I think might be the longest stretch of turbulence
  11. He says busts have grown longer while booms have grown shorter. bust, bust lamba hota gaya hai, boom chota hota gaya hai
  12. He says VC has always been outrageous in its expectations. considering that VC in general has always been outrageous in the expectations
  13. He says investors set expectations and startups followed them to some extent. Investors were setting the expectations, startups were to an extent following them
  14. He says Pakistan's startup scene has been an investor market, not a founder market. It was and it is to a large extent in Pakistan, unfortunately, an investor market, not a founder market
  15. He says more than half of global VC funding now goes to AI. 50% plus of all VC funding right now globally is going to AI
  16. He says VCs are part of the problem, and their ideas and expectations do not suit Pakistan. part of the problem is also VC in general, ke their ideas are very strange. And their expectations are even stranger, which do not add up in Pakistan
  17. He says VCs were a major part of the problem. the VCs were part of the, were a major part of the problem, I would argue
  18. He says VCs would tell founders that an idea was bad and ask how they would scale it. Lekin woh aapko aake VC kehta thaa, 'Yeh toh bekar idea hai. Isko tum scale kaise karoge?'
  19. He says he started interacting with and covering VCs about nine to ten years ago. I started interacting and covering VCs, uh, maybe 9-10 years ago, one way or the other
  20. He says Careem showed that a little effort could make someone a millionaire, and everyone then went that way. aur woh ek Careem ne aake jab dikha diya ke yaar aap thodi si effort daal kar ke millionaire ban sakte ho toh everybody just completely went towards that
  21. He says part of the problem is storytelling itself. I think part of the problem, Muzamil, is storytelling itself
  22. He says there is also an element of self-loathing involved. there is an element of self-loathing as well
  23. He says the connection to Pakistan and its history has been very clear. But the connection to Pakistan and the history connected to Pakistan has been very clear
  24. He says an obsession with country-specific revenue is the wrong way to think about it. This obsession about country-specific revenue, I think, is a wrong way to think about it
  25. He says Data Darbar faces the problem of deciding which country to classify funding under in its reports. when we started Data Darbar, hum logon ko na ek yeh tha funding kis mulk mein classify karni hai, this is this is a problem that we keep facing, right, with our reports
  26. He says companies have shell companies all over the world that cannot really be addressed. Companies have shell companies all over the world and that is something you can't really address
  27. He says business media is still pretty much non-existent. Business media is still pretty much non-existent
  28. He says there is hardly any business story, with perhaps Profit as the exception. With the exception of maybe Profit, there is hardly any business story
  29. He says people want to read stories, not always numbers. logon ko kahaniyan padhni hain, logon ko hamesha numbers nahi padhne
  30. He says the media is not strong enough to pick up people early. the media is not strong enough ke woh early pick kare logon ko
  31. He attended university. jab main university mein tha
  32. He says journalism seemed to be more about sharing opinions than reporting when he was at university. maybe if I were to think back jab main university mein tha, toh lagta aisa hai ke journalism is more about sharing opinions
  33. He says business journalism has never been attractive. business journalism has never been attractive
  34. He says there have been some very good reporters, and he knows a few. There have been some very good reporters, I know a few, obviously
  35. He says reporting itself was never that strong. Toh reporting itself was never that strong
  36. He says trying to optimise for opinions rather than original reporting is a problem. then you are trying to optimize for opinions rather than original reporting
  37. He says that after more than 15 years a person may still not be earning a living wage. 15-15 saal ke upar banda living wage nahi bana raha hota
  38. He says the business journalism pipeline has been very weak historically. business journalism ki pipeline bohot kharab rahi hai historically
  39. He says reporting itself is not sexy enough. reporting itself is not sexy enough
  40. He says the concept of a reporter does not exist on the web. Web ke upar reporter ka toh concept hi nahi hai
  41. He describes reporting as going out, speaking to eight people, and finding one useful detail. aap jaake ghoomte hain, logon se, aath logon se baat karte hain aur aapko usme se ek kaam ki cheez milti hai
  42. He says there is incredible opportunity for people who create quality content. I think there is incredible opportunity for people who can create quality content
  43. He says Pakistan looked to India's example when thinking about its historical pathway to growth. okay Pakistan ka historically the pathway to growth was always supposed to be this, right? India ki example hum dekh ke kehte thay
  44. He says AI gets most tasks to about 80 percent, and the real value is in the remaining 20 percent. as AI gets you to 80% of any task, pretty much any task. The, the real value add is in that remaining 20%
  45. He asks whether there are enough people with the right expertise. do we have enough people with the right expertise
  46. He says Claude helps with analytics and data pipelines. Now for us as well, if we want to do some analytics, ya analytics ke liye kuch pipelines data ki karni ho to Claude helps us
  47. He says Pakistan has the skill set for lawyers, but perhaps not for management consultants. Kya lawyers ka skill set maujood hai Pakistan mein? Yes. Kya management consultant ka? Maybe not, right?
  48. He says in regulated fields AI cannot fully automate the work, so a human layer is needed. In certain fields, especially with regulatory constraints, you cannot automate entirely aur aapko human layer chahiye
  49. He says for a lawyer, legal position can matter more than the advice itself. what matters, what could matter more is the legal position of that lawyer rather than just the advice itself
  50. He says accountants and auditors still need an official stamp. accountant ke, auditor ka thappa usko phir bhi chahiye
  51. He says firms that meet licensing requirements in several jurisdictions have an interesting opportunity. as long as firms can establish footprint with and get the relevant licensing requirements, fulfill those relevant licensing requirements in multiple jurisdictions
  52. He says he had a few years of experience under his belt. and I had some years of experience under my belt
  53. He says anyone starting a business needs a certain level of optimism. agar aap apna kuch shuru kar rahe hote hain, you need to have a certain level of optimism
  54. He describes Vietnam as one of the biggest success stories of the 21st century. Vietnam has been one of the biggest success stories of like 21st century
  55. He says it can take moments to change one's trajectory. generally, it can take moments to just change your trajectory
  56. He feels Pakistan's entrepreneurship culture has improved considerably. I feel ke Pakistan mein entrepreneurship ka culture kafi acha hua hai
  57. He says there has been some effort to move towards exports. export ka thoda sa rujan export ki taraf aane ki koshish hui hai
  58. He says one can buy AI companies and move into infrastructure or the application layer without building everything from scratch. you can go and buy literally AI companies aur infrastructure mein ghus sakte ho, aap uske application layer pe ghus sakte ho without building everything from scratch
  59. He says he has helped more than 500 thought leaders, professionals, founders and business leaders with personal branding over five years. pichle paanch saal se maine 500 se zyada different thought leaders, professionals, startup founders aur business leaders ko unki personal branding mein help kiya
  60. He says the people he helped with personal branding generated over $50 million in value. jisse they were able to generate over $50 million in value
  61. Mutaher Khan offers a personal branding consultancy. I would definitely urge you to check out my personal branding consultancy
  62. He says it is increasingly important for people to build authentic, human personal brands. ab increasingly important ho gaya hai ke log authentic, human, personal brands banayein