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Thought Behind Things · Aug 23, 2021 · 1:05:00

Pakistan's kiryana dukan is the real disruption opportunity

Saif Ali walks through a winding decade in agencies, a long argument with brand teams about TikTok and data, and the B2B e-commerce thesis behind Dastgyr — empowering two million underserved kiryana retailers who quietly run Pakistan's economy.

with Saif Ali

11 min read

A colourful decade from Houston to the Karachi agency circuit

The episode opens with Muzamil asking Saif Ali to walk through the past ten years. The answer is anything but linear. Saif was in Houston through high school, planning to become a biomedical engineer and accepted into the Cullen School of Engineering at the University of Houston. Family legal issues redirected the plan. He took what he calls “the desi route” — community college first, because it was cheaper, then transfer — before eventually landing back in Karachi at nineteen.

He found a job within a month at a Karachi BPO whose front office was in Boston. The CEO, an ex-PwC US partner, became what Saif describes as a kind of accidental graduate school. “That was really my BBA, MBA combined crash course,” he tells Muzamil — lean strategy, account management, business development, digital marketing, compressed into a few months before burnout pushed him out.

The Tribune came next, on the web desk as an editor. That, Saif says, was where the harsher reality of Pakistan landed. “As consumers we can choose to switch off whenever we want. But when you’re reporting news on a daily basis, it’s ridiculous.” From there the path moved through Punjab, back to Karachi in 2014, through Brand Crew and Spectrum, and into a two-year stretch chasing his own consulting practice in 2016 and 2017. He completed six to eight large projects and recovered about fifteen percent of his payments. The lesson, as he frames it to Muzamil, was not bitterness but self-reflection: “When you fail, you don’t really have anyone else to blame.”

What account management was supposed to be — and what it became

By 2018 Saif was at Echo, leading accounts for Domino’s, Shan, ICI Pakistan, and Martin Dow. Muzamil asks him to explain account management for the audience, and Saif starts with a joke that doubles as the thesis. “Account management basically is a munshi — someone who takes the client’s words and passes them to the rest of the team. That’s what an account manager does in Pakistan. I’m being sarcastic.”

The real role, he argues, is stakeholder management on behalf of the agency’s business model — selling creative work, defending it, and shaping the brief so the work can actually perform. He points to Ogilvy’s writing on the subject. In Pakistan, the role has flattened into order-taking.

Muzamil, drawing on the content side, agrees from his own seat. He describes agencies calling him with briefs the agency itself does not believe in. “I’ll say, the thing you’re asking me to do — you won’t get a sale, you won’t get viewership, you won’t get engagement. And the answer is, sir, you’re absolutely right, but the client wants it.” Saif’s response sits on top of that. “I’m trying to give you an expert opinion. What is in your favour, what is in his favour, how this value exchange happens in the best way possible. And the answer is: no, just bring us what we want.”

The data argument, and the brand team that “doesn’t see colleagues”

Saif’s longest-running argument with the industry is about data. “This has been my soap box for god, seven years,” he says. The brand teams he meets generally hit the brief by hitting vanity metrics — likes, reach, impressions — without measuring whether anything moved.

He frames the buyer’s incentive bluntly. “I can do everything right, but my colleagues don’t see it, and more importantly my boss doesn’t see it. So what’s the point of doing it?” The campaign that hits a fifty or sixty percent reach number is the campaign that survives the review meeting, regardless of whether it sold anything. Saif’s argument is not that brand affinity work is worthless — it is that it has been allowed to absorb sales-driven briefs it was never designed to deliver on.

Muzamil sharpens this with a specific story. In 2015 he sold a four-city shoot in Hyderabad with six talent on board for one and a half lakh rupees. The same brief today, he says, would not sell below thirty to thirty-five lakh. The valuation has shifted. The discipline behind the spending has not kept pace.

TikTok, and the 200 percent that nobody wanted to hear

The conversation turns to TikTok — a platform Saif spent two years pushing on brand teams, often with his own neck on the line. He describes a single launch campaign where seventy to eighty percent of the budget went to Instagram influencers and twenty to thirty percent, against client resistance, went to TikTok creators. “I’m putting my name on the line, without having any experience with TikTok. I was looking at it as a researcher, as a marketer.”

The result was, in his words, mouth-gaping. “In terms of ROI on the vanity metrics, TikTok performed about 200 percent higher than Instagram.” Same brief. The only difference was that TikTok creators were told to make the content their own way — the chair, the dress falling off the chair, the abrupt cuts that the brand team disliked on sight. “The brand team hated the content but couldn’t deny the results.” The same advertiser came back with another campaign on the heels of that one, and then another.

Muzamil and Saif converge on why this matters structurally. The Instagram consumer is already in the consumer market — TikTok, with twenty-seven million users in Pakistan against Facebook’s roughly forty million, is bringing a new consumer into the market for the first time. “TikTok is starting to build a middle class in Pakistan,” Muzamil says. “A very large middle class.” Saif agrees and underlines the female engagement — close to fifty percent on TikTok, far higher than on competing platforms — as the business case that should make itself.

The platform has been banned and unbanned arbitrarily, often without the TikTok team itself being notified of the reason. Saif wrote about this at the time of the first ban from a marketing and business lens, because the channel matters disproportionately for advertisers willing to experiment with it.

Affinity versus sales, and the affiliate model nobody runs

Muzamil pushes the conversation into the demarcation he says brand managers consistently miss: brand affinity versus sales. He describes clients asking him to drop sale codes on Instagram posts and links in captions. “The link doesn’t get clicked,” he says, citing the simple behavioural fact that users do not exit Instagram from a feed post.

Saif agrees and lays out the correct frame. Sales-driven conversion is an affiliate model. The world runs it that way for a reason. In Pakistan, lump-sum payment for a single post is the wrong instrument for the wrong outcome. “Every creator is overpaid for sales-based conversion,” Saif says. “And that’s why they hate the salesman-based model.” Muzamil’s restatement is sharper still: clients are buying brand affinity and asking it to do conversion’s job, then blaming the creator when the math does not work.

Both speakers agree the FMCG bias of the influencer market makes this harder. A Magnum or a Paddle Pop is genuinely difficult to track against an Instagram post. The honest version of the brief, Saif argues, is an RFP for affinity work — not a sales target attached to a creative deliverable that was never designed to carry it.

The four-stage funnel, and what is missing in the middle

Saif walks through the actual buyer journey he says every marketer is taught in school: awareness, consideration, conversion, loyalty. He maps each stage to an influencer play that, in theory, could be run for it. Awareness is the transition video and the shirt reveal. Consideration is informative content about the product. Conversion is the story with the swipe-up and the discount code. Loyalty is the home-office campaign he saw recently from an accessories brand during COVID, where customers photographed their setups for a prize — natural integration, real participation.

His read of the market is that almost none of this exists in balance. “It’s all either awareness or purely conversion. But even the conversion is being dressed up like awareness. So what the hell are we doing?” Consideration campaigns are rare. Loyalty plays are rarer. The platform is being used as a megaphone rather than a funnel.

What Dastgyr is actually doing

Muzamil shifts gears and asks Saif to explain Dastgyr the way he would to a six-year-old cousin. Saif’s framing is clean. “Muzamil bhai, we sell toothpaste. Earlier we sold it from this side of the table, now we sit on the other side and sell ourselves.” It is B2B e-commerce. Daraz is B2C; Dastgyr is the layer above.

The number behind it is the point. Pakistan has roughly twenty lakh underserved retailers — kiryana stores, paan shops, milk shops, the places people actually buy from. The overall retail space, by Saif’s estimate, is worth about 120 billion dollars. The wholesale market today forces a shopkeeper in Landhi to close his shop, travel to a wholesale market on the other side of the city, and haul stock back himself. Volumes are too small for distributors to care about. “You buy two cartons. I won’t talk to anyone for less than fifty cartons. You’re out of my list.”

Dastgyr’s app lets the retailer place an order for fifty cartons of Coke and ten cartons of an Alpers product from his shop. Dastgyr’s sorting centres in Karachi and Lahore handle last-mile delivery. Twenty thousand customers had been served by the time of the conversation. The asset-light footprint matters: small sorting centres move millions of dollars of stock a month, and ten more can be opened tomorrow without the cost of warehouses.

The eventual move, Saif says, is a full marketplace model — multiple Alper vendors competing on the same listing — but the first year has been about digitising the existing value chain rather than disrupting it. Suppliers do first-mile in many cases; Dastgyr does the sorting and the last mile.

Buy now, pay later — and one and a half lakh that changes a life

The most concrete unlock Saif describes is credit. Dastgyr is preparing to launch a buy-now-pay-later option inside the app, underwritten by an Islamic bank so the structure is Shariah-compliant. The retailer selects credit at checkout, pays a flat premium fee instead of interest, and settles the invoice in fourteen or thirty days — long enough to sell the stock and use the margin to pay off the bill.

Muzamil pushes the implication harder. If a kiryana owner had access to one and a half lakh in working capital, what changes? Saif’s answer is sharp. “He can buy a fridge, he can add more shelves, he can improve the counter, he can add new categories. His bottom line grows, his top line grows, and his contribution to GDP grows. If we empower and uplift this kiryana segment, imagine what that unlocks for the economy as a whole.”

Muzamil’s instinct is to push further still — into POS integration, automated reordering, a closed loop where the shopkeeper does not even have to place the order. Saif acknowledges the logical end-state. “We have to surround the shopkeeper with technology.”

Article entrepreneurs, and ideas that solve problems instead of chasing money

Toward the end, Muzamil makes a broader observation about Pakistan’s startup scene. He calls them “article entrepreneurs” — IBA and LUMS graduates who have read a profile of a founder and sit down to engineer an idea that will make them rich. “More often than not, a great idea is not one that will get you money. A great idea is one that solves a very fundamental problem.”

Saif’s read on Dastgyr fits inside that frame. The founders came out of Airlift with the experience of building tech to move people. Connecting that core logistics capability to a fragmented retail problem that exists in the Philippines, Indonesia, and across Africa was not a leap of imagination — it was a recognition. “This is a global problem,” Saif says. “Trade is fragmented everywhere.” Grosari, Ula, Sokowatch — the same model, in different markets, for the same reason.

The conversation closes at the one-hour-five-minute mark, with Muzamil flagging his frustration that Dastgyr was explored so late in the conversation. “I was just like, yaar, B2B — sounded boring. And now I’m like, what a wasted opportunity.” Saif accepts the invitation to come back. The promise that lingers is that the pie is huge, the retailers are real, and the work is grounded in something more useful than another Instagram brief.

Full transcript
Muzamil

Welcome back to another episode of Thought Behind Things. I'll be my sisters, Majuna, y Bohati. Haas mehman. Yo que haas, car. Sir, thank you for having me. थोड़ा सा just run me through a little bit because I know that you've had a very sort of a colorful life and especially in the past ten years. Run me through your high school forward. You know, क्या exactly होता रहा है? What, what, what have you experienced and where were you and what you experienced? जी, तो high school के time पे तो मैं Houston में था. Texas अच्छा.

Guest

और वो भी बड़ा रंगीन वक्त था जैसे आपने रस किया. लेकिन high school खतम करने के बाद you know I was in a, in a weird position in my life based on some legal issues my family was facing. तो उसके बावजूद लेके मेरा पूरा इरादा था कि मैं biomedical engineer बनूँगा. अच्छा या आपका अपना interest था? ये वाले साहब का था बेटा engineering. बिल्कुल भी नहीं. मेरे वाले साहब तो ये थे कि बेटा कुछ कर रहा है, नहीं कर रहा है, कहां नहीं है? उनका वह अलग ही system था. अम्मा कहती थी कि technical काम करो. जो कहना चाह रही थी वही थी stem में काम करो. Right? Which I was also like

Muzamil

leaning towards my entire life. वह एक ultimate देसी जो two

Guest

मैंने decide किया था कि मैं BME करूंगा and I got accepted into the Cullen School of Engineering at University of Houston. मैंने देसी तरीका अपनाया. मैं पहले community college गया क्योंकि सस्ता है और वहां से फिर आप transfer कर लेते हैं.

Muzamil

At काज़ी अग्वल की podcast है. Hey. At क्या कहेगा काज़ी and you did that as well. It's a three hour long very interesting story about you know self journey. You can check that out. इधर pop up करवा दीजिएगा. Like, share, subscribe.

Guest

वहाँ से यहाँ आने के बाद जो है अब मैं यहाँ आया और you know to be honest like my family was always living a middle class life in The US as well. तो हम कोई पैसे लेके नहीं आए और हमारा कोई यहाँ पे base था नहीं. हम actually सिर्फ़ एक बार मिले नौ साल में, दो हज़ार पंद्रह में. अच्छा. और वह भी हम दुबई में मिले थे. कौन India का visa apply करे और वह Pakistan या vice versa? That is just so sad. ख़प है. तो दुबई में और भी family है. Right. तो वह midpoint, you know, अच्छा सा वन जाता है. Right. लेकिन उसके बाद मुलाक़ात हो नहीं पाई क्योंकि when I have time, don't have money. When I have money, I don't have time. Right. Right? So, and I'm too busy making time for these podcasts. Not for my I'm just kidding. तो, वह वहां पर तो यहां पर basically जो भी मुझे करना था I knew from day one that I had to do it myself. And you were nineteen twenty when you were? I was nineteen twenty when I landed and somehow I managed to get a job within a month of being here. I was working at a BPO startup in Karachi. Front office was in Boston. And so they were just like, like, look, you speak English well enough. Just, you know, man the phones to begin with and we'll teach you everything else. Avo तो यह किस type का BPO था? Like, center था या call center था या? Business services, right? So huge focus on app development, digital marketing and business strategy. Right. Right? तो मेरा नसीब था कि वहां पर जो CEO साहब थे वह कोई MD level की तो बहुत बड़ी film थे PWC से, right? PWC US and so this was a very learned man. I worked with him for only a couple of months but आप समझे कि वही मेरा BBA, MBA combined crash course था you know कि lean strategy क्या होती है, account management क्या होती है, business development, digital marketing etc etc. Right. तो बहुत शदीद burn out के बाद में वहाँ से cut के tribune गया. As a writer? As a editor. As an editor on the web desk. वो भी बड़ा दिलचस्प experience था because that's really where you learn the true and harsh realities of what's happening in Pakistan, right? Like, as consumers we can choose to switch off whenever we want. Kiaj, kitten mamblas tuen, kiaj, kitten, you know, harta al huí, h o b hué. You can choose to tune in, tune out. But when you're reporting news on a daily basis, it's it's ridiculous. And also, I mean, there there were times when, because you of course over time you develop a thick skin, right? आप थोड़े से harden हो जाते हैं कि हाँ, दमागा ही है, ठीक है. Just another one, right? वही format follow करनी है जो पिछली बार की थी वैसी story लिखनी है. लेकिन कभी कभार उन दिनों में भी ऐसी ऐसी बार दाती होती थी कि

Muzamil

I mean, where are you guys lost? I mean, what's going on? Yeah, hello tribune.

Guest

You know, उस जमाने में जो team थी वह बहुत strong थी. Right. और अब वह सब अपने अपने रास्ते निकल गए. कोई भी ज़्यादातर लोग जो हैं journalism के career में टिकते नहीं है Pakistan में. ऐसा नहीं है कोई ज़्यादा कोई career path है नहीं. So they all will like me will eventually move to the PR side or the brand side if they stay in comms at all. या तो वो MBA, MBA करके बाहर चले गए ठीक है अगर कोई. या वो public policy वगैरह type की side पर है. वो भी बहुत बहुत सारे करते है. तो that ends up happening but after that I moved to Punjab for a bit. I was consulting in media and comms you know whatever skills I had picked up by then. Moved back to Karachi in 2014 and started doing the agency circuit. तो मैं brand crew में था जो कि एक बहुत ज़माने में leading digital agency थी. फिर मैं spectrum गया. Spectrum conventional side पर powerhouse था और उनको digital में आना था. Right? तो उन्होंने कहा आप आए, आप setup करें. And I was like, okay, I get to play entrepreneur with your money, right? Yeah. यह तो golden चीज़ आप दे रहे मुझे. तो वहां गया में turns out that everything that glitters ain't Yeah. And after that, you know, sort of really down and out, sort of feeling dejected with the job market, मैंने कहा कि मैं अपना काम करूंगा. अच्छा. This was 2017? 02/1617. I spent about two years chasing a pipe dream आए और आकर हमें help करें. लोग खुद आऐंगे और लोग खुद और खुश होंगे और फिर repeat clients बनेंगे and people would look at me like I was you know I mean and I guess they were right right वो जो cynicism था it's it's founded on something right के उस चीज़ का appetite ही नहीं है. जो business देने वाले हैं उनको भी कोई खास value creation नहीं चाहिए ज़्यादातर. जो लेने वाले हैं उनको तो definitely नहीं चाहिए उनको तो सिर्फ business चाहिए. And अजीब सा एक cesspool बना हुआ है. I learned that the hard way when I, you know, completed, I think, six, eight huge projects and had about 15% recovery on my payments. Right? Right. तो बिल्कुल ही मैं बेहदार हो गया, बिल्कुल ही सर्दोपे आ गया, usually. But it was a group great learning experience, right? Because the work, the people I met, the interactions I had, even the cynical ones, you know, उसमें कोई ना कोई learning ज़रूर थी and it taught me a lot about myself as well. और खास तौर पर वह जो एक experience होता है कि आप खुद कुछ करने की कोशिश कर रहे होते हैं और उसमें जब आप fail करते हैं you don't really have anyone else to blame. Right. या तो मैं खुद ज़्यादा idealistic था या मैं खुद under qualified था या जो भी था and that gives you a lot of cause for self reflection right? जोकि ज़िंदगी में you can never have too much of. Right. I think. Yeah. तो वो बड़ा एक ज़बरदस्त you know it gave me this renewed enthusiasm कि अब मैं वापस job market में जाऊंगा और इनको दिखाऊंगा. वहां बैठकर इनको दिखाऊंगा कि कैसे होता है. Right. हम्दल्लाह, it's been pretty good so far.

Muzamil

And so, did you return to the job market? 2018,

Guest

beginning of twenty eighteen. I got an opportunity to help lead a digital agency by the name of Echo. They had great clients at that time, like Domino's and Shawn, ICI Pakistan, Martin Dow. And that was really, you know, my first time stepping into, an account management role as well, right? Like, dedicated on the account management. If you could sort of, for the audience, just sort of explain कि account management होती क्या है? अच्छा, account management basically मुशी होता है जो कि client के अल्फाज़ ले के बाकी team तक पहुंचाता है. ठीक है. I'm being sarcastic. Pakistan में account manager ये करता है. वैसे असूलन दुनिया भर में account manager का मकसद ये होता है कि वो agency के dynamic में business side handle कर रहा होता है. Right. Right? तो creative तो वो चीज़ बना रहा है जो आप बेच रहे हैं. Agency के business model में creative बिक रहा है, right? Right. चाहे वो TVC हो या radio script है जो भी है. Account manager का काम है उसको बेचना. Essentially. It's really I would say the core skill required for an account manager is stakeholder management. ठीक है. ठीक है क्योंकि किसी भी campaign में आप काम कर रहे होते हैं उसमें इतने moving parts होते हैं but yeah it's यहाँ पे unfortunately वो so how is it different तो आप you start may have said you know Pakistan में it's very different and and what what what it actually is and what what what goes on in Pakistan तो हाँ Pakistan में account management generally किस तरह हो रही होती है? Pakistan में ये ये कि मुंशी बैठे में ज़्यादा right? ओगलवी ने इस बारे में बहुत सारी बातें की हैं कि account manager का role क्या होना चाहिए? हालांकि ओगलवी ख़ुद creative था. Right. Right? तो, you know, they talk about how an account manager is supposed to be enabling both the client and the creative,

Muzamil

मेरे meeting room में लाकर मकरीना करवाएं. बोलेगा जी sir ठीक है, कितने में जाऊं? हां. You know, ये ही साहब है. And even though you are getting paid essentially to provide, to add value, but you are just an activator like a slave to a client and a lot of times we've experienced that on the content side as well के, मुझे literally मुझे agency call करेगी और call करेगी कि sir जो आप कह रहे मुझे पता है वह मतलब agency कह रहे हैं यह चीज़ कर दें. मैं कहूंगा यार यह चीज़ जो आप करवा रहे हो ना ना आपको sale आएगी, ना viewership आएगी, ना engagement आएगी और मैं आपको बता रहा यह मुझे आठ में से दस projects में यही होता है. Yeah. और आख़िर में वह कहेगा sir बिल्कुल आप मुझे पता है आपकी बात दो रोस्त है. Yeah. लेकिन client यह चाह रहे हैं. या client यह चाह रहे तो why are you getting your money? जी. Right between me and you I am working whatever I have to work on. Client is getting doing what he has to do. बिल्कुल. तन्मयान में आपका एक role था जिसके आपको पैसे मिल रहे थे जिसमें आपने सिर्फ़ और सिर्फ़ connect नहीं करना था. आपका काम था कि आप उसमें ensure करें as an expert client को यह बताएं कि sir यह चीज़

Guest

हां. और इतना हमें इस तरीके से करना चाहिए. तो मुझे आगे से जवाब मिलेगा कि आपसे हो नहीं पा रहा तो conference call करवाएं ताकि मैं ख़ुद समझा दूं. So, I mean, it's not as if like I can't convey your message, right? इतना इतना तो आता है हम्दुल्लाह. हां. वरना यहां बैठे नहीं होते कि अगर हम यहां की बात वहां आगे नहीं पहुंचा सकते. लेकिन मैं आपको एक I'm trying to give you an expert opinion, right? Trying to tell you कि आपके हक़ में क्या है, उसके हक़ में क्या है? हां. You know और यह पूरा value exchange जो हो रहा है सबसे बेहतर तरीके से कैसे हो सकता है? हां. तो उनका यह है कि नहीं, जो हमें चाहिए आपका काम है कि आप हमें वह लाकर दें. हां. Right? तो फिर मैं मैं अच्छा यह बड़ी दफ़ा मेरे साथ हुआ है यह कि client जाएगा. Mhmm. मैं agency को बताऊंगा agency कहेगी कि बताएगी तो clearly उन्होंने बताने की कोशिश की. Mhmm. Agency वापस आएगी कहेगी.

Muzamil

Client जो है वह एक conference call मांग रहा है. And I have seen the shift. I have seen कि दस minute की film पचास हज़ार रुपए में आपको मैं बताऊं आज जो यह शांग का commercial है ना, जो यह, यह आया था बिरयानी वाला बच्चा बाहर होता जी जी जी. दो हज़ार पंद्रह में मुझसे de juice था उस time के ऊपर. De juice था उस time के ऊपर? De juice था. बिल्कुल था. De juice को जाकर हमने एक film बेचने बाद चल रही थी हमारी. वह डेढ़ लाख रुपए में चार different शहरों में shoot था, ठीक है? Ok. चार different शहरों में shoot था. हां. छह बंदों का talent था. Wow. ठीक है? उसमें एक uncle थे, aunty थी कि मां बाप का वह emotional connection था. लड़का था और एक like Toyota गाड़ी के around था वह basically. Mhmm. और वह गाड़ी का showroom में उसके वह सारा का सारा सब डेढ़ लाख रुपए में था और हम ख़ुश थे. हम अपनी गाड़ीयां बैठकर जाते हमने बाज़ीराबाद में जाकर shoot करना था. हम ख़ुश थे डेढ़ लाख मिल जाएगा. So I have seen this shift. आज वही चीज़ जो है वह तीस पैंतीस की तो minimum दिखेगी. True true. So that I I feel like there has been certain upbringing. I think जब result generate होना शुरू हुआ है, I think it's a lot more data driven now. A lot more more. Everything is relative. Everything is relative. A lot more. मेरा अभी तक सबसे बड़ा जो problem है वह यही है कि unfortunately कि the lack of data driven की वजह से a lot of clowns are getting paid just for likes when there is no conversion. So, absolutely but I think मैं again मैं यह कह रहा मैं ना हमेशा चीज़ों को देखता हूं. मेरा background data analytics का है. So I see things on a quarterly report in my mind. बिल्कुल. ठीक है कि यार last quarter में क्या हो रहा था? Mhmm. और इस quarter में, you know, upgrade हुआ है या downgrade हुआ और उसकी basis के ऊपर मैं अपना optimist और pessimist level निकालता हूं. A lot of people are just like, you know, if they they have this utopian, I, वह जब तक वहां पर नहीं होते, वह cynical रहता है. I feel I find that there's a big conflict between me and a lot of other creators in the industry as well. वह भी जो है इसको think they're they're much more cynical, but I am much more optimist उस sense में. हां. In your experience, know, from so the last place that you talked about was Spectrum? Spectrum, yeah. Yeah. And that was 18. This

Guest

is 15. 15. पता नहीं हम Echo पर थे. दो हज़ार अठारह.

Muzamil

Absolutely, yeah. So echo के experience के ऊपर and that was primarily digital, right? Yeah, was purely digital. Purely digital. Yeah. How do you, how have you seen the space evolve in the past five years? So evolution बिल्कुल आई and I agree with what you are saying. आपने ये बहुत अच्छा point raise किया कि valuation

Guest

जो हो रही है अब थोड़ी सी शायद it's more-more towards Monasib than it was back at that time. Yeah. Relatively, yeah. Relatively. अभी भी मतलब I think a lot of creators are underpaid. Yeah. A lot of them are overpaid. A lot of them are paid when they shouldn't even be paid. वो वो लोग हैं जो bio में लिखते हैं influencer.

Muzamil

हाँ हाँ ये DM for collaboration. DM for ठीक है तो मतलब

Guest

valuation बढ़ गई है कि there is no doubt right? अब कोई doubt नहीं है कि ये channel ज़रूरी है इसमें हमारे brand के लिए value है, हमारे consumers के लिए value है लेकिन करने का जो तरीका है वो आगे नहीं बढ़ा that's what I am saying. आप जो data की बात कर रहे हैं so this has been my soap box for god seven years? Yeah. Six years at least. Right. जो consulting वाली भी जो मैं बात कर रहा था उसपे भी पूरा एक हमारा pillar सिर्फ यही था कि हम जाके लोगों को analytics समझाएंगे. इस पर मुझे red line दी हुई थी कि सैफ़ कुछ भी करके यह budget एक रुपया और नहीं है लेकिन उसके लिए दो लाख रुपया और निकल आए. हां हां.

Muzamil

ठीक है जी. सही है. And I I feel like one of the major problems why TikTok for the longest time wasn't monetized was again that sort sort of a elite capture that we had within the bounce, situation where we saw this entire space as this sort of icky, cringy, oh my god, you know, these poor people types. Mean They're so poor, they can't sell products. Bitchare. Sort of. When in actuality, this was... I mean, for me, the the... One of the biggest power for TikTok is Instagram के ऊपर ना? मैंcom... Competing, uh-uh... So let me explain. Construct thoughts, let's explain. Instagram के ऊपर जो consumer बैठा हुआ ना consumer market में बहुत अच्छे से है. ठीक है? वह अपना पैसा कहीं और लगा सकता है. वह advertising देकर शायद आपके brand पर लगा दे. TikTok के ऊपर जो consumer आ रहा है ना वह पहली दफ़ा consumer market में घुस रहा है. And so that actually increases the pie rather than competing in a very small pie. Agreed. And मुझे जो TikTok और TikTok के audience की खूबसूरती नज़र आ रही है वही आ रही है कि TikTok पहले तो आप Pakistan ने middle class बनाने लगा है. बहुत बड़ी middle class बनाने लगा है. बिल्कुल. लड़का ख़ाब देख रहा है कि यार मैं शहर जाता हूं. Yeah. मैं शहर जाकर कोई clerk की job उठाता हूं ताकि मुझे पैसे मिलें ताकि वह and that sort of a rural versus urban that non consumerist versus consumerist. Yeah.

Guest

Absolutely and so for me TikTok is an incredibly powerful medium जो कि unfortunately हम उसको seriously लेते ही नहीं है. Yeah. What's your experience been on there? So, we're skipping ahead here but I worked, at Jack of Digital for, a short stent. Wait, you didn't, you didn't mention that. जी, देखिए आपके background, आपके researchers. Yeah, level. तो नहीं मैं impact गया था echo के बाद वो activation agency थी वहाँ से निकल के just recently in December. Joined jack of digital क्योंकि दो हज़ार बीस सौ मैंने TikTok के साथ बहुत काम भी किया था as I mentioned to you, right. I pulled off some really big campaigns and kudos to the brand teams in that case because they were willing to take those risks. They were understanding our argument कि भई TikTok वो platform है जिसने content को democratize किया है पहली बार Pakistan Pakistan में. Absolutely. For whatever reason कि शायद इस वजह से कि उसमें account बनाना ज़रूरी नहीं है या उर्दू interface था पहले दिन से I don't know लेकिन video बनाने का जो you know शहूर था वो अब इतना common हो गया है right कि बच्चा बच्चा रिक्शा driver everyone people we did not previously see on these digital platforms. Yeah. Or as much quantity इतनी अक्सरियत में पहले कही नहीं थे right. Right. दूसरी बात इतनी तेज़ी में जो growth आई ये right ये लोग कहां से आए ये again आपके बाकी सारे digital platforms रहा के देख ले. Facebook के आज कोई चालीस million user है तकरीबन right? TikTok already है सत्ताईस million right? बहुत massive user base है और ज़्यादातर जो digital है वैसा आता है ये telcos ये FMCG यही तो आपके consumers है यही तो आपके strongest consumer base है

Muzamil

इन्हीं लोगों को. Adelaide Hong Kong तो नहीं करी? हां. ठीक है. मुझे एक campaign आई उन्होंने कहा कि जी हमें rural चाहिए. ठीक है. मैंने कहा ठीक है sir TikTok को ले नहीं TikTok तो नहीं. Insta पर ले आए. अच्छा मैंने कहा ठीक है TikTokers on Insta को ले आए. Ok, good idea. नहीं. वो सारे वो होने चाहिए जो अंग्रेज़ी बोलने वाले होने चाहिए. जी. Private school वाले होने चाहिए. उनकी वो tick marks इतने लंबे थे. जी. करना शुरू की है. Ok, nice. It talks about how social media can be used and this was 2013. Wow, amazing. You know, कि how social media can be used to fundamentally change how we, you know, we see the society. And I look at that today and I'm just like, यार, what naivities? I mean, I do agree with a lot of things in that but obviously इसमें बहुत चीज़ें upgrade हो चुकी हैं because हम तो इतने खुश थे कि यार technology आएगी और दुनिया बदल जाएगी. Yeah. But honestly people don't really give a shit. They don't work as in in such a sort of hunky dory way, as we believe. But, yeah, so before the jack of digital Yeah. The the campaign, I don't wanna name the brand, but the campaigns that you did and, you know, you got saw the results. What were they like? What was that experience like? तो अच्छा उस campaign में बड़ी fit चीज़ यह थी कि काफी

Guest

बड़ी campaign थी, launch about campaign 70%, 80% of the budget was on insta and a huge litany of influencers and 2030% was on TikTok cause वो तो मेरा experiment था ना वो तो मेरी personal जंग थी कि नहीं आप करके देखें और मैं आपको खुद बता रहा हूँ मैं अपना नाम आपको दांव पे लगा बता रहा हूँ without having any experience with TikTok. मैं सिर्फ as a researcher as a marketer उसको देख रहा था. They only care about vanity metrics right? So we will show them vanity metrics out the wazoo right? 50% reach 60% reach तो उन्होंने कहा ठीक है आप ये थोड़े से पैसे ले ले और आप करके जो आप कर रहे है आप कर ले आप आप शौक पूरा कर ले और हुआ ये कि in terms of ROI again on the vanity metrics TikTok performed about 200% higher than Instagram. Right. Right? तो of course फिर they were left like mouth gaping wide open की ये क्या कैसे हो गया? हां. और फिर वो पूछे की learnings पता है की ये आपने like we didn't do anything differently. TikTok के creators को हमने वही brief थी फ़र्क ही था कि हमने उनको कहा कि आप अपने तरीके से बनाएं. हां. जो आप करते है you know your audience and what not right and again brand team in this case was a good one a strong one you know ने वो creative freedom creative freedom even insta side पर भी दिया हुआ था. Right. तो TikTok वालों ने किया जो वो करते हैं कि वो madam चलती भी आ रही है, कुर्सी पर dress पड़ा हुआ है, कुर्सी यह बैठी है, dress छड़ गया और फिर you know इस type की चीज़ें. तो the brand team hated the content but couldn't deny the results. Yeah. Right? And on the heels of that one the same advertiser gave us another campaign. On the heels of that one the same advertiser gave us another one. तो उसके बाद भी बहुत बहुत सारा काम किया है. तो definitely वह you know the reach on the platform is insane. The engagement levels are insane. We've also seen, क्योंकि media channel पर काम कर चुका हूं, TikTok का media पर. Mhmm. We've seen that engagement from female users especially is a lot higher than it is on other platforms. It's almost at 50%. So the the business case you know is it makes itself. Right. ठीक है? आपके सामने मैंने सिर्फ data points रखनी है और अगर आपका कोई you know आधा दिमाग भी चल रहा है आप बोलेंगे यार इसमें पैसे लगाना है. हां. You know especially for the mass brands ठीक है? अब आप colleagues नहीं देखते और more importantly मेरा boss नहीं देखता. हाँ. तो मैं करके भी क्या करूँगा? हाँ. You know हम कहते थे कि यार business result यार क्या तो वही बात है you are right that it's a huge you know tool for potential social change. TikTok वालों ने खुद भी अभी COVID-nineteen ही campaign चला रहे थे. बिल्कुल. Ban होने से पहले मशहल्लाह. ठीक है तो जब वह पहली बार ban हुआ था I think September October of last year I wrote an article about it from the business lens from the marketing lens के मुझ जैसे अभी दो चार पांच लोग हैं पूरे मुल्क में जो experiment कर रहे हैं tinker कर रहे हैं और मेरे client जैसे भी कोई चार पांच client हैं जो के experiment कर रहे हैं और ये बहुत major platform है Pakistan के लिए. Pakistan की advertising industry के लिए ये एक बहुत major platform वन सकता है. Right. लेकिन ये जो आप लोग कर रहे हैं you undercurring all these efforts right? उस दमाने भी मैं creators से बात कर रहा होता था और उनका बुरा हाल होता था कि ये अब हमारे लिए एक रोज़ी का channel वन गया you know और रातों रात बंद हो गया. Right. We don't know what to do. चलो अब तो alternatives भी हैं उनके लिए लेकिन यह एक massive problem है and why is this happening this indecent content crap? Yeah. You know I mean I mean TikTok is banned but then SmackVideo is up and Beagle Live is up and it's it's

Muzamil

उसका कोई सुनीत. Arbitrary. हाँ, उसका कोई है नहीं कि आप इस ये कर लें कि यार I mean एक जगह रोके के दूसरी जगह पर आएगा. You have to figure your shit out. I say, no its arbitrary and and there are these random lines that are and whats amazing is and the establishment

Guest

thats you know executing all this will continue to just move the goal posts randomly. क्योंकि पहले हमने वो कहा था लेकिन अब हमारा ये mood है हम नहीं करेंगे. You know पिछला जो band हुआ है Tiktok की team को notification भी नहीं मिला कि ये क्यों हुआ है और कब हुआ है है. तो that's just and that's how it's gonna be and you know and what and this is again ये तो digital platforms का ये भी एक मतलब phase everyone has to go through this YouTube का आप देख लें. ये जो आप creators की जो आप बात कर रहे हैं content की आप बात कर रहे हैं there are so many good creators like you that have been in this game for so long लेकिन

Muzamil

आपके पास कोई platform था ही नहीं. Yeah. आपको पता है कि पहली video जो आई थी, YouTube पर आई थी, पहली video दिन लगी की. उस video के सात दिन बाद YouTube ban हुआ था. Wow. और उससे उस पहली video से जो ज़माने में मेरा Facebook के ऊपर कोई इतना भी forwards वग़ैरह नहीं थे. पहली video मेरी globally viral हुई. Wow, okay. YouTube official का 65,000,000 का Facebook page था. उसे ज़माने Facebook का video platform नहीं था. Right. उन्होंने share की. Nice. Been creating a lot of very interesting content that could have connected Pakistan and the rest of the world. Yeah. A lot of times हम बैठते हैं हम कहते you know, look at Bollywood they're doing such a great job at exporting Pakistan and exporting India and Indian culture. Even with slum dog millionaire they create create a poverty fetish where people wanna love Yeah. Would love to come to India to experience the poverty. बिल्कुल. Content is very very powerful if you utilize it for what it is. Of course. YouTube का तो हमने direct देखा. हमारे साथ हम start हुए थे. You know, it was me and a couple of my friends. We started doing content on Facebook, on YouTube and, उसी के साथ साथ the viral fever and a couple of these guys started in India. You know, आज मैं बैठा यह podcast कर रहा हूं. कोई दो रुपए का पैसा नहीं मिलता वह easy पैसा पर लोग तीस पैंतीस रुपया भेज देते हैं यहाँ पे appear होता है. Viral fever जो है $1,520,000,000 dollars की company. And its huge its content is so good और उनकी पूरी journey अगर आप देखिए maturity कितनी आई है content. Exactly. Amazing. क्योंकि उन्होंने पहले YouTube पर बनाया वहां से grow किए, Netflix पर आए, Netflix के बाद अब वह जो है Amazon Prime और God Alone उस कहां कहां जा रहे हैं तो वह opportunity वहां पर थी. बिल्कुल. एक बात आपने बोली थी I wanna bring you back to that. You you talked about content के हमें पसंद नहीं आ रहा or something like that. Some basically बल्कि rather मैं थोड़ा सा सवाल change करता हूं. Sure. As a creator we get a lot of briefs, we get a lot of कि यार ठीक है आप यह कर दें, वह कर दें. Yeah. एक time था जब content influencer marketing content जो था ना वह बहुत easily divided होता था. Yeah. Either it was a brand affinity content or it was sales driven content. True. Right? So either आप यह करोगे कि आप you know उस तरह से. अच्छा इसमें भी जो influencer marketing का जो channel था ना वह एक separate was considered a separate channel. True. That was an add on to the core marketing strategy. True. ठीक है? के उन्होंने कहा अपना content as it is बनाओ. जी. यह काम unfortunately हमारे Insta पर या हमारी YouTube पर होना ख़त्म हो गया. ख़त्म हो गया. Client आता है और client आकर कहता है कि एक एक brief भेजता है इतनी बड़ी उन्होंने कहा नहीं उनसे कहें कि अपने art director को बोलें. सही मैं मज़ाक नहीं कर रहा. This goes without saying that I do have an art director, I do have a producer, I do have a director but imagine a client saying this for a 35,000 rupees की product कि अपने art director को बोलें कि उस पूरी location को बेहतर तरीके से manage करके उसकी art direction बेहतर करें. बिल्कुल सही है. ठीक है. अब मैं तो invest कर रहा हूं इस वक़्त पूरी team में because मैं यह सोच रहा हूं कि पांच साल बाद क्या होगा? जी. Total amount of projects that is currently less than what I have to spend. Yeah. So where do you think will that evolve into and and do you think this will मतलब मेरी जो जो जो bet मैंने ली है वह यह ली है कि यार client

Guest

की appetite जब बढ़ेगी ना तो वह फिर spend भी उस हिसाब से बढ़ाएगा. What do you think is going to happen? इसपे ये भी again कह सकते हैं कि I am maybe again falling into that same idealistic trap. अभी जिस तरीके से आप कर रहे हैं जो मुझे समझ में आए and correct me if I wrong yeah कि आप फ़िलहाल team पर, content पर, अपनी brand पर, personal brand पर, show आपके shows की brand पर invest कर रहे हैं. Right. And you want to build an audience, you want to build a community and then monetize this later

Muzamil

उससे बड़ा अक्ष आ चुका हूं कि client मुझे insta के लिए call करेगा और कहेगा यार आप तो बस हो तो आप यह कर दो और वह कर दो. I want कि यार जब ऐसे हो आप तो ना like when I have like Pakistan का number one show type और मैं उस पर कहूंगी sir यह है यह मेरा client यह मेरा consumer है यह वह मांगता है मेरे काम पर compromise किए बग़ैर आपको कुछ करवाना है करवा लें. जी. Right? वह जो मैं बड़ा तंगा चुका हूं कि जहां पर मेरे काम पर compromise होता है मेरा consumer हो मुझे गाने देता है. जी.

Guest

In a smaller phase than you are right now but he is also not got any branding on his show which he could very easily have as well. आप लोग content में invest कर रहे है and I think this will be the secret sauce कि जब आज आप अस्सी हज़ार, नव्वी हज़ार subscriber पर बैठे जब यह पांच लाख पर होगा जो कि बहुत कम वक्त में हो ही जाएगा then these people will come to you and they will bend over backwards to your will. I believe it. Right? They will say that look we need to be a part of this platform right? Cause यह तो अब बहुत ही बड़ा हो गया और अगर हम नहीं है तो फिर हम इतना मैं आपको sound bite दे सकता हूँ बीस second का, पच्चीस second का कभी नहीं होगा. Right? And then you can define those limits क्योंकि अभी आजकल ये ये अभी हम कुछ देर पहले आपके producer के साथ में एक बहुत बड़े creator का project discuss कर रहा था and how he completely sold himself for छे सात लाख रुपए और इतना ज़्यादा कि उस case में unfortunately मुझे typical account manager बनना पड़ गया. हाँ. क्योंकि मेरे हाथ से बाहर निकल चुकी थी कहानी मेरे ऊपर भी एक boss है जिसको मुझे जवाब देना है. यह करके, इतना नुकसान करवाया अपने brand का. Just for that one commercial, you know, return छह सात लाख रुपए क्या है? In the long run of this, you know, thing you're doing and he this is what he does full time. This is what he's he's one of the oldest guys in the industry. Right. तो that's that's the problem, right? And लोग जब जो आपके जो बड़े हैं, जो आपके seniors हैं इस industry में अगर वह भी limits define नहीं कर रहे तो then of course कोई वह SOP है ही नहीं ना. हां. इसमें मुझ जैसे लोगों की भी थोड़ी सी गलती है. Like मैं आपको बताता हूँ I was one of the first my team was one of the first to establish an influencer marketing platform in Pakistan. हमने कोई पांच, डिजराती, हमने कोई पांच छह हज़ार influencers जमा कर लिए थे. छोटे छोटे और ये बकायदा वो ही है जो influencer लिख के काम करते हैं. Right micro influencers. हां micro the whole concept was micro and nano at scale. Right. Right the idea there was की यहां पर आप एक मुज़मिल को बिलफाज़ अगर पांच लाख रुपए देते हैं आप उसी उन्हीं पैसों में आप पचास लोग ले ठीक है और उसमें आपको you get more mentions, you get more unique pieces of content and in terms of data right it's just far more actionable and far more insightful and you're reaching far more people because पचास लोग अब मुज़म्बिल के एक audience है right अब मुज़म्बिल के साथ आप कितना अरसा काम कर लेंगे right. पचास लोगों का यह है कि उनकी अपनी अपनी communities है. We can do it in different cities where they have their own little echo chambers right and you can tap into micro communities as well Right? मुल्तान के अपने influencer निकाले हुए हैं, right? और नज़र आ रहा है comments में कि वह strike में लगे हुए हैं. वह एक अलग ही दुनिया है. हां. Right? Insta पर. And and micro में particularly अगर आप देखें ना मेरे case में most most cases

Muzamil

में कितना आता है? Five to 7% engagement आती है on average. तक़रीबन? तक़रीबन.

Guest

आप micro पर जाएंगे ना वो engagement levels higher. Yes, engagement level higher. Twelve, fifteen, 15%. 12 to 15 often reach will also be higher. Right. Right? So again the business case makes sense. लेकिन यह करने में हमने इस पूरी चीज़ को commoditize कर दिया है कि यह मतलब बस चावल बिक रहा है. You know, it's not anything different. It's just pieces of content जिस तरीके से designer बैठकर artwork बनाता है और

Muzamil

See the thing is There's not much of the goes into it. Yeah, absolutely. See the thing is यहां पर जो demarcation है ना मैं बहुत सारे client से बात करता हूं और उनको यह basic चीज़ नहीं पता जो मैंने अभी थोड़ी देर पहले बोली थी कि brand affinity. जी. And sales. मेरे से Instagram post के ऊपर sales के लिए you know code दिया जा रहा है दिलवाया जा रहा हूं. वही तो यह भी कह रहे होते हैं caption में link लगाएं. Caption में link लगाएं. लगवा रहे कह रहे हैं लगवाएं? जी. अब problem क्या है? नज़रीन वह link click नहीं होता. हां, वह link click नहीं होता पहली बात. दूसरी बात यह study कहती है कि Instagram की scroll के ऊपर आप कभी भी उसको छोड़कर आप नहीं जाओगे. आप story से swipe up कर लेते हो, आप profile से चले जाते हो, लेकिन आप insta story से नहीं जाओगे. Instagram नहीं जाओगे. Post से नहीं जाओगे. Correct. अच्छा उसके बाद most importantly आप पूरी दुनिया का model देखें. जो sales का है ना वह affiliate model. Affiliate है. ठीक है? मैं दो लाख रुपए दे रहा हूं. ठीक है? आप मुझे पता है everyone is overpaid. Every creator is overpaid for sales based conversion. Correct. And that is why they hit the salesman you know based model. वजह क्या है overpaid होने की? Client आ रहा आकर कह रहे दो लाख रुपए लो आकर या एक लाख रुपए लो और आकर मुझे यह करके sales draw करके दो. जी. ठीक है? Mhmm. क्योंकि मैं lump sum ले रहा हूं. मुझे client की माननी ज़रूरी है. बिल्कुल.

Guest

हां. Right कि मुज़मिल है और वो influencer है और वो paddle pop खाता है. हां. Therefore he is a good fit for this campaign. Yes. यहां पर वो तरीका है ही नहीं और आप जो बात कर रहे है बिल्कुल perfect ज़हीन बात कर रहे है you are the first person who is saying this himself. Have heard I as a first person in the industry that I have heard this from कि affiliate model पर आना और किस तरीके से आना है और सही definition आपने दिया affiliate model का. मैं पता नहीं कितने सालों से बेचने की कोशिश कर रहा हूँ और यही होता है कि और अगर आपने shirt सैनी पहनी भी, आपने Magnum की shirt पहन ली और पाइडल पॉप बेचती है वो मसला हो जाएगा. Because again, no one's trying to actually drive sales volumes. It's not about that right? Yeah क्योंकि जो RSA एक और ही मैं आपको बताऊं? क्योंकि ये चीज़ सारी run करी है marketing team generally. That's the point. का वैसे की पर्क है. आप जो trade marketing है या जो pure sales के लोग है RSA, regional sales manager है उनको बिठाएं उनको बोलेंगे sir आप कितना target है Right क्योंकि उनको they understand कि stock move करना कितना ज़रूरी है. और they also know कि उनके अपने जो traditional channels हैं उसमें क्या quantity कितना volume हो सकता है? क्या limitations हैं? क्या improvements हैं? You are offering them a completely new channel. Right? So now like Hamdullah for Pakistan most of these big companies will have different teams for e commerce. So they will understand this to a certain extent but those are usually also unfortunately ex marketers that are now doing e commerce. ¡To, gér! Pero, qué? Problemas vos, ya te. -Excellent, but it's also... One of the biggest problems is that most of this work that you're doing in... Or, you know, most of the work we have in the influencer space coming from FMCG. And it's kinda difficult to drive conversion from FMCG as well. मतलब आप pedal pop actually किस तरीके से बेचेंगे वह तो ज़्यादातर जगहों पर deliver ही नहीं होता. नहीं, that's that's what I'm saying. So I I do understand कि फिर FMCG मुझसे आकर

Muzamil

sales base काम ना कर पाए ना? ना करवाए. वह RFP पर करवाए. हां. RFP पर काम करवाए. हां. मसला आकर में यह आ रहा है कि जब brand काम नहीं देता but जब brands आ रहे और वह आकर purely brick and mortar के sales base से drive करवा रहे हैं. यार वह नहीं हो सकता. नहीं हो सकता. I am not that person. शायद हो भी सकता है but there is no way to track it. There is no way to track it. Right? Mean, so maybe you have a small

Guest

like you're small to medium retail outlet क्या आप कोई boutique brand खोल के बैठे हैं आलम पे. Right? उसके लिए हम campaign कर सकते

Muzamil

देखो मैंने यह campaign पूरी की पूरी कर दी. Yeah. और मेरा तो एक भी जोड़ा नहीं बिका. Yeah. यार brand affinity के अंदर अगर मैं एक sense लगाऊं तो उसके अंदर तेईस different जब तक consumer को recall hate नहीं होगा तब तक जाकर वह एक product पर shift नहीं करेगा. आप बात कर रहे थे कि brand manager को समझ में नहीं आता कि इन चीज़ों में difference क्या है? The the actual journey, the buyer journey which all of them are taught in school by the way which I didn't go to is awareness,

Guest

consideration, conversion and then loyalty or delight, right? और इन सारे stages के लिए मज़े की बात यह influencer campaigns हैं. तरीके हैं influencer के साथ awareness के लिए वो typical जो होता है कि यह shirt पहने ये ऐसी video बनाएं, Transition video बनाएं. यह reference है इसको छाप के दिखाएं. Consideration में it's more towards product info कि यह product अच्छा becomes informative content generally. Conversion you already know, stories, swipe up, link in bio, Mozambil Twenty etc etc and for loyalty a good example is I saw an accessories brand recently do a campaign in Corona they do office accessories तो Corona ने उन्होंने campaign चलाई कि सब अपने अपने home office बना के बैठे तो जो आप अपना home office बना के बैठे उसमें अगर हमारे brand की एक सस्ती लिए तस्वीर लेके भेजे and we will give you a massive prize. Great great integration. Yeah. Perfect you know moment marketing as well and yeah. Yeah yeah. एक बिल्कुल natural integration नहीं कि वो product ही आपका इस चीज़ का है तो लाज़मी home office में कहीं ना कहीं इस्तेमाल हो रहा होगा that's a loyalty campaign की जो customers है उनके पास product है वो ही कर सकते है but unfortunately these are I can think of maybe you know five examples of actual loyalty campaigns or maybe one example of a real consideration campaign. It's all either awareness or purely conversion. But even the conversion is being dressed up like awareness. So what the hell are we doing? Yeah,

Muzamil

Unfortunately. कौन मैं देखिए थोड़ा सा मैं switch करता हूं. Yeah बिल्कुल. Tell me a little bit about Dastagir. This this is where you're currently working? बिल्कुल. Yeah. And, what's what's that all about? Because, I mean, all I heard is there's a startup that got a bunch of cash. It's a B2B startup यह पिछला जो एक साल है particularly with बहुत सारे नाम है but you know यह जो e commerce की site के ऊपर और इसके ऊपर बड़े मज़े मज़े के हुए हैं. But I tried to search for it and I couldn't understand a lot of what you guys are doing. So just sort of think of me as your six year old cousin. बिल्कुल sir. And he's like, सैबाई, सैबाई आप करते क्या हो ना?

Guest

मुज़मिल भाई हम मंजन बेचते हैं. ठीक है? पहले हम table के इस तरह बेचते थे अब हम उस तरफ बैठ के अपने आप को बेचते हैं. तो it's B to B e commerce. E commerce तो आपको पता है. दराज है ये सब कुछ है right? वहाँ से आप shampoo मंगाते हैं, आप ठीक कपड़े मंगाते हैं और वो B to C है, business to consumer. यहाँ पे B to B ऐसा है कि Pakistan में तकरीबन बीस लाख underserved retailers हैं. Retailer यानी किरियाना, पान की दुकान, दूध की दुकान जहा से याद रखे सौदा खरीदते हैं. कि जी आप तो दूरदराज से बैठे हैं ठीक है लांडी के अंदर. दूसरी बात यह है कि यह volume is not big enough for me, right? आप एक वक़्त दो carton खरीदते हैं मैं तो पचास carton से कम बात ही नहीं करता. Right. तो you are out of my list. वहां से वो माल खुद उठाता है फिर वो वापस आता है just to have the inventory he needs to run his business. Right. Right? और ये naturally बहुत major problem है और बीस लाख छोटा amount नहीं है. Overall जो retail का space है Pakistan में and by our estimates it's valued at about a $120,000,000,000. ठीक है. Right? So, that's an insane opportunity, right? Right. और इस core disruption की बहुत सख़्त ज़रूरत है. हां. क्योंकि जब यह दुकानदार है, किरियाना दुकानदार Pakistan में हमारी economy चला रहा right? तो that was the whole point कि हमें retailer को empower करना है और हमने app बनाया है जिसके ज़रिए वो तरास के जैसे ही वो अपना order place करता है कि मुझे coke के पचास carton चाहिए, मुझे फलां Alper के दस carton चाहिए. Right. एक पूरी marketplace है. उसको तमाम चीज़ें दुकान में रखी जाती हैं. He finds all of his goods in that one stop shop solution. हम last mile delivery भी करते हैं. ठीक है. और हमारे sorting centers हैं. हम कराची और लौहौर दोनों शहरों में active हैं. Already हम बीस हज़ार customer भी serve कर चुके हैं. So tell me, tell me just.

Muzamil

If I understand this correctly, there is दराज़ which is basically a platform marketplace where the seller comes and the buyer come and they sort of have that relationship and you work as a ledger, right? आपका यह वाला model है या आपका यह वाला model है कि you work as a marketplace brand where the seller comes and you and and buyer के लिए ना you it's usually the राज़ में it's not the राज़ essentially.

Guest

True. The राज में it's basically the the seller. Yeah. और आप उसको वो करें. Yeah. मैं अगर आता यहाँ पर तो क्या मेरे पास allpers multiple बेचने वाले हैं? अभी तक नहीं. या एक allpers है पीछे से आप भेज छह लोगों से source करें. जी फ़िलहाल एक है लेकिन actual business model यही है अभी तो एक साल हुआ है. ठीक है. पूरी maturity पर आने के बाद यह अगला step यही है कि हमें complete marketplace model पर आना है. ठीक है. कि यह बेशक all पर के ही दस vendor होंगे. ठीक है. Right? जो अलग अलग we have relationships with manufacturers in many cases we have relationships with distributors and wholesalers. तो एक value chain already है. Right. ठीक है वो ज़माने से हमने उस value chain को नहीं हिलाया है उसी को digitize कर रहे हैं. उसी के अंदर रहते हुए. Warehouse is expensive. It's expensive. Right? वह जब तक आप scale ही नहीं है तो why? Yeah. So this is what we're doing. हमारे sorting center आप आऐंगे. आपके living room में थोड़ा सा बड़ा है. हां. लाख के अलावा. हां. Because it's asset light, right? Yeah. OC छोटे से sorting centers में से millions of dollars are being delivered every month. So clearly we are doing something right. Right and the challenge is that how do we scale for all of these tech companies right. हमारे लिए ये है की sorting center क्योंकि हमें space की requirement उतनी नहीं है we can open ten tomorrow. Right. अब share की अलग अलग कोने में वन जाएंगे. Right. आप last mile के ऊपर cross cutting वहाँ पर कर सकते हैं. Right. So that's how it goes and a lot of cases supplier खुद first mile करता है. Right. कुछ cases में हम जाके उनसे लेके आते हम अपने sorting में उसको individual क्या चाहिए मुज़मिल का है ये सैफ का है

Muzamil

Right. Yeah. Very interesting because I feel like कि Food Panda did something very similar. Panda Mart? Panda Mart. हां. So what they did was कि essentially उन्होंने बजा what a lot of other people were doing was कि उन्होंने अपनी grocery apps launch करने शुरू की. Food पैना ने यह नहीं किया. उन्होंने कहा कि यार आओ और आकर connect हो जाओ हमारे से. Exactly. ठीक है? Exactly. और थोड़ा different इस तरह से था कि वह market में direct वन गए but मैं vertical integration की बात कर रहा Of course. कि यार आप as a singular you know supplier of groceries essentially metro से बड़ा हो जाएगा potentially आज से पांच आठ साल बाद अगर मैं खुद लेकिन खैर हुआ उस point तक पहुंचने के लिए उन्होंने कोई इतनी बड़ी कोई jump नहीं लगाने की कोशिश की And I think Pakistan में when it comes to tech companies और a lot of a lot of these tech startups, I feel like this sort of step by step problem solving approach is is really missing. अगर और उसको मैं personally यह बात बोलता हूं. मेरी tech tech industry बड़ी जान पहचान है तो please don't hate me for it. I'm not targeting you guys but I see a lot of article entrepreneurs. So a lot of these people who have read an article. Yeah. You know, IBS से graduate किए हैं और आप बोलते हैं यार, I wanna be like this

Guest

you know. I can already visualize this person.

Muzamil

Yeah and वह आकर आपको बताएगा कि you know और अच्छा वह numbers भी ऐसे throw करेगा IBA वाले ना IBLMs वाले वहां आकर कहते हैं I'll tell you exactly what happened this I did this and you know इस तरह इस तरह हुआ and उसने इतनी company बेच दी और वह, you know, लाखानी का था और वह इसका था. And so they're sitting down thinking of an idea that will make them rich. Exactly. More often than not, a great idea is not one that will get you money. A great idea is one that solves a very fundamental problem. Precisely. Sort of what Dustigir is doing when Precisely. And I I feel like, if I understand this correctly, Dustigir came out when it was peak COVID. Yeah. That's right. Peak lockdown.

Guest

So we have no option but you know I am just sitting here shutter खोल के मैं बैठा हुआ हूँ मेरे पास पांच चीज़ें हैं अगर कुछ वो चीज़ें ही होगी तो वो ले लेगा. So there was there was a blatant you know very clear opportunity these guys were airlift so they had the experience of building tech for moving people Right? वह एक अलग किसाम का logistics ही है. हां. तो it was easy for them to connect the dots के यार हम इस core technology के साथ यह solve कर सकते हैं और we can potentially, you know, aim to solve it. You see this model sprouting up and developing markets worldwide. Right. Right, you have Grossari in The Philippines, you have Ula in Indonesia, you have Soco watch in Africa, they are in like six countries. और ये क्यों हो रहा है? क्योंकि ये problem global मसला है. हाँ. Global मसला है कि trade जहा पे fragmented है.

Muzamil

ना. इनका तो जो ज़ाहिर आपके साथ बहुत बेहतर पता होगा but इनका जो जो जो supply और distribution का भी model है वो बहुत ज़्यादा जुगाड़ के ऊपर चल रहा होता है वो किस किस्म का credit है, किस्म का क्या है? बहुत देशी है. You know. तो

Guest

और अगर इस पर उनको credit मिल जाए ना and there is nothing like it. Yeah. So we going to give them a buy now pay later solution and it's going to be launched in our app very soon कि वह checkout के time पर they can just select credit. Right. अगर उनकी एक order history वगैरह बनी हुई and then they can pay it, pay that invoice in thirty days, in fourteen days. Very interesting. It's basically lending, it's micro lending and it's underwritten by an Islamic bank because it has to be शाहिया compliant. तो वह suit भी नहीं दे रहे हैं. They pay a flat premium fee and then that way उनको उनका काम rolling भी होता है. Right? कि भाई आज मैं ये माल खरीदूंगा बीस हज़ार का मैं ये बेचूँगा मैं चौबीस हज़ार रुपए कमाऊंगा let's say. तो उन पैसों से फिर मैं pay off. Have you, have you guys,

Muzamil

seen the अखबाद program जो कोई Kariana Yeah, support program

Guest

exactly exactly. So that I believe is more about like economic empowerment and stuff, Yes.

Muzamil

A lot of what they're doing is कि they're basically, you know, they're setting up a lot of these new dukaner Yeah. And whatnot, Sara Kasara. Yeah. Do you think at some point you could add value there by because what what's happening is, let's say, a thousand new Kariana dukans are being set up every every month Yeah. Through a कोवध. And so every time that करियाना दुकान is being set up all over these random sporadically popping up here and there,

Guest

जो first problem उस करियान दुकान के दुकान वाले को आएगा, वह यही आएगा कि मुझे पैसा तो आ गया. माल कहां से आएगा? बिल्कुल बिल्कुल. Right and so that part essentially could be I feel like the partnered solution for you guys could be very interesting. That would be very cool. अभी तो फ़िलहाल हमारी सोच सिर्फ ये है कि again जो मैं आपको बता रहा था existing opportunity क्या है? बीस लाख वो retailers है जो underserved है. ठीक है? Actual number से भी तो बीस लाख को हम इनको हमें बीस लाख underserved है? हाँ इनको हमें fulfill करना है और अभी हम देख रहे है मतलब I have testimonials of customers talking about how like one guy one guy that stands out talks about how with तस्तगीर he is now able to run two stores. Right. जो वो पहले कर ही नहीं सकता था और वो दोस्त ही चला रहा है क्योंकि अब उसको दुकान से निकलने की ज़रूरत नहीं है ना. वो wholesale market जाने वाला चक्कर खत्म हो right that's gonna be huge. अभी होगा यह कि buy now मेरे

Muzamil

दिमाग में यहाँ pop कर रहे हैं. Mean, आंके हैं. मुझे यह सारे notes email करें. मैं सिर्फ यह सोच रहा हूँ कि यार आपका अगर यह solution already आपका अगर सामान आप सारा provide करना चाहिए. जी जी. You know like if you are the one who is distributing and you get access to क्या बिक रहा है कब बिक रहा है and you automate that process so then you bring them on to POS then you make that the life of the क्रियाना दुकान much more easier and now they don't even have to place the order. That's the game हमने उसको technology से घेरना अरे आप तो game इतनी बड़ी खेल रहे है sir. मैंने तो अभी realize किया है. दुकानदार को हमें technology से घेरना है. Right? हां. कि fintech जब उसको मिलेगा अब fintech मैंने आपसे अभी बात की buy now pay later which is very simple solution. Yeah. Simple problem.

Guest

In the grand scheme of things. अगर उस बंदे को आपने लाख रुपए या डेढ़ लाख रुपए कभी loan दे दिया उसकी तो दुनिया बदल गई. है सही है. Right? वो fridge खरीद सकता है, वो मज़ीद छलते लगा सकता है, वो counter को improve कर सकता है, he can add new categories. वो उसकी bottom line बढ़ रही है, उसकी top line बढ़ रही है और उसकी जो हम GDP की contribution की बात कर रहे थे उसकी contribution बढ़ रही है. So if we empower and uplift this Korean segment imagine what that unlocks with the economy as a whole.

Muzamil

Yeah. Right? My god. I I don't know if you guys are able to catch this, but this is I hope not too. What these guys are doing is this is fascinating stuff, particularly in not not just what they're doing right now, but where they're gonna be going. And now I can imagine the the series A numbers and the series C numbers and the series C numbers because the the pie is just huge. The pie is huge. Seth, thank you so much. I mean, we're at the hour and five minute mark. I I generally try to cut cut stuff off at No. Of course. One hour. But, you know, if you guys like the conversation, let me know what parts you like, what parts you hated, whatever it is. Give let me know in the comment section. And particularly if you would like, to come back again and talk about something, what would that be? But सैफ thank you so much for all of this. मुझे दुख इस बात का पता हो रहा है कि हमने दस्तगीर को बहुत late explore किया है because I feel like there is just so क्योंकि at start I was just like यार दस्तगीर B2B. Sounded boring. और आप भी बोल रहे शुरू किया और आप भी हो रहे now I am just like यार what a wasted opportunity but I would love to have you again. For sure, sure. You so much for all the insight. Thank you sir, it was a pleasure. And for all of you guys thank you so much for इसी के साथ हाथ easy पैसा jazz cash somewhere appear हो रहा है. You can send in anything you like. We we accept 1 rupee or 5,000 rupees, whatever you guys send. It's a thought that counts. But anyways, this is साहिम इस अहमदाबाद से ज़ैदी. You are watching ThoughtBind Things. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next one.