From Student to Innovator - The Story of Nabeel Siddiqui

From Student to Innovator — The Story of Nabeel Siddiqui

Hassan Azam

Muhammad Tahir

@Hamza Ahmed

It was a quiet summer afternoon. A group of us had arranged a Skype meeting with one of the up and coming entrepreneur, Mr. Nabeel Siddiqui. This meeting was especially important for us since he was someone that we had observed really closely and admired deeply. So, we were waiting eagerly for his call. Finally, the moment came. We greeted him warmly and ecstatically. He too seemed to be in a good mood. So, after the formalities were done with, we finally got down to business, that is, to take as much information out of him as possible. Only we called it an interview so as not to appear hostile. We structured the interview such that part of it consisted of questions related to his personal life, part of it consisted of queries about his business, and part consisted of questions about the change his startup had brought, both in the society, as well as in his personal life. So, the first question asked for a short introduction of himself, that is who is Nabeel Siddiqui? Unexpectedly, he was very humble in answering it. He told that he comes from the prestigious NED University of Engineering and Technology. By education, he is a Civil Engineer. But, the inception of an innovative and creative housing solution idea in his mind saw him take up the role of an entrepreneur, which finally combined him with his passion. After that, he just decided to take that idea forward and the rest, as they say, is history. After this question the talk took a more professional turn, as we asked him about ModulusTech and what it stands for. Now, the story that lead to the inception of the idea was as interesting as it was emotional. He told that idea basically came during the Syrian refugee crisis, which saw scores of people being displaced and being forced to live without proper utilities and amenities, which not only created a humanity crisis, but also started a lethal wave of epidemics which saw many people die completely avoidable deaths. So, observing all of this, he pointed out a vital problem. That is, the lack of a swift, sustainable, and cost-effective housing solution. So, he took it upon himself to solve this problem and started ModulusTech, which offered a product that takes surprisingly only 3 hours to build from scratch, is extremely low cost, and is sustainable in every way. After this, we all were a bit overwhelmed by the solution as we all saw its potential impact. But, we gathered our wits and asked him about the business model that the company currently runs on. He was humble enough to answer that question in detail as well. He told that currently it is based on direct sales and leasing options. But he had some great plans in the future, including reaching out to the governments who are in need of a low-cost, and sustainable housing solutions, and offer them their products. After that we asked that if he had some long-term plans that he would like to share with us. Greatly enough he did, and he was eager to share them with us.

When the discussion came to the question of value proposition of ModulusTech, it was like Mr. Nabeel was patiently waiting for that question and as soon we asked it, he started loading us with details. Some of the features he offered included:

· A cheap, flat-packed & sustainable housing product

· Easy to transport & easy to build

· Includes all the utilities

· 50% reduced carbon emissions (compared to conventional housing)

· Earthquake proof housing

· And many more

Nabeel was keen here to highlight the innovation on their part, by telling us that their methodology is state-of-the-art and they have also taken out patents based on the parts that they used to build the product. Needless to say, we were quite impressed. This curiosity also forced to ask about which customer segment will he be catering to? He told that his main customers are 3 markets, which he referred to as the following:

· B to B (Business to Business) Market

· B to G (Business to Government) Market

· B to C (Business to Consumer) Market

According to him right now he is targeting mostly B to B and B to G markets through direct sales but they also have some plans to move to insurance housing and other fields in the near future. This certainly created some excitement and interest on our part as to what products will we see in the future from ModulusTech.

Okay, so enough of all this business talk, we decided to focus on ModulusTech as an organization and what culture and what work environment is prevalent there. So we asked Nabeel, that how he ensures that he hires employees who care about the company as much as he does? He said that he looked for people who:

a. believe in the cause of ModulusTech

b. believe in the impact that they’re trying to create.

He personally believes that such people are self-motivated, passionate, and give their best at all times. He was also keen to highlight that they must have discipline and should follow the “Code of Conduct” of the company. Naturally, the next question was that how such employees have helped make ModulusTech what it is today and how they played a role in its success. Nabeel was again vocal in highlighting the role of their employees in the remarkable progress of ModulusTech. He told that they always give their best and go beyond their jobs and roles to bring innovative and creative ideas to the table. One specific example was of the CFO, whose main job was to handle accounts and finance, but he went on to create an accounting software that automated a significant amount of work and made the management of the accounts easier and more convenient. This all painted a very positive picture of ModulusTech in our minds, and the thought of joining ModulusTech as an employee was not a far-fetched one for us, so we inherently asked about what specific skills Nabeel and his co-founders look for when hiring people. He pointed out some specifics, including:

a. must be aligned in the cause and impact of ModulusTech

b. must be hardworking

c. must be willing to learn, more than anything

d. must be efficient

Now, this interested us, as we thought we had a chance since the aching requirement of “Extraordinary Qualifications” was absent from the list. Nabeel was quick to correct us that he does look over the qualifications of the candidates but as ModulusTech is still a start-up, he values will-to-learn more than anything, giving his own example, that when they started out, they were 3 engineering graduates, completely oblivious to the laws and study of business. But as they went on, they learned the ways of the business, as well as other non-engineering aspects of the company. This question ended with a sigh of relief on our part.

Now the discussion had motivated us all quite a bit. We were thinking of all the entrepreneurs and how we too can have our own start-up and live the entrepreneur life. So, we asked Nabeel that what does he thinks are the 3 key requirements for an entrepreneur. Nabeel was kind enough to answer in a list, which included:

· Perseverance

· Being smart

· Innovative Thinking.

He heavily stressed on the last bit as he told us,

“You need to think of new, innovative ways of doing things. Because millions of people are doing what you’re doing and they might even have better products. So there’s always room for improvement, if not the product, then your business model, or the way you reach your customers….”

We keenly noted all the points and personally decided to make these our motto.

Now, our discussion turned towards a dark period in the history of ModulusTech. That is, the major challenges ModulusTech had to face and the way the team coped up with them. When asked, Nabeel answered readily, pointing to the initial stages of ModulusTech. Surprisingly, he also offered a justification he had in his mind regarding these challenges. That was they knew they were doing something completely new and something which has never been done before. So, they were ready for these challenges. He further said that they did not have any guidebook or manual which they could refer to in case of any trouble. So, they kept learning things as they went on. One specific example that he highlighted was during the initial stages of ModulusTech, they once procured a sub-standard material and they did not test out the product themselves, rather relied on the product specifications. And they had imported it in large amounts. So, when they went found out about the mishap, they immediately reached out to the provider in order to return the product. Thankfully, the retailer was kind enough to take the consignment back, but as he said, if he wouldn’t have taken back the consignment, there could have been some serious problems. This struck us quite significantly, as it highlighted an aspect of entrepreneurship which is neither glamorous nor desirable, but nonetheless, unavoidable. So, now we all knew, that startup is not just something you initiate in a day. It takes years of struggle and perseverance on part of both the founders and the employees.

Now, after such a gloom-ridden question, we took the conversation towards a lighter side, and asked about a typical day in Nabeel’s life as co-founder of MT. He was keen to highlight the dynamic nature of his routine. As he said in his own words:

“Roz kuch nayi cheez hoti he, Roz koi alag alag meetings hoti hen. Kabhi factory pe hote hen. But ak chez constant he k apko har roz atleast 18 ghante dene par jate hen…”

Our reaction was that of someone who had seen a ghost. We repeated, “18 ghante!?” and he very casually replied, “Yeah…” giving the example of the day we interviewed him. He ended the answer with

“Anything could happen tomorrow. Things we didn’t expect, happened. So, it’s very dynamic…”

The next question was more of personal nature, as we inquired Nabeel that how does he manage time for his family since becoming an entrepreneur. He starting words very suitably summarize his whole answer:

“Mushkil hota he…”

He further told us the reasons of this hardship, as he believed that due to the ill-knowledge among people regarding start-ups, and the uncertainty around it, family almost always remains concerned. He told that sometimes parents have certain expectations from their child and when the child chooses entrepreneurship, they think that he is throwing away his career, so convincing them that this is not the case, is also not an easy task. Plus, other activities such as socializing etc. also take up a large chunk of his time, so it gets tough managing time for family.

So now, after some light-hearted questioning, we once again asked a rather serious question from Nabeel. It was in regards to fear, and how Nabeel makes sure that he and his employees manage this menace effectively. In his answer, he highlighted the importance of taking calculated risks, stating that fear is everywhere, but the best way to manage it is through taking calculated risks. Furthermore, he also shined upon the fact that no matter what a person does, there is always the fear of how he/she will do a certain thing that he/she has never done before. So, the strategy he personally uses to conquer this type of fear is to just go ahead and do the task, giving the example of his well received talk which he gave recently at TEDxNEDUniversity. Throughout his answer, one thing was absolutely certain, and that was taking blind risks should be avoided at all cost.

After this, we once again decided to shed some light on the business aspect of MT, specifically how Nabeel and his co-founders got around obtaining funds for MT, and where did the majority of the funds come from. He highlighted 2 major challenges in getting funding for MT:

a. Pakistan not being a start-up friendly society

b. MT was a hardware startup. VCs are more inclined towards software solutions and products.

Thus, Nabeel and his co-founders expected their funding to be tough to find and quite thin in volume. But, opposite to their expectations, they got several attractive offers. But then again, keeping in mind their global ambition, those offers seemed meager. The light-in-the-darkness for them in this period of hardship, were the grants that they successfully secured. Nabeel was vocal in highlighting the roles those grants played in sustaining MT and how they helped them move forward and focus on the developmental aspect. Furthermore, the same grants allowed them to reach higher evaluation by the VCs, which in turn brought them more attractive offers from VCs, both from Pakistan and abroad. His answer ended on a positive note.

Now, after getting to know about myriad of difficulties and challenges that MT had to go through, we were compelled to ask Nabeel, that what was it that kept them inspired and motivated throughout the whole journey? Here, he took the chance of highlighting the impact as well as the end goal of their product, that they all consider this product to be one of the most important invention in history. Plus, he also stated that the spirit of tackling different problems, and taking things forward, is what keeps them motivated and inspired as whole. As a personal inspiration, he gave the example of the Wright Brothers, and drew some similarities between them and the ModulusTech team. He said,

“…because they were able to achieve the first manned flight, without having much resources. Koi ksi k pas college degree nhi thi. Aj ki dunya men dekhen to, we’ve only got Bachelor’s degree. We haven’t got Ph.D. degrees, or the resources of a foreign university or a big corporation yet we were able to do some research ourselves and develop a product that meets the criteria.”

He ended the answer on a lighter note, saying that they had never thought that they will be able to do it, and they still sometimes wonder. Finally, he also mentioned the help one gets from Allah, when he/she tries to do something good.

Next question was a tad bit in relation to the previous one, when we inquired Nabeel about the specific aspect of the entrepreneur life he finds the most attractive. He readily answered:

“It’s really dynamic…”

He also highlighted the level of control one practices in a start-up environment, is hard to find elsewhere. Plus, the thrill of it all, and the stress seems to attract Nabeel to a great extent. Here, he also drew some comparisons between employment and entrepreneurship, highlighting the repetitive nature of employment, as compared to the dynamic environment of entrepreneurship. This was expected and it was refreshing to know that Nabeel enjoyed the freedom and the control of a dynamic work environment.

Now this naturally brought us to the question of employment vs. entrepreneurship. Nabeel did state that he may not be the best candidate to comment on this, as he did not work in the corporate environment long enough to get a true feel of it. But nonetheless, he did draw some valid comparisons between the two, focusing on the repetitive and controlling environment of a job, versus the dynamic and freedom-oriented environment of entrepreneurship. He also brought to attention the fact that in a job you have certain expectations to fulfill and certain responsibilities to look after. But in entrepreneurship, there are no expectations. The only expectation is that, you have to be ready to work on things that are not even remotely related to your field of expertise. This answer gave us all some perspective and we were keen to note the difference between the two occupations.

Moving on, the discussion came to the subject of company culture at MT. So, we asked Nabeel about the kind of culture that exists at MT? In his answer, he stressed upon the importance of transparency and open communication. He also gave an example of an organizational application, implemented at ModulusTech, which allows anyone to monitor the responsibilities of anyone else in the organization, including all the founders. Furthermore, in his opinion, open-communication allows for swift movement of ideas and issues and their solutions throughout the company hierarchy. He also gave an example of a conventional organization, which takes days, if not weeks to implement a simple solution, just because of the communication delay among the hierarchy. So Nabeel personally despises this and prefers a more open-communication among everyone in the company. Finally, he closed the answer by highlighting the importance of taking care of the employees, as he believes that employees are the main driving force behind a company.

With this, the discussion moved toward the hobbies of Nabeel as we inquired about his activities in his non-work time. We were positively intrigued to find out that Nabeel once used to play a guitar in a band back in the days, but due to university and now ModTech, he wasn’t able to find the time to play. He also highlighted activities like, reading, watching T.V., socializing and working out as a part of his leisure-time activities. Towards the end, Nabeel once again highlighted the enjoyable aspect of entrepreneurship that entrepreneurs enjoy their work and do not actually feel like they are missing out on anything.

Now after this, conversations once again turned personal and emotional, as we asked about the biggest sacrifice Nabeel had to give in order to guarantee the success of his start-up. His very readily answered:

“The biggest sacrifice that I think I made was not doing Masters’”

This also brought to light the importance of doing Masters’ in Nabeel’s life. Again, here he offered a justification to himself for giving up on his dream of doing Masters’ that he can always do Masters’ afterwards in life, but his start-up is more important and at the moment his priority should be ModulusTech rather than anything else. Down the line, Nabeel told, that his decision proved right, as the exposure he got from working in MT, he would not have obtained while doing Masters’. But his aspiration, as he made clear, was still there. We could certainly see the emotional struggle Nabeel had to go through to guarantee the success of his start-up. And this answer made it all the more evident.

Next questions was once again related to the corporate world as we asked Nabeel about the businesses he admires the most, and businesses and he looks towards. He was keen to highlight two specific businesses:

a. Apple, for their design thinking

b. IKEA, for their supply-chain management and business model

He certainly made clear the point that these two companies are the ones Nabeel personally learns a lot from and looks towards to look for solutions.

As the conversations moved to an end, we had 2 specific questions in mind for Nabeel. The first one being, that if he gets to start all over again, would he do anything differently. Nabeel, after thinking for some time, answered that he may choose to get more professional experience before finally moving on with his start-up. He thinks that experience could have provided him with some crucial insights and methodologies that would have proven beneficial to him and his startup. Plus, he also highlighted that he would have taken more elective subjects, related to business and accounting, which would have again, helped him in the startup.

Now the final question turned out to be a bit interesting. We asked Nabeel that is there any advice that he would like to give to college students who want to become entrepreneurs? We all expected a very straight-forward and concise answer. But contrary to our expectations Nabeel gave an unconventional and a holistic answer, that brought home the point of being an entrepreneur. He very abruptly said,

“I wouldn’t give them any advice, because I don’t want them to become entrepreneurs just for the sake of becoming an entrepreneur…:

He further brought to light, that mostly people only see the glamour when they look towards an entrepreneur. The people that are mostly associated with entrepreneurship include Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and the like. But in reality, things are very in-glamorous and the work is all about getting your hands dirty. He also said, that if someone is becoming an entrepreneur just for the sake of it, he would recommend him/her to not become an entrepreneur. Rather try something else. Do something different. He ended the answer that only if you are passionate about what you are doing, only then choose the entrepreneur life.

This was officially the end of the interview. We all paid our regards to Nabeel and bid him farewell, all the while wishing well for him and ModulusTech. And thus, this sitting ended.

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