Mustafizur Rahman Khan: Founder & CEO, Startup Dhaka

A Successful Blend of Versatility

Mustafizur Rahman Khan, Founder and CEO of Startup Dhaka is an entrepreneur, angel investor, Tedx speaker and a VC partner with over 22 years of experience of heading teams across diverse industries in Asia. He is Investing in early-stage startups in Bangladesh; managing startup accelerator and incubator programs, marketing, portfolio management; entrepreneurial community development through startup Dhaka.

Mustafizur Rahman Khan
Founder & CEO, Startup Dhaka

Motivation behind Startup Dhaka

Completing undergrad from Coe College in Bachelor of Arts & Business Administration in 1996, Mustafizur Rahman Khan completed his Masters from Nanyang Business School in 2005. He served 7 years in HSBC Singapore as SVP in marketing department. Later he left job in 2013 and came back to Dhaka to launch his own company, Startup Dhaka. Alongside the company Startup Dhaka, he is the managing partner of IDLC venture capital fund.
Back in 2013, nobody was aware about start-up activity in Bangladesh because the concept was unfa-miliar to people. Startup Dhaka along with few other companies started to promote entrepreneurship as an option to pursue ones career. Slowly people started to look at the existing market gaps and came up with scaleable solution in Bangladesh. People started to realise that no economy in the world can accommodate young graduates with enough employment opportunities. There is always a mis-match in supply and demand of jobs, causing large scale youth unemployment. Startup Dhaka team wanted to address this problem by creating an inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystem that promotes skills training and funding access to innovators and under respresented markets in Bangladesh in order drive economic growth.

Vision and Startup Ecosystem Development Process

Mustafizur’s vision was to build an ecosystem that is digitally driven. Through his platform Startup Dhaka, he tries to raise awareness among people about startups. Startup Dhaka is a platform that connects entrepreneurs, tech talent and investors through events, content, and venture acceleration. Over last 5 years, it has worked with over 1500+ startups, hosted 35+ over major startup events, arranged funding for over 68+ startups Their company is made in Bangladesh for Bangladeshi startups who faces unique challenges in the local market.
In recent past, the Government has played a significant role in making a solid foundation path for startups. Government digital approach is taking the country through a digital transformation. For instance, introduction of 3G and later the roll of 4G connectivity opened up the doors to various local digital services like Shohoz, Pathao, Bongo, Sheba.syz, etc. However, access to growth capital to scale such businesses are limited as Bangladesh is yet to offer Venture Capital fund. To support such startups, founders of Startup Dhaka have also partnered with IDLC to launch a venture capital fund to support emerging and growth stage technology companies with smart capital.

Adjusting with the new lifestyle

There were certain tradeoffs to begin the journey with Startup Dhaka which included giving up a 6 digit salary and a secured life which every person can dream for. However, after working for seven years in financial institution, he sought newer challenge. Fortunately for him, there was no peer or family pressure, they were all very supportive throughout his journey. When he started on this road there was no blueprint or local experts to seek help from because startup was a budding space. Mustafizur saw how the economy of the west transformed from analog to digital in the early 90s. He predicts Bangladesh will have same kind of transformation and he just wanted to be there when it happens. Fortunately for him, the changes are happening, the country is an inflection point where many of its sector will be transformed by digital connectivity from health, agriculture, education etc.
However, the new economy demands new kind of culture, work attitude, mindset and talent. These requirements from startup culture are very different compared to large organisations. Startups move fast and scale very quickly through a continuous cycle of experiments. Often times they fail also very fast, where the biggest business learning takes place. Since startups are constantly building, it brings new challenges to the teams as well as rewarding learning opportunities for these new knowledge workers.

Stumbling Blocks for Startups

Doing business anywhere in the world is tough, it is a lonely journey. Fortunately founders of Startup Dhaka are united by the same mission which made their journey a little more bearable. Every day is challenging for them but they have unique knowledge related to how the technology space works in Bangladesh. That insight cannot be found in books neither can it be replicated from Silicon Valley. One needs experience of operating with limited resources, solving problem for real customers, scaling business and facing investors to secure fund to thrive in the context of Bangladesh. These insights have helped the Startup Dhaka team to navigate the emerging sector. Mustafiz commented that humans are social animals and that people tend put a lot of value on what others perceive. Being human everyone has to deal with positives and negatives all the time. The way people attach value to certain things, will determine how they will prosper in life. If someone fails, es-pecially in the case of an entrepreneurs and others comment negatively, it definitely has a negative consequence for them. In such cases in startup environments, Mustafiz advised young founders to be strong and not let any negativity affect them. Words can indeed be very powerful and thereby, it is wise not to place too much value on what people say, most importantly, they should not be defined by those words.

Contribution to the startup ecosystem

If anyone search about startups in Bangladesh in Google, first name that comes in the list is Startup Dhaka. Over the years they have build a track record to be in this position. Startup Dhaka started their journey through a documentary called ‘Start Dhaka” which captured people’s imagination. Their film had such an impact on some people that they left their job in Canada or USA and came back to Bangla-desh to start their own company. This goes to show the impact of a powerful story.