The Role of Education in

Entrepreneurship

Naeem Zafar
www.NaeemZafar.com
University of California Berkeley
Concordia Ventures
Can Entrepreneurship be Taught?

• Not everyone is an entrepreneur

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Can Entrepreneurship be Taught?
• A structure to think through risks,
opportunities & outcomes maximizes
probability of success
– Market research
– Business models
– Team
– Go-to-market techniques

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 Education in Many Forms

• Boot-camp & workshops

• Meet-ups & networking

• Mentorship

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Innovation & Entrepreneurship

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 Five Pillars: Ecosystem of Innovation

1. Culture of collaboration
2. Alignment of incentives
3. Protection of intellectual property
4. Critical mass of talent & support infrastructure
5. Celebrate failure

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 Univ of Calif Berkeley-Haas
• Respect for professional faculty
• Collaboration with corporations & VC firms
• Intel-Berkeley international biz plan
competition
• Venture lab
• Mentorship hours
• Social entrepreneurship

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 Plenty of Innovation in MMC
1. Case studies:
– Mobile money for the unbanked (Amaana)
– Dial-tone & broadband for rural world (TIER)
– Tele-medicine (India, Pakistan)
2. Micro VC Model for the emerging economies
3. Creating MMC ecosystem of entrepreneurship

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Why Pakistan
• 180 Million people
• 54% under 18
• Naturally
entrepreneurs
• Lacking
opportunity

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 Mobile Payments in Emerging Markets
The Unbanked Mobile Users
No competition in a
predominantly cash economy →
potential to score big

The Banked
Mobile Users
All current
players are
focused here (Sources: Census bureaus, BMI, BCG reports)

Pakistan: 180M people, 7M banking, 94M mobile phones

 Enabling Payments Between Users
(With or Without Bank Accounts)

Make P2P Users pay bills, send money to

payments others, and shop through their
amaana account

Shop at
amaana
POS
merchants

Users add money to their

amaana account through an
agent
Pay bill and
make purchases
 Bring Broadband Inexpensively
• What if you could beam a wifi signal over 300 km at
1/10th the cost?
– Beam forming smart antennae
– 3 Berkeley PhDs (Project TIER) form Tarana
• Pilot in Ghana, India
• Dial tone & broadband
– For pennies
– Unlicensed spectrum

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 Tele-Medicine
• 30,000 patients served
after earthquake in
Pakistan from
Islamabad
• Aravind eye hospital
India
– 3000 patients per
month, 500K annually
– Doctor-to-doctor
network

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 How Telemedicine Works
3. Doctor conducts
consultation (video or
phone)
4. Patient Pays Fee
2. Find a Doctor,
(Doctor’s Price + 20%)
Book an Appt

1. Connect to the Internet

and log-in to home or
Pharmacy

Pays Doctor’s Fee and

Schedules Appt with Additional Pharmacy Fee,
Doctor if app.
Social SMS Networks

Pakistan
• Internet < 9%
• Cell phones > 60%
• No Internet Forums
• No mailing lists
• No Twitter groups
Social Network on Mobile Phones

Users join different

groups on Chopaal and
we deliver messages
sent to these groups

Messages sent by a user

are broadcast to
everyone interested in
the group
 Broadcast for Emergency,
Weather, Customer Feedback
Contextual Mobile CRM
Advertizing

Paid n-way SMS Paid Mobile Content

 Role of Mobile Phones = HUGE

• Rural entrepreneurship
– Information
– Technical know-how
– Collaboration

Fruit packaging, cheese making, crop rotation

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2007 collaboration Created BAP

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 BAP: Business Acceleration Plan
• Method:
– Selected ~30 applications
– In business for 3 years
– Minimum $200K in revenue
– Commitment from Board & CEO to participate

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 BAP Process in Pakistan
Mar Jun Aug Nov Jan

Pitch Silicon Trip to MIT

program, Valley
invite mentorship
companies starts Annual
Local conference
mentorship
starts

Final
Business
Plan
submitted

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 Results
• 2007 winner: Sofizar
– Business went from $800K annual revenue to $20M
plus, hired US based CEO, expanded focus
• 2008 winner: Sofcom
– SW for lab info management systems
– Opened office in Chicago, North Carolina
– Signed new US customers & got certification
• 2009 winner: Aerocar
– Makes electronic kiosks, ATM machines

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 Now What?
• Proposal to get into action
• Create ecosystem to empower
entrepreneurs
• Tell their stories
– Nothing boosts confidence more!

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 Ecosystem of Entrepreneurship
• Method of entrepreneurship
– Boot-camps, workshops, books
• Network of mentors
– Use Internet, video conferencing,
MentorSquare, TIE (www.tie.org)
• Access to seed capital
– Tax policy, angel funds, seed fund

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 Micro VC Model
Y-Combinator meets Survivor

• Created a model for MMC to jumpstart

entrepreneurship
a) Conduct 2-3 month boot camp in collaboration with an
educational institute
b) Teams to develop business plans
c) Select only ½ plans & provide seed funding
d) Cut ½ teams after 3 months, rest get additional seed
e) After 3 cuts, best survive, sustain or VC funding

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 Micro VC Model
Design $200K $1M to $3M Publicize $1M

1Q 2Q 3Q 4Q 5Q 6Q

Bootcamp Assist Publicize winners

2nd Cut
Additiona legal, at National Level
l $10K G2M
Register 200 Fund 100
teams Companies
4th cut
$10K each
$20K Graduate,
Take equity
additional seek outside
& board
funding
seats 3rd cut, $20K
each for rest

Eliminate weak Bet on

players Nurture
winners
 Summary
• Education for entrepreneurs comes in many
ways – not just the classroom
• MMC is ripe with entrepreneurs
• All they need is a little guidance & seed capital
• Tell the stories!

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