Enterprenuer
Salman Lakhani, the founder, and CEO of Cubix, is a full-stack development company.
Salman was born and raised in Karachi.
He would later graduate from the University of Staffordshire in Computing.
Salman was born to a Gujrati family and is naturally an entrepreneur.
He held various key positions in prominent Karachi technology companies, but he founded Cubix in 2008.
Salman continued to put his business sense and traditional business understanding into practice.
Salman is an expert in mobile app development and product strategy.
Pivots and extraordinary success marked his journey to serial entrepreneurship.
Cubix is his ultimate success with its physical presence in Florida, Karachi, and Dubai.
What is the story of Cubix?
This industry has been my home for over 20 years. I was employed by companies based primarily in the US for the first four to five years.
I was aware that there was a distinction between the Pakistani and US markets.
I am familiar with the culture of Pakistan and have had the opportunity to work with American customers.
There were other factors as well. So, I was able to develop a solution that would work for US customers.
They’re looking for talent, and Pakistan is entire.
The platform I created was able to provide development services for US clients.
We started small. What does it mean to be a family business?
Aside from that, I am also part of a Gujrati business family.
I was able to see my family members involved in different types of businesses, many times running small or medium-sized enterprises.
Gujratis are proud to be in business. Although they may not have run huge companies, their business was consistently profitable, even small.
My dad has been in business. My grandma has a company.
My mom has a business. Business is something that I have seen my mom do.
How do you stay productive?
Three things are essential for business and to have a productive day.
Plan your day, execute it, and then at the end, review what you did and see if you achieved your goals.
You can plan and execute if you have a plan. Without a plan, you can’t measure your progress.
These are the three main things. You must have a plan.
Although you don’t need to follow that plan, you must create one, at least in the form of a list.
You can accomplish your tasks and move on to tomorrow.
You can move forward with lessons not completed in the current day’s schedule.
Planning is essential for me, even for a specific date.
How do you bring ideas to life?
Discussion, brainstorming, and execution.
It is important to brainstorm with people who can offer you constructive advice.
Discuss your ideas with all stakeholders.
What is an argument to me? It’s a solution.
That’s it. It’s impossible to beat an idea.
As an entrepreneur, I believe an entrepreneur can solve a problem.
You need good people to help you do this. Talk to all stakeholders.
Do your research and brainstorm. Even if you do your homework correctly, there is still a chance that you will fail.
You are lucky and successful because you made the right decisions.
But don’t ever think that every decision will be correct.
Don’t take chances with a wrong decision. You will learn the hard way.
That’s how things come to life. Talk with people and discuss with stakeholders.
What’s your favorite trend?
Innovation is what I love, by the way. I love the current state of things and consider myself very fortunate to have been born in this century.
This is an innovation century, where everything moves quickly, and we can take advantage of the latest technologies and trends.
Blockchain tech is one technology that will change the course and future of our lives.
It will revolutionize the way our healthcare system works.
It will transform the way our government functions.
It will change the way our economy operates. It will revolutionize everything, even software.
It is something I am looking forward to. I’m not talking about cryptocurrency or any other specific thing, but everything connected to the blockchain concept.
It’s been around for 5-6 years, and I am excited about what it will do.
In the following year, many things will change.
What habits make you productive?
Never give up. You can succeed even if you fail.
But if you can pivot and keep going, you are a good person.
These are my two strengths. It’s not like I haven’t seen obstacles; I have seen them so often that I try to fix them and pivot the idea back from where it started.
You know that plans are made and executed, but they may not work out as you planned.
We have witnessed the Covid 19 situation, and the world is changing.
It was something we never considered. There are many companies out there, many people have lost their jobs, revenues have dropped, and countries now have different economies.
Many airlines have been reported to be in decline.
If you can learn how to pivot from this or anything, you can either make or take advantage.
We did precisely that. We faced a similar situation last year.
In that case, we decided to pitch fixed-sized projects to outsourced resources.
Because they were charging a lot and were not permitted to open offices, this model attracted many people to invest.
Their resources were required to work remotely.
We offered them the same thing, but at a fraction of the cost.
I see this: if you can pivot, you can improve the industry and your situation.
What’s your advice for the Noob?
Do whatever you want. Do what you love, no matter what you do.
What is one thing we can all agree on?
There are many things I can offer you. Nobody will believe me if I say I’m stuck in traffic for hours on Sharah-e-Faisal Karachi.
If I’m in Pakistan, I will tell them that I was there, and they’ll believe me. Both of these are facts.
What do you recommend as an entrepreneur?
Hire smart people. This is my number one mantra for success.
Number two, you must ensure that your product is built for any business.
This is how I do it and how it works in real life.
It would help if you made the prototype, created a minimum viable product (an MVP), tested it on the market, and then published it for commercial launch.
This is how I did it. This is how I did it.
We are still waiting for the launch of some of our products.
However, we have already built our MVP around this.
The product will be launched in a few months.
The idea behind this is first to launch the products, then get feedback from them, implement them, and finally launch commercially.
This is what I do all the time and what I recommend to everyone.
Hire the best people. Even if the cost is prohibitive, you can still find the best people.
They will offer you the best advice and get you to where you need to go.
What’s your rich strategy?
It’s an easy business strategy. I know two things personally that matter: building processes and building them when I made this company.
While I don’t claim to have created micro-processes, I did build the macro functions.
These include the roles of the sales and marketing teams, production, operations, and other aspects of the macro process.
Once these processes have been completed, you will see how important they are.
A process is essential for me and any business I build.
The next thing every CEO and entrepreneur needs is the ability to inspire their employees.
He cannot be a leader who fails to inspire his people.
While I don’t claim that I will encourage the entire nation or even the company, I believe that if you can speak with your heart, your message will reach the right people.
Trust me. You have to explain, talk and interact with your people.
Even if they believe you made the right decision, people will doubt it.
If your voice is not clear and you cannot communicate with your team, you will find a completely different environment.
How do you overcome Failure?
It was trust. Trust is something I have always valued.
This is probably my natural tendency, but trusting too much can lead to bad decisions.
It happened to me three or four times.
Can you share a business idea?
The simple advice for entrepreneurs is to look around and find a problem.
Entrepreneurs can see these problems, and you can find a solution.
We’ve seen many people in Pakistan, particularly in the Thar region.
People who live without electricity are now using green technology with solar panels and other things.
These things will change everything for both the entrepreneur and the people around him.
If you spot any problems, you should try to solve them.
This is all there is to entrepreneurship.
What’s your recent best buy?
My wife and I had dinner together. This was a date we had recently.
What are your favorite Softwares or Apps?
It’s Gsuite. It is, and G Suite. I can’t live without spreadsheets, presentations, or Gmail.
It is an integral part of my professional life.
Which book would you recommend?
A Brief History Of Time, Stephen Hawking. This book was written because I am passionate about mathematics and physics.
This book is for people who want to learn more about the thinking of some of the most outstanding scientists and those who are interested in the answers they have to the questions. This book won’t disappoint.
What’s your favorite quote?
“A Dream is Not the Thing You See in Your Sleep” is my favorite quote. I think that everyone should read this quote. This is a quote that has inspired me for years.
APJ Abdul Kalam
TL;DR by Salman Lakhani
Ideas are brought to life by discussions, brainstorming, and execution.
It is important to brainstorm with people who can offer you constructive advice.
One technology that will change the life course is blockchain tech.
You can be productive as an entrepreneur by having a habit of never giving up.
You’re a good entrepreneur if you have failed at something but can pivot and keep going with your idea.
Entrepreneurial advice: Hire smart people and hire more intelligent people than you.
This strategy has been proven to be successful in growing your business: Building processes and communicating with my employees.
