Three Failures Before Victory

Pakistani firms rejected Khan's idea, but the same idea won support from famed
international techies.
Sameer Ahmed Khan, the founder of locally developed website Social Champ, had three
failures under his belt before lady luck smiled at him and his current successful enterprise.
Although his current venture — a homegrown startup which provides comprehensive tools to
automate and manage your social media presence — is gaining traction, the success was
preceded by a series of ideas and products that failed.
Three failures before victory

His first misadventure was a gaming engine 'Game Chat' which could work across platforms to
develop video games and give people a chance to chat and play games simultaneously.
Despite three years of hard work the project did not launch, and with the release of the Unity
gaming engine, it stood no chance.
Sameer Ahmed Khan, Zohaib Ahmed Shakir and Shakir Ghani
Next was Educating Dreams, an app with a noble mission which aimed to connect street
children with organizations running charitable schools. The idea was simple: anyone wanting to
help a child in need would snap a photo, and the app would automatically mark its location and
report it to a charitable school.
Although the app was created with good intentions, it failed to pick up despite winning many
competitions. NGOs excused themselves from working with this app if other NGOs were
involved and street children routinely change their location, making it difficult to trace them after
first contact.
But Khan was stubborn and moved onto a third venture — RemindZapp, a tool for managing
reminders. This app, too, was decommissioned due to multiple problems that plagued its
growth, despite being accepted into the Google for Entrepreneurs backed The Nest I/O
incubator.
Enter Social Champ
Khan did not let the repeated failures discourage his dream. Why? In his words, “People only
need an excuse to hold them back from doing amazing things.”
At the age of 26, today he is the CEO and co-founder of Social Champ, a successful platform
which automates an individual's social media presence.
Why the app is useful:
When it comes to social media marketing, one is faced with a range of challenges
 identifying the correct time to post for reaching the maximum number of relevant
audience
 monitoring and tailoring your content to ensure maximum engagement and click-through
rates
 scheduling posts
 repeating posts,
 maintaining a strategy that is consistent with brand image.
Ironically, the journey of Social Champ began to take shape when Khan felt the need for better
management of his social media accounts while trying to promote his previous startup.
Tired of having to manually repeat each social media share or post at different times throughout
the day, Khan asked a friend, Zohaib Ahmed Shakir, to help design a tool which could re-post
the same thing at predetermined intervals in order to maximise reach.
Sameer and Guy Kawasaki
Khan then showed the idea to Pakistani tech website, TechJuice, which liked the idea and told
the budding entrepreneurs that their company would make use of their tool.
Sameer Ahmed Khan and Peg Fitzpatrick
Foreign techies take notice

Motivated by the positive feedback and workability of this project, Khan took a leap of faith and
emailed Guy Kawasaki, a US-based social media evangelist, who had been a close friend of
Apple’s Steve Jobs.
Kawasaki’s book, ‘The Art of Repeating’, had inspired Khan in the first place to explore and
tackle the need for a comprehensive social media management tool.
To his surprise, Kawasaki responded positively.
Although at this point, the tool itself had limited features, Khan recalls that Kawasaki’s
comments, feature requests and critical evaluation helped them grow to a fully functional social
media management tool that could compete against global market giants like HootSuite and
Buffer.
Kawasaki's response had proven the unconventional marketing strategy to be successful and
gave Khan the confidence to contact more social media marketing gurus, including the likes of
Ian Anderson Gray, Peg Fitzpatrick, Neal Schaffer, and Lyndsay Phillips. Khan received positive
responses from each of them.
Sameer Ahmed Khan and Jehan Ara
Pakistani investors are sceptical

Khan recalls reaching out to several famous Pakistani companies with the hope of getting the
breakthrough he had been seeking.
But to his dismay, Pakistani firms were sceptical of the very idea of a social media management
platform, and showed little or no interest in the idea or his abilities.
The trend of investing in start-ups has not picked up in Pakistan — something Khan learnt the
hard way.
Despite the lack of interest from local investors, continued mentor-ship and support from The
Nest I/O allowed Khan to continue developing the tool with a focus on a wider reach.
So what did they do for money?

Khan and his friends financed Social Champ through personal savings and freelance projects
until the product was complete.
“If we had investment from this market [Pakistan], maybe we would now be a year ahead. But
we’re still in the bootstrapping phase. One should find ways on their own and not give up simply
because others aren’t giving a break.”
“If you don’t have a payment mechanism, then make one of your own. We have an example of
Elon Musk who invented PayPal. Why can’t others be like him?” says Khan.
Khan is not bitter about the lack of support in Pakistan. He acknowledges that working here
teaches an individual things that cannot be learnt in other countries.
“You face so many problems and obstacles here, that you develop polished problem-solving
skills,” says Khan.
“You learn how to tackle the most difficult of situations; it gives a major boost to your ability to
endure and is helpful in making your nerves stronger.”
Although Khan and his co-founders have opportunities to set up camp in the US, they remain
committed to working for Pakistan.
“Although I believe that my life would be really comfortable in foreign countries, I think I can do
more for people here,” Khan says.

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Pakistani firms rejected Khan's idea, but the same idea won support from famed

Three failures before victory

Sameer Ahmed Khan, Zohaib Ahmed Shakir and Shakir Ghani

Why the app is useful:

Sameer and Guy Kawasaki

Foreign techies take notice

To his surprise, Kawasaki responded positively.

Pakistani investors are sceptical

So what did they do for money?

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