Despite dropping out of college, this inventor was recognized as one of the world’s brilliant minds

Farhan Masood, the founder and CTO of biometrics security startup SoloInsight, has a truly inspirational story. The Pakistan-born inventor is completely self-taught, despite dropping out of college at the age of nineteen. Along his journey of leading SoloInsight he received several distinctions and awards, including one in 2013 when the MIT Enterprise Forum cited him as one of the most brilliant minds in the world.

Masood was exposed to gadgets and technology from an early stage. At eight, his father handed him a book on coding in Visual Basic and challenged him to learn the language. Masood promptly obliged.

He credits his father for fostering his early interest in computing. “My dad loved technology, and he was the first guy to go and buy the latest piece of hardware. My curiosity strengthened because of him,” Masood tells Tech in Asia.

No money? No problem!

Masood claims his determination and drive is a direct consequence of having a thirst for knowledge and curiosity about how things work. As a primary school student he was fascinated with learning more about computer software and engineering, but could not afford to buy the books he needed to teach himself. Not one to be disheartened, Masood promptly became friends with the shopkeeper, Naveed, who allowed him to spend hours in his bookshop, poring over all the books he fancied. “I would bunk school, go to the bookshop, and read about computing,” he laughs.

Another problem Masood faced in his early days was the exorbitant cost of internet connectivity. In the mid-1990s, service providers in Pakistan were few and far between. Dial-up internet was the only option, with users charged on a per-hour basis. Masood wanted to apply the knowledge he learned in a practical setting but was inhibited by the high costs. His father had given him a restriction of two hours per week, which was far below his needs. Again, he used his enterprising nature to his advantage.

My first business venture was actually to enter into a barter agreement with Brain Net [one of Pakistan’s first ISPs]. I offered them development and management of their web portal for free, in exchange for unlimited internet usage. That was a crucial turning point as the internet became my first teacher.

Humble and soft-spoken, Masood says many of his achievements were down to sheer ‘luck’. One day, while helping his father at the family printing bureau business, he was approached by a government official. There was an urgent need for bilingual name plates to be affixed on offices in a sprawling facility close to the capital city, Islamabad. However, at the time, there was no technology which could print names in the local language, Urdu.

Money was scarce and Masood could not afford to lose this order. He took it upon himself to create Urdu word-processing software, utilizing his creative talents in calligraphy, typography, and software development. Incidentally, the software he created was the first of its kind in the world. Later, Masood would also go on to make his own fonts, some of which are still used by Emirates, the national airline of the UAE.

Most of what I have done in life is because I have made a commitment to do something that I actually have no clue about, he says. Then I would go and get stuck in it.

Recognition at a young age

International exposure

Birth of SoloInsight

No easy path to success

Success, at long last

What’s Next?