He bootstrapped his company all the way to IPO

Salim Ghauri is a ubiquitous name in Pakistan’s tech circles. Founder and CEO of Netsol, the entrepreneur has a decades-long association with the local IT industry. His company, founded in 1995, is regarded as one of the most successful software development firms emanating from the nation. Listed at both NASDAQ and the Pakistan Stock Exchange, it’s certainly been a memorable ride for the entrepreneur.

But this isn’t a story of overnight success. Salim has had to survive some pretty testing times and operate on very lean methodologies to make it work. His ascension to the upper echelons of the tech ecosystem is a result of several years of painstaking efforts.

Netsol was founded after Salim returned to his country of birth after a stint as an IT consultant in Australia. His startup began small – the initial team comprised of just four people working out of a tiny office in Lahore – but Salim had grand ambitions.

“I’m a software guy who builds software and the idea was to mold this passion into a company the world would notice,” Salim tells Tech in Asia. “Infosys was doing very well and there was a belief that we could also do it,” he says, name-checking India’s IT outsourcing titan.

Smooth operator

In the mid-1990s, the internet was still an almost unheard-of phenomenon in Pakistan. But it was starting out. Signing clients was a challenge, but one Salim embraced whole-heartedly. He didn’t have a sales team for the first five years of operations and relied on “personal charm” to make an impression. Breathing space came after a German luxury car manufacturer signed a contract with Netsol in 1996 for enterprise solutions for its finance wing.

“It’s never about companies, it’s always about people. If you develop a relationship, when you come with ideas and enthusiasm, people trust you to deliver,” says Salim.

Photo credit: Jason Rodgers.

Snaring the first deal proved to be a watershed moment for the fledgling company. The contract allowed it to understand customer psyche and focus on building solutions relevant to client needs. In 2000, Netsol had an even bigger break when the same firm signed a US$2 million contract to meet a larger suite of requirements.

“As work with blue chip companies expanded, it helped us strengthen our position in global markets. They were all very impressed by our processes and ability to deliver,” says Salim.

It’s never about companies, it’s always about people

But the dotcom crash of 2001, coupled with the fallout from the 9/11 attacks, brought immense pressure on Salim. Clients were skeptical of dealing with a company operating from a region considered to be the epicentre of terrorism. Salim says he was urged to move his firm to another country, possibly the Philippines or somewhere else in Southeast Asia. However, he resisted these calls and remained steadfast in his desire to build a world-class company from Pakistan.

“It was scary. We didn’t know what would happen tomorrow, how we would live the next day,” says Salim. “But it never came to my mind to quit. No doubt there were periods of frustration, but we kept the faith.”

Capturing a niche

Multiple IPOs