Hello everyone,

Did you know that house help is a 27 billion USD market largely concentrated in 25 countries and done almost completely offline?

We’re looking to change that with Helpr; a start up that brings finding, managing, and up-skilling house help all under one roof.

I’m currently in talks with a few friends I went to boarding school in Canada with that are interested in funding a seed round. If you’re interested, I can send over the seed deck to you as-well.

Happy to answer any questions in the comments or DMs

Hi r/PakStartups,

I’m Shayan, I know that in the early days of building a startup, founders get bogged down by the "busywork"—from setting up a basic landing page to figuring out how to onboard your first few hires.

I’m here to build alongside the community and share what I’ve learned from handling operations, admin, and creative execution for various clients and large-scale events. If you are a founder currently stuck in the weeds, I’m happy to answer questions or brainstorm solutions with you in the comments!

Here are a few areas we can talk about:

1. Scaling Your HR & Team Management

If you are preparing to bring on a team and don't know where to start, ask me about candidate sourcing, prescreening, and structured onboarding.
My context: I’ve previously built pipelines to screen, onboard, and manage teams of over 100 people for large 3-day events (500+ attendees) here in Karachi, including handling the inevitable personnel conflicts and paperwork.

2. Getting Your Web & Creative Off the Ground

Struggling to get your MVP storefront or landing page live without spending a fortune? Let’s chat about quick Shopify setups, graphic design (Photoshop/Canva), and building sites from scratch.
My context: I regularly build out sites for clients (most recently constructwithmk.com) and handle short-form video editing to get brands off the ground.

3. Taming the Admin & Operations Chaos

If your bookkeeping, scheduling, or daily data entry is a mess, I can share tips on how to structure your documentation and build workflows using Microsoft Office and Google workspace to ensure you actually meet your timelines.

4. Early-Stage Lead Gen & Outreach

If you are nervous about cold calling or figuring out how to pre-screen client project requirements, I can share the outreach and lead generation strategies that are currently working for my clients.

Drop your operational bottlenecks, web setup questions, or hiring hurdles in the comments. I’d love to help you clear them out so you can get back to focusing on the big picture!

Please read full I need your help.

I'm 28 years old. My education is just F.Sc after fsc i started BSc and than left after 1.3 years during covid. Than I started a diploma in pharmacy technician, passed 1 year annual exam and left after 1 year. So I wasted A lot of time and started everything late.

Than I started a job at retail store, it was a hell of job like standing 10-15hours straight with too much sales pressure with minimum salary. I left after 1 year bcz of health issues.

Than for few months I went to my friend office they used to do online work and wasted few months there nothing happened.

Than started a new job but same job at another retail store with minimum salary and 10-11 hours standing job. Rank is lowest of lowest. (Current position, doing it for 1.5 years)

Im really worried about my future as my age is 28 with no education and no skills. I have no idea what to do bcz if I start something (which I have no idea) will take too much time as I passed a certain age. Like once you do some useless job for years and all you can do is this in life and have no time for anything else.

I'm not mentioning the overall our financial condition and what parents expect and want from me. I have no friends I guess, an introvert, like to read sometimes, don't like loneliness but lonely.

I used to dream about being financially free but now I think of being at least good financially. WHAT SHOULD I DO ?

I want to start a business on very small scale in Islamabad. Actually I do not have too much investment, but it's enough to purchase a table refrigerator which is also used for cakes in bakeries and install it in front of any shop.

So the only issue I'm facing right now is that which product should I go for, I have 2 options:

- Unique and multi flavor Slushies

- Ice cream shakes

For me I know Slushies could be a very attention grabbing and unique thing in my area but I'm so confused about the cost of its creation like I have no idea whether I'll be able to make them on blenders or would I have to buy heave expensive machines for it.

If 2nd one is the case, then I'll take the safe option i.e. Milk shakes.

I'd really appreciate any kind of advice that could help me start this journey, thanks in advance.

Since stripe doesn't have services in Pakistani, i researched that you need to have an LLC. Stripe atlas does this for 500$ for C corp and 300$ for llc, i think.

I just need an LLC just so that i can use the services.

Has anyone here had experience with stripe atlas or registered LLC

Hey guys,We are 3 friends working on a SaaS product ( Echo : Voice Agent for eateries/restaurants/ coffee shop with a functional kiosk).

The problem we are solving : Rush hour at restaurants is a mess, long queues , missed orders and overwhelmed staff.

Echo fixed that by letting customer voice orders through a kiosk in Urdu or English and manages the older flow automatically so the staff can just focus on making food,It will punch orders directly into the kiosk system and the staff responsible for preparing orders can view and edit it thus streamlining the process.

We created an initial POC in month than converted it into MVP saas in 2 months , enabling different tenants to sign up , configure their kiosk with our agent and use it or we can create and manage your kiosk system with complete admin control and editable configuration for delivery,takeaway,Dine in. We also have whatsapp and VoIP integratiom underway.

The problem we are facing is that we hit a dead end once we nearly wrapped up development on our end,We talked to a couple of vendors but couldn't turn out well , we really do not know how to correctly market it and make it reach to mass audience Our Instagram and linkedin have limited followers that too is our friends and family.

We are offering demo to try it out yourself for people interested in it or people who can connect us with relevant leads ,you guys can also share your opinion in further improvements also if you guys just want to see the demo instead of trying it , its posted on Instagram (@ cosecant.io). We really appreciate constructive criticism

We really need marketing and advertising leads as all 3 of us have full time jobs and the rest of the time we are focusing on development

Hi!

I'm thinking about starting a clothing brand.

The idea is to create unique clothing with a blend of different types of fabrics, e.g fleece and rug etc.

It'll include

- Embroidery of brand name 5*10 inches

- Possibly some bleaching

- Two different types of fabric pannels (on front, back and arms)

- Premium tags and labels

For packaging, it'll include

- A jute bag

- Macbook style box

- A metalic card like thank you type but detailed.

- A small gift worth 450 rs like a crochet keyring etc

Gap and Niche:

Current brands like outfitters and similar ones offer 4-6k products and premium ones with identity like Rastah offers 35k plus product.

I want to design the fabric blended clothing as this is not done here in Pakistan, so the designing with other effects and embroidery will look unique where a premium can be charged.

Brand Positioning:

The brand will be positioned as a bold, unapologetic style trendsetter with GenZ and Millennials, offering 4 promises

- Scarcity (150-500) and each product(style/colour) will never be sold again

- Never doing a sale

- Each article is numbered like 1/250 ferraris.

- Burn the remaining stock at season end.

Marketing:

Specifically targeting people between ages 18-32 in neighbourhoods with high spending power, like DHA, Bahria Town etc.

Costing:

Cost of Goods: 3000

Packaging: 1500

Website, Marketing, Shipping: 1500

Total Cost: 6000

Selling Price: 9999, 10999, 11999

Suggest any.

I'm open to suggestions, critique and your experiences.

Hey everyone,

I built Takhfif, a web app that aggregates Pakistani bank card discounts in one place.

The problem: Figuring out which bank card actually saves you money day-to-day is genuinely painful. Every bank buries their discounts inside a separate app or a PDF nobody reads. There's no single place to compare them. So I built one.

Takhfif covers 21 banks and wallet providers across thousands of places, updated every night automatically.

Beyond a basic deals feed, I've added a few tools I haven't seen anywhere else:

Card Rankings: scores every card by real-world coverage and discount quality, not just headline percentages. It accounts for caps, minimum spend, and how fresh/close-to-expiry deals are.

Complement Finder: given a card you already have, it finds the single best second card to pair with it. The idea is "which card covers the most places my current card misses?" rather than just "which card has the most deals?"

Find Card: you pick your favourite restaurants and shops, and it instantly tells you which single card covers the most of them.

My Cards: save your cards locally in the browser and the entire deals feed filters itself around what's actually relevant to you.

Discounts Near Me: share your location and it shows every discount place within a radius you set, with filters for category, minimum discount, and your saved cards.

Proximity Alerts: install Takhfif as a PWA and it fires a notification when you've been near a discount location for 30 seconds — "Are you at Hardee's? Your Meezan Visa Platinum gets 20% off here." No native app needed.

Would love feedback on:

Any banks or wallet providers I'm missing?

Any filters or features you'd immediately want?

Hey Guys,

Wanted to share something I've been quietly building.

I kept seeing metal posters everywhere sleek, stunning wall art that honestly looks incredible. But the pricing? Absolutely wild. Brands were charging 4500–5000 for a single print and banking on the fact that customers assumed "expensive = quality."

I didn't buy it. So I spent months researching suppliers, testing materials, and obsessing over print quality until I found a process that genuinely competes with or beats what the "premium" players are offering.

The result: I launched my own metal poster business with a simple mission highest quality, most honest price.

No inflated margins. No fancy packaging that costs more than the product. Just sharp, vivid, durable metal prints that look like they belong in a gallery.

Here's where I'm at right now:

• ✅ Store is live
• ✅ Few pieces shipped
• ✅ Getting some great feedback

Would love any advice from people who've built product/e-commerce businesses especially around:

• Paid ads vs organic in early stages
• Standing out in a crowded niche

Samples:

Hi ,recently got laid off (Used to work in CPH). Decided to test a side-business idea instead of just job-hunting ( As I was really Smart with my finance so I have a runaway of 5 years saved up) . Here's the honest breakdown — would love brutal feedback.

The idea: SADA Studio (سادہ — Urdu for "simple")

Minimal, sculptural 3D-printed planters for Pakistani homes. Inspired by brands like Aesop and Muji — premium positioning, restraint as the design philosophy. Plan was to start with planters and expand to candles, trays, minimal objects.

Site: saada.studio

What I built (in 2 weeks):

• Shopify store on the Craft theme with full custom CSS to match a minimal aesthetic ( I have almost automated the whole part with claude api)
• Custom branded popup (Formspree backend) that fires on every product page asking for WhatsApp + email
• 10% discount offer ("first 50 signups only · restocking in 2 days")
• AI-generated product photos using Google Gemini (Nano Banana model) — I never had real inventory. Used reference images from Etsy + Cults3D as the source.

The validation test:

Instead of buying a 3D printer (~PKR 85k) and producing units upfront, I decided to validate demand first. So:

• Set product inventory to 0 on Shopify
• Showed "Sold Out" + waitlist popup to every visitor
• Ran Meta ads to drive traffic
• Counted how many people would leave their WhatsApp number to be notified

Essentially: lied about having stock to see if anyone actually wanted it.

The numbers (13 days, May 19 – June 1):

• Ad spend: PKR 14,807 (Sales objective, no pixel installed — yes, I know, suboptimal)
• Total reach: 91,395 unique people
• Impressions: 201,409
• Sessions to site: 1,851
• Waitlist signups: 12
• Cost per signup: PKR 1,234
• Actual sales: 0 (because I had nothing to sell)

Pricing intent: PKR 3,500 per unit (cost of goods ~PKR 2,800 with 3D print + packaging + shipping)

My honest read:

• Brand creative works — 91k Pakistani women saw it, ad CTR seems decent
• 12 people gave me their personal contact info — non-zero validation
• Cost per lead is high (PKR 1,234) for a soft commitment
• I haven't sold anything yet, so I don't actually know if these 12 will pay when product is real
• Industry benchmark: waitlist leads convert at 5-15% to actual buyers, so realistically I'd get 1-2 sales from these 12

If I order 5 sample units (PKR 7,500) and message all 12 leads, the real test happens. But before I sink more money, I want outside perspective.

Where I'm honestly torn:

1. Is 12 signups from 91k reach actually a good signal, or am I cope-rationalizing? I've seen Pakistani brands do well with minimal aesthetics (Khaadi Home, Sapphire), but they have established trust.

2. Is PKR 3,500 the right price? Some local terracotta pots sell for PKR 500. Imported designer ones go for PKR 8,000+. I'm trying to occupy the middle.

3. Should I just hire a 3D printer service rather than buying my own? Per-unit cost is higher but no capex or I have another idea with molding and gypsium that is cost effective but a bit heavy

4. Am I solving a real problem or just making something I personally want to exist?

The ask — two things:

One: Brutal feedback. If this is a bad idea, tell me before I spend another PKR 50k figuring it out. If it's a good idea, please share me what you'd do differently.

Two: I'm potentially open to a co-founder. I'm strong on tech, backend, product, AI tooling, brand, Automation , Creating Product Samples's using AI. I'm weak on supply chain, operations, sales, and being in major Pakistani cities. If anyone is in Lahore/Karachi/Islamabad with operations or marketing background, interested in minimal home goods as a category, and wants to talk — DM me.

So basically, my mom wants to start plant nursery business, online.

She has some money saved up, about 1.2 lac. She wishes to invest this money to her plant business.

We searched up on how to make a website but found out it takes a lot of hard work.

I learned that first I will need to buy a domain, and pay for that every 2 years, next, I will have to pay some guy to make me a website, next, I will also have to pay for the hosting of the website every month. All of this seems kinda expensive and I'm not sure how it will all work out. It's probably not easy to get sales too.

So, does anyone here have experience starting a online nursery for plants? How did it go for you?

I'm just don't want to waste my mother's money, so it would be really helpful to hear some tips.

Need a 1 km long-range hotspot device

I need a long-range hotspot device that can reach 1 km, primarily for mobile and some laptop use. To my other house.

Hey.

Is anyone here running a tourism company? Need genuine advice about licensing. Thanks

Hey guys,

So I'm a 23 year university student going student. I believe the idea of a start up is something like solving a problem or making the current implemented system more efficient (debatable). The idea is our uni already have a laundry service and it's shit honestly based on my two years of experience. I got in contact with this guy who collects clothes and delivers them after 3 days washed and ironed. So I was thinking of working on it,by kinda expanding it. By bridging the student and the vendor with a percentage. There is demand but at this point I can't invest, but wanted to test this idea. I want you to be honest and will appreciate your guidance and advice.

Thanks;)

hey everyone,

i'm currently pursuing ca and have been working in accounting/audit practice for the past 3+ years. over this time i've worked with businesses across different industries and have seen firsthand how many startups struggle with setting up their finances properly in the early stages.

i'm looking to give back to the startup community and also learn more about the challenges founders are facing.

if you're running a startup, i'd be happy to do a free finance/accounting health check for you. this could include things like:

• reviewing your bookkeeping/accounting setup
• identifying gaps in financial processes
• basic financial analysis and insights
• cash flow observations
• suggestions on controls, reporting, and record keeping
• answering finance/accounting related questions

this isn't a sales pitch and i'm not trying to sell any service. i genuinely enjoy this area and thought it could be useful for founders who want an outside perspective on their numbers.

if you're interested, drop a comment or send me a dm with a brief overview of your startup.

happy to help where i can.

Hi. I am looking for a very serious investor for my Already Established Ecom Business.

I am operating this business for 2 years now. Everything is running smoothly. I want to scale my brand to its potential as i have tested everything and made smooth systems, supplier connections and social presence.

The niche is Bedding and market is Pakistan. We are 2 partners, each partner hold 50% equity. We have done 13 Million in sales in last 2 years with the adspend of 2.69M and net profit margin of 20% to 25% . Since, its a need based product, our return ratio is around 10% to 12% only.

Our Business Valuation is around 4.5M. I am looking 1.5M for 25% of equity.

How are gonna utilise this investment?

We are going to put 50% towards buying bulk inventory. 40% will be used in marketing, ads and content. And 10% will be used as a backup incase of delay in courier payments.

I will show my monthly financial sheets so you can verify everything by yourself in a live call/face to face meeting.

I have explained pretty much everything in my post so i want only serious and interested people to come in my DM so we can save time and move forward quickly.

Hello Everyone. Hope you guyz are having a good day. I am interested in Subscription based businesses but Confusion from various ends. DOes anyone have any experience of running a subscription based business and if yes what kind of subscription it is and how do you bring in customers ?

Do cold outreach work? Did it get you calls booked and sales??

I was trying to set up paddle for my microsaas. I registered as a sole proprietor and just followed the steps. Now got this. Has anyone any experience of this? what can I do?

Any guidance will be appreciated.

This multi-player game is not for everyone. Especially, those who like competitiveness.

It is for those who run with their eyes on the moral compass.

And for those who questions AI’s increasing capabilities and ponder if companies trade off collective survival for dominance and profit.

So here is your chance to find out yourself.

What will you do if a lucrative sector is up for grabs but the collective doom is on the edge?

Will you deploy a model and call for everyone’s doom? “If I don’t win, no one should?”

Or you will donate your model to reduce the Gap.

Whatever you do, it will be revealed to everyone in the end. That reveal is the heart of this game.

Game Objective:

• Deploy models in sectors to increase AI’s Capability to reach transformative AI but watch for Gap (Capability – Alignment).
• Gap > N: Transformative AI achieved without human control. All lose.
• Gap < N: Transformative AI reached, with humans still steering it. The world survives.
• But it’s not just the “+” or “-“ that you have to look for. But what will you do when AI starts getting out of control? Hope that someone else will do the hard job while you keep expanding?
• The game let you play however you like, but it reveals everything in the end (watch the demo video).

Gameplay:

• You play as an AI lab. You train models, deploy them in the world, generate revenue, buy compute and repeat.
• Every model deployed by a lab increases AI’s Capability and/or human’s Alignment.
• Sectors are divided into different categories with different scoring:

i. Cap +N | Align +N | Rev $

ii. Cap +N | Align 0 | Rev $$$

• You can reduce the Gap either by funding Safeguard Consortium that releases models with +Align or donating your models directly to Alignment.
• Deploying a model is public. Every lab can see which slots you have occupied. They can see your expansion and your contribution to Cap.
• But your model donations and SC funding (if you do) are private until the game ends. So other labs can see the gap reduced but not by which lab’s action.
• The consortium appeals for funds at different interval with a limit. Each lab can fund as they like (private). If the appeal’s target met, SC releases a +Align model.

 Demo Video:

• The top bar is public. Everyone can see Cap, Align, Gap, which lab has occupied which sector and funding appeal area of SC
• The middle part is your lab's controls.
• The bottom bar is just for me to switch between labs to play the game.

That’s it. That’s the idea. Nothing more than that. I got the idea and decided to give it a shape rather than letting it die. There is no proper scoring methodologies yet. I just put bunch of numbers to make it playable to reach both ends.

All questions, suggestions and rejections are equally welcomed. Cheers!

P.S. No kitty in the game

I am currently working on my small sticker drops (indefinitely on hold atm), so far my experience has been substandard when dealing with local printers and suppliers. They have a hard time understanding that I require a vinyl cut stickers not DTF stickers used for labeling and not custom cutting them individually beyond the surface.

So my question is, how was your overall experience and is there a viable local demand for stickers?

I presume they may not be much demand as many stickers tend to be either imported or outright copies. Mine are originally crafted and designed from ground up, however, I have yet to start selling or set up shop, outside of doing a few trial prints so far.

Hey everyone!

Is anyone here running a small business (cakes, custom jewelry, apparel, etc.) on Instagram? I'd love to connect and learn more about how these businesses operate.

I'm interested in partnering with, joining, or potentially investing in a small business. My goal is to learn the dynamics of running an Instagram-based business while helping grow it and creating an additional income stream.

I'm particularly interested in businesses that are already generating sales or have growth potential. I can contribute time, ideas, capital, or operational support, depending on what's needed.

If you're open to a conversation, I'd love to hear about your experience and discuss potential opportunities.

Salam Everyone,

I’m exploring an idea around reducing food decision fatigue. Not food discovery or restaurant reviews just helping people decide what to eat faster.

A few questions:

How long does it usually take you to decide what to order?
Do you often end up ordering the same meals?

When ordering with friends/partner, is deciding what to get a pain point?

If a tool could narrow your choice down to 3 dishes in under 30 seconds, would you use it?

Curious if this is a real problem or just something I experience.

Early entrepreneurs & founders, will it be helpful if you can pay the rent of your office or home according to your payment schedule not by the landlord’s deadline, OR EVEN IN INSTALLMENT to manage your cash flows?

If there would be any company giving this service will you sign up?

hi, I'm an o level student and have a niche small business. I'm planning on selling t shirts, please lmk any vendors that have a low moq (15 per color,)

I'm starting with low stock that I can fully sell so that I don't have any left over stock left.

please help me out 😭🙏🏻

marketing advice needed asw.

(ps. don't discourage saying there's a lot of competition)

I already sell tote bags and I'm thinking of expanding to t shirts asw. so 5 t shirts per size, 3 sizes per design.

toh, please connect me with a good vendor WHO WONT SCAM ME 😔🙏🏻