SULATA ISOFT: NAVIGATING STARTUP REALITIES IN PAKISTAN’S SOFTWARE INDUSTRY

Abstract

Sulata Isoft is a software house founded in 2000 in Lahore, Pakistan by a passionate young man named Tahir Barry trying to make a name for himself in the software industry. The idea to start a software house was planted in a young Tahir much before he actually went through with it. As someone with no formal education in the IT sector, Tahir, a self-taught young man, finally had enough preparation and knowledge of the industry to have the confidence to start his own software house. With no formal IT background, Tahir’s motivation to start a software house purely came from his passion for software and his years of interest in the IT field, which also encouraged him to be completely self-taught in the first place while also being competitive with any of his peers in the industry as a developer.

               Initially, Tahir was running his software house primarily alone with some help of a regular office boy for chores such as advertising and running errands. For the first almost 2 months, he was the one doing all the coding and technical work, only after he acquired his first two young developers to help him with the code and to keep the business afloat. With the small team of 3 developers and one office boy, his company ran for a handful of years acquiring customers by advertising in the most old-fashioned ways such as newspaper advertising or even cold-calling people offering their services.

               The key challenges this case study explored is how Sulata Isoft navigated in their early years, their primarily logistical hurdles and social hurdles including competing against the demand for the usage of expensive technology vs. their own open-sourced technology, navigating through the negative reputation Pakistan had as a whole in that era of early 2000s. Despite these obstacles, the software house succeeded in establishing a trustworthy name and lasting for long 25 years in the global tech industry.

               The purpose of this case study is to explore the dynamics of starting a software company in a developing country as an individual with no formal IT background, highlighting both the opportunities and difficulties that tech entrepreneurs face. It is particularly relevant for aspiring founders in the emerging markets, as it provides insight into grassroot-level growth, bootstrapped innovation and the importance of self-learning and motivating. By examining Sulata Isoft and its founder Tahir’s strategies and setbacks, this case study aims to inspire, educate and prepare future entrepreneurship, especially the ones who have aspirations to break into the IT industry but lack the formal education that is expected.