Purple Cow Strikes Again!
In the field of monochrome Holsteins, entrepreneurs gathered again for the 4th edition of Purple Cow event hosted by Kickstart co-working space, The Entrepreneurs Collective, and Freshstart.pk PR, in search of the next Purple Cow. Purple Cow is an event that gives a chance to tech entrepreneurs to demonstrate their tech products in front of a technically literate audience enabling them to stand out from the herd and have valuable feedback for their products. As is the norm of the event, five startups were selected, out of twenty-two that applied, to demonstrate their products at the event.
Startup line-up for the 4th edition of the event included Calivu, Nazdeeq, Aitomation, DIY Geeks and Sehat.
Just like the name suggests, this startup aims to provide emerging markets with direct access to buy from international online stores. Basically, they are our local buyers dream come true, by providing the opportunity to explore amazon.com and paying in cash. At the moment, they are taking orders from family and friends, but they will be open to the public soon.
This interesting mobile app acts as your personal nutritionist. It provides nutritional enthusiasts to follow the best exercises posted by gym training instructors from around the world and also suggests healthy recipes from various cuisines. They have built up a nutritionist algorithm with the help of Singaporean and Pakistani nutritionists. The app assesses its user’s daily nutritional needs, and the algorithm prepares a menu which fits according to the individuals’ nutritional requirements. Users can select the menu choices and get the meals delivered anywhere.
Their services are currently available in Lahore only. They intend to tap into Pakistani, Australian and Southeast Asian markets in the upcoming years.
This is Pakistan’s first of its kind online pharmaceutical store. Sehat is a project of Apothecare Private Limited. This online drug store offers a variety of medications, both over the counter drugs and prescription drugs. Sehat has strict prescription verification policy before issuing any prescription drugs. They also offer door to door vaccination services and keep the public posted about various diseases and healthcare conditions via their online blog.
This is a major addition to the e-commerce world and also adds to the convenience of Pakistani population.
This community-based startup facilitates makers, engineers, geeks, nerds and innovators to make programmable electronics themselves. DIY Geeks is offering one stop solution via their online website which showcases easy DIY tutorials and pairs the tutorials with the essentials/components required to build them. Furthermore, to get the creative juices flowing, they offer meet ups and workshops, which provides hands-on sessions in ‘making stuff’ and innovating ideas. DIY Geeks is also a platform for engineering students where they can buy unavailable or redundant components for their projects. They have also introduced interesting trends like Drone Racing, Drone making, 3D printing, Drag and Drop Electronics, etc. This DIY culture has a huge potential to bring forward new hardware startups which may ease ordinary peoples’ lives.
This startup is a computer automation solution for businesses with a promise to automate redundant and repetitive tasks through intelligent software. The ‘I’ in automation is not the only thing that sets them apart, Aitomation offers tailored automations to companies after understanding their requirements and unique needs, hence avoiding IT department hassles, along with wasting a lot of time and money. Currently, they have five employees and profits to their name as well. Their biggest achievement till date is selling their services to GIC which is the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world.
Saad Ehsan talking about how they automate redundant tasks
Rehan Arif explains how Calivu works
Nauman Saleem presenting DIY Geeks and the ‘maker movement’
Madiha Nasrullah and Muhammad Mustafa from Nazdeeq
Bilal Mumtaz of Sehat talking about pharmaceutical industry of Pakistan
Demonstrations were followed by an hour of networking and discussion session.
Purple Cow’s focus on technology and the continuous search for the next best thing allows young innovators to push their boundaries and bring forward new ideas and solutions in a welcoming environment. Fourth version of the event yet again proved to be a platform for meaningful conversations on entrepreneurship and technology. The management of the event plans to organize more such event in future with the plans to take the event to other cities.