MITCEF-OPEN BAP-2007 a huge success; Winner: Sofizar and Runner-up Alchemy

We are happy to report that the MITCEF-OPEN BAP-2007 was a huge success (Refer to Annexure A for extracts from messages received so far). After a well fought contest, the winner was Sofizar and Runner-up Alchemy.

On November 6th, 2007, history was written for more reason than one. First of all it was the culmination of the highly successful, first ever, Business Acceleration Program (BAP-2007) and secondly the launch of the, first ever, Tech Angel Network (TAN), a Band of Angels Investors, whose founders include three senior MIT faculty members namely Professor Ken Morse, Bill Aulet and Imran Sayeed and Farrokh Captain, Dr. Zahir Syed, Azhar Rizvi, Dr. Altamash Kamal and Junaid Iqbal from MITCEF.

The eventful evening started when the five finalists of BAP-2007 ( Alchemy Technologies, AutoSoft Dynamics, Sofizar, Softech Systems and Tohfay Pakistan ) presented their Business Acceleration Plans to the judges that included Professor Ken Morse, MD MIT Entrepreneurship Center and senior faculty members Mr. Bill Aulet and Mr. Imran Sayeed (VP, Financial Services, Keane) also from the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, Mr. Monis Rahman, Chairman & CEO of Naseeb Networks and Mr. Shuja Keen, VP, Head Global Business Development, TRG. There were three panelists also namely Mr. Muddassar Malik, CEO BMA Funds, Mr. Ali Jameel, CEO Trakker, Mr. Shahid Khan, COO, Cybernet.

Guests at the well attended function included Shehzad Bhatti, Director of Investments for Khazana, the Govt of Malaysia's Private Equity fund who specially came from Malaysia for the event, Atif Raees Khan , CEO of LMKR, Ashraf Kapadia, President of PASHA & MD Systems, Jehan Ara, CEO Enabling Technologies and Ex president PASHA and other distinguished personalities.

The Finalists Presentation Function was followed by the Awards Dinner at Farrokh's lovely and historic 1860 residence, which has the distinction of being the oldest inhabited house of Karachi. Here, shields, certificates and plaques were awarded to the Winning and Runner-up Team members, Judges, Sponsors, Mentor/Graders, Organizers and Volunteers. The awards distribution was followed by the announcement of the launch of the Tech Angels Network (TAN) by Professor Ken Morse, and a traditional and tasty Parsi dinner where the food was served on banana leaves, rather than plates.

This occasions was graced, in addition, to the luminaries who attended the Presentation Function by dignitaries such as the U.S. Consul General at Karachi, Kay L. Anske, Corporate legend, Hussain Dawood, Chairman of the Dawood Group, Aitzaz Shahbaz, Chairman SSGC, Nasim Baig, Chief Executive, Arif Habib Investment, Zia Ispahani, former Ambassador to Switzerland and Italy, Asif Fancy, Senior Director, Resource Development and Public Affairs, AKU and other distinguished guests.

BAP has been a wonderful learning experience for the organizers and the teams. For this we would like to take this opportunity to thank Professor Ken Morse, Bill Aulet, Imran Sayeed, Umair Khan, Naeem Zafar, Monis Rahman, Shuja Keen, Tania and Moattassim Aidrus; Sponsors: Muddassar Malik, CEO BMA Funds, Shahid Khan, COO Cybernet, Ali Jameel, CEO Trakker, Veqar Islam, Country Head Nokia Siemens Network and Farrokh Captain, Chairman, Captain Industries, all the Mentors/Graders, Yusuf Hussain, MD PSEB, Ashraf Kpadia, President PASHA, our co-organizers and volunteers for making BAP-2007 a huge success.

Annexure A

Extracts from Messages Received up to November 9, 2007

Ken Morse:

"The BAP this week in Karachi exceeded all my expectations."

Jehan Ara (CEO Enabling Technologies)

"These are the kind of things that are needed to take our companies to the next level of development. I have spoken to many of the participants over the past few weeks and all of them have said that this program made a significant difference to the way they viewed their operations, their marketing, their growth and the future expansion for their companies. All of them said they have learnt a lot - especially from the foreign mentors.

I have always had great faith in the Pakistan IT industry and its potential. The past couple of years have justified my faith as companies like Scrybe, Amaana, Alchemy, PixSense, Mobile Complete, CDF, Orgoo etc have appeared on our landscape bringing forth technology innovation and attracting investment. With programs such as yours, these companies, and others, will receive the guidance and mentoring they need to make a mark for themselves in local and international markets.

Thank you for bringing the BAP initiative to Pakistan and good luck going forward."

Zafar Khan (CEO Sofizar and winner of BAP-2007)

".... this program has helped me, well beyond my extremely high expectations . I could not get this quality of help, even if I had employed a team of highest paid management consulting firms. The mentors were sincere, and pushed me to improve. I didn't need to raise money ... I just needed guidance and I got it."