One Year Later: POKET

August 20th, 2019

Kamil Shafiq, Naba Siddiqui, and James Abasifreke are the three brains behind POKET; an app that maps informal merchants in the emerging world through crowdsourcing.

Kamil handles the business operations of POKET and together with James and Naba, they explore the potential use-cases this new mapping data enables for enterprise. James, a Software Engineering graduate, works on the technical side of the business with the CTO and lead Developer, Naba. As they hit the one year mark of their membership at The SVZ, the Summer 2018 cohort members sat down with us for a chat about their time here so far and the learnings that defined their entrepreneurial journey over the past year.

Tell us about POKET and the journey of starting the business. How did the idea come up and what is the problem you are trying to solve? 

K: James and I met on an exchange trip for entrepreneurship during university, after I had recently returned from Pakistan doing an internship at Coca-Cola. We were really interested in developing something that would capitalize on the growth of mobile technology, growing internet penetration and benefit communities in emerging countries.

J: Naba was teaching blockchain courses at the time. We were initially developing the app around mobile money and blockchain, so she was a perfect fit to our team and brought extensive knowledge of blockchain as well as software engineering to develop the platform. Eventually our trajectory shifted and our focus became less on blockchain and more on mapping informal merchants.

K: We all come from a diverse background; James is from Nigeria, Naba immigrated here from Pakistan and I spent a lot of time traveling in emerging countries. One thing we all agreed on was that so much of the retail in emerging countries happens informally – in Canada we’ve got the Loblaws and the Walmarts, but in emerging countries the economy is majorly supported by hundreds and thousands of small mom and pop retailers that aren’t mapped anywhere, and we know very little about them. 

N: We thought to ourselves “how do we organize all of this information and provide these merchants with more exposure and customers, past their own neighborhoods?” and our best solution to capture this information was to crowdsource it. Our application allows users to crowdsource the data around informal merchants by taking a photo of the shop, categorizing it and giving it a name. We then map it in the app and it becomes an easily identifiable shop for other customers to find. 

Reflecting back on the day you pitched at The SVZ - what would you say to your team before they pitched? 

J: I would tell us that we are at the right place at the right time to be applying to The Social Ventures Zone. Our strength as a team comes from our diversity and our unified passion for social impact instead of monetary gain only.   

N: I would also tell us to have an open mind towards feedback and suggestions, and being flexible. Ideas grow, change, and pivot, so it is important that as founders we understand that and accept changes. 

Looking back at when you first started versus now, what would you say has been your biggest achievement since then? 

K: There are a few big achievements. We were able to garner a lot of supporters, advisors and mentors that are established in the technology and startup realm. We raised some pre-seed funding, and launched our prototype in Lagos this year, where we closed our first paid pilot.

J: It’s exciting that we landed a paid customer so early, as it helps validate our business model and the impact behind it. It creates a promise that people from other countries, like immigrants and international students can come to Toronto and build something that's scaleable and launch it in their home countries to benefit their own communities. 

What’s the benefit of having a team of founders instead of being solo entrepreneurs?

J: The diversity of our skills and backgrounds collectively unites us and make us a stronger team of founders. Being a team of founders allows us to balance our strengths and ideas so that each member is more focused on their own role in the business, and not overexerting themselves. 

What do you love the most about being a social entrepreneur?

J: Being proud of what I am doing. I used to work at a consulting firm for some of the largest companies in Canada and while we made a lot of money, I never felt proud of the work that I was doing. I was only making the rich richer, and not solving a real problem in the world or my community. What drives me is knowing that there are people who are benefiting from POKET and are seeing their lives change because of it. Our business is helping enable financial inclusion in these parts of the world and I’m very proud that I am a part of that movement. 

N: Our generation strives to have a purpose in life and many of us have the opportunity to put our skills to good use and for the right purpose. Seeing the impact of POKET and knowing that I’m putting the effort to create an impact is what appeals to me the most about being a social entrepreneur. 

K: Many entrepreneurs can create scalable, profitable businesses. But if you can do that, and make an impact on a large number of people, that's magical. If your solution impacts even one person, that’s enough motivation to keep doing it until your impact eventually grows. 

One year later; what have you learned about yourselves as entrepreneurs?

K: For me I’d say that the times in my career when I’ve grown the most were the times I put myself out of my comfort zone. We just came back from Nigeria where I was a foreigner in an unfamiliar environment for a few months and had to spend a lot of time being on the ground and immerse myself in the culture. This was an invaluable experience that taught me the power of being outside your comfort zone.  

N: Being an entrepreneur has taught me how to separate my personal life from my professional one, and not to take business issues or failures personally. It is very difficult to do so as a social entrepreneur where your heart and soul are into your business, but it’s an important quality to have. 

J: I agree with Naba on that as well. I also learned that ego can kill a startup–you have to be able to listen to other people’s ideas on a team and allow for new perspectives from people who also want the best for the business. 

Which SVZ tools and resources have been useful to you in the past year of developing/working on POKET? 

J: Bringing in a mentor to teach us about social impact measurement, accounting, and help us practice a pitch, is huge. Those are services that can be taken for granted but receiving them at The SVZ is so valuable.

N: We also love accessing The SVZ space and working at the zone among other entrepreneurs and being in the community. 

K: There aren’t many places in Toronto like The Social Ventures Zone, that foster a community to connect with likeminded people. The sense of community and being able to meet other founders with aligned values and motivations inspires us a lot. 

Learn more about POKET.

We are currently accepting applications to our Fall 2019 Cohort.