Farida Kanwal Mughal is Co-Founder & COO of Queno. She believes education is a great equalizer. Education is unbounded; anyone from anywhere can get access to education and change their lives. She arrived in the bustling city of Karachi from a remote village in Gilgit Baltistan with her mother at the age of two. After completing her bachelor’s program she started Queno (A social mobile app to connect schools and homes).
The initial three years were very hard; she had only 2 clients with 7 employees. To feed them was the biggest challenge. She started to bootstrap her startup by doing freelancing work at night and injected that money into her App. This was tough for her because Queno is an Ed-Tech startup and technology is a core component obviously, and while she is making schools digitize, She have also unfortunately seen a taboo in Pakistan regarding women teaching or talking about technology. 90% of a school’s administration is made up of men. Whenever she goes and tells them about Queno, they never take interest and literally make her feel as though she is just a young girl. Not every school has been like this, but the majority of schools did have this attitude. This used to put her down, but now she believes that their negativity has only made her feel stronger and more firms about her product.
COVID has actually changed the dynamics but in a positive manner. Due to the lockdown, her business accelerated as now people understand the importance of online learning. Schools have started their virtual classes through Queno. Everyday, she have schools from the Gilgit region where the internet is the biggest challenge but it’s a success for Queno to create an impact in an untapped market.
Being part of this community she believes to give back to her community that’s why she is part of the National Youth Council, Pakistan.She is among the top 12 top Pakistani women founders who have been chosen by Silicon Valley to be part of the Tech Women Exchange program, USA.
This journey is a roller coaster full of learning and thrills. The lessons she learned from her startup journey is, “If you want to be truly unbeatable, always be your true self. Don’t follow people or you’ll lose direction. Believe in yourself and persevere.”
