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Six months ago, I invested 1 crore PKR into a retail pharmacy venture with the hope of building something stable for the future.
This wasn’t just a financial loss.
It was an experience that changed the way I look at business, partnerships, and risk.
I wrote the full story in detail — what went right, what went wrong, where we made mistakes, and what I learned after meeting people who had been in this industry for years.
If you are thinking about starting a business, investing in a franchise, or working with partners, this might save you from making the same mistakes.
open.substack.com
One Crore, Six Months, and a Lesson Worth 55 Lac PKR
We Invested One Crore, Worked 19 Hours a Day, and Still Had to Shut It Down
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⚡️ BUSINESS IMPACT STARTS WITH YOUR OWN BUSINESS
If a company sells “business impact” to clients but keeps rebuilding its own positioning every few months, that is not evolution.
That is a signal.
A brand is also a product.
Positioning is also a strategy.
Communication is also proof of thinking.
And if there is no clear core behind the company’s own brand, the market can feel it.
💡 PREMIUM POSITIONING IS NOT A NEW BIO LINE
Premium positioning is not created by adding “strategic”, “growth-driven”, or “business-focused” to your copy.
It is created by experience.
By decisions made under pressure.
By deep product intuition.
By understanding what actually moves activation, trust, retention, monetization, and growth.
The language of premium can be repeated.
The tone can be copied.
The visual direction can be imitated.
But the core cannot.
And without the core, premium always looks like a costume.
Before choosing a product partner, look at how they build their own business.
That will usually tell you more than their pitch.
🟢 BOOK A MOBILE APP STRATEGY SESSION
If you are building a mobile product and need strategy behind the design:
https://calendly.com/asol_design/book-diagnostic-call-linkedin-clone
#ProductStrategy #BusinessImpact #PremiumPositioning #UXStrategy #MobileAppDesign #ProductGrowth #DesignStrategy #AsolDesign
One year ago, we took a leap into the unknown.
Not because it was easy. Starting over never is. There are always doubts, risks, and countless reasons to stay where you are.
But curiosity has a way of winning.
@Bob Vasic and I have known each other since high school, sitting in the last row of the classroom. A year ago, that friendship became @RaptorLabs Agency.
Today, we're building AI-native systems, products, and the company we always wanted to work for.
Cheers to my best friend, co-founder, and the best CTO I could ask for.
Here's to the first year—and everything we're building next.
This deserves way more Liking it
Supplement brands have a velocity problem that hits differently than apparel.
I've been looking at supplement brands this week. The pattern I keep seeing is the same across all of them.
Subscription baseline looks predictable. Steady rebill cadence. Demand curve that makes sense on paper.
Then a promotion hits.
A swimwear brand stocks out on a colorway. Painful but contained.
A supplement brand stocks out on their hero SKU during a promotion while subscription rebills are processing simultaneously.
That's not a stockout. That's a cascade.
Subscription baseline says 200 units per day. Promotion launches. Velocity hits 600 units per day overnight. The forecast was built on subscription cadence. Safety stock was sized for normal velocity.
Nobody caught the divergence in real time.
By day three the hero SKU is gone. Subscription rebills are failing. New customers are bouncing. Paid media is still spending into a sold out page.
The damage isn't the lost sales on day three. It's the subscription churn that compounds every month afterward. A customer who can't get their product on rebill doesn't wait. They find an alternative and they don't come back.
If you're a supplement brand heading into a promotion without real-time velocity monitoring this is exactly the exposure I map out before the spike hits.
Inventory diagnostic: $500. Delivered in 48 hours.
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