Thought Behind Things

Syed Muzamil Hasan Zaidi
  • 4.9 (72)
  • Society & Culture
  • Semiweekly

TBT is Pakistan's fastest-growing podcast show covering conversations around Art, Culture & Technology. Tune in thrice a week to be a part of our community! We upload every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

  1. 14h ago

    How a 24-Year-Old Pakistani Built an AI That Decodes Babar Azam in 1 Click ft. Muhammad Saad | TBT

    Want to be a guest on Thought Behind Things? Apply here:https://muzamilhasan.com/podcast/applyJoin the Inner Circle, my weekly letter on AI, building, and being early to what's coming:https://muzamilhasan.com/inner-circle?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=inner-circle&utm_content=aoOpiBgpnokRead the thesis, the one idea behind everything I'm building:https://muzamilhasan.com/thesisMy website:https://muzamilhasan.comDo you really need a Computer Science degree to build a deep-tech AI company, or is the "scope khatam hai" narrative just an excuse? In this episode of the Thought Behind Things podcast, I sit down with 24-year-old Saad, a Mechanical Engineer and Founder of Sports Vector & CricTier, who secured a $154,000 (Rs. 4.3 Crore) grant to revolutionize Cricket and Padel analytics across Pakistan and Qatar.Traditional sports broadcasting requires six expensive cameras and manual analysts to track a single cricket ball. Saad and his co-founder Hamza built a Computer Vision engine that extracts ball-by-ball line, length, bounce, and player weaknesses using just ONE camera. We do a live screen-share decoding Babar Azam’s stats and generating an instant AI bowling plan against him. Saad also breaks down how he learned tech by sitting with freelancers from midnight to 4 AM, why he built 40 failed apps before finding product-market fit, how they are cashing in on Pakistan's massive Padel boom, and why a $20 Claude subscription has officially killed the traditional "Pre-Seed" funding round.

  2. 2d ago

    The Death of SaaS: Why AI Startups Are Secretly Pivoting Back to Services ft. Qasim Ali Khan | TBT Podcast

    Want to be a guest on Thought Behind Things? Apply here: https://muzamilhasan.com/podcast/apply Join the Inner Circle, my weekly letter on AI, building, and being early to what's coming: https://muzamilhasan.com/inner-circle Read the thesis, the one idea behind everything I'm building: https://muzamilhasan.com/thesis My website: https://muzamilhasan.com Has AI turned software building into a "Saddar Bazaar" price war—and if anyone can build an app in a weekend using Claude or Replit, how do you actually sell it? In this episode of the Thought Behind Things podcast, I sit down with Qasim Shamim Ali Khan, a LUMS alumnus and tech sales veteran based in Canada who currently works in sales and growth at Rubi AI, a Toronto-based AI Go-To-Market (GTM) intelligence startup founded by former Salesforce Canada leadership. Everyone in tech right now is obsessed with building, but 99% of builders are completely clueless when it comes to distribution and selling. We dive deep into why traditional B2B cold outbound and free SaaS trials are dead, why the "$50/month SaaS" dream has commoditized, and why smart AI startups are quietly pivoting back to high-ticket services, implementation partnerships (like ClickHouse and Langfuse), and Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE). We also break down the difference between a lazy LLM wrapper and deep CRM workflow integration, why North American founders aim for $20M–$30M single-feature acquisitions instead of billion-dollar moonshots, and how Pakistani engineers can survive the 2026 Big Tech layoff wave across Microsoft and Meta. If you're a founder, software engineer, or freelancer trying to figure out how to monetize what you build in the AI era, watch this until the end!

  3. 5d ago

    I Burned $15,000 on Google AI (The Harsh Reality of Tech Startups) ft. Anas Shaikh | TBT Podcast

    Want to be a guest on Thought Behind Things? Apply here: https://muzamilhasan.com/podcast/applyJoin the Inner Circle, my weekly letter on AI, building, and being early to what's coming: https://muzamilhasan.com/inner-circleRead the thesis, the one idea behind everything I'm building: https://muzamilhasan.com/thesisMy website: https://muzamilhasan.comAre soaring Meta WhatsApp costs and bloated cloud bills killing the Pakistani SaaS dream, or are founders just building their AI agents wrong? In this episode of the Thought Behind Things podcast, I sit down with Anas Sheikh, founder of conviyo, to discuss how he scaled a solo conversational AI startup to $10,000 MRR by fundamentally changing how businesses talk to their customers.While the tech world debates if "SaaS is dead," Anas proves that SaaS margins are dead unless you solve real problems. We dive into the harsh reality of bootstrapping, how Convio accidentally burned $15,000 in Google Cloud credits (costing $5.80 per chat!), and how they engineered the cost down to just 7 cents. Anas also breaks down Meta's new predatory WhatsApp pricing and how his team built WhatsApp Flows to bypass the friction of web chats. If you want to see what it actually takes to build, pivot, and scale a lean AI startup in Pakistan, watch this until the end!

  4. Oct 29

    Is ChatGPT Making Students Dumb? The Harsh Reality of AI in Education ft.Ansar Moughis | TBT Podcast

    Want to be a guest on Thought Behind Things? Apply here:https://muzamilhasan.com/podcast/applyJoin the Inner Circle, my weekly letter on AI, building, and being early to what's coming:https://muzamilhasan.com/inner-circle?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=inner-circle&utm_content=oMZwH8mOPzIRead the thesis, the one idea behind everything I'm building:https://muzamilhasan.com/thesisMy website:https://muzamilhasan.comLearning AIDE AI :www.learningaide.ai Moughis Linkedin:www.linkedin.com/in/AnsarmoughisWill Artificial Intelligence eventually replace human teachers, or is it the ultimate tool to save our broken education system? In this episode of the Thought Behind Things podcast, I sit down with Ansar Moughis, Founder and CTO of AIDE AI, an EdTech startup that uses advanced LLMs to automatically grade messy, handwritten student exams and provide deep learning analytics.Teachers spend up to 10 hours a week just grading papers. Ansar explains how Aide AI eliminates this redundant work, allowing educators to step back into the role of true mentors. We dive deep into the technical challenges of bypassing traditional OCR for handwritten text, the economics of running an AI SaaS in Pakistan for just Rs. 5 per page, and the harsh reality of students using ChatGPT to cheat. We also discuss Aid AI’s rapid global expansion into Riyadh and Silicon Valley, proving that Pakistani tech founders can build products for the world. If you are interested in the future of EdTech, AI automation, or building a global SaaS, watch this until the end!Timestamps:0:00 Intro and Guest Introduction1:17 Elevator Pitch: Automating Paper Grading for Teachers2:09 Market Size: Teachers and Students in Pakistan3:27 How the Product Works and Handwriting Recognition8:19 Student Practice Platform and Analytics10:30 Pricing and Teacher Costs in Pakistan13:59 Selling to Schools vs Teachers17:27 Staying Sticky: Assessments Focus and Integrations21:23 Analytics, Parent Chatbot and Personalized Testing24:24 AI Cheating and Rethinking Assessments28:21 Accelerators: Antler, Plug and Play and GOAL31:26 Building for Pakistan vs the World33:15 Humans in the Loop: Teachers Will Not Be Replaced35:50 Closing Thoughts on Education as a Long-Term BetInstagram: https://instagram.com/muzamilhasanLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/muzamilhasan

  5. Oct 28

    Why 90% of Pakistani Startups Fail (The Toxic Reality of Our Ecosystem) ft. Hassan Zulfiqar Munj | TBT Podcast

    Are you tired of being ghosted on LinkedIn, or frustrated by the toxic "middle layer" of the Pakistani startup ecosystem? In this episode of the Thought Behind Things podcast, I sit down with Hassan Zulfiqar Munj, founder and CEO of Leap AI, to discuss how he used AI tools like Lovable to build a revolutionary networking platform designed specifically for founders.Hassan isn't a traditional software engineer. Coming from a background in traditional family business, opening CrossFit gyms, and running art galleries, he realized that the biggest bottleneck for entrepreneurs isn't just money—it's genuine, intent-based networking. We dive deep into the harsh realities of Pakistani traditional businesses, why the "Seth" culture refuses to digitize, and how Leap AI is using agentic AI to match founders with mentors, investors, and opportunities without the noise of traditional social media. If you want to know how non-technical founders are using AI to build real products, watch this until the end!

  6. Oct 27

    Is AI the Dajjal? The Untold Truth About Islam & Artificial Intelligence ft. Shahbaaz Khan | TBT

    Want to be a guest on Thought Behind Things? Apply here: https://muzamilhasan.com/podcast/apply Join the Inner Circle, my weekly letter on AI, building, and being early to what's coming:https://muzamilhasan.com/inner-circle?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=inner-circle&utm_content=5CCpOoZWZqs Read the thesis, the one idea behind everything I'm building: https://muzamilhasan.com/thesis My website: https://muzamilhasan.com Is Artificial Intelligence inherently biased against Muslims, and could it be the ultimate theological threat? In this episode of the Thought Behind Things podcast, I sit down with Shehroz Khan, Project Head at Ilmverse (a global initiative by SISL, Al-Qasimi University), to discuss how they built a trusted Islamic AI companion using 8.5 million pages of authenticated religious texts. While frontier AI models like ChatGPT and Claude are powerful, they are built with Western worldviews and often fail to provide culturally or religiously accurate counseling for Muslims. We dive deep into the dangers of relying on Western AI for Islamic knowledge, the monumental task of scanning and cleaning centuries of Fiqh and Hadith into a RAG pipeline, and the controversial debate: Is AI the Dajjal? We also discuss why democratizing Islamic scholarship is the only way to bypass fake scholars and gatekeepers who exploit the masses. If you want to know how the Muslim world is preparing for the intelligence era, watch this until the end!

  7. Oct 21

    "Don't Build for Pakistan?" - How He Made $1 Million ARR Doing the Opposite ft. Syed Sair Ali | PodcastTBT

    Want to be a guest on Thought Behind Things? Apply here:https://muzamilhasan.com/podcast/applyJoin the Inner Circle, my weekly letter on AI, building, and being early to what's coming:https://muzamilhasan.com/inner-circle?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=inner-circle&utm_content=i02NflBGPFARead the thesis, the one idea behind everything I'm building:https://muzamilhasan.com/thesisMy website:https://muzamilhasan.com Is building software for Pakistani businesses an impossible game, or are founders just targeting the wrong problems? In this episode of the Thought Behind Things podcast, I sit down with Syed Sair Ali, co-founder of Blink, to break down how his company built a restaurant tech stack powering over 500 brands and 2,000 stores across 5 countries—hitting a massive $1M ARR milestone and reaching profitability in Pakistan. While the global tech scene debates whether "SaaS is dead," the local market is desperate for foundational "systems of record." Sair details the harsh reality of restaurant operations: stopping counter cash theft, managing complex FBR/PRA tax integrations, bypassing 30% aggregator commissions with direct online ordering, and why giants like Cheezious and Imtiaz eventually outgrow basic apps. If you want to understand how real B2B software gets sold to traditional Pakistani business owners, watch this until the end.

  8. Oct 20

    Why LUMS Graduates Get Hired Faster Than You (The "Packaging" Secret) ft. Farhan Ali Raza | TBT Podcast

    Do you need a degree from an elite university to land a job at a Silicon Valley startup, or can open-source code be your global passport? In this episode of the Thought Behind Things podcast, I sit down with Farhan Ali Raza, a software engineer from Bahawalnagar who became a core contributor to Django, built Django Bolt (1,700+ GitHub stars), and now works as an open-source engineer at Reflex (a 2023 YC startup)—all while sitting in South Punjab. Context: Farhan’s story completely shatters local location and university biases. We dive deep into how he used Google Summer of Code and GitHub to prove his skills globally, the harsh reality of software engineering jobs in the age of AI, and why junior developers need to move beyond simple "coding" and focus on product architecture and domain expertise. If you're a young Pakistani dev feeling stuck or overwhelmed by the future of tech, you need to watch this until the end! Intro: Overcoming Local Bias & Meeting Farhan Ali Raza Growing Up in Bahawalnagar & Starting with Programming Cracking Open Source: How Farhan Got Into Django & GSoC Building Django Bolt & Racking Up 1,700 GitHub Stars Landing a Job at a YC Startup (Reflex) From a Small Town Is Coding Dead? How AI is Automating Junior Developer Roles The Shift from "Workhorse" Coding to Product Thinking Overcoming Imposter Syndrome & Packaging Your Skills Globally Outro & Final Advice for Pakistani CS Students

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4.9
out of 5
72 Ratings

About

TBT is Pakistan's fastest-growing podcast show covering conversations around Art, Culture & Technology. Tune in thrice a week to be a part of our community! We upload every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Information

  • Creator
    Syed Muzamil Hasan Zaidi
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    605
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 394258
  • Show Website
    Thought Behind Things

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