Kawshar Ahmed started out as a textile engineering student and a freelancer. He went on to build JoomShaper, the company that became Ollyo, one of Bangladesh's best-known software companies. By the time of this conversation, Ollyo had more than 70 people and had built more than 230 software products, with over 15 million downloads.
In this episode Ahmed Fahad sits down with Kawshar to trace that path: how freelancing turned into a product company, how a company like Ollyo hires, what its office culture is built on, and how he has dealt with the hard stretches along the way.
Kawshar describes JoomShaper's page builder as the number one page builder extension for Joomla, and the company's products as having reached 13 to 14 million downloads. Fahad also asks about building a global company and a global-minded team from Bangladesh, how Ollyo screens new hires with a task, the pull between perfectionism and "done is better than perfect", how important formal education is, and what Kawshar would do if he had to start again today.
What the conversation covers
- Going from a textile engineering degree to freelancing
- Building JoomShaper and turning it into Ollyo
- How Ollyo grew to 230+ products and 15M+ downloads
- Kawshar's approach to hiring
- Office culture at Ollyo
- Getting through the company's challenges
- Building a global team from Bangladesh
- Perfectionism and "done is better than perfect"
- Formal education, and starting again today
The conversation is in Bangla.