Atoms Shoes: Young Pakistani Couple's Entrepreneurial Journey From Okara to America
Atoms shoes, founded by a young Pakistani couple, has attracted $8.1 million investment, according to media reports . Atoms' investors include Silicon Valley based venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins and Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian. It's the latest success in the entrepreneurial journey that Sidra Qasim and Waqas Ali started in Pakistani town of Okara around 2010. Sidra Qasim and Waqas Ali Wearing Atoms' Sneakers Okara, Pakistan: Atoms.com story began in 2010 when twenty-something Waqas Ali met a shoemaker Muhammad Hussain in Okara at a local panchayat (council meeting), according to Dawn. Waqas brought up the idea of selling shoes online but it did not particularly appeal to Hussain who thought people want to touch, smell, wear and feel shoes before buying them. Waqas soon dropped out of college and persuaded Sidra to join him in pursuing his dream of selling shoes online. They chose "Hometown" as the brandname for their shoes and set up thei...