Between July 31 and August 2, jugnuu brought its management, staff, teachers, and students together in Karachi for three days of learning, discussion, and practical work. Students visited a national incubation center, pitched business ideas, received direct feedback, launched a startup, and cleaned the street outside one of their campuses.
The first day began at the National Incubation Center at NED University, which invited the jugnuu team for a visit. Students saw how new businesses are developed through mentorship, planning, research, and steady work. They also learned how founders take a simple idea, test whether people need it, and gradually build it into a viable business.
For many of the students, this was their first close look at a professional startup environment. It helped them see entrepreneurship as a process with clear demands. A promising idea still needs customers, sensible pricing, a workable product, and someone willing to keep improving it.
The team then moved to Riphah International College, where formal meetings began among jugnuu’s management, staff, teachers, and students. They discussed the progress of the campuses, the quality of teaching, and how students could use their digital skills to earn, create, and solve problems in their communities.
Students also heard about schools in California that charge around $80,000 a year while teaching advanced technology and artificial intelligence. Many of those same skills are available to jugnuu students within their own neighborhoods. The comparison helped them recognize the value of what they were learning and encouraged them to take their classes seriously.
On the second day, the students presented their startup ideas. They explained the problems they wanted to solve, described their proposed products, and answered questions from teachers and management. Some needed to identify a clearer customer. Others had to reconsider their pricing, improve their business model, or begin with a simpler product.
The feedback was honest and practical. Students were expected to explain why someone would buy their product, what it would cost to produce, and how they planned to reach customers. These questions pushed them to examine assumptions they had previously taken for granted.
One student also moved beyond the pitching stage on July 31st, 2026. Laiba had launched her startup, Giftify by Shalaib, during the gathering. Her launch gave the other students a real example of what can happen when an idea is developed through work and then offered to customers.
Laiba had created a name, prepared a product, and taken the risk of putting her work before the public. Her progress made the possibility of starting a small business feel much closer to the students around her. They were watching someone from their own community take the first serious step.
By the third day, the discussions had become more detailed. Students returned to their ideas with a clearer sense of what needed improvement. They refined their concepts, considered possible obstacles, and received guidance on marketing, teamwork, and the next steps required to test their plans.
They also learned how to handle criticism. Instead of treating difficult questions as rejection, they began using them to strengthen their thinking. Several students defended their choices, reconsidered weak points, and adjusted their plans after listening to the feedback.
One of the most meaningful activities took place outside the meeting room. Students and team members cleaned the street outside a jugnuu campus. They collected rubbish and improved a public space used by their neighbours every day.
The street cleaning carried the same lesson as the startup meetings: when you see a problem, you should consider what you can do about it. Digital skills can help a young person find work or start a business. Education should also produce people who care for the places where they live.
The activity reflected the reason jugnuu builds campuses inside neighborhoods. Each campus should benefit the students who attend it and the wider community around it. A young person who learns to create a website, present a business idea, or edit a video can also learn to notice local needs and respond with practical action.
The three-day gathering gave management and teachers a chance to see what students could do when given serious responsibility. Attendance numbers and course results tell part of the story. A student standing before a room, defending an idea and accepting useful criticism, reveals far more about the confidence and judgment that education is producing.
By the end of the meetings, students had seen how professional startups are developed, presented their own ideas, helped launch a student business, and served their neighborhood. Laiba’s startup and the cleaned street may appear to be separate achievements, but both began with the same decision: someone saw what could be improved and chose to act.
That is what jugnuu hopes to develop in every student. The goal is to help young people recognize their abilities, apply what they learn, and take responsibility for the future of their communities. During these three days, that future began to take a visible form.
