building in pakistan was hard mode building in the u.s. is easy mode most people here don’t even see the cheat codes they’re using

most research is procrastination with a budget the real answers show up only after you start building

the safest way to stand out do the thing everyone else avoids that’s how we opened a barbershop at dari mooch and why poda matcha lives in tubes

building dari mooch in pakistan taught me to survive without vc or a safety net. now with poda in LA i see how many shortcuts are built in. the contrast makes me work faster and appreciate the grind that taught me how.

this weekend at the paklawnch event hosted by aly fahad, i asked every founder i met the same question: what do you drink to wake up? every person admitted they depend on coffee. poda isn’t just matcha paste. it’s my way to break that cycle for me, my friends and other founders.

spent thousands on my first matcha paste formula. scrapped it. if the product isn’t exceptional, no marketing can save it. back to square one.

third time fedex messed up my delivery. spent an hour scanning door mats like a detective just to find the package with my matcha paste formula. startup life isn’t pretty.

11th iteration this week. took r&d in-house because outsourcing was too slow. last night i argued with myself for hours: lecithin at 1.5% or 2%? no right answer. just batch, test, repeat. startup life.

the tea aisle used to be the most boring part of the store. not anymore. gen z drinks more tea than anyone else: • 37% are consistent tea drinkers • 94% of 20–29yos had tea in the past year tea isn’t boomer wellness anymore. it’s gen z culture.

chagee opened 3.5k stores last year. milk tea isn’t a niche, it’s culture now. gen z is choosing comfort > caffeine, ritual > rush. tea is the new coffee. the perfect moment to launch poda.

i’ve been chasing café-quality matcha at home for months. not there yet. but food isn’t software. you can’t beta test flavor forever. hit 80% of your imagined perfection, launch, get feedback and adjust.

i talked to people buying matcha outside cafés. here’s what they said: it’s too hard to make at home they want it sweeter they can’t name a single brand poda is built to fix that.

used to call 5 customers a week at dari mooch. now i stand outside a coffee shop an hour a day talking to matcha drinkers for poda. nothing beats actually listening to the people you’re building for.

after talking to 100+ people, i’ve realized matcha drinkers fall into 2 camps: purists & pragmatists. the second group loves cafe matcha but never makes it at home because its too complicated. poda’s built for them: cafe-quality matcha, no hassle.

our matcha isn’t just a green powder. our proprietary blends at poda are built from hundreds of tests to hit that exact “this tastes like my favorite cafe” moment, without the complicated process.

your intuition is a dataset made from everything you’ve lived. numbers show what’s happening, intuition tells you why. both matter.

most startups chase the trendy. the winners chase what’s underrated

the chaos of pakistan taught me resilience. the structure of US is teacheing me scale. together, they create leverage

why i don’t believe in focus groups: people say one thing and do another. i’d rather launch and see the truth.

when everyone zigs, zag. the market always rewards the fresh angle.