The Big Bird Who Taught Pakistan to Fly
She was born in Karachi, raised in Hong Kong, and then quietly returned to Pakistan with no grand plan — just a laptop, a deep love for people, and an unshakeable belief that her country's youth could change the world. Thirty years later, the proof is everywhere.
She doesn't have a corporate title on a corner-office door. She has something rarer: a nickname. In every startup circle, co-working space, and pitch competition from Karachi to Lahore, they call her "Big Bird." Not because she's tall or intimidating — but because, like the gentle giant of Sesame Street, Jehan Ara has spent decades making sure the little ones around her grow up curious, confident, and ready to soar.
Her journey reads like a novel someone would pitch as too improbable. Born in Karachi. Childhood in Hong Kong — the city that stamped on her a love of hard work, good food, and the value of time. Brief stints in journalism, advertising, and PR. A return to Pakistan in the mid-1990s just as the internet was becoming a thing. And then — a 30-year quiet revolution.
What Jehan Ara built isn't a company. It's a community. A generation of founders, engineers, investors, and thinkers who all share one origin story: "Jehan believed in me before I believed in myself."
"I am a person of average intelligence who can best be described as a pretty good human being."— Jehan Ara, on her own blog (proving she's wildly underestimating herself)
Photo: Jehan Ara, Founder & CEO, Katalyst Labs. Former President of P@SHA for 20+ years. Architect of Pakistan's startup ecosystem. Confirmed shopaholic. Self-described "person of average intelligence."
A Childhood Between Two Worlds
Born in Karachi to a banking family, Jehan moved to Hong Kong at age eight when her father's career took the family east. She attended Rosaryhill School in the city's hills — a world away from Pakistan. Hong Kong didn't just educate her; it formed her. She came away with three gifts: a genuine love for great food, an iron work ethic, and a fierce respect for other people's time.
Her siblings scattered across the globe. She chose to come back. "Someone had to be with my parents," she says, with characteristic simplicity. It's the kind of decision that tells you everything about who she is.
She started her career writing for a Hong Kong newspaper, then moved into advertising and PR. By the time multimedia was becoming a buzzword, she was already experimenting with interactive CD-ROMs — the Netflix of 1994.
The Return & The Rebirth
In the mid-1990s, her father retired and the family returned to Pakistan. Jehan saw something others didn't: a country on the verge of a digital awakening, and an opportunity to be the person who midwifed it.
She co-founded Enabling Technologies — a multimedia company that developed some of Pakistan's first-ever interactive products. She went knocking on doors of major corporations trying to convince them to get online. Most doors were slammed. She kept knocking.
She joined P@SHA (Pakistan Software Houses Association) and found herself the only woman in a room full of company heads. Her response? "I always made it a point to disagree where necessary." By 2001, she was its President. She would hold that role for over 20 years.
The Nest, Then Katalyst, Then Everywhere
In January 2015, with backing from Google for Entrepreneurs, Jehan founded The Nest I/O — Pakistan's first tech incubator. It became a landmark, a community, and, frankly, a home for hundreds of young founders who had nowhere else to go.
After 6.5 years at the helm, she resigned and launched Katalyst Labs in 2021 — her most personal project yet: a startup accelerator with a special Women Leadership Fellows Program to nurture the next generation of female founders and executives.
She now sits on the World Bank's Gender Advisory Council, Pakistan's PM Task Force on IT, TikTok's APAC Content Safety Board, and the boards of universities, corporates, and government bodies. She somehow also finds time to blog, mentor strangers, and run +92Disrupt every year.
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~1970s
Born in KarachiMoves to Hong Kong at age 8. Grows up in a city that never sleeps and never stops working. Lessons absorbed: punctuality, intensity, dim sum.
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Early 90s
Journalist → Ad Person → Multimedia PioneerSpends a year writing for a Hong Kong newspaper. Moves through PR and advertising. Discovers interactive media before most people know what a CD-ROM is.
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1994
Enabling Technologies FoundedCo-founds one of Pakistan's first multimedia companies with Zaheer Kidwai. Produces the country's first interactive CD-ROM for Jafferjees. Gets doors slammed. Keeps going.
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2001
President of P@SHABecomes the only woman heading a company in the room — and promptly becomes its president. Spends two decades building Pakistan's largest tech association into a genuine force.
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2015
The Nest I/O OpensLaunches Pakistan's first Google-backed tech incubator in Karachi. Over 6.5 years, 217+ startups are incubated. Hundreds of founders find their wings.
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2017
White House InvitationInvited by President Barack Obama to speak on entrepreneurship in South Asia at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit. She goes. She speaks. She represents Pakistan the way Pakistan deserves to be seen.
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2018
PM Task Force MemberAppointed to the Prime Minister's Task Force on IT and Telecom. Policy influence goes national.
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2021
Katalyst Labs LaunchesResigns from P@SHA and The Nest I/O to build her most personal project: a startup accelerator and Women Leadership Fellows Program. The dream distilled.
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2023
Karachi Slush'DBrings the iconic global Slush conference to Karachi, hosting 500+ founders, investors, and innovators. Also organises an improv comedy session, because of course she does.
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2024–25
Still At ItRunning Katalyst Labs, judging competitions, speaking at universities, hosting +92Disrupt, serving on the World Bank Gender Advisory Council, and apparently having the time of her life.
*Methodology: vibes, interviews, and eyewitness accounts from 217+ founders. Peer-reviewed by the Big Bird herself (not really).
A doctor tells Jehan she has cancer and needs surgery. The doctor emphasises it is a life-or-death situation. Jehan's response? "The PASHA ICT Awards are in two weeks. I can't miss those." She has the surgery — after the awards. She later calls this her "stupid side." We call it peak Jehan Ara.
When Barack Obama personally invites you to speak at the White House about entrepreneurship in South Asia, you go. Jehan went. She presented Pakistan the way Pakistan deserves to be seen — as a country of extraordinary young talent, not just the headlines. Those who attended say she held the room.
A journalist visits Jehan at The Nest as she's packing up her office. Her desk is "packed with funky decoration pieces." Jehan apologises for "the mess." The journalist sees no mess whatsoever. Jehan is a self-described shopaholic who has travelled so much and bought so much that there is — her words — "nothing left to buy."
A Nest alumnus heading to a US visa interview is told — by someone — to wear a three-piece suit. He does. He arrives at the consulate looking, in his own words, "like a weird desperate person." He blames no one. He thanks Jehan for the connections that eventually got him to the US anyway. The lesson: Jehan's network > a three-piece suit.
What Her People Say
"Jehan gave many of us wings, including yours truly, and showed us how to fly."
— LinkedIn endorsement, widely echoed
"She is someone who is genuinely happy watching others succeed. She literally nurtured Pakistan's entrepreneurial ecosystem."
— Nest I/O Advisory Board Member
"Jehan gets joy from the confidence she sees in Nest graduates — be it pitching to investors, conducting projects, or guiding their teams."
— Jawwad Farid, Alchemy Technologies
"Don't mess with any of her friends. And her friends are many."
— Social Champ founder, learned the hard way
Not Fame. Community.
When asked about her biggest achievement, Jehan Ara doesn't mention the awards, the White House, or the 217+ startups. She says: "I believe that I have been able to build a community that trusts me and has a strong belief in each other. That to date is what I am most proud of."
She wants to be remembered as someone who cared enough to make the effort to bring about change. Not a disruptor. Not a "thought leader." A carer. In a world saturated with people performing passion, Jehan Ara seems to actually have it — evidenced by the fact that she mentors people who come to her office uninvited, late in the evening, just to talk through a problem. And she always listens.
Her mother — who battled lupus for 20 years with grace, humour, and zero complaints — is clearly her compass. Every description of her mother sounds like a description of Jehan: sincere, loving, always smiling, patient, compassionate. "If there is anything remotely angelic in my character," she writes on her blog, "I owe it all to my mother."
She advocates for privacy legislation, cybercrime laws, women's empowerment, and youth policy involvement. She co-founded Bolo Bhi (a civil society research and advocacy organisation). She runs initiatives to use technology to combat violence against women. She is, in the truest sense of the word, an activist who happens to run a startup accelerator.
"I want to be remembered as a person who cared enough to make the effort to bring about change."— Jehan Ara, Daily Times interview
Fun Facts for Jehan
- 🏠 You once ran a client meeting from a hospital ward while your mother was being treated. You call this "technology enabling care." We call it superhuman.
- 📱 Your blog subtitle is "Prickly thoughts from the edge of Cyberspace." You've had this blog since at least 2007. This is extremely cool. This makes you one of Pakistan's original tech bloggers.
- 🐦 You are nicknamed "Big Bird." The actual Big Bird from Sesame Street is 8 feet 2 inches tall and teaches children to read. The metaphor was more apt than anyone knew.
- 🎮 When asked what she wanted to be as a child, Jehan said: "All I knew was I wanted to play games, play with my siblings and read comics." She grew up to build a startup ecosystem. Plot twist of the decade.
- 🌏 You've lived in Hong Kong, the UAE, and Pakistan. You speak the language of every room you walk into. That's not geography — that's a superpower.