Pakistani Women of Inspiration
Sophia Salim: A Millennial Entrepreneur from Silicon Valley
San Francisco, California
This post was originally published as part of OPEN Islamabad's Women Of Inspiration series here.
Sophia Salim, a FAST-NU graduate, an ex-Microsoft employee, a recent Stanford University graduate and co-founder of Ropazi is living a millennial’s dream life in the heart of Silicon Valley, California. As part of OPEN Islamabad’s Women Of Inspiration series, I reached out to this very talented and tech-savvy entrepreneur to find more about her ambitious professional journey and her most recent business venture.
First Stop, Microsoft!
Sophia has been living in the US for almost nine years now and during this time she wore multiple hats. A few years ago, she was part of Microsoft’s Compiler and GPU Virtualization team as a software engineer in Redmond, Washington (Microsoft’s HQ). There she was busy cracking complex technical puzzles and building technological solutions to solve them. Unlike engineering and medicine, computing is relatively a much younger field in Pakistan and the number of women in computing in Pakistan is still pretty scarce. In such a scenario, surviving the really tough and grilling interview by companies like Microsoft, Google and Amazon, and securing a job there is not less than an accomplishment in itself. There are only a handful of female software engineers from Pakistan who were able to make it to these tech giants. This was undoubtedly Sophia’s first giant leap towards a successful professional career!
Hello, Stanford!
Sophia is not only passionate about solving technical challenges but also loves converting problems into opportunities. Her thirst for continuous learning and growth, next took her to Stanford University, California. She has recently graduated from Stanford with a Masters degree in Organization, Technology and Entrepreneurship. Of all the places in the world, Silicon Valley is the best place to do a technology based startup, and of all the places in the Silicon Valley, Stanford University has arguably the best ecosystem to support a new venture. The cutting edge research from Stanford’s design school and Stanford’s business school, combined with excellent entrepreneurial resources from Stanford Venture Studio provided Sophia with the right knowledge, exposure, network, resources and a solid platform, which enabled her to fulfill her dream of starting her own business and making a dent in the world through entrepreneurship.
The Giant Leap, Ropazi
In 2014, Sophia along with her husband Nauman Qureshi, founded Ropazi, an online marketplace for millennial moms looking for unique clothing for their children with independent clothing brands (Indies). As a millennial mom herself, Sophia’s shopping experience for her son made her aware of the limited and somewhat boring choices available in the kids clothing market. She converted that challenge into an opportunity and built Ropazi. Today, Ropazi provides a unique online opportunity to the independent clothing brands, struggling to establish themselves in a $25B market. Ropazi connects them to the millennial moms looking for unique kids clothing. Almost ten brands are already onboard with Ropazi and more are joining. Ropazi is not just an online store for kids clothing, but offers a complete and personalized styling service to its clients. If you are a busy mom (like myself) and do not have enough time or energy to riffle through Old Navy, Gymboree or Macy’s online catalogs, Ropazi’s personal stylist can help you find outfits based on your kid’s style and your budget. This young company is also part of Stanford’s StartX accelerator and this is how Ropazi works.
Entrepreneurship Means Stepping Out Of Comfort Zone
Talking more about her Ropazi and her entrepreneurial experience, Sophia mentioned that to be a successful entrepreneur she has to constantly step out of her comfort zone, and push herself to the limits with no boundaries. She feels that being an entrepreneur has really helped her in excelling the areas where she originally thought she was not capable enough. She is learning new things every day and meeting phenomenal people. And this is just the beginning!
Dealing with Impostor Syndrome And Leaning In
When asked if being a female made it easier or harder for her to follow her dreams and achieve success, Sophia responded, “definitely harder!”. She recalled her first battle to be against the societal taboos and freedom to choose and define her own path. Her second battle was with her own self. Just like other women in technology, Sophia also recalled dealing with the “impostor syndrome” as explained by Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg in her famous book Lean In. Knowing that it was there helped her win half the battle - but it took Sophia years to realize its existence. Having said that, Sophia also acknowledged her support network, especially her husband Nauman, who played a significant role in encouraging her to find her way to follow her dreams.
Work-Life Balance: Choose A Job You Love
In response to a question about about achieving work-life balance, Sophia responded that such a thing doesn’t exists in the modern, always connected world. She quoted Confucius who once said, “choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
Talking About Future Plans
Talking about her future plans, Sophia mentioned that she see herself back in Pakistan. She envisions starting a for-profit women-focused software company in Pakistan, which will offer a secure and flexible environment, conducive to the professional growth of Pakistani women.
Message For Millennials
Sophia summed up by recommending the young professionals and entrepreneurs in Pakistan to watch Steve Job’s commencement speech at Stanford University (2005) for finding inspiration and wisdom. Below is an extract from his renowned speech, which Sophia finds very inspiring:
“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” Steve Jobs, 2005
Concluding Thoughts
Sophia’s philosophy about life is that it is always challenging and when it stops challenging, it becomes stagnant. Sophia lives by the same philosophy. Her journey from being a bright computer science student in Pakistan to a co-founder of Ropazi in San Francisco are huge accomplishments. She provides inspiration to those who want to achieve success through consistent hard work and persistently following their dreams without getting distracted by other people's thinking.
Pakistani Women of Inspiration is a series of blog posts initiated by OPEN Islamabad to recognize and celebrate contributions and achievements of Pakistani women professionals and entrepreneurs, across the globe. By sharing these stimulating stories we are not only intending to showcase their work and accomplishments, but also hoping that others can get inspired and learn from them.
Posts
