From the shadows of poverty, Usman’s journey traversed a path that defied limitations and culminated in remarkable success. His narrative of adversity, tenacity, and unwavering commitment serve as a guiding light for aspirants navigating their ambitions in the challenging terrain of Pakistan’s youth landscape. Usman’s story, from humble beginnings to entrepreneurial triumphs spanning continents, illuminates a path of inspiration and possibility for the striving minds of Pakistan.
Formative Years of Usman
Usman Asif was born and raised in Rahim Yar Khan, Punjab. He was born into poverty, which was worsened by the early and unprecedented demise of his father. His father passed away so early in his life that Usman says he does not remember having a single one-on-one conversation with his father.
Usman’s mother was the backbone of the family, working immensely hard as a government worker to support her family. Usman earned his education from a government Urdu medium school, followed by his intermediate completion in 2002 from Khawaja Fareed College, the only college in Rahim Yar Khan, as Usman says.
There was a paradigm of moving to Lahore, the provincial capital after one completes their intermediate education, and Usman followed it too, following his graduation in 2002. Usman was anxious, as he had never left the city before, let alone traveling alone.
His Life In Lahore
Being an average student not interested in studies, Usman Asif needed to be more relaxed about whether he would receive admission to any university, considering his grades in intermediate education were manageable. Getting into a university and settling into a new city was a stressful point of Usman’s life.
In the early 2000s, there was a high demand for telecommunications in Pakistan. Usman’s older brother suggested he choose the telecommunication field as well, as he doubted Usman Asif would survive as a computer science student due to his distaste for his studies. Usman Asif tried our programming, and his simple program of adding two integers made him fall in love with programming.
FAST Entry Test
Despite the odds, Usman Asif aced his FAST entry test and kept his decision to select computer science a secret, as he knew his family and friends disapproved of the idea. As his peers had suggested, Usman Asif was more focused on learning than his grade.
Usman Asif soon debunked this mentality upon his failure in a course, and he quickly realized, considering how hard it was to pay every semester’s fees, that he could not afford to fail classes. He graduated from FAST around 2007 and summarized his time in university as tricky.
Usman’s First Job
During his last semester, Usman Asif had not decided which direction to go, only that he loved programming a lot. He soon landed a job in Uran, offering Usman Asif an 18,000 PKR salary. Usman Asif describes how his first salary made him proud of himself for earning. Usman’s stay at Uran was short-lived as his brother suggested that he not work in an open-source development company, so he moved to Census.
Census
Usman Asif expressed that his first day of the Census was a remarkable one. It was his first and last day as the company’s head. Usman Asif walked in on his speech, and he said Mr. Nadeem Hashmi said that the success of a person with a clear vision is guaranteed. This led Usman Asif to brainstorm about what he wanted to be, and so he devised his timeline of events with a clear idea of what he wanted to do and what he wanted to be.
The Census was not open source, unlike what Usman enjoyed doing. Rather than placing a brick in making a wall, he wanted to see the whole thing, and he soon left Census to go back to an open-source company. He joined Confiz.
Confiz
Usman’s discussion with a colleague about starting a startup soon led to developing a coding stack. His colleague asked whether Usman would work on a startup by investing 20,000, working 12 hours a day, counting weekends; Usman Asif called it a “no-brainer” and soon resigned from Confiz.
Cryptography and Marriage
LUMS was offering a master’s program for FAST graduates, and Usman soon found himself studying cryptography from a professor whom he found very interesting. This eventually led Usman to marry the professor’s daughter, as he states, “he was a very brilliant guy, a genius”.
Usman Asif started his own service business and found a front-end project on a website called Odus. The project cost around 350 USD, and the following tasks soon enabled Usman to afford his laptop, mobile phone, and marriage. Usman soon realized that with the absence of PayPal, the visa application to the United States was necessary, so he applied.
eduleaf
The first-ever grand slam of Devsinc was the development of eduleaf, an exam-checking software. Usman Asif received a call from a government worker in Sukkur who asked him if he could develop stable software to check the sheets of many students; despite needing to be better equipped, Usman bid for the project and eventually won.
The project cost differs from what Usman ASif was prepared for, so he needed funding. The funding was given after much persuasion and assurance from Usman Asif that he was not scamming them and that they would receive their project of top quality.
The success of Sukkur’s Project and Moving to the US
The Sukkur project’s success and the call for the acceptance of the US visa prompted Usman Asif to move to the US in a very frantic way, and he was soon in Seattle with his wife, who was pregnant then. Usman Asif describes that Seattle was full of people working at Google or Microsoft.
Not meant for office Jobs
Usman soon landed a job with a good salary, giving him additional benefits such as health insurance and a new Macbook. Usman described that on the first day, he realized he wasn’t meant for office jobs, and he resigned within a week, starting his own service business in Seattle. He got his first project quickly.
Moving Back to Pakistan
Usman expressed that the projects from his services were insufficient to support his finances, and he soon moved back to Pakistan. The services business was earning him during his stay in Pakistan, and after gathering around 14,000 USD, he soon moved to California. Usman loved the atmosphere of California, saying that he belonged there.
California
During his stay in California, Usman discussed with someone in HR who needed an app for human resources. This eventually led to another startup, which was a massive success for Usman, and as he states, he earned around 7.2m USD. He soon received an acquisition offer of 5m USD, which offered to purchase his employees back in Pakistan, his startups, and provide Usman with relief, which he accepted.
At this point, Usman claimed he had achieved everything he had hoped for. Devsinc has over 3,000 projects completed with over 95% customer satisfaction rate. The startup comprises over 1500+ employees and over 400 clients.
Conclusion
From the rented houses of Rahim Yar Khan to earning millions in America, Usman Asif’s incredible journey embodies the triumph of determination. Rising from poverty and early loss, Usman’s pursuit of programming led him from an uncertain start to establishing a thriving tech empire.
Devsinc embodies the limitless potential of passion, as we see from Usman’s love of programming. His story is a compelling testament, inspiring Pakistani youth to defy the odds and relentlessly pursue their dreams.
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