Places that rewired me.
Seven countries, and what each one taught a founder from Dhaka.
I build software for Bangladesh — but some of my sharpest lessons came from leaving it. Every trip abroad was really a study visit: how do other people run their businesses, treat their customers, move their money, and think about ambition? These are the honest things I carried home from India, Nepal, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, the UAE and Sri Lanka.
Seven stamps, seven lessons.
A short, honest note on each place — not a travel diary, but what stayed with me as a builder.
Scale & frugal innovation
A market so vast it forces you to think in millions, and a culture of jugaad — solving big problems cheaply. India's software ecosystem showed me how to price and build for a value-conscious market without cutting corners.
Patience & resilience
The mountains do not hurry, and neither do the people — yet they endure. Nepal reminded me that warmth and steadiness matter, and that emerging markets next door share the exact same software needs we solve at home.
Service is a product
From street stalls to hotels, hospitality is an art form — and QR payments are everywhere. It confirmed two of my convictions: great support is a feature, and a country goes cashless the moment paying is effortless.
Systems & discipline
A small nation that engineered its way to the top through governance, order and relentless execution. Singapore is my benchmark for what discipline and clean systems can produce — and proof that size is not destiny.
Modern, without losing itself
A multicultural society that embraced technology and Islamic fintech while keeping its identity intact. It showed me you can modernise SMEs and daily life without erasing the culture underneath.
Ambition at full speed
Dubai turns vision into skyline faster than anywhere I've seen. The UAE taught me to think bigger, execute quicker, and treat ambition as a decision — a mindset I try to bring back to every product roadmap.
Warmth & lean resilience
Stunning, generous, and resilient through hard times. Sri Lanka was a lesson in doing more with less and staying gracious under pressure — something every founder tested by a tight month understands.
What travel actually taught me.
Beyond the sightseeing — the realisations I keep returning to when I sit back down to build.
Problems are universal; context is local
A shopkeeper in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur or Dhaka needs the same things — clear accounts, easy payments, loyal customers. The winning product speaks the local language and respects local rules.
Digital payments are the great leap
Wherever paying became effortless, small businesses grew. Watching QR-first economies work first-hand validated our bKash-first approach across every product we ship.
Discipline beats resources
Singapore and the UAE don't win on luck — they win on systems, standards and execution. Process is not bureaucracy; it's how small teams punch far above their weight.
Service is the loudest marketing
The hospitality of Thailand and Malaysia stayed with me longer than any advert. How you treat a customer after the sale is the real brand — so support is built into our products, not bolted on.
Ambition is a choice
Dubai rose from desert because someone decided it would. Scale starts as a mindset before it becomes a plan — and thinking small is a self-inflicted limit.
Bangladesh is not behind
Every trip made me prouder, not smaller. With the right products and standards we can build world-class software at home — and export it. The gap is ambition and execution, not ability.
Ideas travel — so do partnerships.
If any of this resonates — or you're building something across these markets — I'd love to talk.