blog.chinookstrategy.com March 10, 2026 · Digital Sovereignty & Platform Economics Analysis · Pakistan Telecom & Digital Infrastructure Local Cloud Is the Sovereign AnswerWe Can’t Ignore When Iranian drones hit Amazon’s Gulf data centers, they didn’t just knock servers offline. They ended an illusion, and opened a $4.5 billion window for Pakistan’s telcos to build something … Read more
I just spent the last 30 days on the road away from Canada to Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Abu Dhabi, Oman, Dubai spending time with founders from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Myanmar, and every corner of the global south. Every single one of them was cautiously optimistic about the future. Smiling. Talking growth. Common thread..”next year … Read more
In Pakistan’s noisy tech streets freelancers doing midnight sprints around power cuts, startups scrimping to keep servers alive, founders flying to meet clients because local procurement rarely buys from them. The Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) sits like an institutional fossil. Founded in the dial up era to “promote Pakistan’s IT industry,” it still evaluates … Read more
In Pakistan’s booming IT sector, a troubling narrative has emerged: large outsourcing firms, while channeling profits through tax-optimized foreign subsidiaries, are pushing to dismantle the tax incentives that empower the country’s freelancers. These companies argue that their locally taxed employees face an unfair burden compared to freelancers, who benefit from a 0.25-1% tax rate on … Read more
Once upon a time… Pakistan stood at a fork in the road where its growing youth, restless digital entrepreneurs, and globally dispersed talent saw glimpses of a future more connected, more efficient, and more fair. But the systems around them were still drowning in paper trails, power outages, and policies built for another century. Every … Read more
Looking at the current news, it is with a heavy heart that I reflect on what seems to be the unraveling of one of Pakistan’s most ambitious technology ventures, The Resource Group (TRG). 📈 5-Year High & Present Low All-time high: PKR 186.49 on April 25, 2021 Current price: PKR 56.68 as of June 20, 2025 — a ~70% drop from … Read more
The Lost Decade Revisited The Spark: May 2012 A single call—disregarding the long-drawn-out prior conversations—changed everything. A founder friend(Jeff) from my TRG-Satmap days shared that the time had come to scale on an idea he was building out. Lead generation at scale. The second coming of the digital gold rush, that’s what it felt like … Read more
Pakistan stands at a critical juncture in its economic development. With one of the largest youth populations in the world, the country possesses a significant demographic advantage. However, entrenched in outdated business practices, Pakistan’s industry and business leadership has largely failed to innovate and adapt. As the world rapidly embraces Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Artificial … Read more
In the burgeoning telecom sector of Pakistan, Veon’s subsidiary Jazz faces a pivotal juncture. Veon’s third-quarter financial disclosures and strategic plans, outlined during their latest earnings call and a comprehensive trading update, convey a narrative of a company striving for digital metamorphosis amidst a fiercely competitive and economically challenging environment. The latest figures from Veon … Read more
As a consumer who is marred by sub-par digital banking services, let alone delightful experiences. I always wonder(ed) who are the anonymous faces that gather on our behalf and come up with experiences in the digital realm? Also why are most, if not all of these experiences so shitty? And why has not one single … Read more