Zain Khawaja (#020)
Performance can only be built on strength, so know what you are strong at and understand your weakness
Company: Challau
Headcount: 7
Stage: Pre-Seed
Tell us your story
The story of my entrepreneurial journey is a story of resourcefulness and resilience. Never did I feel daunted by any challenge that I faced on this journey, and with each step, I realised my vision of what I was pursuing.
Our story is that of a true garage start-up
It began with ditching my first job and putting my precious $5K of savings into buying an electric wheelchair, a laptop, a stereo camera. Armed with the passion to build an autonomous robot from the ground up, I started collecting data to design our first perception algorithm (the process used by autonomous robots to understand their surroundings) by mounting the stereo camera to the wheelchair and driving around my neighbourhood looking somewhat like Stephen Hawking.
Skip forward a couple of years and I had graduated from building low speed robots to building a fully autonomous vehicle out of my garage with our small team. We wired over 200m of cables, integrated the sensors and computers, configured the software, installed the hardware and saved about $100K compared to an off-the-shelf car. That car then went on to complete the toughest autonomous miles ever driven on UK roads and holds the record for the longest recorded autonomous journey in the UK to this day.
When the pandemic hit, we decided to pivot our business and launch Challau, a metaverse platform. I’m now working with our dedicated team to build virtual worlds and immersive games – but I always carry the lessons learned, fun, joy, hardship and excitement in trying something new, and making something that has never been done before become a reality.
Tell us a story that has really resonated with you
I love the movie ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ - it’s a great story about resilience in the face of overwhelming odds.
The movie is about Chris Gardner - a homeless single parent and his struggle to win a prestigious job at a top NY brokerage firm. Chris never gives up, even when everyone around him thinks that it’s impossible for him to land the job. At every point in his journey he has to struggle, whether it’s leaving work early to pick up his son from day care, fetching coffee for his boss and parking his car for him, making it in time to find a spot at the homeless shelter or getting hit by passing traffic whilst frantically rushing.
Chris never gave up - he had a dream, he held on to it tight, and he worked every moment to make it a reality. I really admire that - and it’s inspiring to see how self-belief and perseverance can help you chase down your dreams. It’s something I aspire to every day.
What can't you stop thinking about?
I live and breathe my venture. What's next? How can I make it better? What's missing? Where can I find a solution? Has someone done this before? How can it be done? How can we do it better? These are the questions that occupy my mind round the clock.
I am constantly scanning the environment, constantly on a learning curve and eager to absorb all that I find useful in answering my questions. A lot of great ideas are all around us, but one needs to have an exploratory mindset to unearth the gems.
It's sometimes said that perfect is the enemy of the good and a lot of people may translate that into being satisfied with mediocre. I pursue excellence and that means keeping at it until you know what you behold is a thing of beauty.
If I could tell you just one thing...
“Scio te ipsum”, which means “know yourself”. Performance can only be built on strength, so know what you are strong at and understand your weakness. Knowledge of oneself comes from self-reflection. Take the time to reflect on your work, your passions, your ambitions, your goals, and your life.
If you could get a warm intro to anyone in the world, who would it be and why?
Sal Khan - Founder of Khan Academy. I really respect Sal’s work in making education accessible and equitable for everyone around the world. Sal believes in a big mission and has worked tirelessly to realise it.