In our first month post public beta launch, we were used in 30 countries. In our second, we reached 60 countries. Month 3 saw us reach 70. When we spoke to all of you while raising our pre-seed, we said we were building a global product, but the ‘global’ bit came later – maybe year 2. We thought we’d do a ton of research to decide what new markets we’d like to launch in, then create campaigns and build partnerships, perhaps offer basic localizations, to formally ‘enter’ these markets. We thought we’d focus primarily on Pakistan for the next 18 months, and grow locally. We were wrong. 

I’ve worked within Pakistan’s startup ecosystem for nearly a decade now. I do not know of many products built locally that started getting used in this many countries, this fast, with no effort at all from the startup (no marketing, no partnerships). I don’t say this to hype us up – I share this because we are still reeling from the shock, and coming to terms with what has happened. 

People sometimes find it hard to believe when we tell them these numbers. Yes, we have monthly active users in these 70 countries, not just one time installs/uninstalls. Will these users continue to use us? Will they convert to paying customers? It’s too soon to say. There are also countries which have just one or two businesses using us. But the fact that they even found us without deliberate action from our end, a small pre-seed startup building 100% in Pakistan, is astounding and something we do not take lightly. 

It is something that motivates us to do more. In August we realized the market was sending us a signal, and we started to take concrete steps to build on it. We are working to understand which markets find us most useful (and why). What sectors from these markets, what is the volume of transactions, what is the willingness to pay? So many fun questions to answer.

During our pre-seed investor conversations I remember someone asked us what we think could be something that kills Metric. My response at the time was ‘an inability to read market signals, and pivot hard if required’. A global strategy was always on the cards. We just didn’t know how fast, because frankly, we have never seen this happen before. 

The world is our stage, and we will do our best to live up to this responsibility, and this privilege.

- Meenah