This week’s FS weekly options some fascinating tales throughout founder classes, why Bangladeshi conglomerates ought to take note of Dhaka’s rising entrepreneurship scene, an evaluation of the brand new journey company ordinance 2026, and an interview from our archive with IFA Consultancy co-founder Yusuf Sultan.
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9 Sensible Takeaways From Our Interview with JoulesLabs CEO Arifur Rahman Naim
Final week, we printed a wide-ranging dialog with Arifur Rahman Naim, co-founder and CEO of JoulesLabs, the place we explored his unconventional path from a village close to Kuakata to working a 25-30 individual engineering company. The interview lined every little thing from his private journey, his tackle constructing enduring establishments, the mechanics of partnership, the fact of constructing a companies enterprise in Bangladesh, and the continuing problem of making sustainable organizations.
JoulesLabs began in October 2017 as a sole proprietorship, landed its first contract by means of serendipity in Thailand, and has since labored with shoppers starting from FundedNext and the Bangladesh Navy to Europe-based EV corporations. However what makes this story value analyzing is not the shopper record or the survival, it is the feel of decision-making beneath, the sample of decisions that separates corporations that final from people who do not.
We have pulled 9 takeaways from the interview that talk to frequent challenges in enterprise constructing. Particular, sensible insights about how work truly will get accomplished, how partnerships truly operate, and the way founders truly be taught.
Native Conglomerates Ought to Take Higher Curiosity in Dhaka’s Broader Startup and Entrepreneurship Scene
Bangladesh stays what social scientists name a low-trust society. We’re hesitant to collaborate with individuals outdoors our speedy networks, and we assume the worst about unfamiliar companions. This cultural attribute, whereas maybe protecting in sure contexts, limits our means to construct the form of ecosystems that drive innovation and progress.
Profitable startup ecosystems require collaboration throughout institutional boundaries. They want angels who put money into corporations they do not personally handle. They want firms keen to accomplice with ventures they do not management. They want mentors who share data with out demanding fairness. Constructing this collaborative infrastructure requires us to develop higher institutional belief.
The financial case for company engagement with startups extends past particular person returns. When established corporations put money into and accomplice with startups, they strengthen your complete entrepreneurship ecosystem. They supply capital that permits extra ventures to launch and scale. They provide experience that helps founders keep away from frequent pitfalls. They create exit alternatives that encourage extra individuals to begin corporations.
xCloud Launches One-Click on OpenClaw Internet hosting as AI Agent Buzz Peaks
OpenClaw has grow to be 2025’s breakout open-source venture, surpassing 100,000 GitHub stars inside two months with demos of an AI agent that may truly management your digital life by means of Telegram or WhatsApp. However getting it working has been a distinct story. Docker, surroundings variables, API configurations, and the barrier to entry have stored informal customers on the sidelines.
xCloud, the Bangladesh-based all-in-one internet hosting platform, is betting sufficient individuals need to experiment with out the technical headache. This week, the corporate launched OpenClaw Internet hosting in beta, providing one-click deployment on managed servers with 4GB+ RAM.
Journey Company (Registration and Management) Ordinance 2026: Nicely-Intentioned Regulation, Problematic Execution
On January 1, 2026, Bangladesh’s authorities printed amendments to the Journey Companies (Registration and Management) Ordinance, 2026. Issued by presidential order, the ordinance arrives after at the very least three on-line journey companies collapsed between 2024 and 2025, allegedly defrauding prospects of a whole bunch of crores in ticket funds. The federal government earlier printed a draft of the same to get suggestions from the stakeholders.
The regulatory response is complete, addressing helpful possession transparency, false bookings, pricing opacity, and monetary ensures. These are respectable considerations. However the ordinance additionally exemplifies a recurring sample in Bangladesh’s regulatory evolution: well-intentioned interventions that impose necessities calibrated for classy, well-capitalized operators on a market the place most members are small, resource-constrained companies working on skinny margins.
The outcome will virtually actually be market consolidation, the exit of smaller gamers, and better boundaries to innovation. Whether or not this represents good coverage is determined by what you are optimizing for.
IFA Consultancy Co-founder Mufti Yousuf Sultan on Islamic finance, enterprise capital, and the making of IFA Consultancy (Half I)
Mufti Yousuf Sultan is the co-founder of IFA Consultancy, a pioneering establishment in Bangladesh that gives coaching and consultancy on Islamic finance, aiming towards a Halal and Sustainable Economic system.
On this fascinating interview with Future Startup’s Ruhul Kader, Mr. Yousuf talks about his journey to what he’s doing in the present day, the origin of IFA Consultancy, Islamic finance and enterprise capital, the historical past of Islamic finance, the origin and making of IFA Consultancy, the challenges of constructing an Islamic finance schooling and companies firm in Bangladesh, how IFA Consultancy works as a corporation, the metaphysics of progress, the ambition of IFA Consultancy, the actual measure of success and far more.
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