# Waqas Khan Pitafi

> Founder and CEO of DevBatch, an engineering services firm started in Pakistan in 2010 and run from Dallas since 2024. This site holds his bio, the long-form Journey chapters, essays on building durably and on Pakistan, and the ways to reach him.

Every page on this site is also served as Markdown at the same path with a
`.md` suffix (for example `/about` is also `/about.md`). `llms-full.txt`
holds the full text of every page in one file.

## Start here

- [Waqas Khan Pitafi](https://waqaspitafi.com/index.md): Founder and CEO of DevBatch. Sixteen years building one engineering services firm, from Pakistan, now in Dallas. Writing on building durably, operating as a craft, and the long arc of Pakistan.
- [About Waqas Khan Pitafi](https://waqaspitafi.com/about.md): Founder and CEO of DevBatch. Engineering services firm I started in Pakistan in 2010 and have run for sixteen years; relocated to Dallas in 2024. Currently in Harvard Business School's OPM 68. I write at waqaspitafi.com on building durably, operating as a craft, and the long arc of Pakistan.
- [Now](https://waqaspitafi.com/now.md): What I am working on this month, what I am reading, what I am thinking about, and what I am praying for.

## Journey

- [The journey](https://waqaspitafi.com/journey.md): A short memoir in ten chapters. Childhood in Multan, the years that almost ended my education, the lab where I came alive, Dubai, Qatar, Emirates, the layoff, two failed partnerships, and the founding of DevBatch.
- [After](https://waqaspitafi.com/journey/after.md): The story does not end with the founding. The rest of this site is the next chapter.
- [The childhood that bullied me](https://waqaspitafi.com/journey/childhood-that-bullied-me.md): A village school, then a courtyard in Multan, then the school where I learned what it felt like to be invisible.
- [Emirates and the fall](https://waqaspitafi.com/journey/emirates-and-the-fall.md): The dream job at thirty-two. The post-crisis layoffs. The UK skilled migration application that was rejected on a clerical reading. The lowest professional point of my life.
- [Lahore and the BCS](https://waqaspitafi.com/journey/lahore-and-the-bcs.md): Hostel rooms, semester systems, second in the batch, an interpreter from Pascal to Fortran, and an internship in Rawalpindi I followed because I admired an artist.
- [Pioneer House and after](https://waqaspitafi.com/journey/pioneer-house-and-after.md): Five years of Dubai. The friendships that shaped me. A marriage. A job offer that became a visa ban. The long way back to Pakistan.
- [Qatar and the health cards](https://waqaspitafi.com/journey/qatar-and-the-health-cards.md): An email out of nowhere with a ticket and a visa, an oncology software system, and the project that took me from programmer to project manager.
- [The boy who could not pass](https://waqaspitafi.com/journey/the-boy-who-could-not-pass.md): Four years at the elite school in Multan, sitting at the back of every class. The tutor who lived with me for two months and the morning I scored second in the board.
- [The lab where I came alive](https://waqaspitafi.com/journey/the-lab-where-i-came-alive.md): A newspaper advertisement, an admissions office, and the first afternoon I sat in front of a computer keyboard.
- [The vagabond and the slap](https://waqaspitafi.com/journey/the-vagabond-and-the-slap.md): Three years at Government Science College where I attended ten classes total, and the morning my father stopped my drift in one second.
- [Two partnerships and a name](https://waqaspitafi.com/journey/two-partnerships-and-a-name.md): A drying-room office in Lahore. Two partnerships that ended badly. The third try, alone, that became DevBatch.
- [Two weeks in Dubai](https://waqaspitafi.com/journey/two-weeks-in-dubai.md): Landing on 29 November 1999, sleeping in a stranger's house in Ajman, and finding the first job before the cash ran out.

## Writings

- [Writings](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings.md): Essays and field notes from Waqas Khan Pitafi on building durable companies, operating as a craft, investing in operators, and family inside a CEO's life.
- [What four thousand monthly salaries actually mean](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/4000-kitchens.md): I am not an inventor. I am not building something the world has never seen. I run a services firm, and the way I think about its impact is through the salaries it has paid out, one month at a time, for sixteen years.
- [چین کی ترقی کا سفر](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/china-ki-taraqqi.md): ایک کاروباری شخص کا چین کی ترقی پر تجزیہ: نقل کرنے والی قوم کیسے ایجاد کرنے والی قوم بنی، انسانی سرمائے کی نظر سے۔
- [How China Rose](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/how-china-rose.md): A founder's firsthand analysis of how China moved from the world's factory to a leader in quality and innovation, told through the lens of human capital.
- [How to Adopt AI in a Mid-Market Business](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/how-to-adopt-ai-in-a-mid-market-business.md): Two public playbooks, one sector asymmetry, and a five-step framework for owners facing a generational technology shift.
- [I fired the entrepreneur of myself](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/i-fired-the-entrepreneur-of-myself.md): For the first four years of DevBatch I was the entrepreneur. The company was me, doing the job. Then I fired that version of myself and tried to be a businessman. Here is what changed.
- [Lessons in namaz for your startup](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/lessons-in-namaz.md): Five times a day, every day, for as long as I am alive and conscious. The structure is its own lesson.
- [Note](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/notes/100-years-no.md): If you cannot say no, at least learn to say "give me a hundred years, I will come back to you." It is the same answer in practice. It is gentler in form....
- [Note](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/notes/consistency-and-prayer.md): Five prayers a day, three hundred and sixty-five days a year. That is the consistency the religious tradition I was raised in asks of me. I run my company...
- [Note](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/notes/dream-not-sleep.md): A dream is not what you see in your sleep. A dream is what does not let you sleep. If the thing you are working on is not keeping you up at night, you are...
- [Note](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/notes/first-100-blog-posts.md): Your first hundred blog posts will not be very good. Your first thirty talks will not be very good. Your first fifty essays for the newsletter will not be...
- [Note](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/notes/first-salary.md): My first salary was 6,000 rupees, paid on 30 August 1999. I gave it to my mother. In today's money, that is roughly 12,000 rupees. It is also, almost...
- [Note](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/notes/give-yourself-permission.md): For ten years before DevBatch worked, almost everything I touched failed. Then I read a line that I cannot remember the author of. The line said...
- [Note](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/notes/naming-things.md): I have been called four different names in my life. Kashaan, Zeeshan, Waqas, and finally Waqas Khan Pitafi. The first three were my parents trying to give...
- [Note](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/notes/negotiate.md): The trickiest moment in any hiring process is the salary negotiation. Eleven years and five jobs of being on the candidate side, then sixteen years and...
- [Note](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/notes/nothing-really-matters.md): I am older now. I have driven a Mercedes for cash, and I now drive a car with two hundred and twenty thousand kilometers on it. My favorite food is masoor...
- [Note](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/notes/pakistan-economy-club.md): Pakistan crossed into the $300 billion economy club a few years ago. Most of the operators I talk to in the United States have a stale picture of this...
- [Note](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/notes/sons-and-fathers.md): There is a line I keep coming back to. "By the time I realized that my father was probably right, I had a son who thought I was wrong." It is a small...
- [Note](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/notes/your-word.md): Make your word your bond. Contracts matter. Your word matters more. Let your yes mean yes and your no mean no, always. The spirit of a deal is as...
- [پاکستان کو چائنہ جیسی ترقی سے کون روک رہا ہے؟](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/pakistan-ko-kaun-rok-raha-hai.md): ایک کاروباری شخص کا خاکہ کہ پاکستان اگلے بیس سال میں چین جیسی ترقی کیسے کر سکتا ہے، تسلسل، انسانی سرمائے، شاگردی، تارکینِ وطن اور اعتماد کے ستونوں پر۔
- [The first time I started DevBatch I did not want to continue](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/the-first-time-i-started-devbatch.md): Sixteen years ago I tried to start a company three times in twelve months. The first two failed. I want to write down what I actually thought during the third try, before the success made the failure look like a story.
- [The uneducated engineer](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/uneducated-engineer.md): Three buckets of education, and the one we have stopped filling. Why I think the modern engineering profession is graduating brilliant people who are still uneducated.
- [What's in the name](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/whats-in-the-name.md): I have been called four different names in my life. Only one of them stuck. The story of the other three is the story of how my family raised me.
- [Who Is Holding Pakistan Back?](https://waqaspitafi.com/writings/who-is-holding-pakistan-back.md): A founder's blueprint for how Pakistan could engineer a China-style rise over the next two decades, across continuity, human capital, apprenticeship, the diaspora, and trust.

## Work and investing

- [Giving](https://waqaspitafi.com/giving.md): The Shafiq Foundation, named after my father. Sadqa-e-jaria, healthcare access, engineering education in Pakistan, mental health awareness, and religious institutions. Anonymous-by-default for recipients, disclosed-with-permission for programs.
- [Investing](https://waqaspitafi.com/investing.md): Enterprises I back. AI services rollup, mid-market acquisitions, founder-operator bets. The investing pillar of the operating model.
- [Work](https://waqaspitafi.com/work.md): DevBatch, DeltaOne, and other ventures Waqas Pitafi operates or contributes to.

## Contact

- [Connect](https://waqaspitafi.com/connect.md): How to reach me. Email, LinkedIn, contact form. Response expectations stated honestly.
- [Fitness](https://waqaspitafi.com/fitness.md): My fitness journey. The discipline part of the operating model, and why I treat the body as part of the company's compounding asset base.

## The Verification Advantage

- [The Verification Advantage](https://waqaspitafi.com/the-verification-advantage.md): Free to Generate, Paid to Verify. How AI is reshaping software engineering, and where durable advantage moves next. Read the book, download the editions, and take the starter kit.
- [Read The Verification Advantage](https://waqaspitafi.com/the-verification-advantage/read.md): The full interactive edition of The Verification Advantage, in the browser. Free to Generate, Paid to Verify.
- [starter-kit](https://waqaspitafi.com/the-verification-advantage/starter-kit.md): The portable method from The Verification Advantage, as real files you can drop into any repo.
- [starter-kit/design](https://waqaspitafi.com/the-verification-advantage/starter-kit/design.md): The design files from the starter kit that ships with The Verification Advantage, ready to drop into any repo.
- [starter-kit/design/qa](https://waqaspitafi.com/the-verification-advantage/starter-kit/design/qa.md): The design/qa files from the starter kit that ships with The Verification Advantage, ready to drop into any repo.
- [starter-kit/methodology](https://waqaspitafi.com/the-verification-advantage/starter-kit/methodology.md): The methodology files from the starter kit that ships with The Verification Advantage, ready to drop into any repo.
- [starter-kit/roles](https://waqaspitafi.com/the-verification-advantage/starter-kit/roles.md): The roles files from the starter kit that ships with The Verification Advantage, ready to drop into any repo.
- [starter-kit/scripts](https://waqaspitafi.com/the-verification-advantage/starter-kit/scripts.md): The scripts files from the starter kit that ships with The Verification Advantage, ready to drop into any repo.
- [starter-kit/specify](https://waqaspitafi.com/the-verification-advantage/starter-kit/specify.md): The specify files from the starter kit that ships with The Verification Advantage, ready to drop into any repo.
- [starter-kit/specify/memory](https://waqaspitafi.com/the-verification-advantage/starter-kit/specify/memory.md): The specify/memory files from the starter kit that ships with The Verification Advantage, ready to drop into any repo.

## Other pages

- [Privacy](https://waqaspitafi.com/privacy.md): Privacy policy for waqaspitafi.com. What is collected, what is not, and what happens to it.
- [Speaking and press](https://waqaspitafi.com/speaking.md): Recognition for sixteen years of export-grade engineering services. Award from the President of Pakistan, Vice Chairman of P@SHA, Convener of IT Committees at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce. Talks and press list expand as they ship.
- [Workshops](https://waqaspitafi.com/speaking/workshops.md): Small, peer-run workshops Waqas Khan Pitafi runs for operators. Each one is hand-curated, capped, and built to be useful in the week after.
- [Terms](https://waqaspitafi.com/terms.md): Terms of use for waqaspitafi.com. Short, plain English.

## Optional

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