Built on execution, not transactions.
Our foundation is operational execution, not financial engineering. We have led organizations, managed personnel, and carried absolute accountability for performance. We come from a legacy of builders, and we approach your business with that exact mindset.
Cornell University · Wayfair · Cengage Group
Talha Shaikh
Growing up, my family ran their own leather tannery business, and I was front and center for the daily grind. I saw firsthand what it takes to build something from the ground up, keep it running through the hard years, and what it means to be truly responsible for it all. Those years taught me that business is not just about spreadsheets. It is about the people and the persistence required to show up every day.
That foundation led me to Cornell and eventually to Cengage Group, one of the largest education companies in the world, where I led strategy and ran the K-12 deal desk, owning how learning materials were priced and delivered to school districts across the country, including some of the lowest income communities in America. Outside of work, I have spent years helping children in poverty in Pakistan reach top universities. The thread through all of it is the same: creating opportunity through real institutions, not good intentions alone.
I have spent my career sharpening the skills to scale businesses and drive growth. I am now ready to apply that to the one thing that matters most: taking the helm of a great service business and building on the legacy that you have created.
PARTNERS
Imtisal Qadir
Cornell · Harvard Business School · Bain & Company · Wayfair · DoorDash
Growing up, I was always starting some kind of small business, from a lemonade stand to selling CDs in high school. I knew early that I wanted to be an entrepreneur, but doing that in Pakistan came with real obstacles. So I used education as my path to America to pursue the American dream.
In the US, I studied at Cornell and later Harvard. As a first-generation immigrant, I couldn't find the financing to start a company of my own, so I went to work at large firms instead. I wasn't thrilled about it at the time, but it taught me what makes large, well-run American companies so efficient. I advised CEOs at Bain and led data and operational work at real scale at Wayfair and DoorDash. Along the way, I learned that the gap between a good business and a great one is almost always execution, not ideas.
I'm now a permanent resident of the US, and I'm ready to pick up the journey I started years ago and become a business owner again.
Umer Khan
UCLA · Duke Fuqua · Uber · Fintech
Summer break was a unique time in the Khan household. Rather than just going to camp or meeting up with friends, my time was spent locked at my father and grandfathers’ hips as they scaled their Fitness Equipment business. Mornings’ in the warehouse receiving a new container of the latest treadmills. Afternoons’ in the service center, watching technicians repair old or damaged machines. Evenings in the retail store, seeing sales reps interact with customers and demo-ing the latest products. I knew running a business was my calling.
However, while learning by doing was always encouraged, there was zero compromise on education. So, I moved to the US to study Economics at UCLA, which was the breeding ground of the early-stage start-up ecosystem. Surrounded by accelerator and incubator programs, post-grad I joined an early-stage Fintech building out their B2B offering from the ground-up. I soon recognized the importance of being data-driven, so I pursued a Masters in Analytics from Duke University and subsequently joined Uber Freight to understand what it takes to scale. Getting deep into complex supply chains, managing enterprise relationships, and constantly optimizing for the bottom line made clear what it takes to succeed at such a level.
Now, with two degrees and diverse professional experiences under my belt, I’m prepared for Summer Break again. This time, as a business owner myself.
