This week’s compilation presents five insightful articles.
An interview with JoulesLabs founder Arifur Rahman Naim explores his entrepreneurial journey, the establishment of JoulesLabs, insights into building lasting organizations, the realities of operating a services business in Bangladesh, and valuable lessons on selecting the right co-founder.
Business deep dives feature Waffle Up, a rapidly expanding food-tech QSR brand anchored in Singapore with primary operations and R&D in Bangladesh, and an analysis of PRAN-RFL’s increasing retail market presence.
Waffle Up is notable for its growth, operating 16 waffle outlets across Bangladesh and Singapore and reporting over a million waffles sold since its 2021 launch.
PRAN-RFL Group’s expanding retail network now includes over 3,000 outlets nationwide under seven distinct brands. This report offers key insights into this significant market development.
Two insight stories are also included.
On Building Enduring Businesses: Practical Lessons and Wisdom from 13 Founders examines a collection of past founder interviews to identify common strategies for establishing sustainable businesses in Bangladesh. These interviews reveal a clear framework for building resilient enterprises.
Another insight piece addresses the rising demand for air fryers in Bangladesh. With ongoing cooking gas shortages and increasing LPG prices, this electric kitchen appliance is becoming a necessary household item rather than a luxury, reflecting a broader shift towards electric cooking solutions.
Building JoulesLabs: A Conversation with Arifur Rahman Naim, Co-founder and CEO, JoulesLabs
Arifur Rahman Naim’s entrepreneurial path was unconventional. Raised in a village near Kuakata, Bangladesh, his early life was connected to nature, far from the digital world he would later master. His journey, from studying at a madrasa and dropping out of university to freelancing and co-founding JoulesLabs in 2017, highlights a dedication to continuous learning, strategic networking, and creating something impactful.
Air Fryers Gain Momentum in Bangladesh Amid Gas Shortage
The demand for air fryers in Bangladesh is growing due to persistent cooking gas shortages and rising liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) costs. This electric kitchen appliance is now a practical solution for families seeking reliable daily cooking methods. Many consumers increasingly view air fryers as an essential appliance rather than a discretionary gadget. This trend indicates a broader move towards electric cooking as gas supply remains inconsistent across many regions.
Building a Global Food-Tech QSR Waffle Chain: The Waffle Up Strategy
Typically, global food brands follow a predictable expansion model, with their origins and headquarters aligning with the product’s cultural heritage and established consumer markets. For instance, American burgers expand from the US, and Italian pizza chains from Italy.
However, some brands deviate from this pattern. They maintain the food’s cultural origin but achieve global scale through a different brand or location.
Nando’s, for example, built a global chicken brand from South Africa by leveraging Portuguese-Mozambican peri-peri flavors, giving the product cultural authenticity despite its non-traditional origin. Jollibee, originating in the Philippines, first targeted diaspora communities before expanding into mainstream markets after establishing strong unit economics and operational systems.
These exceptions often possess authentic cultural credentials for their product category or prove their business model in underserved markets before competing directly with established players.
Waffle Up adopts a hybrid approach, combining elements of both traditional and exceptional models. It is a Singapore-anchored food-tech QSR brand, with its primary operations and R&D conducted in Bangladesh. This deliberately structured global brand separates its legal domicile and brand positioning from its operational execution. Intellectual property and customer perception are rooted in Singapore, while product development, technology infrastructure, and talent concentration are based in Dhaka. This model challenges the conventional belief that global consumer brands must be built where they are headquartered.
On Building Enduring Businesses: Practical Lessons and Wisdom from 13 Founders
For years, founders and operators have been interviewed about establishing enduring enterprises, with each discussion offering practical insights and profound wisdom. Recently, a review of these interviews in groups began, aiming to identify common patterns.
Through these detailed discussions with successful Bangladeshi entrepreneurs, a clear blueprint for building sustainable businesses has emerged. This blueprint involves a deep integration of personal philosophies, strategic operational principles, and a commitment to people.
Business is challenging globally, and even more so in Bangladesh’s demanding environment. This necessitates that founders possess more than just capital. A closer look at these founders’ stories reveals that enduring companies are built on a foundation of character as much as financial resources.
Inside PRAN-RFL Group’s Growing Retail Dominance and The Power of Owning Distribution
PRAN-RFL Group, a major Bangladeshi conglomerate, is known for its vast scale and relentless drive. The company produces over 8,000 products across more than 100 brands.
Equally impressive is the rapid pace at which the company introduces new products and initiatives, constantly experimenting with innovations.
However, a more striking aspect is how the company has steadily built an extensive retail presence throughout Bangladesh over several years, accumulating significant distribution power.
Currently, PRAN operates over 3,000 retail outlets under more than seven distinct retail brands. This has effectively created a parallel retail ecosystem where the company controls every customer touchpoint, display, and interaction, ensuring complete command over how its products reach consumers.
PRAN has pursued this strategy for some time with varying degrees of success, refining its approach over the years. This current, larger-scale implementation appears to be succeeding.
This expansion holds substantial strategic implications, strengthening vertical integration, enhancing distribution control, facilitating the collection of unique market insights, enabling controlled new product experiments, and improving profit margins.
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