Alumni Entrepreneurship Spotlight With Junaid Ahmad - CEO Jackrabbit Ops

Dreams can be funny things. Sometimes we start down a path thinking we know where it leads, or at least where we want to go, but then the path diverges, or with the experience of the journey, our dreams change.

Junaid Ahmad, CEO of Jackrabbit Ops, can relate to this. After completing a Web Development Bootcamp at Lighthouse Labs, he landed his dream job as a web developer. However, after a few years and some serious consideration, he ultimately decided to go down the path of entrepreneurship.

In a short time, our lives have been transformed by technology. Many today can recall a time before the internet. Now, we walk around with supercomputers in our pockets. And, with a single tap can achieve tasks such as shopping or ordering a replacement boiler that before now might have taken hours and even days to complete. The beauty of getting a quality tech education is the opportunities it opens for you. The demand for skilled tech professionals is so high that they have a broad choice of options. They can either join a team as a tech employee, begin a consultancy firm or launch a tech startup.

The Seeds of a Dream

As a young child, Junaid looked up to the many physicians he encountered in the hospitals and dreamed of becoming one. However, during his undergraduate years, while studying for his MCAT, he found himself drawn to tech. He realized that though he had the dedication and knowledge to become a medical professional, he didn’t have the same passion for medicine as he did for tech.

Step One: Get a Quality Tech Education

Once he had decided to follow his passion, Junaid reached out to a tech friend for advice on getting into the industry. Following her advice, he registered for a Bootcamp at Lighthouse Labs instead of returning to college as he wanted to ensure he maximized the return on his investment. He realized that the bootcamp option, such as the Web Development program offered by Lighthouse Labs, would give him the technical and soft skills, as well as the practical experience needed to succeed in the tech industry.

The Bootcamp Experience

Post-Bootcamp, Junaid earned the Web Development certificate, which he proudly displays in his office. We asked about his experience at Lighthouse Labs.

"I had an incredible experience at Lighthouse Labs, where I learned the fundamentals of professional coding and developed a demo day product with the help of mentors. I formed life-long bonds with my mentors and project partners, Alex and Joanne, with whom I shared many days of learning and building. The experience was a great opportunity to improve my coding skills. To this day, I still dream of shipping our final project, Dealbreaker, to the public."

Career Services, Getting a Job and Life After Bootcamp

After Bootcamp, he worked with the Career Services Team at Lighthouse Labs to find a job. He learned to create CVS that highlighted his skills, strengths and abilities. He also attended scheduled interviews, which helped him meet potential employers and practice his interviewing skills. These efforts ultimately led to three job interviews.

His first job post-Bootcamp was as a web developer at a robotics pharmaceutical company. After a few months of hard work and intensive learning, he was quickly promoted to team lead of the entire software division.

"It was an amazing opportunity I wouldn't have gotten if I hadn't taken the risk with boot camp. My experience proves that you can turn your coding boot camp education into a rewarding career with determination and hard work."

Need a good reason to learn how to code? Here's 12. Read our feature: WHY LEARN TO CODE: 12 SURPRISING BENEFITS.

About JackRabbit Ops

Tell us a little bit about your company. What sparked the idea? When was it established, and what services do you provide?

“The idea for the company was born out of our experience in our software consulting firm. In client meetings, we noticed a pattern of inefficiency: employees were often asked to write process documentation but lacked the knowledge of how to do so. This resulted in long meetings, subpar process documentation, and poor company adaptation of those processes.

JackRabbit Ops was created to solve this problem. With the help of AI, the company can automate the development of process documentation, making it faster and more efficient. Employees simply have a short conversation with the AI, and it writes the process documentation for them! The AI uses industry best practices to ensure that the documents are of the highest quality and that the company can adapt to them more easily.

Since launching in October, JackRabbit Ops has begun gaining traction with businesses looking to streamline and document their processes more efficiently. Jackrabbit Ops will soon start providing suggestions on improving processes and offering industry-specific processes that can be imported to any company!

JackRabbit Ops is the future of process documentation. With the help of AI, businesses can talk to their business and reach business goals quickly and easily.”

Imposter Syndrome and Entrepreneurial Challenges

Imposter syndrome is one of the hurdles people face when considering starting a business. If you don't have an entrepreneurial background, i.e. your family had a small business, the prospect might seem overwhelming. We asked Junaid how he dealt with this issue and others that may have arisen during his journey.

"I've found that surrounding myself with mentors and advisors has been an invaluable tool to help me overcome this. These people have a wealth of experience and can guide me through their successes and failures. By learning from these mentors and advisors, I've gained the knowledge and confidence necessary to move forward with my endeavours. Seeking mentors, advisors, and other experienced individuals has been a key part of my success. I'm sure it can be for other founders as well."

"One of the initial challenges I faced on my path to entrepreneurship was learning to shift my focus from developing the perfect product to providing for my customers' needs. As a developer, I was used to ensuring everything was just right before a user saw it, making it difficult to prioritize customer feedback and make improvements quickly.

However, I quickly realized that customers were extremely grateful when I listened to their feedback and made changes. This motivated me to simplify and ship products to solve customer problems and use their feedback to improve.

This shift in focus has not only allowed me to provide better customer service but has also allowed me to iterate my product quickly and efficiently, enabling me to continue to build and grow my business."

Despite the challenges, Junaid navigated through to a successful startup. We asked how the skills he learned at Lighthouse Labs helped his journey.

"The knowledge and skills I've learned at Lighthouse Labs have been invaluable in my journey as a founder. It taught me the importance of hard work, collaboration, and the power of a good product. Whether it was staying up late to finish our Lighthouse Labs assignments or working with a team to create our demo day project, we had to be disciplined and dedicated. This discipline and dedication have allowed me to progress in building my own company and team. At Jackrabbit Ops, we believe in: "ship every single day" – and that's what we're doing! We're constantly shipping, iterating and pushing ourselves to deliver the best product we can. My time at Lighthouse Labs has given me the skills and knowledge that have enabled me to strive for success and to build something I'm proud of."

Imposter syndrome is quite common for new tech professionals. Read more about it and learn how to deal with it in our feature: IMPOSTER SYNDROME IN THE TECH INDUSTRY.

Life as an Entrepreneur and Chief Executive Officer

We wanted to know more about his business and life as a CEO, so we asked Junaid about his business operations. What tech stack they use, the business software decision-making process (accounting, payroll, design), and his efforts at marketing.

"At Jackrabbit Ops, we take great pride in the technologies we use to serve our customers. We use a combination of React, a JavaScript library for creating user interfaces, and Python, a powerful general-purpose programming language, to deliver a smooth, responsive user experience. Our backend is built with Python to allow us to process large datasets and generate high-quality process documentation.

From a marketing perspective, we leverage LinkedIn to reach our target B2B customer base. By leveraging the power of LinkedIn's platform, we target our marketing to the right people, resulting in higher conversion rates and better customer engagement.

Finally, we strive to select the right software to support our internal operations. We use software that simplifies and automates the tasks necessary to run our business, such as payroll, accounting, and design. By investing in software that streamlines our processes, we can increase efficiency and reduce the strain on our team like Jackrabbit Ops minimizes the strain on our customer's companies!

Jackrabbit Ops is dedicated to providing our customers with a superior user experience and streamlining our internal processes. By leveraging the right technologies and software, we make this possible."

How is the company doing? Have you had any external investors? How can they contact you(website, email, LinkedIn)?

"So excited to share that Jackrabbit Ops is doing amazing! Fun fact; the answers in this article were written by our products AI through a conversation I had with it!

Jackrabbit Ops is officially launched, and we are taking on new users! To learn more about our product and sign up, please visit www.jackrabbitops.com.

We are also looking to raise our seed round to expand our team and take our technology to the next level. Therefore, if you're an investor interested in funding the growth of Jackrabbit Ops, please reach out to me personally at junaid@jackrabbitops.com or on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/junaidaahmad/) or message me on Twitter (https://twitter.com/junaid_sudo). My DMs are always open! For clients, I'm also available to provide a founder demo or answer any questions you may have. Please get in touch with me on LinkedIn, Twitter, or email me at junaid@jackrabbitops.com."

On a lighter note, we asked Junaid about the experience of being an entrepreneur and CEO

"I love being a founder the most because it allows me to create and develop a product that solves a real-world problem. It's incredibly satisfying to see that my product has made a difference in people's lives, and I'm proud of being able to provide them with a solution.

However, what I hate the most about being a founder is when I fail my team. It's incredibly difficult to watch your team work hard and then not meet their expectations. It's a feeling of guilt and frustration that can be hard to shake, but I try to remember that the best way to lead is to stay positive and keep pushing forward."

Advice to Tech and Entrepreneurial Hopefuls

To conclude our interview, we asked Junaid his advice to people looking to get into tech and perhaps start a business afterwards.

“This can be intimidating, as the tech industry is ever-evolving, and there is always something new to learn. However, you can succeed in this dynamic field with dedication and motivation.

The key to succeeding in tech is to approach it like a lifelong learner. You should be willing and open to learning new skills and adapting to the changing tech ecosystem even a decade down the line. This can be challenging but incredibly rewarding, as you never know what exciting opportunities you may encounter. To ensure you stay on top of industry trends and developments, invest in your education, be actively involved in the tech community, and don’t be afraid to reach out for help and advice.

Making the switch to a career in tech can be daunting. Still, once you understand the basics and have the right attitude and dedication, it can be an incredibly rewarding experience. Good luck, and please reach out to me if you ever want to talk!”

And for those looking to go the entrepreneurship route and set up their own business, he had these words of wisdom.

“First of all, Hi, my fellow Lighthouse Labs alumni; I am one of you!

If you’re considering becoming an entrepreneur, a lot of hard work and risk are involved. But increasing your odds of success can be as simple as leveraging your experience and using technology to automate tasks and generate revenue.

Take a look at the problems you’ve solved for your friends, family, and past employers in your career thus far. How can you use tech to automate it? You may be able to create a product or service that solves a common problem and generate income from it.

The key is to focus on taking small, manageable steps and creating a product or service that solves a real problem. This way, you can build a successful business while minimizing your risk.

Good luck, and stay focused!”

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