Starting something new is always a challenge, even if you have a family history of entrepreneurial success.
When brothers, Adeel Shahzad, BMOS’2018, and Fahd Shahzad, HBA ’23, decided to create Goat Pure, they were taking their education and experience into uncharted territory; creating Pakistan's first professional goat dairy farm.
The Shahzad family has a storied entrepreneurial history and has worked on a number of enterprises ranging from leather textiles, to chicken egg farming. But to run a business that had no precedent in Pakistan was always a risk.
Pakistan has one of the world's largest populations of goats and they play an important role in the country's cultural landscape. Goats produce leather, which was a dominant export before cheaper, leather-like synthetic brands started flooding the market. Goats are also an important source of protein. The country is also the 4th largest producer of dairy; the vast majority of which is cow’s milk.
Given this confluence of factors, the opportunity to launch Pakistan's first professional goat dairy farm was one the Shahzad brothers couldn't pass on.
But like all good entrepreneurship stories, Goat Pure is more than just a business opportunity. For Adeel in particular, the story was personal.
Having struggled through various health issues arising from his lactose intolerance, Adeel turned to goat milk and saw a marked difference in his well-being. But the condition struck a deeper chord when he noticed his young son struggling with similar issues during his transition from formula to solid milk. His pediatrician recommended trying goat milk, but there was a problem: There was no major label in Pakistan selling safe pasteurized goat milk.
Adeel did some research and figured out how to pasteurize the milk at home and they witnessed immediate results. Soon, word got around his tightly-knit community and the requests started pouring in; transforming a personal problem into a potential business.
Of course, getting into the dairy business is not something anyone does on a whim, and part of Adeel’s preparation has included completing certification programs on Goat Dairy Production and Management from Penn State University and Australian Online Courses.
Since starting Goat Pure, Adeel’s son’s story continues to be a significant thread in the brand’s growth and success.
Even now, 70 percent of our market consists of people who are transitioning their children from formula to goat milk because it's a lot lighter on the stomach.
Adeel Shahzad, BMOS’2018
While goats produce a fraction of the milk a cow does on a daily basis, goat milk includes higher amounts of calcium and protein and lower levels of lactose. Goat milk is also less inflammatory and includes fewer allergens, making it an easier transition option for babies, young children, and adults struggling with mild lactose intolerance.
Starting something new
Fahd, who was (and still is) in the midst of his university education in Canada, was visiting Pakistan while Shahzad was investigating the opportunity and developing the business. Fahd was keen to pull aspects from his ongoing business education and provide feedback, and suggestions on Goat Pure. The elder Shahzad was impressed by Fahd’s wisdom and newfound confidence and decided to add him to all the company meetings.
Having taken courses at Ivey on digital marketing, social media, and entrepreneurship, Fahd has been a vital part of growing Goat Pure’s web and social presence, which is integral to educating their customers on the benefits of goat milk over other forms.
Part of that process also involves building a modern brand that is aware of issues outside the financial sphere. For Fahd and Adeel, one of those issues is sustainability. They note that the use of plastics is often overlooked in Pakistan. Aware of its harmful impacts on the environment, the brothers decided to use glass containers to reduce Goat Pure’s carbon footprint.
“Our goal is to build a brand that always prioritizes quality and never compromises. With this reputation, we plan to export our products and bring the essence of our brand to the world” said Fahd.
Throughout the last year of his HBA, Fahd started picking courses that helped him directly apply his learnings to Goat Pure.
Whenever I’m doing a case study, I literally have a Google Doc where I write down all the notes that I can apply to Goat Pure. Even with a course like, Behavioural Economics, I’m thinking about what behavioral insights we can use to understand our target market and improve Goat Pure.
Fahd Shahzad, HBA ’23
One could say that Goat Pure has become a living case for Fahd.
Fahd’s front-end focus has also allowed Adeel to concentrate on the backend of the business, figuring out logistics, animals, exploring market opportunities, etc. Working closely together, he has noticed a marked difference in his younger brother’s confidence to speak into the real-world challenges of building a business.
While they are brothers in arms for Goat Pure, they don’t always see eye-to-eye. What holds everything together is the strong alignment of their values, particularly around family. This common vision allows them to have those difficult conversations and still know they are moving toward the same destination.
Rediscovering entrepreneurship
For Adeel Shahzad, growing up in Pakistan and attending a private school distorted his view of entrepreneurship. All of his classmates were from entrepreneurial business families. It seemed like the norm.
Moving to Canada, he was thrown into a new environment where he attended high school with kids from all walks of life. It was there he saw people striving to study harder and longer to create their own futures. With that newfound respect for entrepreneurship, Adeel has operated a number of businesses under the family’s Din Group.
For Fahd, entrepreneurship was an innate desire that he didn’t know how to process initially.
With entrepreneurship, everyone wants to do it but they get stuck at the first step. How do we come up with an idea? What to do next?
During his first year at Western, Fahd joined the Ivey Entrepreneurship Bootcamp led by Ivey alum and serial entrepreneur, Ash Singh, HBA’04. Going through the step-by-step process of building a business, and understanding the pitfalls, really changed Fahd’s trajectory at university.
Nothing has been the same since.
Fahd was part of the bootcamp’s winning team, AfterSell, and continued to work with fellow Ivey HBA and serial entrepreneur, Armon Shokravi, HBA ’22, on their Shopify-centric software start-up. As he leans deeper into Goat Pure, Fahd is also looking to complement his business degree with certifications for Goat Dairy Production and Management.
Charting the trail ahead
During the past few years, Pakistan, like many countries in the region has been dealing with major economic instability, pushing the government to stall imports of non-essential luxury goods.
This has been a major blow to hotels and high-end businesses that serve imported European products like goat cheese.
But it has also opened an exciting opportunity for the Shahzads and Goat Pure.
Over the next two months, they are conducting taste tests on their first batch of Goat cheeses. Adeel notes that over 80 percent of goat milk is used to produce goat cheese. It doesn’t seem prudent to break from that status quo, so it is hugely important for Goat Pure to move into the cheese market.
While they deal with the day-to-day of growing their brand across Pakistan and seek export opportunities across the Asian and Middle Eastern regions, Adeel and Fahd aren’t afraid to dream big.
For Adeel, it comes back to his son’s experience, and getting Goat Pure into the formula industry would be their long-term goal. It is an arduous process, with plenty of regulations, and testing; and for good reason. But if all the pieces align, don’t be surprised to see a goat milk baby formula with the name Goat Pure attached to it.
That is their moonshot! And if cows can jump over the moon, why can’t goats?