The Short-Lived Visionary Entrepreneur in TECH World
Notable author Mandy Hale said, “There is nothing more beautiful than someone who goes out of their way to make life beautiful for others.” Fahim Saleh wanted to make the earth a better place through his brilliant ideas, superb technological knowledge and clever investment skill. For his splendid success at a comparatively young age, people used to call Saleh ‘Elon Musk of the developing world’. The untimely death of this visionary entrepreneur has caused an irreplaceable loss in tech world. Read this article to know about the life, career and death of Fahim Saleh.
Personal Life
Fahim Saleh was born on 23 September 1986 to Bangladeshi parents in Saudi Arabia. Fahim’s father Saleh Ahmed worked as a software consultant at IBM. Saleh’s family used to live in the middle-east for several years. Then they moved at Poughkeepsie, New York in United States. Saleh spent an amazing childhood with his parents and sister Rif Saleh. He had interest for collecting wristwatches and exclusive electronic gadgets.
Growing Up with Shining Creativity
During the years of Schooling at New York, Saleh used to spend hours in playing video games. This hobby might have incited his interest in technology. As the proverb goes, “Morning shows the day”, Saleh built a family website (websiteSalehfamily.com) at a very young age. His first creation was appreciated by his family which inspired Saleh to go deep down in tech matters.
Like other kids of his age, young Saleh was naughty. He was caught for scratching neighbors’ cars with rocks, which cost his family a fortune. This incident made Saleh realize that it was time to make some money for himself. This boisterous kid translated his joviality into creativity.
In his teen years, Saleh learned coding and started apps development. At the age of 15, Saleh built a social network called ‘teen-hangout.com’ which was appraised as “too-early-for-its-time”. When Saleh started making some earnings from this community centered blogging forum, his creative efforts got further encouraged.
The Emerge of an Entrepreneur
Besides carrying out school education, Fahim Saleh nurtured his passion for technology. Targeting young people, he created websites like such as msndollz.com, AIMdude.com, iconfun.com, icondude.com, etc. His hard work was paid back when the sites and apps started to generate decent income per month. In 2006, his first company, Wizteen, Inc., crossed $400,000 revenue. As his trial-and-error based online projects brought noticeable success, Saleh was gravitated to the world of internet-focused entrepreneurship.
During the years of graduation (2005 to 2009) in Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) department at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachussetts, Saleh could efficiently combine his academic knowledge with his obsession for technology.
Saleh started his second company ‘TapFury’ in 2010 and created the wildly famous platform PrankDial, which allowed people in making anonymous prank phone calls. This venture had grown into a $10 million business by the end of his graduation. These windfalls fueled Saleh’s unquenchable thrust for creating serial online projects.
Matchless Success at Young Age
Besides making huge money through internet based projects, Saleh desired to invest his revenue for the development of other people. The benevolent heart Fahim Saleh extended his helping hand to the destitute people who suffered Rana Plaza accident in 2013. While the other youths of his age were making preparing for salaried jobs, Saleh was planning to create better opportunities for the young people.
Realizing the struggle of students and office-goers in managing transport, Fahim Saleh channeled his creativity in transportation sector. In 2014, Fahim Saleh founded a company titled ‘HackHouse’ in Dhaka, Bangladesh. This company served as a tech incubator for starting potential venture projects focused on the private transportation (bike, motorcycle and taxi) sector in Bangladesh.
By virtue of his brilliant and innovative mind, Saleh co-founded several start-up projects like Jete chao, Call Spring, Jaben, Dhaka Rides, and Pathao in Dhaka. Among these ventures, Pathao got groundbreaking success as a courier (home delivery) and motorbike ride hailing service in Bangladesh and Nepal. Pathao got enlisted as a 100 million dollar company, making the farsighted young entrepreneur Saleh a successful tech millionaire.
The legendary Bangladeshi-American capitalist Fahim Saleh never stopped his terrific journey in the path of innovation and creativity. Since 2015, he had been working as CEO in a New York based tech company KickBack Apps who created entertainment apps like PrankPad, Textr, etc. His forte of entrepreneurship involved Saleh with diverse start-ups and companies worldwide.
The momentous success of Pathao encouraged this tech mogul in trying similar ventures in other countries. In this wake, Saleh founded motorbike ride-hail startup ‘Gokada Rides Ltd’, headquartered at Lagos in Nigeria. By June 2019, Gokada made $5.3 million revenue. Saleh envisioned for expanding the company in other sectors like product delivery.
However, in January 2020, Lagos state government put a ban on bike riding across the majority roads in that state, which severely affected the operations of Gokada. At a response to this incident, Saleh expressed that being an entrepreneur had never been easy and wished to continue his incredible tech journey in new territories with fresh ideas.
Untimely Departure of the Visionary Soul
On July 14, 2020, Saleh's decapitated and dismembered body was found in his luxury apartment located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, United States. On July 17, NY Police arrested, Saleh's former personal assistant, Tyrese Devon Haspil under ‘second-degree’ murder charge. However, 21-year-old Haspil has pleaded ‘not guilty’ against his involvement in Saleh murder case.
Saleh’s gruesome murder shook the tech community with shock, sympathy, and bereavement. He was only 33 during the time of death. Until the last breath, this pioneer young entrepreneur worked for making the world a superior place for other people. Fahim Saleh’s impulsive death has deprived the developing world from potential problem-solving ventures as well as employment opportunities. Not to mention, this brave son of mother earth deserved to live longer.
Source: UNB
