The story of ‘XSeed’: Pakistan’s Entrepreneurial Sandbox

It was a bright, warm May afternoon when we sat down outside in the full sunshine and light breeze on our Europe Campus with Nenad Apostoloski. Apostoloski is not only a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at INSEAD but also Managing Director of XSeed, an equity-free and free-of-charge incubation programme for aspiring entrepreneurs in Pakistan born from 10 years of scientific research.  Over the course of an hour, we walked through the story of XSeed, examining how it has empowered over 300 diverse businesses and why Karachi, Pakistan is a perfect sandbox to research entrepreneurship.

The Foundations

The story starts with Chiara Spina, Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise at INSEAD. Recently awarded the IFSAM Award for Excellence and Innovation in Management Pedagogy for her outstanding contributions to advancing management education through innovative and impactful research on teaching practices, Spina’s research primarily focuses on understanding how entrepreneurial firms leverage systematic decision-making and experimentation to innovate and grow. She examines the effect of emerging practices such as accelerators, hackathons and crowdfunding often in collaboration with government entities and incubation hubs. In 2021 Professor Spina set up XSeed incubator in Karachi Pakistan. This initiative was designed not just as another incubator but as a research-backed hub, aimed at uncovering the value of learning from failure versus success within Pakistan’s burgeoning startup ecosystem.

Apostoloski, himself a former founder-turned-scholar, explains that XSeed deliberately places success stories and failure stories side by side. Studying breakthrough cases reveals what helps an idea scale—timely market insight, disciplined execution, and a bit of luck—whereas dissecting flops surfaces the hidden assumptions and small missteps that quietly derail promising ventures. By contrasting the two, XSeed encourages founders to state their core assumptions clearly, gather swift evidence from customers, and treat unfavourable feedback as input for the next iteration rather than as defeat. This balanced, evidence-first mindset underpins XSeed’s curriculum and every follow-on study that stems from it.

Karachi as a Sandbox

With a population of roughly 20 million, the megacity of Karachi is the perfect sandbox offering a unique combination of:

• Nascent but vibrant startup scene with few entrenched playbooks
• High need for evidence-based training capable of lifting the entire ecosystem
• Research access to an emerging economy whose lessons can travel to other developing markets
• Strategic partnerships - notably with the National Incubation Center (NIC Karachi) and technology company LMKT—that provide on‑the‑ground reach and credibility.

The Partnership

The first site visit to Karachi by Professor Spina was in 2022 to build up local partnerships. The National Incubation Center in Karachi and LMKT stepped up and became the partners that helped facilitate the programme in 2023. 

“Our partnership with INSEAD through XSeed has been a powerful example of how global partnerships can translate into meaningful, localised impact… This collaboration has not only amplified our impact but has also broadened our perspective on inclusive innovation and sustainable growth across Pakistan.” Asim Ishaq Khan, VP Tech Innovation – LMKT

Research Project #1 – Learning from Success vs. Learning from Failure

XSeed’s first study set out to test a simple question: Is it more useful for entrepreneurs to study others’ successes or their failures? The research was conducted through an incubation programme that attracted hundreds of applicants representing diverse sectors (spanning from healthcare technology to educational innovations) and backgrounds, with women-led ventures notably exceeding global averages for female entrepreneurship. The graduates collectively generated around 3million Euro in revenue, created 545 new jobs, and formed 54 strategic partnerships.

The main takeaways from this project were that startups that learned from others’ failures reached revenue more quickly and progressed to more mature business-model stages in the early months of the programme. They also pivoted less often—and with lower intensity—than peers who focused on success narratives, while the success-focused group iterated more aggressively but with wider swings in outcomes.

Ahmad Junaid, Manager Marketing & Partnerships at LMKT, observed:

"Working on XSeed with INSEAD was a deeply rewarding experience that brought world-class entrepreneurial learning to Karachi, a city brimming with untapped startup potential. While local founders brought passion and grit, XSeed provided the global perspective and structured support needed to turn early-stage ideas into scalable, investment-ready ventures. We witnessed remarkable traction among participating startups, including several women-led businesses solving real societal challenges with innovation and purpose. For LMKT, this collaboration reaffirmed our commitment to nurturing globally informed, locally rooted startups that are equipped to drive sustainable impact across Pakistan."

Research Project #2 – Are Incubators Really Picking Winners?

Building on insights from XSeed, Professor Spina’s team launched a follow‑on study that turns the spotlight on selection rather than training. Most incubators must sort through hundreds of applications with limited information, risking both false positives (backing conventional but mediocre ideas) and false negatives (rejecting unconventional yet high‑potential ventures). To create an unbiased setting, XSeed eliminated the usual selection filter and provided every startup with identical support. Meanwhile, fifteen seasoned ecosystem judges scored every application using the criteria they typically employ for their flagship programmes. Holding training conditions constant allowed the team to compare the judges’ forecasts with the ventures’ actual trajectories, offering a rare, data-rich view of how accurately expert judgment predicts success. Early observations suggest that traditional assessment rubrics miss non-obvious opportunities—insights that could reshape selection practices for accelerators and policymakers worldwide.

The Future

After the success of the initial programme, the initiative launched a women-focused hackathon called ‘IdeateX’, also based in Karachi. This innovation challenge brings together problem-solvers to develop impactful ideas addressing real-world challenges such as sustainability, economic development, health and wellbeing, education advancement and social impact. Throughout the event, teams will engage in structured brainstorming, mentorship sessions and expert-led discussions, culminating in the presentation of their innovative ideas. XSeed has shown that process of conducting research can have a very practical application and real-world impact. It has also proved how science-backed entrepreneurship training can improve local economies and potentially redefine how entrepreneurship is taught.

In the words of Professor Spina, “This is just the beginning of finding research-informed solutions to problems that promote the development of entrepreneurial ecosystems in economies that hold tremendous potential. What we've achieved so far with XSeed shows that when you combine rigorous scientific methodology with local partnerships and real-world application, you can create truly transformative change. I look forward to the several initiatives in our pipeline and to seeing the impact they will have on local entrepreneurs, their families, and society overall.”