This profile summarizes the entrepreneurial journey of Muhammad Adnan Butt, who followed his passion for marketing and media despite social pressure and career risks. After interning at Unilever and being offered a prestigious job there, he declined to pursue his interest in marketing. He gained experience in media and mobile content at Warid and Wateen before founding his own successful agencies, Mvergence Media and Walnut Media. Through perseverance and harnessing his experience, Adnan was able to build leading media businesses in Pakistan and work with former aspirational employers like Unilever.

1. Entrepreneur Profile:
Muhammad Adnan Butt
COO – Mvergence Media
Director – Walnut Media
“Here’s the thing that makes life so interesting. The theory of evolution claims
that “Only the strong shall survive!” Maybe so, maybe so, but the theory of
competition says “just because they’re the strong doesn’t mean they can’t get
their asses kicked” That’s right, see, what every long shot, come from the
behind underdog will tell you is this: The other guy may in fact be the
favourite; the odds may be stacked against you, fair enough; but what the
odds don’t know is, this isn’t a math test. This is a completely different kind of
test; one where passion has a funny way of trumping logic. So before you step
up to the starting line, before the whistle blows and the clocks start ticking just
remember – Out here the results don’t always add up. No matter what the
stats may say and the experts may think and the commentators may have
predicted; when the race is on, all bets are off. Don’t be surprised if somebody
decided to flip the script and take a pass on yelling “Uncle” And then suddenly
as the old saying goes – “We’ve got ourselves a game!” - Nike
Very few people these days dare to dream; even fewer are brave enough to follow their dreams. This is
the story about a young man who decided to take on the world by following his passion, even when his
decisions defied logic and reasoning; he knew what he wanted and was determined and brave enough
to fight for it. This is the story of Muhammad Adnan Butt.
A Mechanical Engineer by qualification from the esteemed Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute, Adnan was
always able to harness his creativity in a manner where he could actually transform the ideas in his head
to life; and this very thought was very exciting to him. At this time Adnan interned at one of the most
prestigious multinational companies in the world today – Unilever Pakistan Ltd. During his stint here, he
realized his love for marketing – the very idea of being able to touch so many lives and transform his
ideas in such a manner that he could connect with millions of people every day - was what pushed him
towards Marketing. And so his melting pot of creativity and cognitive thought took its final form, and he
knew it, he knew that is what he wanted to do – Marketing; to connect with people. At the end of his
internship at Unilever, the company offered him a job for all the hard work he put in. Regardless to say,
if you’ve been around in the past century or so, you will know how prestigious an offer that is – to be
part of a company that touches millions of lives every day, the world’s second largest FMCG producer.
Adnan was of course very grateful for this offer; however at this point he knew. He knew what he
wanted to do – his true calling.
Being a mechanical engineer by profession, and a very good one at that, the company had offered him a
position as part of their engineering department. Adnan however requested they hire him for a position
in Brands. The country manager at the time was interviewing Adnan, and asked him if he had any prior
experience in Brands or Marketing for that matter, why would they want to keep him there? And he
answered that Marketing was what he wanted to do, and that he was very passionate about it. The
company however refused to budge; ironically so did Adnan. He politely declined the job offer, and took
up a position in Warid Telecom, with a substantial cut in his income level from what it would have been

2. had he taken up the Unilever offer. To a layman his behavior seemed irrational, to himself, he had never
been clearer in his head.
He spent two years at Warid, working on very diverse projects pertaining to the product development.
Closely working on Mobile Games – Research, Launching, Development and Execution; B2C
Content/Campaign management, learning how to manage a host of content providers along with a
monthly revenue stream worth $ 0.4 million as well as WAP Portal branding and vendor management; in
a nutshell – learning the tricks of the trade when it comes to mobile media. He moved on from Warid
Telecom to its sister- Wateen, where he learnt content aggregation and syndication – working closely
with local and international television channels and media houses, acquiring content for local operators
in the TV, Internet and Mobile sectors. Spending another couple of years at Wateen helped Adnan
augment his skill set pertaining to the digital media world and gave him the necessary experience and
know-how of the media world. He harnessed this knowledge and set out to start his own
entrepreneurial venture – Mvergence.
In July 2009 Adnan changed gears, and from the corporate world, switched all of his attention towards
his entrepreneurial venture - Mvergence Media. It is one of the most creative agencies operating in
Pakistan today. He took on the responsibility of looking after all the business processes and
technological integration of the company. It gave him the opportunity to “conceive, create and launch
multiple products” while still staying true to the original goal. The company is one of the driving forces
behind taking the local digital content market front to the next level. Adnan very intelligently harnessed
all of his years of experience with the digital media sector and channeled them into Mvergence
“One of the major parts of business at Mvergence is driven by buying and syndicating the content for
mobile platforms as I've been able to successfully aggregate more than 85% of local content (music,
entertainment and devotional) and thus making it the strongest content partner for any CP/telco in the
region”
Along with Mvergence, Adnan also started off a sister concern by the name of Walnut Media. Working
as Director Walnut Media and overseeing Media Buying (Digital and Mobile), Mobile Content
Aggregation (80% of Pakistan's Mobile Content Portfolio), Music Production (Walnut Records), Video
Production, Applications and Portal Development as well as Social Media Marketing.
Adnan’s personal goals include introducing regional level socializing tools on online and mobile
platforms as well as providing brands the opportunity to connect with their target audience through
these mediums. Furthermore integrated a database of content and applications for local users and
eventually being able to give back to the local user by providing him/her a more personalized digital
experience, relevant to their lives. Lastly to take the local market in the direction of local publishing and
ensuring that the industry is self sustainable and can stand at par with international media giants.
Adnan had to face a lot of social pressure for the decisions he took and the direction he chose for his
life, by taking a complete U turn from an already very well established career path; however he knew
what he wanted and was very passionate about it – and this very passion, led to the successful life he
has today. It took a lot of hard work, perseverance and a bit of luck to get to where he is today.
Ironically Unilever is one of Adnan’s entrepreneurial venture’s biggest clients today.