When Shama Zehra was told she shouldn’t step into jobs that are usually held by men in her native Pakistan, she simply rolled up her sleeves.
Living in one of the garment capitals of the world, resources were abundant for starting a clothing business. So at just 16 years old, she launched her first company with her sister and mother. But it came with many challenges: men didn’t listen to her, and it was a struggle to get things done.
Zehra, who recently co-founded a travel app called Jetzy, has always looked to her mother for support whenever she was told she shouldn’t “try to be a man.” To her, the more somebody told her she couldn’t do something, the more she wanted to do it.
“My mom was a brave woman,” says Zehra, a WeWork Soho South member. “My fearlessness comes from her. She would say, ‘Work hard and never be scared.’ One thing I respected about her is she would always be strong. Even if men were saying something and not being supportive, she would say, ‘I’m here for you.’”
After launching her first company in Pakistan, Zehra met with a textile tycoon, and they discussed a job that would take her to Hong Kong. When she stepped into his office for a business meeting, a giant model airplane caught Zehra’s eye. Instead of taking the job, she enrolled in flying school.
“The guy who took me flying tilted the plane 90 degrees, which they’re not supposed to do,” Zehra says. “He wanted to take out my fears. I screamed my lungs out.”
But her father didn’t want her to continue flying. He encouraged her to pursue a banking career, so she joined the largest private sector bank in Pakistan.
“When I first went into banking, I thought my life was coming to an end,” Zehra says. “In my previous job, I was doing fashion shows on the runway and working with models. It was a glamorous lifestyle, and now I was working at a bank.”
After 10 years of working in Pakistan’s banking industry, Zehra moved to New York. She spent two and a half years at Morgan Stanley, and then moved on to Goldman Sachs, where she was working in the private wealth management division and given opportunities to travel and meet clients.
“I would contact people from the travel industry, and one day, I met this guy Ty who was an expert travel commentator,” Zehra says. “He told me he really wanted to build something in travel.”
Zehra, who has a similar passion for travel—with her adventurous spirit and curiosity when it comes to new experiences and different cultures—latched onto her now business partner’s idea of creating something that would allow people to connect through their travels. What started as a business meeting over coffee turned into a four-hour brainstorming session.
In October 2014, she and Ty Sawyer co-founded Jetzy, a location-based travel app that lets people travel like a local and connect based on similar geographies or interests. In May, they completed a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, raising more than $50,000. This month, they added a Kickstarter to the mix.
The next step for Jetzy is to focus on giving travelers the best experience by building a community of users who will provide helpful, little-known information, Zehra says. In doing so, Jetzy will bridge people thousands of miles apart and create unforgettable experiences.
Jetzy lets you connect to other Jetzy users who are in either the same city as you or located in citities you’re visiting.
“There is a need in millennials to connect with other people globally, travel like a local, and get authentic experiences,” Zehra says. “Traveling experiences become much better when we are surrounded with the right people to have them with. People are everything.”
Photos: Katelyn Perry