Sidra Qasim left a small town in Pakistan to co-found Atoms, a New York sneaker company praised by Vogue and backed by top investors.
Sidra Qasim grew up in Okara, a town in Pakistan’s Punjab province roughly 120 kilometres south of Lahore, and far removed from the world of New York startups she would eventually enter. The life mapped out for her there was a familiar one for young women in her community, built around marriage and family rather than business or ambition. Qasim had something else in mind, and she spent the next decade proving it.
Today she serves as chief executive of Atoms, the New York sneaker brand she co-founded, known for its stripped-back, comfort-first footwear. The shoes have earned a devoted following and a rare endorsement from the fashion world, with Vogue describing them as possibly the most thoughtfully designed sneakers ever made. It is a remarkable line to attach to the work of a woman who was once told her horizons were fixed.
Her rise was anything but sudden. Before Atoms, there was a leather-shoe business run out of her hometown, a record-breaking crowdfunding campaign, a demanding stint at one of the world’s most competitive startup accelerators, and a moment when the entire venture came close to collapse.
From Markhor to Y Combinator: A Pakistani Startup Story
The journey began around 2010, when Qasim teamed up with her co-founder and husband, Waqas Ali. The initial spark came from an unlikely conversation, after Ali spoke with a shoemaker in Okara and became convinced that the town’s skilled craftsmen could sell their handmade leather shoes to customers far beyond Pakistan’s borders.
Their first attempt launched online under the name Hometown, and was later rebranded as Markhor after Pakistan’s national animal, a wild mountain goat. They were working with almost no capital. Their earliest funding came in the form of an $8,000 grant from a Google-backed program for Pakistani entrepreneurs, paid out in instalments. Partnering closely with a small group of master artisans back home, the pair set out to make footwear that was built to last rather than simply designed to photograph well.
The turning point arrived on Kickstarter. Markhor’s debut men’s collection drew more than 500 backers from dozens of countries and raised well over $100,000, becoming one of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns ever to come out of Pakistan. That success put the founders on the international radar for the first time.
In 2015, Markhor made history as the first Pakistani company accepted into Y Combinator, the Silicon Valley accelerator behind global names such as Airbnb and DoorDash. With acceptance rates hovering around two per cent, admission alone was a significant achievement, particularly for two founders from a small Pakistani town who were still developing their English and had no formal grounding in the startup world.
How Atoms Sneakers Grew Into a Global Footwear Brand
Getting into Y Combinator proved far easier than succeeding there. On demo day, the pitching event that caps the program, the founders’ leather shoes attracted little investor interest. With funds running dangerously low, Qasim has since admitted that she feared the venture was finished and that she would return home with nothing to show for the effort.
Rather than give up, the pair went back to first principles and asked what customers genuinely needed. The answer had been in front of them all along. People were increasingly wearing sneakers throughout the day, yet most of those shoes had been engineered for running rather than for the walking and standing that fill ordinary life. The founders resolved to design the ideal everyday shoe from scratch, and Atoms launched in earnest in 2019.
Their attention to detail set the brand apart. Atoms sells its shoes in quarter sizes and allows customers to order two slightly different sizes to accommodate mismatched feet, a more common problem than most people realise. Each pair features a soft cushioned midsole, an insole threaded with copper to combat odour, and laces engineered to be tied only once. The concept resonated. Atoms built a loyal community of customers, navigated the pandemic without losing momentum, and eventually established its base at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. What had started as a modest leather-shoe experiment in Okara had become a recognised name in the American sneaker market, profitable and backed by prominent investors.
Why Sidra Qasim’s Journey Resonates Across Pakistan
The story gained its widest audience in early 2021, when Humans of New York published an in-depth account of Qasim’s life. Rather than focusing on the shoes, the piece explored her upbringing in Okara, the social pressures she had grown up with, and the fears she confronted while building two companies on the other side of the world. It struck a chord with readers and spread quickly.
That resonance is easy to understand. Qasim has never downplayed how steep the climb was, describing the absence of money and connections, the barrier of learning to work in a second language, and the persistent suggestions that she step aside. She speaks openly about a pressure many women recognise, the sense that certain spaces are not meant for them, and about her decision to claim her place regardless.
It is precisely that honesty that gives her story such reach. For a young woman in Okara, Multan, Quetta or Gilgit, Qasim stands as evidence that neither a birthplace nor the expectations of others need determine how far a person can go. Her story remains a work in progress, and by her own account, she is far from finished.
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