I have travelled across Pakistan, visited leather suppliers in Sialkot, Lahore, and Sheikhupura, and worked to bring manufacturers onto the platform. Some have joined, but getting them to complete their profiles, upload product pictures, and provide certifications has been a challenge of its own.
At the same time, we have started attracting suppliers from Bangladesh, China, and Turkey without actively reaching out to them.
These experiences are teaching me how different people approach online business, what it takes to build trust, and why listening to criticism is an important part of building a company.
The journey is still ongoing, and I am learning as I go.
Getting Suppliers Onboarded Is Only Half the Job
When I started visiting suppliers across Pakistan, my focus was on introducing them to Tannorium and explaining what the platform could offer.
Some understood the concept and agreed to join. That was progress.
But then came the next challenge: getting them to complete their profiles.
A marketplace needs more than a company name and a contact number. Buyers need useful product pictures, detailed information, relevant certifications, and enough information to understand who they are dealing with.
I found myself repeatedly following up with suppliers, asking them to upload their products and complete their profiles.
This made me realise that getting a supplier to agree to join and getting that supplier ready to do business online are two very different things.
A profile that exists but contains incomplete information does not provide much value to a buyer.
Why Many Pakistani Manufacturers Need Help Getting Online
From my visits and conversations, I have formed an observation about many of the manufacturers I have approached in Pakistan.
They are busy running their businesses. Managing production, employees, quality, orders, and deliveries already takes considerable time. Preparing product photographs, writing descriptions, uploading listings, and maintaining an online profile can feel like another job.
Some would rather have someone handle the online setup on their behalf.
I do not see this simply as a lack of interest in technology. In many cases, it is a question of time, familiarity, and priorities.
But it creates a challenge for Tannorium.
If we expect every manufacturer to create a complete digital presence independently, we may lose suppliers who have good products but little interest in managing online listings.
It has made me think more carefully about how we onboard suppliers and what support we should provide.
Perhaps the process needs to be easier. Perhaps we need to help suppliers prepare their profiles rather than expect them to do everything themselves.
Whatever the solution, the objective is clear: make it easier for genuine suppliers to present their businesses properly online.
Something Unexpected: Suppliers From Other Countries
While I was spending time visiting suppliers in Pakistan, we started receiving supplier registrations from Bangladesh, China, and Turkey.
What caught my attention was that we had not yet started actively reaching out to suppliers in those countries.
I see this as an encouraging early signal. It suggests that the idea of a dedicated leather marketplace may be relevant beyond Pakistan.
But I also understand the difference between a supplier registering and a supplier becoming active on the platform.
The real test is whether those suppliers complete their profiles, list useful products, respond to buyers, and eventually generate transactions.
Registrations are a starting point, not the finish line.
Still, seeing interest from different countries has encouraged me to keep working on the idea.
I Realised That People Needed to Know Who I Was
Another thing became clear to me as I continued building Tannorium.
People did not know me.
I had spent my time developing the platform, thinking about its features, and trying to solve problems within the leather industry. But my presence on social media and across the wider online business community was limited.
I was expecting people to trust a platform without having much information about the person building it.
That made me reconsider how I approached visibility.
I started attending business and networking events, meeting people, introducing myself, and talking about Tannorium.
The response was interesting.
I met people who liked the idea and saw potential in what I was trying to build. Some were genuinely impressed by the concept. Others asked difficult questions or pointed out things I had not considered.
Those conversations gave me something that working alone on the platform could not: direct feedback from people with different experiences and perspectives.
I also realised that building a business and building a founder’s public presence are two different responsibilities. Both matter, particularly when you are asking people to trust a new platform.
I Take Criticism Seriously Because It Helps Me Improve
Not every response to Tannorium has been positive.
Some people criticise the idea, question the business model, or point out potential problems.
I listen carefully to that criticism.
My approach is simple: if someone identifies a genuine weakness in Tannorium, I want to understand it and see whether I can address it.
I think of this as free quality assurance.
People are testing the idea from different angles. They may identify risks that I have overlooked because I am too close to the product.
Of course, not every criticism is correct, and not every suggestion should become a feature. The important thing is to separate useful feedback from opinions that do not help the business.
If the criticism exposes a real problem, ignoring it because it is uncomfortable would be a mistake.
I would rather discover a weakness early, when I can still do something about it, than discover it after it has affected customers.
Your Customers Will Show You What Needs to Improve
I believe customers play a crucial role in making a business better.
You can plan a product carefully, build features you believe people need, and spend months refining your idea. But until people start using it, you cannot know how well your assumptions hold up in practice.
Customers reveal the gaps.
They show you where a process is confusing, where information is missing, where expectations do not match reality, and where your product fails to deliver the value you intended.
For a marketplace like Tannorium, feedback from both buyers and suppliers matters.
A buyer may struggle to assess a supplier. A manufacturer may find onboarding too complicated. A supplier may not understand what information is needed to build a credible profile.
Each problem tells us something about how the platform can improve.
I do not believe a business becomes better by pretending mistakes will never happen. It becomes better when it recognises problems, takes responsibility, and improves its systems.
That is the approach I want to follow while building Tannorium.
Building Tannorium Is an Ongoing Process
I am still visiting suppliers, talking to people, improving the platform, and learning from the responses I receive.
Some manufacturers need help getting their businesses online. Potential users need reasons to trust a platform they have never used. And I need to keep improving both the product and my ability to communicate its purpose.
There is no single conversation, event, feature, or marketing campaign that will solve all these challenges.
It is a continuous process of building, listening, testing, and improving.
My goal is not simply to create a website where leather suppliers can register. I want to build a marketplace that buyers find useful and suppliers have a genuine reason to participate in.
That requires patience, execution, and a willingness to accept that some of my assumptions will be wrong.
I am learning that building Tannorium is not just about the platform I want to create. It is also about understanding the people who will use it and making changes based on what they teach me.
The journey is still going on. I am building Tannorium, but I am also learning how to build it better.
Maaz Ahmed Khan
Founder & CEO, Tannorium