The rise of artificial intelligence isn’t just changing how we work – it’s redefining who gets to build the future. As AI tools become more accessible, entrepreneurs are getting younger, with some of the most innovative companies now being built by founders who haven’t even finished college. One of these young innovators is Asad, a Pakistani-born entrepreneur who dropped out of university in the UK to start LTV.ai with Canadian co-founder Kevin Kai. At 19, he saw an opportunity to fix how e-commerce brands communicate with their customers. Less than a year later, their client list includes major US retailers like Sur La Table, Backcountry, Beginning Boutique, Cuyana and more. The startup has also attracted seven figures in investment from venture capital firms like Protagonist and OVO Fund, along with some of retail and tech’s biggest names, including Afterpay founder Nick Molnar, Honey founder George Ruan, and CSC Generation founder Justin Yoshimura. The problem LTV.ai tackles is deceptively simple: despite all the talk of personalization, most e-commerce companies still send basically the same messages to all their customers. “Every brand is sending generic marketing emails with maybe some basic segmentation,” Asad explains. “We’re changing that by having AI create truly individual conversations based on things like location, past purchases, and customer feedback.” Their mission goes beyond just better emails. Marketing teams currently spend massive resources – “hundreds of thousands of dollars and teams of 5+ people,” according to Asad – to build campaigns that only resonate with about 10-20% of their audience. Meanwhile, customer acquisition costs keep rising while lifetime value falls. This combination of factors has made brands eager to try something new, especially when it shows clear revenue impact, and Asad’s company is benefitting massively from this. Getting major retailers to trust a 19-year-old’s company wasn’t easy. Asad took an analytical approach, spending four months perfecting their outreach strategy. “I basically lived in a room for 16 hours a day, testing different approaches until we figured it out,” he says. The result? A 2.5-3% booking rate for cold emails – a number that gets attention in B2B sales. The strategy worked. Today, LTV.ai’s client roster includes major names like: ● Sur La Table ● Backcountry ● The Sill ● Spongellé ● Fabletics ● Fresh Clean Threads ● Beginning Boutique and more The momentum is building. After raising seven figures in investment in 2023 and building the company entirely remotely, LTV.ai is now closing its larger Series A round and moving its operations to Austin. Under Asad’s leadership as Head of Growth, the company doubled month over month from July through December 2024. They’re now actively hiring across all departments to keep up with demand. While Asad can’t name names yet, he mentions that some of the largest retailers in the world – “brands everyone would recognize” – are set to adopt LTV.ai through early 2025 and beyond. The vision is ambitious but clear: become the main way brands communicate with their customers. “We want to replace complicated marketing systems with something simpler – a couple of decision-makers working with an AI co-pilot that can write copy, spot opportunities, automatically suggest segments and maximize revenue by holding one long continuous conversation with each individual,” says Asad. It’s a vision that’s already turning heads in retail tech, and at just 20, he’s just getting started. As Pakistan’s tech ecosystem continues to grow, Asad’s journey could mark the beginning of a new wave of Pakistani representation in the US tech scene. With AI democratizing opportunities and young founders like Asad proving what’s possible, we may well see more Pakistani entrepreneurs building significant companies in the US tech landscape.