The Road Ahead for The Rift

Here we go again

Hey there 👋

It’s been a while since I wrote here.

And with the new year kicking off, it’s yet again time for a refreshed outlook on the path ahead.

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If you’ve read The Rift in the past, you’ll notice something different - I’ve folded it into my personal domain at saqibtahir.com. One less thing to worry about while I manage and maintain ten others.

For the past 7-8 months, I’ve been away from here. Too much on my plate. And some business-related horrors I had to deal with, which I may disclose someday.

Last year was my first full year in business. And although we survived through it, we hit the worst thing you can possibly want for with a new business. But we made it through. And hopefully only up and beyond from here.

To catch you up on what I’m doing these days:

Biz of Dev: still building my discovery-led product studio at bizofdev.com. In all my Product career so far, ‘Discovery’ is one thing that has felt natural to me. So making a service around that theme was just meant to be; hoping to build out my portfolio in 2026 with some really great discussions underway already.

SK NEXUS: making progress on having a proper tech publication at sknexus.org. Started out as explaining complex tech to the average Bashir of Pakistan. But has kinda evolved to be tech broken down for anyone anywhere. In an information bombarded world, ‘context’ is the new king - and the world needs more of it.

The Wandering Pro: building a community around the culture of building at thewanderingpro.com. Last year was all about growing it to a size where we can call it a ‘community’. I think we have made good strides there. This year, it will be all about supporting the active people within it.

Consulting: still working as a Product consultant on Upwork, because the lights don’t pay for themselves. I do wish to make the transition to just focus on my business, but it seems it will take a bit longer to do so - all good things, come with slow pushes.

At the end of the day though, all these pieces actually fit together now.
They didn’t always.

So when you read this, I hope you understand; there’s a lot of juggling through my day to day besides being a dad of two and an allegedly loving husband.

What I’ve learned about content

Back in 2023, I wrote about “Passion and Profit” - the idea that you divide your efforts between each, keep them cohesive, and eventually your passion produces enough profit to sustain itself.

That’s still the game. What’s changed is the structure around it.

Separation creates stimulus.

I used to think consolidation was the answer when it came to content - bring everything under one roof. I was wrong.

SK NEXUS works because it has a clear promise: tech, explained for average joe. The Wandering Pro works because it’s a community, not a content channel. Biz of Dev works because it’s focused on product discovery and delivery, not everything at once.

Different containers for different things. Each one is stronger because it’s not trying to be everything.

And that left me wondering - where do I write?

The Rift Hopefully

I know that last year The Rift was supposed to be a “Product” newsletter. Breaking down my product work, sharing frameworks, that kind of thing.

But here’s the truth: on Substack, there are enough Product/Startup people. People far more experienced and proven than me to offer that kind of advice.

If you are looking for some please give follow (sub? consume?) to Paweł Huryn, Aatir Abdul Rauf, Lenny Rachitsky, Aakash Gupta, Peter Yang, John Cutler, Maja Voje, Shreyas Doshi, The Startup Guy - to name a few legends of the Product world, already here, already creating great resources.

But at the same time - there’s no one like me (AFAIK) who has had my path.

Computer repair technician → Tech support rep → marketing → project manager → product freelancer → consultant → business owner. In a market like Pakistan, at a time when these roles were quite new/niche. Thankfully it is much better now!

So I’m still here.

Moving forward, The Rift will be more about personal takes. But since my world revolves around tech, product, and business - there will be plenty of that.

I just wanted a place to document my thoughts.
And maybe get people interested in them.

The gap I identified is still there

Back in 2023, I said 95% of career advice on LinkedIn doesn’t apply to people in Pakistan or other low-income regions.

That hasn’t changed.

People here are still less worried about getting hired at Meta, and more worried about earning a comfortable living wage. Less worried about becoming the next billionaire, and more worried about meeting the bare minimum.

What’s changed is that more people are trying to fill that gap now. That’s good. It means the work matters.

So we will keep working on -

SK NEXUS - Keep building it as a legitimate publication.

More depth, more editorial rigor, more pieces that explain why tech matters - not just what happened.

We just wrapped up the year with a detailed review of what we managed to publish. In retrospect, I think we just nailed it for lack of a better term.

Having help from Mohib Ur Rehman and Yousaf Babur has been a major unlock - giving me more time to work on ideas and direction. Read what they think below -

Year in Review - 2025 - Our First Year on Substack

The Wandering Pro - Focus on execution support.

TWP is my answer to what I lacked when getting into a Career. Helping youngins get off the right foot.

We just launched Wander Labs - our new mentoring based building initiative, and already have 3 products in the works. Baby steps.

The Rift - My personal space.

Here, as we roll into 2026, I want to talk more about BTS of being a freelancer/business owner/community builder/writer in current year.

Lot is changing, and changing fast. Hopefully I can document all of that.

If this is no longer for you

I totally get it.

Feel free to unsubscribe and clean up your inbox. No hard feelings.

But if you’re someone like me; figuring stuff out across a dozen line items, trying to build while life keeps happening, maybe I can be some source of inspiration along the way.

There’s a thing about “standing on the shoulders of giants.” Every next generation has advantages that the previous didn’t.

I had many advantages growing up close to tech and working close to businesses. Now I want others to take advantage of that.

Every generation deserves a few shortcuts; lessons earned the hard way, shared the easy way. If I can create some of those, it’s a win in my books.

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If you saw my past yearly updates; 2022, 2023, 2024 - most of it is still true.

I have a lot of unique experiences. I still work day to day helping businesses succeed, founders land their ideas, and teams execute on greatness.

The road ahead is long. But the journey is worth sharing whenever I can.

So with 2025 in motion, The Rift will be the gap where ideas live.

With or without my help – I wish you the best.