From Street Beggar to Tech Tycoon

Every day, Bilal sat at the corner of Liberty Market with a tin can and a half-faded sign:

“Hungry but hopeful.”

Most people dropped a coin and kept walking. Some didn’t even see him. But Bilal watched everyone—not out of bitterness, but curiosity. What did people wear? What phones did they use? Which ones walked fast and which ones walked like they owned time?

One day, a boy no older than 12 walked by with a laptop bag and headphones. Bilal couldn’t resist. “Excuse me, what do you do with that?”

The boy blinked. “I’m learning to code,” he said. “Python.”

Bilal laughed. “Like the snake?”

The boy grinned. “Sort of. But it can build apps, websites… games.”

The word games stuck in Bilal’s mind like a paper cut.

He used to play street cricket like a champion. He remembered strategy, patience, timing—wasn't coding like that, too? Just a different kind of ball?

That night, Bilal took his collected coins—Rs. 218—and bought a cup of tea and one hour at a local internet café. He Googled:

“How to learn Python free.”

It was like opening a door to another planet. Words like loops, functions, variables—they made no sense… yet. But the hunger in his stomach couldn’t compete with the fire in his mind.

For six months, he begged by day, coded by night. He found used books in garbage bins. He sat behind coffee shops, listening to tech students talking. He learned enough English to understand Stack Overflow.

Then one day, Bilal built his first “game”—a rock-paper-scissors app with three buttons and bad colors. But it worked.

He uploaded it to a free app store. Zero downloads.

So, he learned marketing.

He renamed the app, added sound effects, posted on Reddit and Facebook groups. Then the first notification came:

"Your app has been downloaded!"

It was one download. Then five. Then a hundred.

Then came ad revenue: 2 cents. Then 80 cents. Then $3.14.

By the end of year one, he had five apps, all built on a cracked Android phone, and earned $87 in one month.

Year two: He rented a tiny room. Got stable Wi-Fi. Sold his first paid app for $0.99.

Year three: He built a freelance portfolio and got clients abroad. One from Sweden. One from Canada. One from India.

Each gig paid more than a week of begging ever did.

By year four, Bilal stopped sitting at Liberty Market. Instead, he drove past it, in a small Mehran with a cracked windshield and a full tank, blasting music he once heard only through shop windows.

But the real turning point came when he launched CodeCoin Academy—a mobile app that taught coding in Urdu with voice notes, simple examples, and gamified lessons. It went viral in rural schools.

He made $10,000 in one month.

Now, five years since that first Google search, Bilal is a millionaire. Not just in rupees—but in impact. His app has been downloaded by over a million students. His team hires ex-beggars and street kids, just like he was.

In interviews, when asked how he did it, Bilal always shrugs.

“I didn’t chase millions,” he says. “I chased meaning. The millions came as a side effect.”

And in Liberty Market, his old corner now has a small plaque:

“This is where code met hunger, and hunger became fire.”