As the founder and CEO of UpStage Bangladesh and MotionExis Production House, Labib has placed himself in two connected corners of Bangladesh’s creative industry. One is about the people who make things; the other is about making things happen.

It is an ambitious arrangement for someone who is still at an age when most people are told to focus on their studies and think about their careers later. Labib, however, has already started working on the career he wants.

His journey began with an interest in filmmaking, content creation and the creative industry. Somewhere along the way, he began to see a possibility beyond making things himself: what if he could help other people find opportunities to do the same?

That idea eventually took shape as UpStage Bangladesh, a talent management and creator-focused platform designed to connect content creators, models, musicians, rappers and influencers with brands and commercial projects.

“I realised that instead of only working for myself, I could also create opportunities for others,” he says.

It is a fairly straightforward idea, but one that addresses a problem familiar to many people trying to make a living in the creative industry. Having talent is one thing. Finding the right people to work with, getting paid opportunities and turning occasional projects into a sustainable career are entirely different challenges.

Bangladesh has no shortage of people trying to build an audience online or make a name for themselves through creative work. What is less straightforward is figuring out what comes after the attention.

For Labib, that is where UpStage comes in.

The platform currently has more than 80 members, including creators, models, musicians, rappers and influencers. Its work involves selecting talent, communicating with brands, coordinating campaigns and connecting people with commercial opportunities.

The idea is not simply to find someone with a large following and put them in front of a brand. Labib says the process also involves considering a creator’s content, personality, audience and suitability for a particular campaign.

In an industry where follower counts can sometimes become shorthand for influence, that distinction matters. A creator with a smaller but relevant audience may be better suited to a campaign than someone with considerably more followers. The challenge is understanding what a brand needs and finding the right person to deliver it.

Labib’s responsibilities extend across much of that process, from identifying talent and developing concepts to negotiating with clients and coordinating campaigns.

He has worked on the promotion of rapper Arafa-T Kabir’s song “Eti”, which he describes as a particularly significant experience. Through UpStage, he has also gained experience connecting talent with brands and commercial projects.

For a young founder, these collaborations offer a practical education in an industry where relationships are often as important as ideas. A successful project requires more than bringing the right people together; it requires communication, coordination and enough trust for everyone involved to deliver what they have promised.

That trust is something Labib has had to work to establish.

“One of the biggest challenges is that people sometimes underestimate me because of my age,” he says.

It is not difficult to imagine why. A 17-year-old discussing campaign coordination, negotiations and production schedules may not be what a client expects when looking for someone to handle a commercial project.

Labib says he has learned that trying to convince people of his capabilities based on his age is less useful than demonstrating them through his work. Professional communication, commitment, timely delivery and consistency, he believes, are what gradually earn people’s trust.

It is a lesson that sounds simple until one considers how much of business depends on convincing other people to take a chance on you.

And Labib is not limiting himself to talent management.

Alongside UpStage, he founded MotionExis Production House, which focuses on photography, videography, promotional content, event coverage, music-related projects, television commercials and documentary-style productions.

The two ventures operate on different sides of the same creative process. UpStage focuses on talent, creators and brands; MotionExis focuses on the production itself. Together, they offer a way to connect people with projects and then help bring those projects to life.

A creator might need representation and access to a brand. A brand might need the right talent, a production team and finished promotional content. Having businesses operating across these connected areas could help Labib bring the different pieces together.

Whether that model can grow into a sustainable operation will depend on more than the idea itself. It will require clients, reliable delivery, financial discipline and a team capable of handling increasingly complex work.

For now, MotionExis has given Labib opportunities to work in production environments that demand a different set of skills from talent management.

He cites shooting Band Ark’s concert at Aloki and Bangladesh Autofest 2026 among his practical experiences. Live events, in particular, leave little room for hesitation. Unlike a planned shoot where a scene can be repeated, a performance happens once, and the people behind the cameras must be ready to capture it.

Working in such environments has helped him understand the technical and logistical demands of production.

The work also involves a less glamorous side of entrepreneurship: finding clients, preparing budgets, allocating resources, managing teams and ensuring that projects are completed properly.

Labib says much of his understanding of these responsibilities has come from experience rather than formal instruction.

“I have learned the most through real-world experience,” he says. “Client communication, budgeting, team management, resource allocation, and project execution are things that can be learned much more deeply through actually doing the work.”

He is quick to acknowledge that the learning has not stopped.

At the beginning, he says, he tried to handle too many things himself. Over time, he realised that individual ability could only take a business so far. Building an organisation required a strong team, clear responsibilities and systems that allowed people to work together.

It is a familiar lesson for founders, but learning it early can make a difference. The instinct to do everything personally can feel productive at first. Eventually, it can become the very thing preventing a business from growing.

Labib says he is now placing greater importance on delegation and teamwork rather than trying to manage every detail himself.

There is, of course, another responsibility competing for his attention: education.

Running two businesses at 17 does not mean the usual demands of being a student disappear. Academic work, personal life and business responsibilities all require time, and there are only so many hours available to divide between them.

Labib says he tries to plan around his responsibilities and keep his academic and business commitments organised. Sharing responsibilities with his team has also become increasingly important.

It is an ongoing balancing act, rather than a problem he claims to have solved.

That distinction is worth making. Entrepreneurship is often presented as a story of extraordinary productivity, particularly when the founder is young. But the ability to start early is not the same as having everything figured out. The more useful question is whether someone can learn to manage the responsibilities that come with starting.

Labib appears conscious of that challenge. When discussing his ambitions for the next five years, he does not only talk about expanding his businesses. He wants UpStage Bangladesh to become a trusted talent management and creator ecosystem, while MotionExis grows into a production company capable of working on films, television commercials, documentaries and branded content to international production standards.

More importantly, he wants both organisations to become less dependent on him personally.

That ambition points towards a different understanding of success. Founding a business is one achievement; building an organisation that can operate, develop and grow beyond its founder’s daily involvement is another.

UpStage already has a network of more than 80 talents, and Labib says several entrepreneurs have expressed interest in investing in the agency. He sees that interest as an encouraging sign of its potential. Whether it translates into formal investment or sustained growth remains to be seen, but it reflects the direction in which he hopes to take the business.

For someone working in the creator economy, the larger challenge is not simply getting people noticed. It is helping them turn their skills and audiences into something they can depend on.

Labib believes young creators need better management, stronger brand relationships and more structured opportunities to build long-term careers. He also sees the need for fairer, more professional collaboration between creators, brands and talent management platforms.

His own ventures are an attempt to work within that gap. Their success will depend on how effectively they can turn those intentions into opportunities that benefit the people involved.

For other young people interested in filmmaking, talent management or entrepreneurship, Labib’s advice is to begin with what they have rather than wait for ideal circumstances.

“You can begin with small projects, develop your skills, and learn from every experience,” he says.

He places particular importance on skill, consistency and reputation, arguing that professional connections can be built through the quality of one’s work.

It is an encouraging message, though one that does not pretend connections and resources are irrelevant. Getting started without them can be difficult. Building something useful, however, gives people a reason to take you seriously.

At 17, Labib is still learning how to do that himself. He has two ventures to develop, a network to maintain and an industry to understand. There are ambitions to pursue and systems to build, alongside the ordinary responsibilities of being a student.

He is not at the end of the journey, and the businesses are not yet proof of everything he hopes they will become.

But perhaps that is what makes the story worth following. Labib is trying to turn an interest in creative work into something that can create opportunities for other people, while learning the business behind it in real time.

For now, the task is not simply to make UpStage bigger or MotionExis more ambitious. It is to build organisations that can deliver on their promises, earn the trust of the people who work with them and keep going long after the excitement of starting something new has worn off.

That is a much longer project than founding a company at 17. It is also the one that will ultimately determine what he makes of the head start he has given himself.