Salman Shahid: The CMO Who Builds Empires

Salman Shahid closes million-dollar deals before noon and haggles for mangoes by dusk. “Bazaar vendors don’t care about your title; they’ll out-negotiate you in seconds,” he chuckles. As CMO of DevBatch, a $2.1 million AI-powered digital agency, Salman thrives in chaos, spotting opportunity where others see clutter. But ask him about his proudest achievement, and he won’t cite market dominance or revenue charts. Instead, he’ll grin and describe weekends spent building cardboard castles with his kids, proof that imagination belongs as much in homes as in boardrooms.

“No algorithms, no AI, just glue sticks and imagination,” he says. His wife, Dr. Ayesha Shahid, a pediatrician and self-appointed “Chief Sanity Officer,” keeps his engineering ambitions in check. “Last month, I tried adding a drawbridge to their fort. Ayesha handed me a juice box and said, ‘Stick to your day job.’”