I need to get responses in this time, Im going to pay this much money. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. What percent of the times is a car available? Shikhar Ghosh: And is it that growth itself, you know, so people like I think it was eBay, originally, that would change its system every day, every night and they would say, you know, so if Amazon is doing Amazon auctions, they would say Amazon works on a monthly cycle, which they think is great. Those are also very respectable growth rates. Ideally, youd designate some people that you believe are super-aligned with the values and these are the people that do this for It could be a few of them that do it for everyone so that theres some consistency thats applied to that process. : I think the big turning point was when we started going to new markets, which is when we started having people that were running different cities that were away from us. Because as we have said multiple times, smart and very capable people, they dont want to work at startups. But even at relatively high levels in that organization, you had no idea what a business was producing, right? Careem will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of . Give feedback to our colleagues to keep growing them, and to drive progress in our communities. So I come in, Ive only been there three months. Shikhar Ghosh: So, you know, you started up the company. So if your competition is a lot bigger than you, then . The equation was to strike a balance between increasing the respect and dignity for drivers and providing a good service for customers. Its sugar high that you get in that process. Its Karachi should do something, Lahore should do something and the people that are running those cities need to be empowered to do those things. Before McKinsey, Mudassir spent a decade in the Silicon. Or the systems that have to run, you know, like a railway thing. We just had bigger hands and we were still able to manage. Its not that Pakistan should do something. I think one is weve been able to build a leadership team thats a lot more capable than what we had ever before. [38] Shikhar Ghosh: Right. So we made some progress on it and if you think of our position, our strategic position vis a vis others in the industry, you know, we ar a local player that has to compete with someone that has more money. Shikhar Ghosh: So, you know, this sort of working on these very short time schedules and intervening when things go off, so youve got dozens of markets. Mudassir Sheikha: So we just need to now build that operating system, we call it the Careem operating system, thats going to enable us to build this thing and realize the vision. Latest article by Henry Joseph-Grant, to see more click here. And we said we are being ambitious and we are trying to build something really, really big. Careem is a Dubai-based super app with operations in over 100 cities, covering 12 countries across the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia regions. Careem has announced its $3.1 billion acquisition by Uber, the largest technology sector acquisition in the Middle East. And if you were in a different industry, you might think about growth differently? And they give that thing for 20% less than what youre giving. Prior to Careem, Mudassir was an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company, where he advised clients on strategy and business building. : So youve got to take each of these values that you had, in some ways, which is sort of this is the way I want people to feel in many ways, right? [34] In Saudi Arabia, Careem and Uber have started recruiting women, as part of the Saudi Women to drive movement. And then you go home at? This thing will start creating incentives for people to take risks. Second is be of service which is the whole serve our customers, serve our captains. Both ride-hailing companies will operate their respective regional services and independent brands. Mudassir Sheikha: And a lot of the values around taking ownership start to kick in and people are like, look, this is an opportunity. They start believing lives are due to some extent. And focusing on people is not just focus on individuals, but focus on the culture-. That puts a huge tax on you, individually, right? And one of the things that were discussing is should we have anyone do this culture test, right? Lets hire people that will run this country. : And the competitions telling themselves the same thing, so its this constant movement. So if theres an activity that needs to be done, the first place that it actually should be done is the city. And these values we protect, even if the culture says otherwise, well protect these values and well push these values down on culture. When is this going to get better? And what gets done in Dubai, which is our head office. So that, you just trained the organization to be on it. This has to have your signature on it. You can test people on them. So that says that this is by far the most effective sort of way that you can do it. So you have to work through other people. And then profitability follows. So, you know, in this first part of the journey, say up to CVC or so, you were hands-on on everything. Mudassir Sheikha: Its an investment for sure, right? So thats what the definition of tough maybe was in the early days. It drops you at a predetermined location. Today, the company is the largest ride-hailing company in the Middle East and operates in more than 100 cities across 13 countries. [2] In Saudi Arabia, women make up 80% of the company's customers. So for me, I remember it included at least being home on Fridays. We created some values and we just left it there. [11] In January 2018, they became the first ride-hailing service to launch in Baghdad. And now in the next couple of weeks, were launching buses in Egypt. Every year, literally, there was an expansion of the vision based on what we were seeing in the market and some of the success and the growth that we were having. They decided to have a conversation with the cab drivers in the Middle East. But even at relatively high levels in that organization, you had no idea what a business was producing, right? Because a lot of times what happens is some strategies or things that work for us today and give us growth today will not be the things thatll give us growth six months from now because weve sort of played those things out. However, Careem captains are not part of the transaction. And if you do it at the country level, then youre not going to get the agility that you need or the relevance that you need. Lets hire people that will run this country. In a conversation with Shikhar Ghosh, Sheikha reflects on leadership lessons he learned while rapidly scaling. : So we just need to now build that operating system, we call it the Careem operating system, thats going to enable us to build this thing and realize the vision. What does it mean? We didnt take it to the extension where it should have gone. And I just have to trust that the person on the scene is going to do that? The exponential growth of Careem roots from the values the company has instilled in its operations. So these are the experience KPIs both for the captain and customers. We just thought get the right people in place and they will figure out what to do. The idea for a transportation service oc. Do you think this acquisition will positively affect Careems operations in Pakistan? But the question is why minutes and not hours or days, right? And thats the gap, right? Shikhar Ghosh: So in 2017, what was your revenue? So just like the buses that we had in the subcontinent where you open a thing, it tells you this is the nearest bus station, go ahead walk to that bus station, the bus will be there at this time. You go in, you show the boarding pass, youre in. : And this all analytical in the sense that you could just look at the numbers. Shikhar Ghosh: But there are common systems, right? Mudassir Sheikha: So look at the Netflix deck, right, which most people respect. Anything outside of it, we want it to be as local as possible. Mudassir Sheikha: But there was a process, right, where we were even testing people on values. Mudassir Sheikha and his colleague Magnus Olsson left McKinsey in 2012 to start Careem with the mission to simplify and improve the lives of people in the Middle East. Where things were fine, we didnt bother. And Ill see the growth, but as soon as that promo code is over, the growth will vanish, right? It was when it breaks, were going to fix the problem that broke. Be super, super ambitious. : So we have two frameworks that weve come up with. and South Asia. Now youve got a sales force, theyre doing their thing. Mudassir Sheikha is the CEO and co-founder of ride-hailing app Careem, one of the hottest startups on the Asian continent. So people are working really, really hard. Mudassir Sheikha: And then we would have some weekly check ins, sometimes even daily check ins. [7], Sheikha is married with a family. : So what does your day look like? Mudassir Sheikha: Yeah, so a lot of the interviews are done, if theres a very local candidate, the results are done by the local person, right, thats going to be the manager for that person. So thats been a huge focus for me for the last six months. Mudassirs career in tech started with Silicon Valley startup Brience. Can we help you with anything? You have to keep finding the next thing thats going to give you a differentiated product, a better product that will command a slight premium on prices because we arent able to be cheaper than them. Saturday is my catch up day. So just like the buses that we had in the subcontinent where you open a thing, it tells you this is the nearest bus station, go ahead walk to that bus station, the bus will be there at this time. Exactly. That would have saved us a lot more time and effort down the road. Like many things that we should have done differently, whether it is in financial processes, or the technology side, they were starting to leave a lot of skeletons that we were then having to go back and fix. [23] In December 2016, the company raised US$350 million in a Series D round, based on a US$1 billion valuation for the company. Okay, this is what I want, now do it. And the third one is theres some things that the country or Dubai needs to control, right? Regulators are typically national. Mudassir Sheikha: Now the first two, well win by being local and well win by being speed automatically translate into empowering the front line as much as possible. : Yeah, its a good question. Uber Technologies has agreed to buy Careem in a $3.1 billion (Dh11.39bn) deal that is the largest technology sector transaction in the Middle East so far, eclipsing Amazon's $580 million acquisition of Souq.com in 2017.. Once the transaction is completed early next year, Careem will become a . "Sure you can open a retail store, but it's going to be difficult to make it into a large business - a billion-dollar . It was when it breaks, were going to fix the problem that broke. So it can be done at the country level. And the quality experience is the quality engagement part. This scholarship will allow LUMS to reward the high performing undergraduate scholars at the Syed Babar Ali School of Science and Engineering (SBASSE), inspiring and nurturing a vision for . And family does suffer. The entire company is looking at these numbers. What is the quality of customers that were giving him which is measured by the ratings that he gives to the customers. So I think the answer is in the competitive nature of this industry. If we become cheaper, they will match our prices and go even below because thats the game they can play. And please figure out the HR side of it, right? Every year, literally, there was an expansion of the vision based on what we were seeing in the market and some of the success and the growth that we were having. And then people start adjusting to the new reality. So the kids I generally see on the weekends. So we would only patch things and buy us six months. So slowly your matrix has sort of been built out and you can judge very quickly whether somebodys in the range or not. And we are basically funding her and we are supporting her to make this thing happen. So that says that this is by far the most effective sort of way that you can do it. Regulators are typically national. [1] The company, which was valued at over US$2 billion in 2018,[2] became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Uber after being acquired for $3.1 billion in January 2020. [7] It started operating in July 2012 as a website-based service for corporate car bookings, and evolved to become a ridesharing company with car hire for everyday use. [16], In May 2019, Careem announced the acquisition of UAE-based bike-sharing startup Cycle which will re-brand as Careem Bike. So we tried that. Mudassir Sheikha: Experience is an interesting one, right? Most of them were living in groups in a single room and working the entire seven days to send money back home. Its sugar high that you get in that process. Well win by running faster than them so if an opportunity comes up, something changes the market, were able to run and make something happen. : And then we would have some weekly check ins, sometimes even daily check ins. How much time is the captain spending, getting paid for a trip or is he waiting? So after CVC, we said lets start-. : Now the first two, well win by being local and well win by being speed automatically translate into empowering the front line as much as possible. Careem has been competent from the day it rolled out its MVP. Then, do I get rid of this person? Mudassir Sheikha: Yeah, for us it was we will figure it out. And then you say, so what does that translate to what people have to do? How do you think about that challenge? And weve had these cases now where we have actually internally debated some of these principles and when we go and interview someone and we find someone that is amazing and very tempting to get that person on board, but not the right values fit, then we have the courage to make the call and say, look, were happy to keep on looking until we someone thats a values fit. And then profitability follows. And this was an initiative that was started by her. : The biggest learning and the biggest surprise has been around people leadership, right? So growth was a big, you know, weekly growth rate. So the kids I generally see on the weekends. Mudassir Sheikha, CEO and Co-Founder of Careem. So amazing experiences. But the food delivery or the telecom or the anything else that you start is again going to be brand new, with all kinds of new problems. I need to get responses in this time, Im going to pay this much money. Sheikha gave himself the ambitious time period of just six weeks to roll out the first iteration of Careem and be in the market at the earliest. And the front line for us is the cities. : The people processes, the structure. Is it right? Have you actually started working less as a result of that? Is it wrong? But for the most part, the thing that changed is instead of managing and doing things directly, we started becoming a lot more KPI- focused and when there were big deviations on the KPIs, then we got super, super involved. Growing at a rate of nearly 30 percent per month turned Careem, a mobile-based ride-hailing service, into the first unicorn of the Middle East. This was a five-year business plan that was prepared in 2012. It has been over years and Careem has not built some of the features in the original bucket list. : Right. : where I think the burden becomes higher is sort of to reinvent yourself. Where we, you know, we were giving people feedback, right? The task and the challenge of getting that right was not as I was nave on that front. And the something new, initially, was markets. Share a story with me, asra@techjuice.pk, India Expects Apple to Triple Investments and Exports Over the Next Few Years, Snapchat Explores Newer Ways to Make Money While Sticking to its Roots, Twitter Goes into Meme Mode as Babar Azam, Virat Kohli, Cristiano Ronaldo Lose Blue Ticks, 10 Ways To Make Money Through Virtual Reality, At Auto Shanghai 2023, Honda Unveils Three Electric Vehicles, the Uber acquisition deal worth $3.1 billion, WhatsApps Exclusive Feature For iOS Users:Not For The Android Users, Employees Secretly Using ChatGPT-AI: Threat For Tech Leaders, Potential Of Cryptocurrencies To Accelerate E-Commerce Growth In Pakistan. This page is not available in other languages. And in the beginning, you know, I was spending a lot of time in these different markets, just making sure that I educate the people that are starting on how to run this business. The organization always spoke about other things, right? Some of the Careem executives other than Mudassir Sheikha, Magnus Olsson, and Abdulla Elyas whose net worth will skyrocket after this transaction are likely to include: Ankur Shah , Chief Finance . So youre basically not there when theyre awake. The numbers dont change immediately. You know, one of our first things was driven by our mission and values. You know, if you miss growth in one hour, then its going to be difficult to recover in the rest of the day. So, you know, in this first part of the journey, say up to CVC or so, you were hands-on on everything. Did you have it or did your wives have it? So youve done it a hundred times, right? The movement of things as well. The first is the default location for any activity is the city. : Every year that vision sort of expanded. : So literally for the first few months of Careem, we kept phones with us when we were sleeping so if someone calls at three a.m., the phone that rings is the phone that is next to me and it wakes up my wife and it wakes up Magnuss wife as well. The company now operates in 100+ cities and was acquired by Uber for $3.1 billion in 2019. The morning times, of course, are fully blocked for thinking. So you have to work through other people. Legality of ridesharing companies by jurisdiction, "Careem eyes potential expansion to 250 cities in MENA", "Mideast ride-hailing app Careem raises $200 million to expand, expects more funds", "Uber buys rival Careem in $3.1 billion deal to dominate ride-hailing in Middle East", "Careem NOW: Engineering a robust and scalable food delivery application", "Careem Pay launches digital wallet for money transfers, withdrawals in UAE", "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem", "Meet Careem: The Uber of The Middle East", "Uber-clone vows safe, affordable ride. Even a manager who follows the basic good principles that you have, these behave differently because thats the way organizations are. It completely exceeded our expectations of speed and growth. And now, of course, were many times that size now. Or were we giving just people feedback on their delivery and their performance? Shikhar Ghosh: And the KPIs were mostly output-oriented? Support quality journalism and content. So growth was a big, you know, weekly growth rate. You go through that deck, you know, I think in literally half an hour, you get a very good sense of what this organization stands for. But before that, Shikhar Ghosh, you know, product market fit is a relative thing as well. And I think Abdulla earlier this year sat down with me and said, look, you cannot outsource values and Careem operating system to someone else. And the more Ive done it, the more I realize that this is something thats missing. : Now, on the family front, I think it was the first couple of years we had set expectations with our wives, that its going to be very, very tough for the first two years. : Yeah, they dont change immediately but weve actually been pleasantly surprised that our colleague NPS, strongly correlates with our growth numbers. : Yeah. Now, when we put that down we of course debated a lot internally. And even if they find those local opportunities at the same time as us, were able to prioritize them much before them. They did not want to be another ride-hailing service. Shikhar Ghosh: So what does that mean? We just thought get the right people in place and they will figure out what to do. You could almost do any of the jobs yourself. And thats what we believe is the biggest opportunity in the Middle East versus just a mobility opportunity or something else. Now youve got a sales force, theyre doing their thing. So thats something that weve done in the last-. And then become a lot more involved in the hiring and the onboarding process. So that vision has been defined and that vision has been somewhat detailed as well at the next level. And I think Abdulla earlier this year sat down with me and said, look, you cannot outsource values and Careem operating system to someone else. And focusing on people is not just focus on individuals, but focus on the culture-. Mudassir Sheikha: So by going through that exercise of putting these down, you started building conviction. I get on the phone and I ask for a bus and a bus comes? But there was no sight of things getting better. So that person is living in that context, right? Then after that, we said why just, you know, passenger transport? And then it sort of, things are in place, youve got product market fit. And the default role is an advisory role. Is it wrong? : Building a structure. Thats a very unusual thing. But the path to becoming a unicorn wasnt straightforward or easy. So if you miss one or two days of growth, thats going to be very, very difficult to hit those growth rates because youre not going to be able to make up for that. Friday is a working day in many parts of the world, so Friday is when we do meetings with investors. This is something that you as the CEO need to own. Mudassir Sheikha: Building a structure. I profile people and startups contributing to the Pakistani technology entrepreneurial ecosystem. Not, you know, head of HR or not people person. What ETA do you get? And youre coming at midnight. Careem operates in more than 100 cities across 14 countries with more than 1,300 colleagues and well over one million captains on its platform. So if your competition is a lot bigger than you, then youre not even providing a competitive service to the customer or the captain. You go through that deck, you know, I think in literally half an hour, you get a very good sense of what this organization stands for. And then you have to come up the next play, right? : But at the same time, you know, youve got 24 hours in the day. I should have the ability to fire the service provider if the service provider is not performing well. You need to wow them every time. : Also the size of the fall is much bigger. Like ambition. And make that real. What are the things that surprised you about that transition from when you go to knowing everything thats happening and acting on each of the things that are blowing up, to knowing that Im not going to know a lot thats happening? Mudassir Sheikha: Some of the people processes is another part of it. Now, if you allow all the cities to do their own pricing, then youre probably going to leave, youre going to make mistakes because its very sophisticated. So we made some progress on it and if you think of our position, our strategic position vis a vis others in the industry, you know, we ar a local player that has to compete with someone that has more money. And people get exhausted and they work really hard. And then things would break again and wed buy another six months and then things would break again. And were starting to change the KPIs that we look at as well. [1][2], Mudassir grew up in Karachi, Pakistan. Even people that werent hands-on in the beginning, after six months, theyre forced to be hands-on because thats the expectation the organization has because we started doing everything ourselves and thats how we built this. But some of these values are universal too, right? So Saturday I catch up on things that have to be done that I didnt get a chance to do during the week, so Fridays off. During its first two years, to compete against Uber, Careem grew at an unprecedented rate of 30% per month. Mudassir Sheikha: So we want to start focusing people on the right KPS and then growth will happen. Let me just be out there and make sure that we are hitting our growth numbers and we are competing and we are doing the right things. Mudassir Sheikha: So this is not something that can be done right away or that can be outsourced. They all knew it was going to be tough. : Its an investment for sure, right? And if Im not mistaken, there were once or twice flags were raised and things did not get much better. So thats really where we started our taxi, limousine booking service in the GCC, which is the six oil-rich countries. So the default role that a country or Dubai plays is advisory. I get this question all the time from people-. Mudassir Sheikha: And that did not happen at the quality and the rigor that should have happened. On day one, literally on day one, one of the first things that we did was we created the first version of our values. So if you miss one or two days of growth, thats going to be very, very difficult to hit those growth rates because youre not going to be able to make up for that. So people are working really, really hard. Right? It will slow you down in the very, very beginning because it requires some thinking. And she basically created a team and went after the opportunity. [29], In 2018, Careem announced it was launching a food delivery service app called Careem Now, delivering food and pharmaceuticals, initially in Dubai and Jeddah. We are a business that whose process and systems are behind where we are as a business. This was not translated to what it means for the different functions because I think if you sit down and think of it, you can do the translation, right? So at what point did you and Magnus sort of say, weve got to have some discussion with our families, think we should balance this out in some ways? Careem will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Uber, preserving its brand. Now, I dont know how long we followed that contract, which was sort of the sad part. So I can tell you that Karachi has grown five point three percent from last week. Insights for Scaling Startups from Serial Entrepreneur Lara OConnor Hodgson, Sunil Nagaraj on the Mindsets of Entrepreneurs & Investors. And when you make the hard choice, you know, I can get more revenue by doing this, you know, heres this person who is our best salesperson, but hes a jerk to all the employees. : Experience is an interesting one, right? So this is something that we didnt pay enough attention to at the beginning, that in hindsight we would pay more attention to. And that will be true of product and itll be true of markets, itll be true of this thing. So these are experience KPIs that we look at that tell us what retention rates will be for customers on some longer term basis. And then our families could raise the flag as well and say you guys are not abiding to the contract that you signed with us. : So quick question, why do you have to hit such high growth rates?
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