Insights for Scaling Startups from Serial Entrepreneur Lara OConnor Hodgson, Sunil Nagaraj on the Mindsets of Entrepreneurs & Investors. What gets done in the country? Today, the company is the largest ride-hailing company in the Middle East and operates in more than 100 cities across 13 countries. Should it be done in the city, should it be done in the country? So then you dont have to look at these numbers because everyones looking at these numbers. [30] In 2019, the service expanded into Riyadh and Amman, and announced it was also launching in Pakistan. So at that point, we rolled down what we called a family contract. Every six months, Careem was adding new people to the company and addressing the challenge of holding together the operations with its strong values. Legal, regulatory thing? And thats the main driver of high growth rates. Under Sheikha's leadership, Careem became one of the fastest-growing start-ups in the region, raising over $771 million in funding and reaching a . 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. : But we unfortunately are in an industry that is-. So thats something that weve done in the last-. : 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. So the kids I generally see on the weekends. 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. Mudassir Sheikha is CEO/Co-Founder at Careem Networks FZ LLC. And initially, it was difficult to even get the right people, right? : So by going through that exercise of putting these down, you started building conviction. And then people start adjusting to the new reality. Mudassir Sheikha: But we unfortunately are in an industry that is-. So we would only patch things and buy us six months. Mudassir then moved back to Pakistan and co-founded DeviceAnywhere, a company that was acquired by Keynote in 2008 before joining management consulting firm McKinsey & Company in Dubai. Careem's co-founders on finding purpose building a unicorn [39] If we become cheaper, they will match our prices and go even below because thats the game they can play. Okay, this is what I want, now do it. So if lets say, pricing as a topic. I should have the ability to fire the service provider if the service provider is not performing well. : And it takes time, it takes thinking. So youve done it a hundred times, right? but also educated them on professionalism, compliance of rules and procedures, and most significantly, customer service. So thats one thing which is different. : So when we get a phone call and say hey, whats going in? You understood the business completely. That vision keeps getting communicated to everyone that is at Careem, joins Careem. So we would only patch things and buy us six months. And what is it that the local market has to adapt for its own thing? So if some opportunity comes up in Riyadh, we will prioritize it above anything else in the world, right? It requires some implementation. When [inaudible] was picking up a call and speaking to a customer, I could overhear [inaudible] because he was sitting next to me. : Because the context is so important, right? So the first two years we bought, and I think somewhere in the second or third year, and it coincided with me having twins and I think there was something happening in Magnuss life as well, where I think the wives forced a discussion on us. So next time you interview someone that is amazing in what needs to be done but is not a culture fit, youre more comfortable making that call that this person is not the right fit for Careem. Thats when people really look and see. So thats when Magnus and I would have to be a lot more involved in the business. Not just on the day to day side, but then to make sure that these transitions were caught early enough or late, not too late, and then fixed. Startup founders whose companies were acquired by Careem will also gain considerable wealth with this acquisition. We signed it. : It had some validity, it had some relevance. Mudassir Sheikha: Its an investment for sure, right? I get this question all the time from people-. And family does suffer. Mudassir Sheikha: So the three pillars are to the moon and beyond, be of service, and take ownership. : And were going to fix it only enough until the next time it breaks. He received his bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Lahore University of Management Sciences and later went on to obtain a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from Stanford University in 2007. So that person can translate and say look, hes ambitious. Congratulations on Careem's First Decade. Mudassir Sheikha: So this product market fit is a continuous thing. : Right. So these are experience KPIs that we look at that tell us what retention rates will be for customers on some longer term basis. : Like the customer relationship. : And the cause-effect relationship is never completely clear. She assembled a team, asked us to fund this thing. Careem CEO Mudassir Sheikha at the CNBC Evolve Global Summit Two years ago now? Hundreds of Careem millionaires after staff share in $3.1 billion Uber 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. So I think the answer is in the competitive nature of this industry. And then you started looking at examples of things that happened before and then you start building conviction, right? 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. And the last is take ownership of Careem. Mudassir Sheikha: So this is not something that can be done right away or that can be outsourced. So we have at least defined a principle around I and now were figuring out the KPIs that we should put behind it and then we start changing all the dashboards to focus organization on these KPIs. Shikhar Ghosh: Right. Certain aspects of the brand are part of it, but for the most part, we want to empower the front line and have them drive the decisions and only support them as an advisor versus become service providers or controllers. Now youve got a sales force, theyre doing their thing. Like off the record, I can say the number, but I think it was quite a bit, almost twenty exact number, right? He offers tips on how to prepare for the changes in the CEOs role by sharing how he adapted as processes broke and he struggled to balance family obligations. 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. But generally, Friday Ive been able to block. But youre building a structure to do that. : The three pillars are shoot for the moon and beyond. He grew up in Karachi, Pakistan, before graduating from the University of Southern California with a degree in economics and computer science . So the thing that we have done is weve defined a very clear vision of where we want to be in 2030, right? Default is city, but guess what? 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. If its a necessary part of it, but its the customer service, its the on time, you know, its all of those things. Not, you know, head of HR or not people person. : And when we even got the right people in place, you know, we got them from different backgrounds and different places, and we didnt do enough upfront to define the culture that we wanted. 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. And then what was also happening in the early days is we had no customer service. On day one, literally on day one, one of the first things that we did was we created the first version of our values. And that seemed like a big business in the Middle East back then, right? You need to wow them every time. : Its an investment for sure, right? We are a business thats growing rapidly. Regulators are typically national. Mudassir Sheikha: I think 15 minutes or 30 minutes is within the same range. "You have to think big from day one," said Mudassir. Every 15 minutes we know where a city is vis a vis last week the same time. You did something inspirational. 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. Or a formal recruiting process? We created some values and we just left it there. So analytics just as an example. What percent of the times is a car available? And so the pressure on the top comes down a little bit. And, you know And its not something that is easy to do as well, right? Shes the entrepreneur now, right? I would like to do this. And we are basically funding her and we are supporting her to make this thing happen. Those things did not happen as well as they should have. [6] Following the acquisition, Sheikha continued as CEO of Careem and assumed the role of board member and advisor. They need to be rallied and they need to be encouraged and they need to be inspired. : So they are writing agreements with their families now? Mudassir Sheikha: The kids are asleep. Otherwise, well push more and more stuff down to the city level. And the idea was that Magnus and I would hold each other accountable to what we were supposed to do. And thats pretty much it. You and the founders. It didnt seem impossible to pull off. Did you have it or did your wives have it? But youre across multiple countries, and these countries have very different cultures. Even a manager who follows the basic good principles that you have, these behave differently because thats the way organizations are. : So last topic that I want to go through is as youve grown, the issue of you know, what do you keep in the central place that you can learn from everybody? And there are cultures in which, say women, dont have positions of authority or its harder for them to exert authority. The company also has locations in Najaf and Erbil, Kurdistan Region. 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, ChatGPT Will Soon Be Able To Replace Teachers: Bill Gates, Artifact, An AI-Tool That Summarizes And Simplifies Lengthy Articles, Super Chat An AI Chatbot that Will Allow You to Talk to Fictional Characters. : So if you compared that vision to any existing company, whos the closest analog? [9] In 2017, the company announced a program to extend maternity leave and hire more women. The organization always spoke about other things, right? And so youre going to go through similar cycles of growth. Mudassir Sheikha: So that part, in hindsight was we underestimated that challenge and we didnt invest enough in it. So it was difficult to get the caliber of people that we were hoping to get. And the default role is an advisory role. : And thats where those transition points were the ones that made the thing taxing, right? Or do you think, like, well figure that out? Mudassir Sheikha: And a lot of the values around taking ownership start to kick in and people are like, look, this is an opportunity. And over time, I think just by bandwidth limitations, I had to sort of step back and let people drive a lot of the local business. [17], In April 2021, Careem launched Careem Pay, a digital wallet for money transfers and withdrawals in the UAE. It didnt seem impossible to pull off. Now, when we put that down we of course debated a lot internally. Even weekly is unusual, right? But rapid growth created internal strain. Mudassir Sheikha: So, yes. And then you started looking at examples of things that happened before and then you start building conviction, right? Which is speak up, take initiative, see things through impact, be frugal, and make sure to be collaborative with each other. Mudassir Sheikha: where I think the burden becomes higher is sort of to reinvent yourself. Shikhar Ghosh: And were going to fix it only enough until the next time it breaks. : Yeah, its a good question. 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 people are working really, really hard. : In fact, if anything, I felt I was busier two years into it than I was busy in the beginning because there was just a lot more to manage. If its a necessary part of it, but its the customer service, its the on time, you know, its all of those things. It has been a little over five years since the global entrepreneurial ecosystem started its obsession with unicorns. Give feedback to our colleagues to keep growing them, and to drive progress in our communities. And at some point, there were many people reporting to me and Magnus said, look, this is not sustainable. So Wednesday, for example, is fully blocked for thinking. But thats not what generates anything. A Karachi born Mudassir Sheikha was taken aback when he discovered that Pakistan has only one billion dollar company, outside the oil and gas industry, that is an FMCG company. And the quality experience is the quality engagement part. You cannot have the same level of person, quality, systems, all of that, at each local branch. Then we empower them to the right resources to do this and we support them and do this, right? That vision keeps getting communicated to everyone that is at Careem, joins Careem. : Theyre output oriented. And then you have to come up the next play, right? Okay, this is what I want, now do it. This thing will start putting the right people behind the right rules. [50], Careem has been a supporter of Cricket for a Cause and has supported the league's efforts to raise funds for children in developing nations. The morning times, of course, are fully blocked for thinking. How do you think about that? 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. This thing will start driving and incentivizing people the right way. And then become a lot more involved in the hiring and the onboarding process. Shikhar Ghosh: And this would have been your job. And if theres a super crazy important reason to do it at the other level, well do it the other way. Or for that matter, engineering. And if you were in a different industry, you might think about growth differently? Maybe a month or two months? This has to have your signature on it. And so its interesting because you started by saying, you know, we focus on the outputs, the growth, every other thing. So scale is important. And youre always doing things in a hacked up way to buy yourself another few months, right? We are a business thats growing rapidly. So thats something that weve done in the last-. ", "Careem acquires Saudi-based home delivery service Enwani", "Dubai's Careem to extend maternity leave, hire more women", "Dubai's Careem says to launch operations in Palestine", "Where does Careem operate? : And then shes the one who has to think through all of the day to day things and build a team and do all these things. So this was something that she, being from Egypt, understood the opportunity, understood that there was a need for it. The company now operates in 100+ cities and was acquired by Uber for $3.1 billion in 2019. So they say theres seasonality and theres this and that, so I cant do monthly, even. And if you miss one day of growth, then its going to be difficult to grow at 30, 40% monthly, which is sort of the targets that we had initially. And people get exhausted and they work really hard. So it was very incrementally, okay, we need to open this market now. How do you balance these two things? Calling their employees as Captains, was the first step to bring respectability to their profession. That puts a huge tax on you, individually, right? : But the contract was sort of written. Shikhar Ghosh: And are you able to keep the weekend blocked off? But then it becomes products and product market and so on. His Swedish colleague Magnus Olsson joined his mission. Thats a very unusual thing. : Yeah, because one thing you have to realize is there are some net worth effects in this business. But obviously, changing from six countries to the whole Middle East has all kinds of implications on the organization, how you need to organize, who the people are, how big its going to be. - Careem Cities", "Careem launches ride-hailing services in Baghdad", "Careem acquires online restaurant listing platform RoundMenu, to trial food delivery", "Dubai's Careem to test bus service in Egypt", "Careem is killing its mass transportation service 'Careem Bus', "Careem Bike marks Careem's entrance into micro-mobility", "Careem suspends food-delivery business in Pakistan over unfavourable economic conditions", "Careem raises US$ 60 million in new funding with The Abraaj Group as lead investor", "Careem: It's Full Speed Ahead For This Middle East Startup", "Car-hailing app Careem raises $60M Series C", "Uber faces pressure in Dubai as regulator signs deal with rival", "Uber's Middle East Rival Just Got a $1 Billion Valuation", "Saudi women are a captive market for Uber and Careem", "Ride-hailing app Careem raises $200mln to expand", "Uber confirms it's acquiring Middle East rival Careem for $3.1 billion", "Careem CEO says the Middle East is 'not very far' from seeing more billion-dollar start-ups", "Careem launches its delivery app Careem NOW, to invest $150 million in the new vertical, available initially in Dubai and Jeddah for food deliveries", "Careem quietly expands its food delivery service 'Careem Now' to Jordan with Amman launch, Pakistan next", "Careem launches grocery and medicine delivery service in Dubai", "Careem to have 20,000 female drivers in the Middle East by 2020", "Securing Careem through these uncertain times", "Careem to lay off 31% of staff as business drops 80% amid Covid-19", "Careem lays off 31 percent of its workforce as business takes a big hit due to Covid-19", "Dubai's Careem cuts 536 jobs as lockdowns hit ride-hailing across Middle East", "Careem to lay off 31% of workforce as business drops", "UberEats exits Middle East as subsidiary Careem announces layoffs, closes bus service", "Uber's Middle East business Careem cuts 31% of workforce", "Entrepreneurs of the Week: Magnus Olsson and Mudassir Sheikha", "Egyptian Government: Uber and Careem Will Stay in Egypt", "Taxi drivers protest against Uber, other app-based car services", "Egyptian taxi drivers start open-ended sit-in to demand Uber, Careem shutdown", "Ride sharing platform Careem says hit by cyber attack with data of up to 14 million users stolen", "Middle East Ride-Hailing App Careem Reveals Major Cyber Attack", "Ride-hailing app Careem reveals data breach affecting 14 million people TechCrunch", "Careem and Robin Hood Army Pledge to Feed 10,000 People", International Alliance of App-based Transport Workers, Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers, Professional E-Hailing Drivers and Private Owners Association, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Careem&oldid=1149765059, Articles with dead external links from April 2023, Articles with permanently dead external links, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 14 April 2023, at 08:44. And then what you realize is one, this business is 24/7. Mudassir Sheikha: Yes, of course. Mudassir Sheikha: Theyre output oriented. Mudassir Sheikha is the co-founder and CEO of Careem, MENAs leading car booking service that is based out of Dubai and operates from Morocco to Pakistan. Careem will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Uber, preserving its brand. In November 2015, Careem announced a Series C round investment of US$60 million led by The Abraaj Group. You know, all of that. Shikhar Ghosh: And the competitions telling themselves the same thing, so its this constant movement. You get a boarding pass. : Somebody that we had in class one day was talking about profitability as being like jet fuel for an airline. Then you have to sort of make sure that it gets embedded in every aspect of the organization. It takes a lot of doing, you always have to be positive even when youre having a bad day. So the kids are asleep, then? This thing will start creating incentives for people to take risks. And now youre coming full circle and going back to saying once you see all the linkages, then you can reliably focus on this side because you know that its going to carry through. 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. And when that service is provided, it needs to have very clear SLAs. : Yeah, so we would have this joke in the office that, you know, lets only fix it for the next six months because anything beyond that would take a lot longer to fix, that we would not have the time for. Mudassir Sheikha: So in the Careem operating system, one of the principles is invest in experience to get growth. 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 not much changed. : But for example, if you have something that says that people who work for us should have opportunity. : So, you know, in your first values, if I remember correctly, one of them was we will I think you phrased it as we will always create wow of some kind, right? : So at what point, you know, we hear many companies go through two years of growth, right? : I think 15 minutes or 30 minutes is within the same range. Comparatively the first year of growth was slow for the company, but the next two years experienced a 30 percent growth per month. So that, you just trained the organization to be on it. The acquisition of the entire company means that these shares will be acquired by Uber as well creating millionaires. Mudassir Sheikha: So we want to start focusing people on the right KPS and then growth will happen. . Or do you think, like, well figure that out? But there was no sight of things getting better. Mudassir Sheikha is the co-founder and CEO of Careem, MENA's leading car booking service that is based out of Dubai and operates from Morocco to Pakistan. And thats the gap, right? So would probably have an edge in how much they can invest in our markets and they might have better core technology than us.
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