And youre coming at midnight. Mudassir Sheikha: And thats where those transition points were the ones that made the thing taxing, right? Personally as well, but also reinvent the way that youre doing things. 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. Mudassir Sheikha: Someone, one of our colleagues that worked with us on the OS, he asked me, do you know where Mackenzies revenue was? Shikhar Ghosh: 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? But for them, Riyadh is probably much lower in the pecking order. Shikhar Ghosh: So why every 15 minutes? Even a manager who follows the basic good principles that you have, these behave differently because thats the way organizations are. Were we giving people feedback on the values? 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. So if some opportunity comes up in Riyadh, we will prioritize it above anything else in the world, right? And family does suffer. Shikhar Ghosh: You know, this mountain, then the next mountain, the next mountain at the same pace, almost because your growth rate has continued at very high rates. Those things did not happen as well as they should have. Spend the first three to four hours just doing the things that Im supposed to do, which a lot of times is thinking through some of these topics that require more deliberate thinking. So I can tell you that Karachi has grown five point three percent from last week. [38] So these are people that are super capable that we trust. This deck probably took a long time to build and Im sure it gets iterated every now and then. But youre building a structure to do that. Saturday is my catch up day. It would have made us, you know, correct a lot of the hiring decisions. : 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. : So what does your day look like? I would like to do this. You have to make sure that the questions youre asking are the questions that get asked by the person that is testing for that value fit. Sheikha and his team did not only focus on providing tech training to these captains. It requires some implementation. Angel, Fund of Funds, Venture Capital), Number of Investments the Individual has participated in, Number of Investments the Individual has partnered in, Total number of current Jobs the person has, Total number of events the individual appeared in, Number of news articles that reference the Person, Careem expands to Sudan with the launch of operations in Khartoum, Careems tech drive: Going beyond mobility, Careem says restaurants got the short end of the stick, cuts commission for food delivery, The Year That Was: Mudassir Sheikha, Co-Founder And CEO, Careem, Chasing scale: A Pakistani investors insight. [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. And now we had five different ways of running Careem because these five different leaders were not working in a consistent, coherent way. When is this going to get better? So, you know, in this first part of the journey, say up to CVC or so, you were hands-on on everything. Shikhar Ghosh: So even if you create new businesses, if the operating system is robust enough, then it will morph into that. Mudassir Sheikha: Yeah. Mudassir Sheikha: So in the Careem operating system, one of the principles is invest in experience to get growth. She came up with that idea herself. Shikhar Ghosh: Because the context is so important, right? The entire company is looking at these numbers. This was a five-year business plan that was prepared in 2012. And then we regressed. So, you know, as the CEO, what have you learned, what surprised you about being CEO of a really fast-growing company? 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. And now, of course, were many times that size now. The company waited until late April, 2018, to disclose this breach because they "wanted to make sure we had the most accurate information before notifying people". Mudassir Sheikha: I hope thats happening. And youre coming at midnight. Or were we giving just people feedback on their delivery and their performance? Shikhar Ghosh: But you didnt even have a performance management process, right? : But the contract was sort of written. Both on the captain side and the customer side. 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. Mudassir Sheikha: But there was a process, right, where we were even testing people on values. [30] In 2019, the service expanded into Riyadh and Amman, and announced it was also launching in Pakistan. And the quality experience is the quality engagement part. Mudassir Sheikha: And the second framework is if the function is not done at a city level, what role does the country or Dubai play for that activity, for that function. Processes were working fine three months ago but theyre not working now. And then what was also happening in the early days is we had no customer service. Mudassir Sheikha: And it takes time, it takes thinking. : What did you expect it was going to be when you first started? Cairo has grown seven percent from last week. Shikhar Ghosh: So if you were starting a company again, or youre advising somebody whos starting a company thats going through a similar ride in terms of the growth, what would you tell them to do? 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 . : So by going through that exercise of putting these down, you started building conviction. This thing will start creating incentives for people to take risks. So thats what the definition of tough maybe was in the early days. Many of our customers will value it for long haul routes. Building upon his experience of working in a Silicon Valley early-stage VC fund, and a mobile testing startup that was acquired by $60 million, he started his mission to develop something meaningful after leaving a secure career at McKinsey. So shes making all the decision. 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. And then what was also happening in the early days is we had no customer service. Shikhar Ghosh: And this all analytical in the sense that you could just look at the numbers. Wed but another six months. Mudassir Sheikha: Yes, of course. What gets done in the country? But my view in looking back at this is it would have saved us a lot more fires. In November 2015, Careem announced a Series C round investment of US$60 million led by The Abraaj Group. And if theres a super crazy important reason to do it at the other level, well do it the other way. : And were going to fix it only enough until the next time it breaks. So we have these three value pillars and there are 12 values. When did you shift or start shifting towards the input rather than the output metric? So you have to work through other people. So then you dont have to be as proactively pushing for it because now I know that people are looking at these numbers, right? : So at what point, you know, we hear many companies go through two years of growth, right? [8] He is known for his philanthropic work in Pakistan, particularly in the areas of education and healthcare.[9]. Mudassir Sheikha and Magnus Olsson are the founders of Careem, the largest ride-hailing platform in the Middle East. Mudassir Sheikha: Yeah. Growth is an output. : No, it was forced on us. So one of the elements of it is how do I create something new? You know, one of our first things was driven by our mission and values. And then what you realize is one, this business is 24/7. So people are working really, really hard. And the quality experience is the quality engagement part. : If you are constantly looking at these numbers and chasing people when numbers are low, then after a certain point, people start looking at these numbers proactively. And youre always doing things in a hacked up way to buy yourself another few months, right? Startup founders whose companies were acquired by Careem will also gain considerable wealth with this acquisition. So, you know, in this first part of the journey, say up to CVC or so, you were hands-on on everything. : I think 15 minutes or 30 minutes is within the same range. Mudassir Sheikha: Experience is an interesting one, right? Shikhar Ghosh: So in 2017, what was your revenue? : So this product market fit is a continuous thing. Is it right? : So product market fit is a constantly evolving thing because you have to be continuously better than someone else that has deeper pockets, that is able to give the same thing that you have, with some delay, at a cheaper price. And if he do them well, then a lot of the metrics start improving and we started seeing healthier growth happen as a result versus just trying to see, hey, I need 10% growth tomorrow. But before that, Shikhar Ghosh, you know, product market fit is a relative thing as well. 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. Copyright President and Fellows of Harvard College, August 30, 2018, at Harvard Business School. It will slow you down in the very, very beginning because it requires some thinking. When we did the OS, we have these seven principles now. Copyright 2023 Entrepreneur Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Now, when we put that down we of course debated a lot internally. I mean, now were not getting growth because that thing is no longer working. Mudassir Sheikha is one of the globally recognized startup founders after launching of Careem in March 2012. It completely exceeded our expectations of speed and growth. You've reached your 2 free content limit for the month. Mudassir Sheikha: Then you have to live the process. You can do it. Anything outside of it, we want it to be as local as possible. 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. : And a lot of the values around taking ownership start to kick in and people are like, look, this is an opportunity. Today, Careem is the leading technology platform across the greater Middle East and was recently acquired by Uber in the largest industry transaction seen in the region. And the cities will make the choice, typically, if theyre not getting the right service or if theyre not getting the right speed of service. I just got on the phone with her early today and shes saying theres another small team that is doing something similar that she would just like to get on board full time. And these values we protect, even if the culture says otherwise, well protect these values and well push these values down on culture. And on the customer side, for example, experience is a function of, you know, when you open the app, is a car available? Like, okay, yes, if we had done something differently back then, then this would have actually saved us a lot more time. In 2014, it received funding of US$10 million in a Series B round led by Al Tayyar Travel Group and STC Ventures. Whats their culture, whats their DNA. : I hope thats happening. And now in the next couple of weeks, were launching buses in Egypt. Empowering the front line to make the decisions to do as much as possible that they can do on their own. Published Wed, Jun 16 2021 3:40 AM EDT. So I think the answer is in the competitive nature of this industry. The first is the default location for any activity is the city. So its this thing of saying what are the central functions that you want everyone to do more or less the same way or following the same principles? Where things were fine, we didnt bother. : So thats been a core challenge for the last year almost, for us. Mudassir Sheikha: If you are constantly looking at these numbers and chasing people when numbers are low, then after a certain point, people start looking at these numbers proactively. 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 now we had five different ways of running Careem because these five different leaders were not working in a consistent, coherent way. Today, the company is the largest ride-hailing company in the Middle East and operates in more than 100 cities across 13 countries. They have positively taken upon critical challenges such as safety of women and women driving by introducing ride trackers, call masks, and in-ride support. Shikhar Ghosh: But there are common systems, right? Client satisfaction, repeat work from those clients, and there was a belief that if you focused on these things, then they dont have anyone to follow, right? And people get exhausted and they work really hard. But our definition of big was different back then. And the other times are available for meetings, review meetings and so forth. But before that, Shikhar Ghosh, you know, product market fit is a relative thing as well. Youre constantly thinking of whats happening in the business or Its actually even more frustrating for them because youre there, but youre not there. And what is it that the local market has to adapt for its own thing? Mudassir Sheikha, co-founder and CEO of Careem, one of the first unicorns in the Middle East, discovered this the hard way. But our definition of big was different back then. Its sugar high that you get in that process. What is the quality of customers that were giving him which is measured by the ratings that he gives to the customers. And the idea was that Magnus and I would hold each other accountable to what we were supposed to do. And then you started looking at examples of things that happened before and then you start building conviction, right? But guess what happens? And thats pretty much it. So they say, you know, you can focus on profitability like you focus on jet You need it in order to keep the business and so on. You can say, okay, wow for someone in finance means your customers are not just the external customers, which is you have a limit of external interaction as well, but a lot of your customers are internal, right? So they say theres seasonality and theres this and that, so I cant do monthly, even. We just thought get the right people in place and they will figure out what to do. So the way a manager behaves in Egypt or Pakistan might be completely different. So that expectation-setting held us for at least the first two years. It initially started in 4 cities and grew to over 100 cities in 14 countries in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa since its inception in 2012. And automatically are starting to get absorbed in what the system does, versus what people do. And make that real. Mudassir Sheikha: And the second thing which has happened, and you know, we had a conversation six months ago where I think you said something very interesting. And then it sort of, things are in place, youve got product market fit. but also educated them on professionalism, compliance of rules and procedures, and most significantly, customer service. So you want them to behave differently if its a critical problem versus its not a critical problem, and so on. So for me, I remember it included at least being home on Fridays. : 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. If its a necessary part of it, but its the customer service, its the on time, you know, its all of those things. You cannot have the same level of person, quality, systems, all of that, at each local branch. And please figure out the HR side of it, right? It has been over years and Careem has not built some of the features in the original bucket list. : Two years ago. The company now operates in 100+ cities and was acquired by Uber for $3.1 billion in 2019. Shikhar Ghosh: So they are writing agreements with their families now? Maybe a month or two months? Why such high growth rates? Shikhar Ghosh: And this would have been your job. Four of us sat down, Magnus, Sara, me, Saba, and we basically wrote down what we called the boundary conditions. Even weekly is unusual, right? : Yeah, I think its a good question. [3] Careem expanded into the food delivery business with Careem Now in November 2018[4] and launched a digital payment platform, Careem Pay in April 2022. Comparatively the first year of growth was slow for the company, but the next two years experienced a 30 percent growth per month. And this is not just in growth, but this is in everything. But some of these values are universal too, right? And so its interesting because you started by saying, you know, we focus on the outputs, the growth, every other thing. And we feel grateful that weve been able to attract these people to the journey. However, the rough estimates also indicate him to be . The organization always spoke about other things, right? Consuming good content is clearly your thing. So thats really where we started our taxi, limousine booking service in the GCC, which is the six oil-rich countries. It completely exceeded our expectations of speed and growth. So thats one thing which is different. Maybe a month or two months? But for them, Riyadh is probably much lower in the pecking order. Mudassir Sheikha shares how navigated leadership challenges, including balancing family needs and establishing culture, while rapidly scaling Careem. Mudassir Sheikha: And on the captain side, similar KPIs. And thats what we believe is the biggest opportunity in the Middle East versus just a mobility opportunity or something else. 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. And initially, it was difficult to even get the right people, right? How do you think about that? : Profitability then is an output, right? I would like to do this. And then one thing led to another. : So last question and then we can stop here. And this was an initiative that was started by her. Learn why Sheikha believes disseminating culture by hiring the right people is one of the most important jobs the CEO of a scale-up can do. : You know, this mountain, then the next mountain, the next mountain at the same pace, almost because your growth rate has continued at very high rates. A transcript appears after the video. If Qatar's Sheikha Moza is worth $15b, she's undervalued. : Then you have to live the process. Should it be done in the city, should it be done in the country? Six months later, competition does the same thing. So if theres an activity that needs to be done, the first place that it actually should be done is the city. : So some of these things like analytics, growth hacking, in general, the product is expanding to cover these things. But there was no sight of things getting better. : Somebody that we had in class one day was talking about profitability as being like jet fuel for an airline. Did you think about that? Mudassir Sheikha: So by going through that exercise of putting these down, you started building conviction. I enjoy driving commercial strategy. The service scaled rapidly by ensuring dignity and respect for its captains, and safe transportation solutions for the masses. Mudassir Sheikha, CEO and Co-Founder of Careem. : Youve been talking about the vision of slowly desegregating the pressure so it all doesnt come to the talk. 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. Shikhar Ghosh: But the way it manifests might be different in each of those cases. Have you actually started working less as a result of that? What ETA do you get? 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. LinkedIn Mudassir Sheikha . How do you think about that? He is one of the prominent billionaires of Pakistani origin with unknown exact net worth. Shikhar Ghosh: And at that point, investors are expecting a certain degree of formality and all of that. Mudassir Sheikha is the CEO and co-founder of ride-hailing app Careem, one of the hottest startups on the Asian continent. 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. Theres questions that you ask and then, you know, based on the responses that you get, you can get a feel for it, right? Mudassir Sheikha: Its an investment for sure, right? Lets try to create some management layers that will create some sanity to it. Shikhar Ghosh: Yeah. Its not that Pakistan should do something. Then, do I get rid of this person? Europe, Menlo Park, China), Where the person is located (e.g. Women are also employed as drivers in Egypt and Jordan. Mudassir Sheikha: It had some validity, it had some relevance. Mudassir Sheikha: Theyre output oriented. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. But my thing was, look, I enjoy problem solving. Because as we have said multiple times, smart and very capable people, they dont want to work at startups. 1. It didnt seem impossible to pull off. You know, you can be ambitious in Pakistan and you can be ambitious in Egypt and you can be ambitious in Saudi, right? Rumours of the said acquisition have been floating around since December 2018. And Ive actually made a note of it and I tell myself this every day to remind myself that look, I need to now focus on people that will drive the business.

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