Mudassir Sheikha: Not at the moment. 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. So we were very hands-on and theres a culture of being hands-on at Careem. Shikhar Ghosh: And the cause-effect relationship is never completely clear. How do you think about that? Mudassir Sheikha: Yeah, because one thing you have to realize is there are some net worth effects in this business. Its sugar high that you get in that process. Mudassir Sheikha LinkedIn. 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. The task and the challenge of getting that right was not as I was nave on that front. : So should pricing be done at the city level with some advisory support from the country? So these are the four things that well do to win. : But the question is how do you transfer that skill? That puts a huge tax on you, individually, right? But then youre not going to be doing all the hiring. : You know, why not 10% a month? And the default role is an advisory role. So it can be done at the country level. 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. : Someone, one of our colleagues that worked with us on the OS, he asked me, do you know where Mackenzies revenue was? 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: 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. So if you look at the first business plan that we presented to investors, we basically said we will be, I think it was 50 million dollars in revenue by 2017. He started his career with Trilogy Software before joining San Francisco-based mobile experience startup Brience at the height of the dot-com bubble in March 2000. 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. So you always have to, so this is what we keep telling ourselves, we have to always be better than competition. And the default role is an advisory role. But my thing was, look, I enjoy problem solving. And in the beginning, we were not able to hire a lot of senior people that would proactively see that things would not work and reinvent proactively. How do you think about that challenge? You can test people on them. So if you look at the first business plan that we presented to investors, we basically said we will be, I think it was 50 million dollars in revenue by 2017. 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. So you have to work through other people. How do you transfer that, then? 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. 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. 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. Mudassir Sheikha: I hope thats happening. Friday is the day that I-. Thats the default one. Did you have it or did your wives have it? So one of the elements of it is how do I create something new? Maybe this thing that were doing will not even materialize. I need to get responses in this time, Im going to pay this much money. 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? It would have made us, you know, correct a lot of the hiring decisions. They all knew it was going to be tough. It requires a lot of, in deciding of the market, analytics. 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. Like ambition. : So the day looks like start at four. : So they are writing agreements with their families now? : The first principle is driven by mission and values. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and the transaction is expected to complete by the first quarter of 2020. Shikhar Ghosh: And then youve got to have some process or approach by which you can even judge whether the person is a values fit or not. Personally as well, but also reinvent the way that youre doing things. Shikhar Ghosh: So whats an example of an input KPI that would affect growth? : 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? Latest article by Henry Joseph-Grant, to see more click here. And then we regressed. 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? : 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. Exactly. When did you shift or start shifting towards the input rather than the output metric? Or a formal recruiting process? : 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. So then you dont have to be as proactively pushing for it because now I know that people are looking at these numbers, right? Legal, regulatory thing? So we started that exercise, but we didnt complete it. Careem received seed money of US$1.7 million in a round led by STC Ventures in 2013. 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. Not, you know, head of HR or not people person. So the kids I generally see on the weekends. Six months later, competition does the same thing. When [inaudible] was picking up a call and speaking to a customer, I could overhear [inaudible] because he was sitting next to me. And that has more engineers than us. We are a business thats growing rapidly. But before that, Shikhar Ghosh, you know, product market fit is a relative thing as well. Then you have to sort of make sure that it gets embedded in every aspect of the organization. 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. I get on the phone and I ask for a bus and a bus comes? : When you start thinking of this a bit more, the more you think of these things and the more that you discuss these things, you start building more conviction behind them as well. Mudassir Sheikha: where I think the burden becomes higher is sort of to reinvent yourself. This is the culture that we want to build. Mudassir Sheikha is an American Pakistani business executive and co-founder and current CEO of the Middle Eastern and North African ride-sharing app company Careem that is based out of Dubai, UAE. Mudassir Sheikha: And thats where those transition points were the ones that made the thing taxing, right? Shikhar Ghosh: So last question and then we can stop here. I should have the ability to fire the service provider if the service provider is not performing well. Mudassir Sheikha: Absolutely, right? I think some of these things are tested locally as well. And when that service is provided, it needs to have very clear SLAs. How do we recruit people? So would probably have an edge in how much they can invest in our markets and they might have better core technology than us. Then we empower them to the right resources to do this and we support them and do this, 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. And these values we protect, even if the culture says otherwise, well protect these values and well push these values down on culture. And we are basically funding her and we are supporting her to make this thing happen. Or do you think, like, well figure that out? Mudassir Sheikha: And it takes time, it takes thinking. 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. 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. What gets done in the city? You cannot have the same level of person, quality, systems, all of that, at each local branch. And the more I get into it, the more I realize that if you just get this right, then this thing will start running like a machine. So if you believe that your competitor is targeting these type of growth rates, then you cannot be targeting less than your main competitor. They did not want to be another ride-hailing service. I think one is weve been able to build a leadership team thats a lot more capable than what we had ever before. : So they were suffering from not even getting proper sleep in the early days. The service is popular for tailoring its features to match the socio-cultural norms of the countries it operates in. Shes the entrepreneur now, right? Mudassir Sheikha is the CEO and Co-Founder of Careem. How to work with our systems. And the more Ive done it, the more I realize that this is something thats missing. : And the KPIs were mostly output-oriented? And what is it that the local market has to adapt for its own thing? Everyone says value is important. Shikhar Ghosh: So you want to do the values in a particular way. The service scaled rapidly by ensuring dignity and respect for its captains, and safe transportation solutions for the masses. I profile people and startups contributing to the Pakistani technology entrepreneurial ecosystem. So, you know, in this first part of the journey, say up to CVC or so, you were hands-on on everything. You can test people on them. Otherwise, well push more and more stuff down to the city level. So we were very hands-on and theres a culture of being hands-on at Careem. If you dont deliver them the right experience, and they get a certain quality of experience from within Careem, how can we expect them to deliver an outstanding experience outside of Careem, right? : Because the context is so important, right? So if your competition is a lot bigger than you, then youre not even providing a competitive service to the customer or the captain. At that point, we were a bit speechless because we felt that things would get better in two years from when we started the business. Mudassir Sheikha: The three pillars are shoot for the moon and beyond. : This is not going to happen without you owning it and driving it. So the default role that a country or Dubai plays is advisory. If Qatar's Sheikha Moza is worth $15b, she's undervalued. Ive got a company that Im working with that does annual. [9] In 2017, the company announced a program to extend maternity leave and hire more women. So they are starting to become a part of the product. But my thing was, look, I enjoy problem solving. The Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship is the champion for entrepreneurship education and training for Harvard Business School. Vince Staples net worth, height, age, family, dati Muni He (golfer) Wiki Biography, age, height, boyf What happened to Stephanie Soo? Published Wed, Jun 16 2021 3:40 AM EDT. 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. Women are also employed as drivers in Egypt and Jordan. But my view in looking back at this is it would have saved us a lot more fires. 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. Versus what is it that someone on the ground has the autonomy to make their own choices. So these are experience KPIs that we look at that tell us what retention rates will be for customers on some longer term basis. [26][27], On 26 March 2019, Uber agreed to acquire the company for US$3.1 billion, including US$1.4 billion in cash and US$1.7 billion in convertible notes,[28] making Careem the first unicorn startup company in the Middle East outside of Israel. Mudassir Sheikha: And a lot of the values around taking ownership start to kick in and people are like, look, this is an opportunity. ", "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? 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. Sheikha and his team did not only focus on providing tech training to these captains. So its just the real time nature of the business and the realizing that we have to hit high growth rates and reacting faster if somethings not right. 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. In fact, they were helping us-. You did something inspirational. You can do it. You have to be at a certain scale to be competitive. So then you dont have to look at these numbers because everyones looking at these numbers. And so its interesting because you started by saying, you know, we focus on the outputs, the growth, every other thing. Mudassir Sheikha: So this product market fit is a continuous thing. And initially, it was difficult to even get the right people, right? So if you believe that your competitor is targeting these type of growth rates, then you cannot be targeting less than your main competitor. : Where things started breaking, we put processes in. In December, it raised US$350 million from superstar investors such as . So we have these three value pillars and there are 12 values. And go to the office, you know, there are bunch of meetings depending on the day and depending on the time of the month. but also educated them on professionalism, compliance of rules and procedures, and most significantly, customer service. And make that real. And when that service is provided, it needs to have very clear SLAs. 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. : Like the customer relationship. Thank you very much. In 2014, it received funding of US$10 million in a Series B round led by Al Tayyar Travel Group and STC Ventures. And then what you realize is one, this business is 24/7. : And on the captain side, similar KPIs. : 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 not much changed. Its not a subjective thing. Because you have to be looking at things and deciding when to intervene. So the kids are asleep, then? 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. Like, okay, yes, if we had done something differently back then, then this would have actually saved us a lot more time. What were the things that surprised you that as you grew, you know, what were the things that you came in and said, well, this is sort of different from what it was, what I was thinking it might be? And now, of course, were many times that size now. So thats the way we are approaching those things which require more scientific planning, thinking, and doing. : So this particular thing is driven a lot by the industry that youre in? Consuming good content is clearly your thing. 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? And the something new, initially, was markets. : 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. Mudassir Sheikha: 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. Mudassir Sheikha: So should pricing be done at the city level with some advisory support from the country? document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. And what is it that the local market has to adapt for its own thing? July 2012 Careem is launched by co-founders Mudassir Sheikha and Magnus Olsson September 2013 Careem secures funding of $1.7 million in a round led by STC Ventures : You know, we havent tracked it fully yet, right? So amazing experiences. 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. If we become cheaper, they will match our prices and go even below because thats the game they can play. And one of the things that were discussing is should we have anyone do this culture test, right? You and the founders. : And are you able to keep the weekend blocked off? And then what was also happening in the early days is we had no customer service. Its not a subjective thing. Think big. So if some opportunity comes up in Riyadh, we will prioritize it above anything else in the world, right? And the more I get into it, the more I realize that if you just get this right, then this thing will start running like a machine. With over one million captains spanning across 100+ cities, Careem embraced the diversity of different cultures to build for scale. [47][48][49] According to investigations conducted by the company, there was no initial evidence of fraud or misuse. You dont know when those plays run out, right? These are the values that we stand for. Mudassir Sheikha: So if I could start all over again, I would take that exercise and complete this a bit more. What ETA do you get? And I just have to trust that the person on the scene is going to do that? It would have saved us a lot more bad hiring decisions. It was a very short time to build any kind of technology, and they skipped a lot of features and launched the service. So you always have to, so this is what we keep telling ourselves, we have to always be better than competition. What does it mean? : So by going through that exercise of putting these down, you started building conviction. So to the moon and beyond, be of service. The movement of things as well. Did you think about that? And youre always doing things in a hacked up way to buy yourself another few months, right? Lets hire people that will run this country. We are a business thats growing rapidly. 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. Cairo has grown seven percent from last week. This thing will start attracting the right people. They feel aligned and driven to make it happen. It completely exceeded our expectations of speed and growth. Where we, you know, we were giving people feedback, right? Mudassir Sheikha, co-founder and CEO of Careem, one of the first unicorns in the Middle East, discovered this the hard way. So if some opportunity comes up in Riyadh, we will prioritize it above anything else in the world, right? It has been a little over five years since the global entrepreneurial ecosystem started its obsession with unicorns. Can we help you with anything? It requires some implementation. How much time is the captain spending, getting paid for a trip or is he waiting? You and the founders. This thing will start creating incentives for people to take risks. And drive engagement for your people and thats going to drive growth. : 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. Shikhar Ghosh: But you didnt even have a performance management process, right? So thats one thing which is different. For the next 10 years, he set a goal for building an institution from the region that delivers great products and creates a positive impact on the regional population. Default is city, but guess what? 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? We just had bigger hands and we were still able to manage. And if theres a super crazy important reason to do it at the other level, well do it the other way. Europe, Menlo Park, China), Where the person is located (e.g. So youre basically not there when theyre awake. It grew pretty rapidly, even initially, and then at some point it became clear that your hands are not big enough to do all the things that you have to do. You know, one of our first things was driven by our mission and values. So for me, I remember it included at least being home on Fridays. So we would only patch things and buy us six months. : 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? : Yeah, so it wasnt really that you said, oh, if were going to be this many people, we need all these processes, lets design the process. 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. Fiance, Age, Net W Who is Bernice Burgos? Valley building technology startups, where he was most recently the co-founder of DeviceAnywhere, which was eventually acquired by Keynote Systems. And in the very beginning, even the people that were doing different things were sitting very close to us, so we knew everything that was happening. : When we raised our CVC, we actually promised ourselves that we will get away from that mindset, that were not going to keep patching things because that whole debt was starting to catch up to us. The equation was to strike a balance between increasing the respect and dignity for drivers and providing a good service for customers. : So, you know, all of that is driven by the external world, right? And when KPIs would not be right or would be going up or going down too much, then we would get involved more and start fixing things. Insights for Scaling Startups from Serial Entrepreneur Lara OConnor Hodgson, Sunil Nagaraj on the Mindsets of Entrepreneurs & Investors. You know, whats the completion rate of the trip? You know, if you create the right operating system then individuals take the initiative and so they have to deal with the startup phase and all of the two year cycle and all of that. Qatar. : So, yes. : So if I could start all over again, I would take that exercise and complete this a bit more. So that expectation-setting held us for at least the first two years. Empowering the front line to make the decisions to do as much as possible that they can do on their own. Congratulations on Careem's First Decade. Mudassir Sheikha: Or weeks. That would have saved us a lot more time and effort down the road. You know, just the norms. Every six months, Careem was adding new people to the company and addressing the challenge of holding together the operations with its strong 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. [7], Sheikha is married with a family. 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 we would only patch things and buy us six months. From the moment that Mudassir Sheikha and Magnus Olsson first decided to launch their own start-up in the Middle East, they knew they wanted to build something both "big and meaningful." Almost a decade into their journey with Careem, they are succeeding beyond the wildest expectationson both counts. You became the CEO of this company somewhat reluctantly in the sense that you had the founders and then you all got together and this was what? In your case, its been constant. At least, I never did it. Or the systems that have to run, you know, like a railway thing. 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. So thats something that weve done in the last-. With the new acquisition deal worth $3.1 billion, $1.4 billion will be paid in cash and $1.7 billion will be in convertible notes into Uber stock. Friday is the day that I-. It was when it breaks, were going to fix the problem that broke. Two years ago now? So I think the answer is in the competitive nature of this industry. What does it mean? So thats what the definition of tough maybe was in the early days. Not, you know, head of HR or not people person. So that vision has been defined and that vision has been somewhat detailed as well at the next level. And so youre going to go through similar cycles of growth. There will be some cultural nuances. Have you actually started working less as a result of that? And then we regressed. : Right. Its an output of you doing all the right things, right? Or were we giving just people feedback on their delivery and their performance? However, Careem captains are not part of the transaction. : Or weeks. Mudassir Sheikha: And then we would have some weekly check ins, sometimes even daily check ins. It takes a lot of doing, you always have to be positive even when youre having a bad day. You dont know when those plays run out, right? Wed but another six months. Shikhar Ghosh: So even if you create new businesses, if the operating system is robust enough, then it will morph into that. Mudassir Sheikha: One is like, look, youre not at home much, so youre leaving at six a.m. sometimes, many times. : Yeah, its a good question. I profile people and startups contributing to the Pakistani technology entrepreneurial ecosystem. So after CVC, we said lets start-. So these are people that are super capable that we trust. How do you think about that challenge? This was a five-year business plan that was prepared in 2012. [8] He is known for his philanthropic work in Pakistan, particularly in the areas of education and healthcare.[9].
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