: So thats been a core challenge for the last year almost, for us. And if Im not mistaken, there were once or twice flags were raised and things did not get much better. How Mudassir Sheikha, a Pakistani entrepreneur built the first unicorn 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. So thats something that weve done in the last-. Regulators are typically national. Everyone says value is important. : Also the size of the fall is much bigger. You and the founders. So if your competition is a lot bigger than you, then . Shikhar Ghosh: So last question and then we can stop here. How this Pakistani built a billion-dollar startup - The Express Tribune And Ill see the growth, but as soon as that promo code is over, the growth will vanish, right? So youve done it a hundred times, right? : And this would have been your job. Or were we giving just people feedback on their delivery and their performance? 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. Where we, you know, we were giving people feedback, right? And the more Ive done it, the more I realize that this is something thats missing. Drive experience for our captains and customers thats going to bring growth. Growth is an output. Justin D. Martin | on Twitter: "If Qatar's Sheikha Moza is The idea for a transportation service oc. : I think 15 minutes or 30 minutes is within the same range. : 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. They need to be rallied and they need to be encouraged and they need to be inspired. If youre running a business of hundreds of millions of dollars, a mistake is many millions. Shikhar Ghosh: So whats an example of an input KPI that would affect growth? And what gets done in Dubai, which is our head office. 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. Both companies apps will also continue to operate under separate brands. Basically these are starting routes for now. And I just have to trust that the person on the scene is going to do that? Now youve got a sales force, theyre doing their thing. Mudassir Sheikha shares how navigated leadership challenges, including balancing family needs and establishing culture, while rapidly scaling Careem. But youre building a structure to do that. Mudassir Sheikha: So one opportunity for example, one of our early, early colleagues, she realized that bus, Careem bus was an opportunity. [4] In 2020 Uber purchased Careem for $3.1 billion USD. Mudassir Sheikha: Absolutely, right? But youre across multiple countries, and these countries have very different cultures. 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. "Sure you can open a retail store, but it's going to be difficult to make it into a large business - a billion-dollar . Copyright President and Fellows of Harvard College, August 30, 2018, at Harvard Business School. 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. High-growth companies achieving a billion dollar valuation with their ability to defy the odds in the global south are rare, just like unicorns. Mudassir Sheikha is one of the globally recognized startup founders after launching of Careem in March 2012. 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. Or for that matter, engineering. In your case, its been constant. Should you Careem around Karachi, Lahore? That would have saved us a lot more time and effort down the road. And sort of it was within range, right? : But for example, if you have something that says that people who work for us should have opportunity. Now, of course, it could be cause and effect but when weve invested in people and getting people excited, weve actually seen growth happen I those markets. 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. He grew up in Karachi, Pakistan, before graduating from the University of Southern California with a degree in economics and computer science . and South Asia. Did you think about that? Subscribe at just $0.17 per day to get unlimited access. Because as we have said multiple times, smart and very capable people, they dont want to work at startups. If its a necessary part of it, but its the customer service, its the on time, you know, its all of those things. But there was no sight of things getting better. Its sugar high that you get in that process. Careem's co-founders on finding purpose building a unicorn What will happen? [34] In Saudi Arabia, Careem and Uber have started recruiting women, as part of the Saudi Women to drive movement. 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? 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. Mudassir Sheikha - Wikipedia But for them, Riyadh is probably much lower in the pecking order. Finances is one part of it. : 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. And so the pressure on the top comes down a little bit. So if your competition is a lot bigger than you, then youre not even providing a competitive service to the customer or the captain. Careem's Mudassir Sheikha on Co-Founders, Establishing Culture It has been over years and Careem has not built some of the features in the original bucket list. And were starting to change the KPIs that we look at as well. https://hbsaccelerate.wistia.com/medias/cscc8k9qrv?embedType=async&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=640. But my view in looking back at this is it would have saved us a lot more fires. Turned out they were just false assumptions of the market. I think some of these things are tested locally as well. So they say theres seasonality and theres this and that, so I cant do monthly, even. Now, when we put that down we of course debated a lot internally. [8] He is known for his philanthropic work in Pakistan, particularly in the areas of education and healthcare.[9]. : Profitability then is an output, right? But our definition of big was different back then. [41] How do you think about that? If theres a super compelling reason for this thing to be done at the country level, then well do it at the country level otherwise well keep it at the city level. The spectacular rise of the company resulted . Careem CEO: 4 ways to build a billion-dollar startup 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. 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. Cairo has grown seven percent from last week. These are the values that we stand for. Co-Founder Careem, Mudassir Sheikha Donates USD 2 Million to - LUMS And so its interesting because you started by saying, you know, we focus on the outputs, the growth, every other thing. So this is something that we didnt pay enough attention to at the beginning, that in hindsight we would pay more attention to. : But the way it manifests might be different in each of those cases. So they are starting to become a part of the product. However, the rough estimates also indicate him to be . 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. Maybe a month or two months? But guess what happens? You can do it. And youre coming at midnight. You know, just the norms. 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. So it can be done at the country level. When we did the OS, we have these seven principles now. The next year it was why just the GCC? CNBC Transcript: Careem CEO Mudassir Sheikha Speaks with Hadley Gamble from the CNBC Evolve Global Summit. 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. Mudassir Sheikha: And that did not happen at the quality and the rigor that should have happened. : It had some validity, it had some relevance. So you want them to behave differently if its a critical problem versus its not a critical problem, and so on. But thats not what generates anything. 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. So basically what happens is lets say, you have this great product that customers love. 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. And then you have to come up the next play, right? Careem received seed money of US$1.7 million in a round led by STC Ventures in 2013. So if you believe that your competitor is targeting these type of growth rates, then you cannot be targeting less than your main competitor. Theres always something thats going right and wrong with different markets. And then you go home at? This was a five-year business plan that was prepared in 2012. We were obsessed with weekly growth rate. So I come in, Ive only been there three months. Shikhar Ghosh: So at what point, you know, we hear many companies go through two years of growth, right? There was probably one or two days that I was supposed to be a home where I could actually meet her before she goes to bed. Friday is a working day in many parts of the world, so Friday is when we do meetings with investors. It was when it breaks, were going to fix the problem that broke. Mudassir Sheikha: 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: Give me a sense of what tough means? [25] In October 2018, the company secured US$200 million funding from its existing investors. 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 . 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 you look at that and you say if Im in engineering or Im in accounting, you know, how do I translate that into do I really want a great experience in accounting? Or were we giving just people feedback on their delivery and their performance? but also educated them on professionalism, compliance of rules and procedures, and most significantly, customer service. Mudassir Sheikha: And it takes time, it takes thinking. And she basically created a team and went after the opportunity. : And thats where those transition points were the ones that made the thing taxing, right? Shikhar Ghosh: So they are writing agreements with their families now? But there was no sight of things getting better. You know, all of that. So analytics just as an example. Mudassir Sheikha: Yeah, for us it was we will figure it out. Anything outside of it, we want it to be as local as possible. [8], In 2015, the company acquired a Saudi-based home service company and Abdulla Elyas joined Careem. And then things would break again and wed buy another six months and then things would break again. And then what was also happening in the early days is we had no customer service. The entire company is looking at these numbers. Europe, Menlo Park, China), Where the person is located (e.g. : So well hopefully create these type of initiatives-. Mudassir Sheikha is the CEO and co-founder of ride-hailing app Careem, one of the hottest startups on the Asian continent. : Some of the people processes is another part of it. She assembled a team, asked us to fund this thing. 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. If theres a super compelling reason for this thing to be done at the country level, then well do it at the country level otherwise well keep it at the city level. Now, of course, it could be cause and effect but when weve invested in people and getting people excited, weve actually seen growth happen I those markets. So youre basically not there when theyre awake. 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. So for me, I remember it included at least being home on Fridays. And you know, you worked at BCG and I spent some time at Mackenzie. You know, all of that. The exponential growth of Careem roots from the values the company has instilled in its operations. 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. They feel aligned and driven to make it happen. And drive engagement for your people and thats going to drive growth. : So quick question, why do you have to hit such high growth rates? : I think that the thing that was most surprising for me was around people and culture. 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. Because if you wow them, then they will wow your customers, right? Youre not going to get it exactly right every time, but youre going to get If you ask the question every time, then you can start calibrating as well. Mudassir Sheikha - UAE We work on a daily cycle, so we improve 30 times as much, you know, within that same period of time. ", "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? Theres a lot of learning that happens across all these markets thats common, even though theres differences. So basically what happens is lets say, you have this great product that customers love. So if theres an activity that needs to be done, the first place that it actually should be done is the city. So I think the answer is in the competitive nature of this industry. Shikhar Ghosh: And this all analytical in the sense that you could just look at the numbers. So these are the experience KPIs both for the captain and customers. And youre always doing things in a hacked up way to buy yourself another few months, right? It requires a lot of, in deciding of the market, analytics. I mean, now were not getting growth because that thing is no longer working. Shikhar Ghosh: Like the customer relationship. 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. So after CVC, we said lets start-. 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. And then become a lot more involved in the hiring and the onboarding process. So shes acquired a business, by the way, that was doing something similar to get a jump start. Taxi drivers organized several protests and sit-ins demanding that the Egyptian government intervene to halt the activities of the TNCs. And now we had five different ways of running Careem because these five different leaders were not working in a consistent, coherent way. Were we giving people feedback on the values? When did you shift or start shifting towards the input rather than the output metric? This transaction will be completed by the first quarter of 2020 and will be divided into $1.4 billion to be paid in cash and $1.7 billion in convertible notes into Uber stock. 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. On day one, literally on day one, one of the first things that we did was we created the first version of our values. In 2014, it received funding of US$10 million in a Series B round led by Al Tayyar Travel Group and STC Ventures. What does it mean? Mudassir Sheikha: So this was the other mistake, per se, right? The morning times, of course, are fully blocked for thinking. 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. Once we do this, we can actually start doing a lot more than passenger transport. 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. And thats what we believe is the biggest opportunity in the Middle East versus just a mobility opportunity or something else. Born in Doha, Qatar in 1948. So you want them to behave differently if its a critical problem versus its not a critical problem, and so on. He grew up in Karachi, Pakistan, before graduating from the University of Southern California with a degree in economics and computer science and then completing a masters degree in computer science at Stanford. You know, hiring people, putting them out there, designing the part. : 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. Mudassir Sheikha: where I think the burden becomes higher is sort of to reinvent yourself. And then people start adjusting to the new reality. This thing will start putting the right people behind the right rules. So I can tell you that Karachi has grown five point three percent from last week. And she basically created a team and went after the opportunity. Like, okay, yes, if we had done something differently back then, then this would have actually saved us a lot more time. Theres questions that you ask and then, you know, based on the responses that you get, you can get a feel for it, right? Qatar. Mudassir Sheikha: And thats where those transition points were the ones that made the thing taxing, right? We need to help them if theyre not doing it. 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. What is the quality of customers that were giving him which is measured by the ratings that he gives to the customers. : Yeah, and you know, since we are closer to the cities and closer to the markets that we operate in than competition, we are in most cases able to find local opportunities before them. This deck probably took a long time to build and Im sure it gets iterated every now and then.