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 So that person can translate and say look, hes ambitious. 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. 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. This is something that you as the CEO need to own. Mudassir Sheikha: Yeah, because one thing you have to realize is there are some net worth effects in this business. 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. How do you think about that challenge? They need to be rallied and they need to be encouraged and they need to be inspired. Its not a static thing that we reach and we-. What ETA do you get? So thats what the definition of tough maybe was in the early days. Initially, 10 markets. 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. We already captured that segment. So analytics just as an example. Its an output of you doing all the right things, right? How do you transfer that, then? Where things were fine, we didnt bother. This was a five-year business plan that was prepared in 2012. It requires some implementation. So the way a manager behaves in Egypt or Pakistan might be completely different. And there are cultures in which, say women, dont have positions of authority or its harder for them to exert authority. Shikhar Ghosh: So when you reflect on that, you know, because this is going on and theres no end in sight because the ambition keeps growing, you might reach a point where the systems are in place for the transportation side of the business. The particular context that somebodys in. : And the cause-effect relationship is never completely clear. : The first principle is driven by mission and values. You need to wow them every time. : You know, why not 10% a month? So instead of people looking at growth rates, were in the process of shifting to the input KPIs, which people can influence and then the growth is an output. So how will we win against someone like that? Unlike various impact focused companies that focus on the end user, Careem started with its employees. : The second type of role that a country or Dubai can play is a service provider. : So why every 15 minutes? : 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? https://hbsaccelerate.wistia.com/medias/cscc8k9qrv?embedType=async&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=640. [31] On 21 April 2020, the service expanded its Dubai service into delivering groceries and other essential products. Versus what is it that someone on the ground has the autonomy to make their own choices. How do you think about that? Mudassir Sheikha is the CEO and co-founder of ride-hailing app Careem, one of the hottest startups on the Asian continent. "At Careem, our mission is to simplify and improve lives. What will happen? 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. It drops you at a predetermined location. So to the moon and beyond, be of service. The organization always spoke about other things, right? I dont know remember what Magnus had. : So in the Careem operating system, one of the principles is invest in experience to get growth. It was when it breaks, were going to fix the problem that broke. It was when it breaks, were going to fix the problem that broke. : So one opportunity for example, one of our early, early colleagues, she realized that bus, Careem bus was an opportunity. : 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. This was not translated to what it means for the different functions because I think if you sit down and think of it, you can do the translation, right? So we started that exercise, but we didnt complete it. But before that, Shikhar Ghosh, you know, product market fit is a relative thing as well. Very early, Careem recognized the need for providing two different types of customer service. : So they were suffering from not even getting proper sleep in the early days. And even if they find those local opportunities at the same time as us, were able to prioritize them much before them. Shikhar Ghosh: And at that point, investors are expecting a certain degree of formality and all of that. We didnt take it to the extension where it should have gone. 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. Both on the captain side and the customer side. So we tell people now, dont drive growth. Mudassir Sheikha: So look at the Netflix deck, right, which most people respect. Shikhar Ghosh: So if you compared that vision to any existing company, whos the closest analog? You've reached your 2 free content limit for the month. So we have these three value pillars and there are 12 values. Did you have it or did your wives have it? Shikhar Ghosh: So, you know, all of that is driven by the external world, right? Mudassir Sheikha: So when we get a phone call and say hey, whats going in? Mudassir Sheikha: This is not going to happen without you owning it and driving it. Mudassir Sheikha: So some of these things like analytics, growth hacking, in general, the product is expanding to cover these things. With over one million captains spanning across 100+ cities, Careem embraced the diversity of different cultures to build for scale. 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. You know, I was an EP at Mackenzie, but I didnt know what Mackenzies revenue was because is not something that the organization spoke about ever. Lets try to create some management layers that will create some sanity to it. And make that real. You get a boarding pass. Theres questions that you ask and then, you know, based on the responses that you get, you can get a feel for it, right? So thats one thing which is different. If Qatar's Sheikha Moza is worth $15b, she's undervalued. Regulators are typically national. 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. While Careem started off as a car service for professionals, it morphed into a ride-hailing service for the masses. : Then we realized that we should become the public transport system for our cities because the public transportation systems were not existent like they were in Europe and the U.S and elsewhere. So shes acquired a business, by the way, that was doing something similar to get a jump start. : Some of the people processes is another part of it. : It had some validity, it had some relevance. So thats when Magnus and I would have to be a lot more involved in the business. So just like the buses that we had in the subcontinent where you open a thing, it tells you this is the nearest bus station, go ahead walk to that bus station, the bus will be there at this time. [2] In Saudi Arabia, women make up 80% of the company's customers. The first is the default location for any activity is the city. : And this all analytical in the sense that you could just look at the numbers. Support quality journalism and content. Shikhar Ghosh: But at the same time, you know, youve got 24 hours in the day. : 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. Or do you think, like, well figure that out? 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 it was very incremental and as it fired up, we solved it. And at some point, there were many people reporting to me and Magnus said, look, this is not sustainable. 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. 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 then what you realize is one, this business is 24/7. Two years ago now? So we tried that. Thats when people really look and see. They know what theyre doing and they are extremely driven and in line with the mission and vision of Careem. So the thing that we have done is weve defined a very clear vision of where we want to be in 2030, right? Even weekly is unusual, right? Shikhar Ghosh: So you want to do the values in a particular way. And make that real. [11] In January 2018, they became the first ride-hailing service to launch in Baghdad. 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. And then people start adjusting to the new reality. And what gets done in Dubai, which is our head office. This deck probably took a long time to build and Im sure it gets iterated every now and then. Lets hire people that will run this country. So thats really where we started our taxi, limousine booking service in the GCC, which is the six oil-rich countries. How to work with our systems. Now youve got a sales force, theyre doing their thing. In fact, they were helping us-. And this is not just in growth, but this is in everything. Versus what is it that someone on the ground has the autonomy to make their own choices. So slowly your matrix has sort of been built out and you can judge very quickly whether somebodys in the range or not. All the employees of Careem had stock options and their company shares will be bought as part of the Uber acquisition deal worth $3.1 billion. So at what point did you and Magnus sort of say, weve got to have some discussion with our families, think we should balance this out in some ways? And youre coming at midnight. Personally as well, but also reinvent the way that youre doing things. I would like to do this. : 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? Initially, 10 markets. And the other times are available for meetings, review meetings and so forth. There will be some cultural nuances. We signed it. Shikhar Ghosh: Youve been talking about the vision of slowly desegregating the pressure so it all doesnt come to the talk. And family does suffer. Mudassir Sheikha: So that part, in hindsight was we underestimated that challenge and we didnt invest enough in it. That vision keeps getting communicated to everyone that is at Careem, joins Careem. What are the things that surprised you about that transition from when you go to knowing everything thats happening and acting on each of the things that are blowing up, to knowing that Im not going to know a lot thats happening? Two years ago, yeah. Its not even the country, right? 1. So you have to work through other people. : Absolutely, right? Can we help you with anything? Define the values and the culture that you want to create. And, you know And its not something that is easy to do as well, right? Mudassir Sheikha: It had some validity, it had some relevance. So thats the way we are approaching those things which require more scientific planning, thinking, and doing. What gets done in the city? 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. 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. Friday is a working day in many parts of the world, so Friday is when we do meetings with investors. Right? So thats really where we started our taxi, limousine booking service in the GCC, which is the six oil-rich countries. She assembled a team, asked us to fund this thing. Growing at a rate of nearly 30 percent per month turned Careem, a mobile-based ride-hailing service, into the first unicorn of the Middle East. And one of the things that were discussing is should we have anyone do this culture test, right? I think some of these things are tested locally as well. Thats when people really look and see. Be super, super ambitious. Then, do I get rid of this person? But even at relatively high levels in that organization, you had no idea what a business was producing, right? 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. At least, I never did it. 11) Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani - Net worth: $1.2 billion. How do you balance the tax that you place on yourself and therefore on your family, therefore on other choices that youre making. So these are experience KPIs that we look at that tell us what retention rates will be for customers on some longer term basis. Mudassir Sheikha is one of the globally recognized startup founders after launching of Careem in March 2012. And you have the features that they want, the payment methods that they want, the interfaces that they want. So at what point did you and Magnus sort of say, weve got to have some discussion with our families, think we should balance this out in some ways? : Yeah. [6] Following the acquisition, Sheikha continued as CEO of Careem and assumed the role of board member and advisor. You could almost do any of the jobs yourself. 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. : Yeah. And, you know And its not something that is easy to do as well, right? Mudassir Sheikha: So this real-time nature of the real time transparency allowed us to catch any issues a lot faster and then react to them. So youve done it a hundred times, right? : Theyre output oriented. However, the rough estimates also indicate him to be . So if you believe that your competitor is targeting these type of growth rates, then you cannot be targeting less than your main competitor. 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. San Francisco Bay Area, Silicon Valley), This describes the type of investor the person is (e.g. Six months later, competition does the same thing. So analytics just as an example. So basically what happens is lets say, you have this great product that customers love. How much time is the captain spending, getting paid for a trip or is he waiting? [39] How much time is the captain spending, getting paid for a trip or is he waiting? Have you actually started working less as a result of that? You could drive growth differently and probably the healthier way if you target lesser, lower growth rates because then you can focus on the right things, which might take a little bit longer to put in place, but theyll bring healthy growth. 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. : 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. 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. Then you have to sort of make sure that it gets embedded in every aspect of the organization. And then people start adjusting to the new reality. Now, when we put that down we of course debated a lot internally. So that person can translate and say look, hes ambitious. Mudassir Sheikha: I hope thats happening. [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. How do you transfer that, then? 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? We just had bigger hands and we were still able to manage. : So when we get a phone call and say hey, whats going in? The idea was not just to build a big business, but start one that would have a big impact, be meaningful, and with a mission to simplify and improve lives and create an awesome organisation that inspires. Mudassir Sheikha: Yeah. The movement of things as well. Then after that, we said why just, you know, passenger transport? You know, you can be ambitious in Pakistan and you can be ambitious in Egypt and you can be ambitious in Saudi, right? We sent it to each other. I enjoy driving commercial strategy. 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. And go to the office, you know, there are bunch of meetings depending on the day and depending on the time of the month. You go through that deck, you know, I think in literally half an hour, you get a very good sense of what this organization stands for. Mudassir Sheikha is CEO/Co-Founder at Careem Networks FZ LLC. Mudassir Sheikha: So if I could start all over again, I would take that exercise and complete this a bit more. If youre running a business of hundreds of millions of dollars, a mistake is many millions. 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. Four of us sat down, Magnus, Sara, me, Saba, and we basically wrote down what we called the boundary conditions. Source of wealth: Al Faisal Holding. : So you want to do the values in a particular way. Have you actually started working less as a result of that? And the third one is theres some things that the country or Dubai needs to control, right? : Like the customer relationship. And if theres a super crazy important reason to do it at the other level, well do it the other way. 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? [5], Careem was founded by Mudassir Sheikha, an American of Pakistani[6] origin and Magnus Olsson of Sweden, who had both worked as management consultants at McKinsey & Company. 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. 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 valuation of over $2 billion. But youre across multiple countries, and these countries have very different cultures. The service is popular for tailoring its features to match the socio-cultural norms of the countries it operates in. Friday is the day that I-. So if your competition is a lot bigger than you, then youre not even providing a competitive service to the customer or the captain. : So the day looks like start at four. This has to have your signature on it. 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. 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. [29], In 2018, Careem announced it was launching a food delivery service app called Careem Now, delivering food and pharmaceuticals, initially in Dubai and Jeddah. And focusing on people is not just focus on individuals, but focus on the culture-. Shikhar Ghosh: So even if you create new businesses, if the operating system is robust enough, then it will morph into that. This thing will start creating incentives for people to take risks. I get this question all the time from people-. And at some point, there were many people reporting to me and Magnus said, look, this is not sustainable. They want to work at multi-nationals and get a stable career. But for them, Riyadh is probably much lower in the pecking order. What are the things that surprised you about that transition from when you go to knowing everything thats happening and acting on each of the things that are blowing up, to knowing that Im not going to know a lot thats happening? 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. So they can provide a service to a city. Mudassir Sheikha: where I think the burden becomes higher is sort of to reinvent yourself. So, you know, as the CEO, what have you learned, what surprised you about being CEO of a really fast-growing company? 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. Legal, regulatory thing? July 22, 2022. And so the pressure on the top comes down a little bit. Theres a lot of learning that happens across all these markets thats common, even though theres differences. 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 the second thing which has happened, and you know, we had a conversation six months ago where I think you said something very interesting. Mudassir Sheikha, CEO and Co-founder Careem, Middle East and Pakistan's leading everyday Super App, has made a generous donation of USD 2 million to LUMS to establish the "Sekha Scholarship". You go in, you show the boarding pass, youre in. Women are also employed as drivers in Egypt and Jordan. So you always have to, so this is what we keep telling ourselves, we have to always be better than competition. Mudassir Sheikha and Magnus Olsson are the founders of Careem, the largest ride-hailing platform in the Middle East. : I think that the thing that was most surprising for me was around people and culture. This is the culture that we want to build. But guess what happens? Mudassir Sheikha: So, yes. And now we think we should become the internet platform of the Middle East. Second is be of service which is the whole serve our customers, serve our captains. I mean, now were not getting growth because that thing is no longer working. Default is city, but guess what? Well win by running faster than them so if an opportunity comes up, something changes the market, were able to run and make something happen. And now we think we should become the internet platform of the Middle East. Its not that Pakistan should do something. 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. And then things would break again and wed buy another six months and then things would break again. 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. You know, hiring people, putting them out there, designing the part. Just, you know, a typical weekly calendar sort of thing. Second is be of service which is the whole serve our customers, serve our captains.
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