How Mudassir Sheikha, a Pakistani entrepreneur built the first unicorn Mudassir Sheikha: Yes, of course. 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. We didnt really define what these values meant, what kind of behaviors we expected, took enough time at the beginning when people joined to onboard them properly on these values. Sheikha gave himself the ambitious time period of just six weeks to roll out the first iteration of Careem and be in the market at the earliest. And then what was also happening in the early days is we had no customer service. : So at what point, you know, we hear many companies go through two years of growth, right? : So the two things that I would do differently is one, more upfront. : Now the first two, well win by being local and well win by being speed automatically translate into empowering the front line as much as possible. Mudassir Sheikha and his colleague Magnus Olsson left McKinsey in 2012 to start Careem with the mission to simplify and improve the lives of people in the Middle East. The next year it was why just the GCC? [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. 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. : So this is not something that can be done right away or that can be outsourced. Do you have a demand issue, do you have a supply issue? We need to help them if theyre not doing it. But guess what happens? It would have made us, you know, correct a lot of the hiring decisions. We want to be the platform that enables internet commerce in this region. So that, you just trained the organization to be on it. You know, one of our first things was driven by our mission and values. 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. They feel aligned and driven to make it happen. We already captured that segment. : But for example, if you have something that says that people who work for us should have opportunity. https://hbsaccelerate.wistia.com/medias/cscc8k9qrv?embedType=async&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=640. And people get exhausted and they work really hard. So I think the answer is in the competitive nature of this industry. : And thats where those transition points were the ones that made the thing taxing, right? So that vision has been defined and that vision has been somewhat detailed as well at the next level. Meaning understanding local opportunities and adapting our product to meet those opportunities. Mudassir Sheikha: I have been able to, except in the last few months when weve fundraising. 3 Consequences of Hypergrowth & How to Prepare Meaning understanding local opportunities and adapting our product to meet those opportunities. They start believing lives are due to some extent. So then you dont have to look at these numbers because everyones looking at these numbers. 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 slowly your matrix has sort of been built out and you can judge very quickly whether somebodys in the range or not. So it takes them longer to prioritize. Support quality journalism and content. So these are experience KPIs that we look at that tell us what retention rates will be for customers on some longer term basis. : 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. Mudassir Sheikha: So we have two frameworks that weve come up with. And go to the office, you know, there are bunch of meetings depending on the day and depending on the time of the month. I need to get responses in this time, Im going to pay this much money. Because you have to be looking at things and deciding when to intervene. And I think Abdulla earlier this year sat down with me and said, look, you cannot outsource values and Careem operating system to someone else. Mudassir Sheikha: So they were suffering from not even getting proper sleep in the early days. : But the way it manifests might be different in each of those cases. How do you transfer that, then? Initially, 10 markets. And what is it that the local market has to adapt for its own thing? You get a boarding pass. Friday is a working day in many parts of the world, so Friday is when we do meetings with investors. You go in, you show the boarding pass, youre in. : The biggest learning and the biggest surprise has been around people leadership, right? Its an output of you doing all the right things, right? Let me just be out there and make sure that we are hitting our growth numbers and we are competing and we are doing the right things. Mudassir Sheikha: So that part, in hindsight was we underestimated that challenge and we didnt invest enough in it. In December, it raised US$350 million from superstar investors such as . You cannot have the same level of person, quality, systems, all of that, at each local branch. You understood the business completely. So if you miss one or two days of growth, thats going to be very, very difficult to hit those growth rates because youre not going to be able to make up for that. When is this going to get better? Shikhar Ghosh is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, and Professor of Management Practice at HBS. 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? [9] In 2017, the company announced a program to extend maternity leave and hire more women. One for its users, and the other for its captains. 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. And I just have to trust that the person on the scene is going to do that? 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. 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. 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 . Ideally, youd designate some people that you believe are super-aligned with the values and these are the people that do this for It could be a few of them that do it for everyone so that theres some consistency thats applied to that process. : So quick question, why do you have to hit such high growth rates? Careem's co-founders on finding purpose building a unicorn But even at relatively high levels in that organization, you had no idea what a business was producing, right? Mudassir Sheikha: So the day looks like start at four. Shikhar Ghosh: So, you know, in your first values, if I remember correctly, one of them was we will I think you phrased it as we will always create wow of some kind, right? So if you miss one or two days of growth, thats going to be very, very difficult to hit those growth rates because youre not going to be able to make up for that. Like, okay, yes, if we had done something differently back then, then this would have actually saved us a lot more time. 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. : Absolutely, right? 200 of these employees will become Dirham millionaires, whereas almost 75 will become dollar millionaires for their shares reports The National. The task and the challenge of getting that right was not as I was nave on that front. : So look at the Netflix deck, right, which most people respect. Mudassir Sheikha: So by going through that exercise of putting these down, you started building conviction. So it can be done at the country level. Even when youre there, youre not present. Whats their culture, whats their DNA. On day one, literally on day one, one of the first things that we did was we created the first version of our values. You look at it and you say, if we can do this, then we can change our view. MUDASSIR: So the pace of hiring . 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. How do you balance the tax that you place on yourself and therefore on your family, therefore on other choices that youre making. : Like the customer relationship. We just had bigger hands and we were still able to manage. So lets say some city needs to grow 30% a month, which means seven percent week on week and theyre only growing three percent week on week when I look at the screen, then theres clearly an issue, right? You know, whats the completion rate of the trip? Mudassir Sheikha: But we unfortunately are in an industry that is-. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. 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. Personally as well, but also reinvent the way that youre doing things. Two years ago now? He is one of the prominent billionaires of Pakistani origin with unknown exact net worth. [43][44][45][46], In January, 2018, Careem discovered data on more than 14 million riders and 558,800 drivers were breached. : Or weeks. 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? Congratulations on Careem's First Decade. : Yeah, for us it was we will figure it out. Shikhar Ghosh: So they are writing agreements with their families now? So that person is living in that context, right? The numbers dont change immediately. Consuming good content is clearly your thing. The entire company is looking at these numbers. Regulators are typically national. 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. Well win by having much better people and by having a culture that drives a certain mission and vision type of behavior. Mudassir Sheikha: 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. Processes were working fine three months ago but theyre not working now. We signed it. Finances is one part of it. 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. So this is something that we didnt pay enough attention to at the beginning, that in hindsight we would pay more attention to. How much time is the captain spending, getting paid for a trip or is he waiting? 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. [33], In Pakistan, Careem employs women drivers. Mudassir Sheikha: So well hopefully create these type of initiatives-. [14] In August 2018, Careem said they would be launching bus services, starting with cities in Egypt in December of the same year. : So this was the other mistake, per se, right? And so youre going to go through similar cycles of growth. 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 . Prior to Careem, Mudassir was an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company, where he advised clients on strategy and business building. You have to be at a certain scale to be competitive. 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. Mudassir Sheikha, Careem Networks FZ LLC: Profile and Biography So thats been a huge focus for me for the last six months. : 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. Keep improving and stay humble. Otherwise, well push more and more stuff down to the city level. The entire company is looking at these numbers. [18], In June 2022, Careem suspended food delivery service in Pakistan over unfavorable economic conditions.[19]. : So what does that mean? But then youre not going to be doing all the hiring. What does it mean? : Profitability then is an output, right? : So this product market fit is a continuous thing. 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 thats the main driver of high growth rates. And we are basically funding her and we are supporting her to make this thing happen. Those are also very respectable growth rates. Mudassir Sheikha interviewed by Shikhar Ghosh, August 30, 2018, at Harvard Business School. [12][13], It was announced in February 2018, that Careem has acquired RoundMenu, a restaurant listing and food ordering platform that operates across the Arab world. Is it wrong? This was a five-year business plan that was prepared in 2012. : And this all analytical in the sense that you could just look at the numbers. We just had bigger hands and we were still able to manage. : So what does your day look like? 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. Like many things that we should have done differently, whether it is in financial processes, or the technology side, they were starting to leave a lot of skeletons that we were then having to go back and fix. Even when youre there, youre not present. I dont know if you remember, where you said instead of focusing on problems, focus on people. : But we unfortunately are in an industry that is-. : Experience is an interesting one, right? Shes the entrepreneur now, right? Mudassir Sheikha: Yeah. 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. Shikhar Ghosh: So in 2017, what was your revenue? : You know, why not 10% a month? So, you know, in this first part of the journey, say up to CVC or so, you were hands-on on everything. Shikhar Ghosh: Yeah. Or do you think, like, well figure that out? These are the behaviors that we want, this is how we add this to our recruiting process, this how well add this to our performance measurement process. 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. [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. Mudassir Sheikha: where I think the burden becomes higher is sort of to reinvent yourself. And the idea was that Magnus and I would hold each other accountable to what we were supposed to do. Fundamentally, we . [16], In May 2019, Careem announced the acquisition of UAE-based bike-sharing startup Cycle which will re-brand as Careem Bike. I enjoy driving commercial strategy. Rumours of the said acquisition have been floating around since December 2018. : And on the captain side, similar KPIs. Pivoting For Progress: Why Careem Turned To A 0% Commission Model For Its Food Delivery Business. : But there are common systems, right? Today, the company is the largest ride-hailing company in the Middle East and operates in more than 100 cities across 13 countries. And one of the things that were discussing is should we have anyone do this culture test, right? Comparatively the first year of growth was slow for the company, but the next two years experienced a 30 percent growth per month. 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. During its first two years, to compete against Uber, Careem grew at an unprecedented rate of 30% per month. : Yeah, they dont change immediately but weve actually been pleasantly surprised that our colleague NPS, strongly correlates with our growth numbers. . Those are also very respectable growth rates. What is the quality of customers that were giving him which is measured by the ratings that he gives to the customers. [15] The service was discontinued in early 2020. So I can tell you that Karachi has grown five point three percent from last week. So weve all been saying values are important. Define the values and the culture that you want to create. 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. : So, you know, you started up the company. Anything outside of it, we want it to be as local as possible. So it was difficult to get the caliber of people that we were hoping to get. But there was no sight of things getting better. View articles by Mudassir Sheikha. [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. And who's more known worldwide for their important work, Moza or a bank CEO? Youre constantly thinking of whats happening in the business or Its actually even more frustrating for them because youre there, but youre not there. You did something inspirational. : So would it be possible to get us a weekly calendar? Like ambition. Mudassir Sheikha: Yeah, because one thing you have to realize is there are some net worth effects in this business. It was when it breaks, were going to fix the problem that broke. And she basically created a team and went after the opportunity. 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. I get on the phone and I ask for a bus and a bus comes? Mudassir Sheikha: The first principle is driven by mission and values. : So if I could start all over again, I would take that exercise and complete this a bit more. I get on the phone and I ask for a bus and a bus comes? Because as we have said multiple times, smart and very capable people, they dont want to work at startups. So they are starting to become a part of the product. Or for that matter, engineering. 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. 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mudassir sheikha net worth

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. Like, okay, yes, if we had done something differently back then, then this would have actually saved us a lot more time. 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 to the moon and beyond, be of service. Or were we giving just people feedback on their delivery and their performance? Thats when people really look and see. And now we think we should become the internet platform of the Middle East. 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? Mudassir Sheikha: So there was definitely a transition from doing everything to then having people who were doing things. And even if they find those local opportunities at the same time as us, were able to prioritize them much before them. And the other times are available for meetings, review meetings and so forth. So we started that exercise, but we didnt complete it. And the more Ive done it, the more I realize that this is something thats missing. : 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. And then people start adjusting to the new reality. 1/2. : The first principle is driven by mission and values. There are review meetings that I do and now I actually block the times on my calendar to do thinking. Mudassir Sheikha: Then you have to live the process. Mudassir Sheikha: Profitability then is an output, right? Shikhar Ghosh: And the cause-effect relationship is never completely clear. Shikhar Ghosh: So what does that mean? I should have the ability to fire the service provider if the service provider is not performing well. Is it right? Shikhar Ghosh: So what does your day look like? Ive got a company that Im working with that does annual. Mudassir Sheikha: Yeah. Did you think about that? So Wednesday, for example, is fully blocked for thinking. Both ride-hailing companies will operate their respective regional services and independent brands. Mudassir Sheikha and Magnus Olsson are the founders of Careem, the largest ride-hailing platform in the Middle East. Mudassir Sheikha: And when we even got the right people in place, you know, we got them from different backgrounds and different places, and we didnt do enough upfront to define the culture that we wanted. Shikhar Ghosh: Yeah. You look at it and you say, if we can do this, then we can change our view. 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 thats the main driver of high growth rates. And, you know And its not something that is easy to do as well, right? [5], Careem began as a ride-hailing service in Dubai and soon expanded to other cities across the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. Required fields are marked *. 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: Yeah. [38] They know what theyre doing and they are extremely driven and in line with the mission and vision of Careem. Unlike various impact focused companies that focus on the end user, Careem started with its employees. Mudassir Sheikha: Some of the people processes is another part of it. 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 you have to come up the next play, right? Sheikha is an alumnus of University of Southern California and Stanford University. So basically what happens is lets say, you have this great product that customers love. Shikhar Ghosh: So even if you create new businesses, if the operating system is robust enough, then it will morph into that. How do you transfer that knowledge? Personally as well, but also reinvent the way that youre doing things. How do you transfer that, then? Because there are a lot of things that are in your head that you believe in and its not even easy to articulate them and give them to someone. So we have these three value pillars and there are 12 values. Thats when people really look and see. Default is city, but guess what? Exactly. And so youre going to go through similar cycles of growth. They know what theyre doing and they are extremely driven and in line with the mission and vision of Careem. Then after that, we said why just, you know, passenger transport? Mudassir Sheikha: Yeah, I think its a good question. [34] In Saudi Arabia, Careem and Uber have started recruiting women, as part of the Saudi Women to drive movement. : No, it was forced on us. : So this particular thing is driven a lot by the industry that youre in? : 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. And then profitability follows. 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. How Mudassir Sheikha, a Pakistani entrepreneur built the first unicorn Mudassir Sheikha: Yes, of course. 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. We didnt really define what these values meant, what kind of behaviors we expected, took enough time at the beginning when people joined to onboard them properly on these values. Sheikha gave himself the ambitious time period of just six weeks to roll out the first iteration of Careem and be in the market at the earliest. And then what was also happening in the early days is we had no customer service. : So at what point, you know, we hear many companies go through two years of growth, right? : So the two things that I would do differently is one, more upfront. : Now the first two, well win by being local and well win by being speed automatically translate into empowering the front line as much as possible. Mudassir Sheikha and his colleague Magnus Olsson left McKinsey in 2012 to start Careem with the mission to simplify and improve the lives of people in the Middle East. The next year it was why just the GCC? [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. 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. : So this is not something that can be done right away or that can be outsourced. Do you have a demand issue, do you have a supply issue? We need to help them if theyre not doing it. But guess what happens? It would have made us, you know, correct a lot of the hiring decisions. We want to be the platform that enables internet commerce in this region. So that, you just trained the organization to be on it. You know, one of our first things was driven by our mission and values. 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. They feel aligned and driven to make it happen. We already captured that segment. : But for example, if you have something that says that people who work for us should have opportunity. https://hbsaccelerate.wistia.com/medias/cscc8k9qrv?embedType=async&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=640. And people get exhausted and they work really hard. So I think the answer is in the competitive nature of this industry. : And thats where those transition points were the ones that made the thing taxing, right? So that vision has been defined and that vision has been somewhat detailed as well at the next level. Meaning understanding local opportunities and adapting our product to meet those opportunities. Mudassir Sheikha: I have been able to, except in the last few months when weve fundraising. 3 Consequences of Hypergrowth & How to Prepare Meaning understanding local opportunities and adapting our product to meet those opportunities. They start believing lives are due to some extent. So then you dont have to look at these numbers because everyones looking at these numbers. 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 slowly your matrix has sort of been built out and you can judge very quickly whether somebodys in the range or not. So it takes them longer to prioritize. Support quality journalism and content. So these are experience KPIs that we look at that tell us what retention rates will be for customers on some longer term basis. : 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. Mudassir Sheikha: So we have two frameworks that weve come up with. And go to the office, you know, there are bunch of meetings depending on the day and depending on the time of the month. I need to get responses in this time, Im going to pay this much money. Because you have to be looking at things and deciding when to intervene. And I think Abdulla earlier this year sat down with me and said, look, you cannot outsource values and Careem operating system to someone else. Mudassir Sheikha: So they were suffering from not even getting proper sleep in the early days. : But the way it manifests might be different in each of those cases. How do you transfer that, then? Initially, 10 markets. And what is it that the local market has to adapt for its own thing? You get a boarding pass. Friday is a working day in many parts of the world, so Friday is when we do meetings with investors. You go in, you show the boarding pass, youre in. : The biggest learning and the biggest surprise has been around people leadership, right? Its an output of you doing all the right things, right? Let me just be out there and make sure that we are hitting our growth numbers and we are competing and we are doing the right things. Mudassir Sheikha: So that part, in hindsight was we underestimated that challenge and we didnt invest enough in it. In December, it raised US$350 million from superstar investors such as . You cannot have the same level of person, quality, systems, all of that, at each local branch. You understood the business completely. So if you miss one or two days of growth, thats going to be very, very difficult to hit those growth rates because youre not going to be able to make up for that. When is this going to get better? Shikhar Ghosh is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, and Professor of Management Practice at HBS. 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? [9] In 2017, the company announced a program to extend maternity leave and hire more women. One for its users, and the other for its captains. 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. And I just have to trust that the person on the scene is going to do that? 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. 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. 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 . Ideally, youd designate some people that you believe are super-aligned with the values and these are the people that do this for It could be a few of them that do it for everyone so that theres some consistency thats applied to that process. : So quick question, why do you have to hit such high growth rates? Careem's co-founders on finding purpose building a unicorn But even at relatively high levels in that organization, you had no idea what a business was producing, right? Mudassir Sheikha: So the day looks like start at four. Shikhar Ghosh: So, you know, in your first values, if I remember correctly, one of them was we will I think you phrased it as we will always create wow of some kind, right? So if you miss one or two days of growth, thats going to be very, very difficult to hit those growth rates because youre not going to be able to make up for that. Like, okay, yes, if we had done something differently back then, then this would have actually saved us a lot more time. 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. : Absolutely, right? 200 of these employees will become Dirham millionaires, whereas almost 75 will become dollar millionaires for their shares reports The National. The task and the challenge of getting that right was not as I was nave on that front. : So look at the Netflix deck, right, which most people respect. Mudassir Sheikha: So by going through that exercise of putting these down, you started building conviction. So it can be done at the country level. Even when youre there, youre not present. Whats their culture, whats their DNA. On day one, literally on day one, one of the first things that we did was we created the first version of our values. You look at it and you say, if we can do this, then we can change our view. MUDASSIR: So the pace of hiring . 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. How do you balance the tax that you place on yourself and therefore on your family, therefore on other choices that youre making. : Like the customer relationship. We just had bigger hands and we were still able to manage. So lets say some city needs to grow 30% a month, which means seven percent week on week and theyre only growing three percent week on week when I look at the screen, then theres clearly an issue, right? You know, whats the completion rate of the trip? Mudassir Sheikha: But we unfortunately are in an industry that is-. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. 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. Personally as well, but also reinvent the way that youre doing things. Two years ago now? He is one of the prominent billionaires of Pakistani origin with unknown exact net worth. [43][44][45][46], In January, 2018, Careem discovered data on more than 14 million riders and 558,800 drivers were breached. : Or weeks. 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? Congratulations on Careem's First Decade. : Yeah, for us it was we will figure it out. Shikhar Ghosh: So they are writing agreements with their families now? So that person is living in that context, right? The numbers dont change immediately. Consuming good content is clearly your thing. The entire company is looking at these numbers. Regulators are typically national. 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. Well win by having much better people and by having a culture that drives a certain mission and vision type of behavior. Mudassir Sheikha: 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. Processes were working fine three months ago but theyre not working now. We signed it. Finances is one part of it. 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. So this is something that we didnt pay enough attention to at the beginning, that in hindsight we would pay more attention to. How much time is the captain spending, getting paid for a trip or is he waiting? 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. [33], In Pakistan, Careem employs women drivers. Mudassir Sheikha: So well hopefully create these type of initiatives-. [14] In August 2018, Careem said they would be launching bus services, starting with cities in Egypt in December of the same year. : So this was the other mistake, per se, right? And so youre going to go through similar cycles of growth. 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 . Prior to Careem, Mudassir was an Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company, where he advised clients on strategy and business building. You have to be at a certain scale to be competitive. 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. Mudassir Sheikha, Careem Networks FZ LLC: Profile and Biography So thats been a huge focus for me for the last six months. : 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. Keep improving and stay humble. Otherwise, well push more and more stuff down to the city level. The entire company is looking at these numbers. [18], In June 2022, Careem suspended food delivery service in Pakistan over unfavorable economic conditions.[19]. : So what does that mean? But then youre not going to be doing all the hiring. What does it mean? : Profitability then is an output, right? : So this product market fit is a continuous thing. 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 thats the main driver of high growth rates. And we are basically funding her and we are supporting her to make this thing happen. Those are also very respectable growth rates. Mudassir Sheikha interviewed by Shikhar Ghosh, August 30, 2018, at Harvard Business School. [12][13], It was announced in February 2018, that Careem has acquired RoundMenu, a restaurant listing and food ordering platform that operates across the Arab world. Is it wrong? This was a five-year business plan that was prepared in 2012. : And this all analytical in the sense that you could just look at the numbers. We just had bigger hands and we were still able to manage. : So what does your day look like? 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. Like many things that we should have done differently, whether it is in financial processes, or the technology side, they were starting to leave a lot of skeletons that we were then having to go back and fix. Even when youre there, youre not present. I dont know if you remember, where you said instead of focusing on problems, focus on people. : But we unfortunately are in an industry that is-. : Experience is an interesting one, right? Shes the entrepreneur now, right? Mudassir Sheikha: Yeah. 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. Shikhar Ghosh: So in 2017, what was your revenue? : You know, why not 10% a month? So, you know, in this first part of the journey, say up to CVC or so, you were hands-on on everything. Shikhar Ghosh: Yeah. Or do you think, like, well figure that out? These are the behaviors that we want, this is how we add this to our recruiting process, this how well add this to our performance measurement process. 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. [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. Mudassir Sheikha: where I think the burden becomes higher is sort of to reinvent yourself. And the idea was that Magnus and I would hold each other accountable to what we were supposed to do. Fundamentally, we . [16], In May 2019, Careem announced the acquisition of UAE-based bike-sharing startup Cycle which will re-brand as Careem Bike. I enjoy driving commercial strategy. Rumours of the said acquisition have been floating around since December 2018. : And on the captain side, similar KPIs. Pivoting For Progress: Why Careem Turned To A 0% Commission Model For Its Food Delivery Business. : But there are common systems, right? Today, the company is the largest ride-hailing company in the Middle East and operates in more than 100 cities across 13 countries. And one of the things that were discussing is should we have anyone do this culture test, right? Comparatively the first year of growth was slow for the company, but the next two years experienced a 30 percent growth per month. 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. During its first two years, to compete against Uber, Careem grew at an unprecedented rate of 30% per month. : Yeah, they dont change immediately but weve actually been pleasantly surprised that our colleague NPS, strongly correlates with our growth numbers. . Those are also very respectable growth rates. What is the quality of customers that were giving him which is measured by the ratings that he gives to the customers. [15] The service was discontinued in early 2020. So I can tell you that Karachi has grown five point three percent from last week. So weve all been saying values are important. Define the values and the culture that you want to create. 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. : So, you know, you started up the company. Anything outside of it, we want it to be as local as possible. So it was difficult to get the caliber of people that we were hoping to get. But there was no sight of things getting better. View articles by Mudassir Sheikha. [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. And who's more known worldwide for their important work, Moza or a bank CEO? Youre constantly thinking of whats happening in the business or Its actually even more frustrating for them because youre there, but youre not there. You did something inspirational. : So would it be possible to get us a weekly calendar? Like ambition. Mudassir Sheikha: Yeah, because one thing you have to realize is there are some net worth effects in this business. It was when it breaks, were going to fix the problem that broke. And she basically created a team and went after the opportunity. 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. I get on the phone and I ask for a bus and a bus comes? Mudassir Sheikha: The first principle is driven by mission and values. : So if I could start all over again, I would take that exercise and complete this a bit more. I get on the phone and I ask for a bus and a bus comes? Because as we have said multiple times, smart and very capable people, they dont want to work at startups. So they are starting to become a part of the product. Or for that matter, engineering. 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.

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