Mudassir Sheikha: So the three pillars are to the moon and beyond, be of service, and take ownership. So if your competition is a lot bigger than you, then youre not even providing a competitive service to the customer or the captain. And if you miss one day of growth, then its going to be difficult to grow at 30, 40% monthly, which is sort of the targets that we had initially. : So that part, in hindsight was we underestimated that challenge and we didnt invest enough in it. Its not a static thing that we reach and we-. Mudassir Sheikha: Now, on the family front, I think it was the first couple of years we had set expectations with our wives, that its going to be very, very tough for the first two years. Mudassir Sheikha: I hope thats happening. But before that, Shikhar Ghosh, you know, product market fit is a relative thing as well. 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 this real-time nature of the real time transparency allowed us to catch any issues a lot faster and then react to them. Mudassir Sheikha: A certain relative scale to be competitive in the offering that youre providing, not in anything else. Both ride-hailing companies will operate their respective regional services and independent brands. CNBC Transcript: Careem CEO Mudassir Sheikha Speaks with Hadley Gamble from the CNBC Evolve Global Summit. We didnt take it to the extension where it should have gone. Mudassir Sheikha: And our answer is that we will win by being more local than them. And then things would break again and wed buy another six months and then things would break again. Anything outside of it, we want it to be as local as possible. So shes acquired a business, by the way, that was doing something similar to get a jump start. You know, whats the completion rate of the trip? Which is speak up, take initiative, see things through impact, be frugal, and make sure to be collaborative with each other. 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? : 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. That puts a huge tax on you, individually, right? The first is the default location for any activity is the city. 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. Shikhar Ghosh: But you didnt even have a performance management process, right? Mudassir Sheikha: So by going through that exercise of putting these down, you started building conviction. 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 the local adaptation probably gets factored in in some of these things. Mudassir Sheikha: Yeah, because one thing you have to realize is there are some net worth effects in this business. Europe, Menlo Park, China), Where the person is located (e.g. How do you balance these two things? Mudassir Sheikha: But there was a process, right, where we were even testing people on values. And then people start adjusting to the new reality. How do we recruit people? Mudassir Sheikha: So this was the other mistake, per se, right? So you always have to, so this is what we keep telling ourselves, we have to always be better than competition. Mudassir Sheikha: Every year that vision sort of expanded. 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. : So the companies that come closest are the companies in China like Tencent or Alibaba in the way they sort of became the platform that others are built on top of, and they provide a lot of the enabling infrastructure for internet commerce. Versus what is it that someone on the ground has the autonomy to make their own choices. Those things did not happen as well as they should have. Be super, super ambitious. Why can it not be in the Middle East? Every six months, Careem was adding new people to the company and addressing the challenge of holding together the operations with its strong values. It would have saved us a lot more bad hiring decisions. Mudassir Sheikha: 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. : A certain relative scale to be competitive in the offering that youre providing, not in anything else. So the kids are asleep, then? But for you, it feels like its more that this is what you have to do to be competitive, but from a pure sort of market share and all of that perspective. So we were giving people feedback. Many of our customers will value it for long haul routes. Mudassir Sheikha: Yeah. In an interview with Al Arabiya, Careem CEO Mudassir Sheikha says the UAE-bred ride-hailing service will expand its latest fintech venture, digital payments. [41] So we have these three value pillars and there are 12 values. 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 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. Or were we giving just people feedback on their delivery and their performance? Or for that matter, engineering. Thats the default one. And so the pressure on the top comes down a little bit. Mudassir Sheikha: Yeah, so we would have this joke in the office that, you know, lets only fix it for the next six months because anything beyond that would take a lot longer to fix, that we would not have the time for. Mudassir Sheikha: And that did not happen at the quality and the rigor that should have happened. You look at it and you say, if we can do this, then we can change our view. : Experience is an interesting one, right? And now we think we should become the internet platform of the Middle East. But youre across multiple countries, and these countries have very different cultures. We already captured that segment. 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. The task and the challenge of getting that right was not as I was nave on that front. You know, pricing is a pretty complicated, sophisticated topic that has far reaching implications if its not done right. : So the three pillars are to the moon and beyond, be of service, and take ownership. Wed but another six months. In an interview that took place before the acquisition was announced, Careem co-founder and CEO Mudassir Sheikha explained what the company had to do to adapt the go-fast culture of a start-up as it expanded rapidly. You know, now is that something that you defer to the local, or is it something that you say, no, as a Careem, we have certain values that supersede anything thats local? And the default role is an advisory role. Basically these are starting routes for now. You have to be involved in the process, you have to steer the process, you have to ride the process. Everyone says value is important. : And it takes time, it takes thinking. How do you transfer that, then? 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 . So scale is important. Maybe a month or two months? And then what you realize is one, this business is 24/7. And they give that thing for 20% less than what youre giving. Mudassir Sheikha: Yeah, they dont change immediately but weve actually been pleasantly surprised that our colleague NPS, strongly correlates with our growth numbers. Meaning understanding local opportunities and adapting our product to meet those opportunities. : Some of the people processes is another part of it. 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. 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. : 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. But there was no sight of things getting better. 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. And the other times are available for meetings, review meetings and so forth. But generally, Friday Ive been able to block. So that says that this is by far the most effective sort of way that you can do it. : 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. But the question is why minutes and not hours or days, right? Mudassir Sheikha: One is like, look, youre not at home much, so youre leaving at six a.m. sometimes, many times. But for them, Riyadh is probably much lower in the pecking order. But guess what happens? 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. 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. Legal, regulatory thing? Now, that vision has been defined. Is it right? [35], Due to the impact of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Careem announced on its blog[36] it was laying off 31% of its workforce, amounting to 536 employees. Whats your sense of the trade off? What is the quality of customers that were giving him which is measured by the ratings that he gives to the customers. You know, we feel its okay to ping our databases every 15 minutes, thats fine. And if theres a super crazy important reason to do it at the other level, well do it the other way. One for its users, and the other for its captains. : where I think the burden becomes higher is sort of to reinvent yourself. Shikhar Ghosh: So whats an example of an input KPI that would affect growth? The company now operates in 100+ cities and was acquired by Uber for $3.1 billion in 2019. So shes making all the decision. We sent it to each other. Its not a subjective thing. Shikhar Ghosh: Yeah. Mudassir Sheikha: So in the Careem operating system, one of the principles is invest in experience to get growth. Exactly. Regulators are typically national. Growth is an output. You can say, okay, wow for someone in finance means your customers are not just the external customers, which is you have a limit of external interaction as well, but a lot of your customers are internal, right? So 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? Which is speak up, take initiative, see things through impact, be frugal, and make sure to be collaborative with each other. Congratulations on Careem's First Decade. Mudassir Sheikha LinkedIn. [42], Uber and Careem faced heavy criticism in Egypt at the beginning of 2016 by local taxi drivers for operating without official taxi licenses. And then you say, so what does that translate to what people have to do? So this was something that she, being from Egypt, understood the opportunity, understood that there was a need for it. Shikhar Ghosh: So what does your day look like? So amazing experiences. The spectacular rise of the company resulted . : And this all analytical in the sense that you could just look at the numbers. And at some point, there were many people reporting to me and Magnus said, look, this is not sustainable. : I think 15 minutes or 30 minutes is within the same range. So the way a manager behaves in Egypt or Pakistan might be completely different. And now, of course, were many times that size now. They need to be rallied and they need to be encouraged and they need to be inspired. So you want them to behave differently if its a critical problem versus its not a critical problem, and so on. Lets hire people that will run this country. You know, hiring people, putting them out there, designing the part. So for me, I remember it included at least being home on Fridays. : And the competitions telling themselves the same thing, so its this constant movement. 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? Unlike various impact focused companies that focus on the end user, Careem started with its employees. Mudassir Sheikha: The biggest learning and the biggest surprise has been around people leadership, right? We are a business that whose process and systems are behind where we are as a business. You look at it and you say, if we can do this, then we can change our view. But rapid growth created internal strain. You can do it. Mudassir Sheikha: So thats been a core challenge for the last year almost, for us. Regulators are typically national. What gets done in the city? And what gets done in Dubai, which is our head office. Sheikha and his team did not only focus on providing tech training to these captains. You could almost do any of the jobs yourself. And then what was also happening in the early days is we had no customer service. : But we unfortunately are in an industry that is-. Mudassir Sheikha: I have been able to, except in the last few months when weve fundraising. So basically what happens is lets say, you have this great product that customers love. You have to make sure that the questions youre asking are the questions that get asked by the person that is testing for that value fit. Not, you know, head of HR or not people person. : Also the size of the fall is much bigger. You understood the business completely. Cairo has grown seven percent from last week. Saturday is my catch up day. : The people processes, the structure. How do you think about that? : So at what point, you know, we hear many companies go through two years of growth, right? So the thing that we have done is weve defined a very clear vision of where we want to be in 2030, right? It would have saved us a lot more bad hiring decisions. I think some of these things are tested locally as well. Mudassir Sheikha: And it takes time, it takes thinking. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. But there was no sight of things getting better. Turned out they were just false assumptions of the market. : And the cause-effect relationship is never completely clear. : And that did not happen at the quality and the rigor that should have happened. So Wednesday, for example, is fully blocked for thinking. Keep improving and stay humble. So these are the experience KPIs both for the captain and customers. How do you think about that challenge? Why such high growth rates? We just thought get the right people in place and they will figure out what to do. . In your case, its been constant. We were obsessed with weekly growth rate. Shikhar Ghosh: And this would have been your job. So these are people that are super capable that we trust. Two years ago now? [32], On 4 May 2020, Uber Eats announced they were exiting the United Arab Emirates and that their services would be offered through Careem Now. What ETA do you get? Mudassir then joined the founding team of mobile testing and monitoring startup, DeviceAnywhere, where among other things, he . Mudassir Sheikha: So when we get a phone call and say hey, whats going in? Like ambition. 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? Its an output of you doing all the right things, right? Transportation Acquired Companies With More Than $100M in Revenue, Transportation Acquired Companies With More Than $50M in Revenue, Asia Acquired Companies With More Than 50 Employees, Logistics Acquired Companies With More Than 100 Employees, Customer Service Companies With More Than 50 Employees, Polytechnic University of Turin Alumni Founded Companies, United Arab Emirates Acquired Companies With More Than $1M in Revenue, Quinnipiac University Alumni Founded Companies, Number of portfolio companies associated to the Person, Total number of current Advisors and Board roles the person has, The organization associated to the person's primary job, Where the person is located (e.g. I get on the phone and I ask for a bus and a bus comes? This thing will start creating incentives for people to take risks. Friday is a working day in many parts of the world, so Friday is when we do meetings with investors. Mudassir Sheikha: But the contract was sort of written. So thats the way we are approaching those things which require more scientific planning, thinking, and doing. 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. : But at the same time, you know, youve got 24 hours in the day. Personally as well, but also reinvent the way that youre doing things. And at some point, there were many people reporting to me and Magnus said, look, this is not sustainable. You know, hiring people, putting them out there, designing the part. [9] In 2017, the company announced a program to extend maternity leave and hire more women. Theres questions that you ask and then, you know, based on the responses that you get, you can get a feel for it, right? Qatari Sheikh Jassim just bid $7.5b for a soccer team. : Its an investment for sure, right? So if lets say, pricing as a topic. We just had bigger hands and we were still able to manage. Like, okay, yes, if we had done something differently back then, then this would have actually saved us a lot more time. Thats when people really look and see. Youre not listening to them. It has been over years and Careem has not built some of the features in the original bucket list. It was when it breaks, were going to fix the problem that broke. If Qatar's Sheikha Moza is worth $15b, she's undervalued. Friday is the day that I-. 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: So the pace of hiring . It drops you at a predetermined location. The equation was to strike a balance between increasing the respect and dignity for drivers and providing a good service for customers. And we are basically funding her and we are supporting her to make this thing happen. So, you know, in this first part of the journey, say up to CVC or so, you were hands-on on everything. Do you have a demand issue, do you have a supply issue? : So well hopefully create these type of initiatives-. Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani had started with modest start-up capital in the 1960s as a small local trading company. 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 we regressed. Did you have it or did your wives have it? You know, all of that. And the quality experience is the quality engagement part. Support quality journalism and content. So theres a high correlation between people, motivation. This deck probably took a long time to build and Im sure it gets iterated every now and then. Empowering the front line to make the decisions to do as much as possible that they can do on their own. So that expectation-setting held us for at least the first two years. : 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. When [inaudible] was picking up a call and speaking to a customer, I could overhear [inaudible] because he was sitting next to me. It takes a lot of doing, you always have to be positive even when youre having a bad day. And thats the main driver of high growth rates. And then one thing led to another. But before that, Shikhar Ghosh, you know, product market fit is a relative thing as well. Shikhar Ghosh: But at the same time, you know, youve got 24 hours in the day. And one of the things that were discussing is should we have anyone do this culture test, right? Should you Careem around Karachi, Lahore? That puts a huge tax on you, individually, right? 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 at that point, investors are expecting a certain degree of formality and all of that. Shikhar Ghosh: So at what point, you know, we hear many companies go through two years of growth, right? : So the day looks like start at four. And if you were in a different industry, you might think about growth differently? So to the moon and beyond, be of service. You cannot have the same level of person, quality, systems, all of that, at each local branch. Were we giving people feedback on the values? But youre building a structure to do that. : 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. With over one million captains spanning across 100+ cities, Careem embraced the diversity of different cultures to build for scale. Mudassir Sheikha: Absolutely, right? So weve all been saying values are important. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. Six months later, competition does the same thing. : Yeah. 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. Finances is one part of it. So Wednesday, for example, is fully blocked for thinking. But youre across multiple countries, and these countries have very different cultures. And please figure out the HR side of it, right? : You know, we havent tracked it fully yet, right? Mudassir Sheikha: But we unfortunately are in an industry that is-. 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? It will slow you down in the very, very beginning because it requires some thinking. Shikhar Ghosh: So they are writing agreements with their families now? 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. You need to wow them every time. Like off the record, I can say the number, but I think it was quite a bit, almost twenty exact number, right? But thats not what generates anything. So these are the four things that well do to win. And we feel grateful that weve been able to attract these people to the journey. Friday is a working day in many parts of the world, so Friday is when we do meetings with investors. Shikhar Ghosh: So even if you create new businesses, if the operating system is robust enough, then it will morph into that. The morning times, of course, are fully blocked for thinking. Right? Mudassir Sheikha: So we want to start focusing people on the right KPS and then growth will happen. I mean, now were not getting growth because that thing is no longer working. 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 need to wow them every time. : 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. [43][44][45][46], In January, 2018, Careem discovered data on more than 14 million riders and 558,800 drivers were breached. So if lets say, pricing as a topic. So the default role that a country or Dubai plays is advisory. So I think the answer is in the competitive nature of this industry. [11] In January 2018, they became the first ride-hailing service to launch in Baghdad. Mudassir Sheikha: I think the big turning point was when we started going to new markets, which is when we started having people that were running different cities that were away from us. Shikhar Ghosh: So if you were starting a company again, or youre advising somebody whos starting a company thats going through a similar ride in terms of the growth, what would you tell them to do? And what is it that the local market has to adapt for its own thing? : So there are least two things which are different now than before. So next time you interview someone that is amazing in what needs to be done but is not a culture fit, youre more comfortable making that call that this person is not the right fit for Careem. His Swedish colleague Magnus Olsson joined his mission. Mudassir Sheikha: So, I think there is some Thats a great question. [24] Saudi Telecom in this funding round invested in a 10% stake in Careem. Mudassir Sheikha: Yeah, because one thing you have to realize is there are some net worth effects in this business. I profile people and startups contributing to the Pakistani technology entrepreneurial ecosystem. When did you shift or start shifting towards the input rather than the output metric? 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 . Shikhar Ghosh, Marilyn Morgan Westner, Mudassir Sheikha and Matt Fischer. So these are experience KPIs that we look at that tell us what retention rates will be for customers on some longer term basis. This was a five-year business plan that was prepared in 2012. So they are starting to become a part of the product. Published Wed, Jun 16 2021 3:40 AM EDT. And then what was also happening in the early days is we had no customer service. [34] In Saudi Arabia, Careem and Uber have started recruiting women, as part of the Saudi Women to drive movement. Mudassir Sheikha interviewed by Shikhar Ghosh, August 30, 2018, at Harvard Business School. What does it mean? So I can tell you that Karachi has grown five point three percent from last week. Keep improving and stay humble. 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 initially, it was difficult to even get the right people, right? Mudassir Sheikha is the co-founder and CEO of Careem, MENA's leading car booking service that is based out of Dubai and operates from Morocco to Pakistan. https://hbsaccelerate.wistia.com/medias/cscc8k9qrv?embedType=async&videoFoam=true&videoWidth=640. [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. : So should pricing be done at the city level with some advisory support from the country? : Somebody that we had in class one day was talking about profitability as being like jet fuel for an airline. And what have you learned about that? We were a bit naive when it came to architecting how we work and the culture that we wanted. 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? Initially, 10 markets. Two years ago now? The service scaled rapidly by ensuring dignity and respect for its captains, and safe transportation solutions for the masses. You dont know when those plays run out, right? Women are also employed as drivers in Egypt and Jordan. The entire company is looking at these numbers. Mudassir Sheikha: Yeah, its a good question. 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. And basically what that meant was every leader that came in started running their units in ways that made sense to them, based on what they had done prior. Mudassir Sheikha: So this is not something that can be done right away or that can be outsourced. So how do you deal with that? But for the most part, the thing that changed is instead of managing and doing things directly, we started becoming a lot more KPI- focused and when there were big deviations on the KPIs, then we got super, super involved. When is this going to get better? So that, you just trained the organization to be on it. In 2014, it received funding of US$10 million in a Series B round led by Al Tayyar Travel Group and STC Ventures. So slowly your matrix has sort of been built out and you can judge very quickly whether somebodys in the range or not.

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