mudassir sheikha net worth

: And then shes the one who has to think through all of the day to day things and build a team and do all these things. A Karachi born Mudassir Sheikha was taken aback when he discovered that Pakistan has only one billion dollar company, outside the oil and gas industry, that is an FMCG company. Copyright 2023 Entrepreneur Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Finances is one part of it. 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. Women are also employed as drivers in Egypt and Jordan. We were providing a 24/7 transportation service. : So this is not something that can be done right away or that can be outsourced. And then people start adjusting to the new reality. Now, that vision has been defined. : Yeah. And that will be true of product and itll be true of markets, itll be true of this thing. Mudassir Sheikha: 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. And then you say, so what does that translate to what people have to do? Startup founders whose companies were acquired by Careem will also gain considerable wealth with this acquisition. So these are people that are super capable that we trust. Lets hire people that will run this country. Most of them were living in groups in a single room and working the entire seven days to send money back home. We sent it to each other. It drops you at a predetermined location. Shikhar Ghosh: But the question is how do you transfer that skill? On day one, literally on day one, one of the first things that we did was we created the first version of our values. They start believing lives are due to some extent. 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. Shikhar Ghosh: And at that point, investors are expecting a certain degree of formality and all of that. : So we just need to now build that operating system, we call it the Careem operating system, thats going to enable us to build this thing and realize the vision. So that vision has been defined and that vision has been somewhat detailed as well at the next level. And what have you learned about that? Shikhar Ghosh: But at the same time, you know, youve got 24 hours in the day. So these are the experience KPIs both for the captain and customers. Thats when people really look and see. : Yeah, so a lot of the interviews are done, if theres a very local candidate, the results are done by the local person, right, thats going to be the manager for that person. Basically these are starting routes for now. So that expectation-setting held us for at least the first two years. In 2014, it received funding of US$10 million in a Series B round led by Al Tayyar Travel Group and STC Ventures. Exactly. The things that we commit to our wives that we will do on a weekly, monthly basis. : 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. : 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? Like ambition. So then you dont have to be as proactively pushing for it because now I know that people are looking at these numbers, right? And even if they find those local opportunities at the same time as us, were able to prioritize them much before them. However, the rough estimates also indicate him to 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. Like off the record, I can say the number, but I think it was quite a bit, almost twenty exact number, right? I think some of these things are tested locally as well. They need to be rallied and they need to be encouraged and they need to be inspired. 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. Mudassir Sheikha is the CEO and co-founder of ride-hailing app Careem, one of the hottest startups on the Asian continent. Shikhar Ghosh: And were going to fix it only enough until the next time it breaks. So you want them to behave differently if its a critical problem versus its not a critical problem, and so on. : 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. So it takes them longer to prioritize. And people get exhausted and they work really hard. : You know, we havent tracked it fully yet, right? Be super, super ambitious. We want to be the platform that enables internet commerce in this region. [10], In June 2017, Careem launched operations in Palestine as part of a commitment to create one million jobs in the MENA region by the end of 2018. And the something new, initially, was markets. 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. Uber kept the Careem brand, with Mudassir Sheikha and Magnus Olsson stayed on as the company leaders. Mudassir shared his journey and ways to boost entrepreneurship in the region. 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. Wed but another six months. : So that part, in hindsight was we underestimated that challenge and we didnt invest enough in it. And in the beginning, you know, I was spending a lot of time in these different markets, just making sure that I educate the people that are starting on how to run this business. : And at that point, investors are expecting a certain degree of formality and all of that. So at that point, we rolled down what we called a family contract. This thing will start creating incentives for people to take risks. Shikhar Ghosh: Somebody that we had in class one day was talking about profitability as being like jet fuel for an airline. Mudassir Sheikha: Yeah, because one thing you have to realize is there are some net worth effects in this business. This deck probably took a long time to build and Im sure it gets iterated every now and then. Mudassir Sheikha: I hope thats happening. We already captured that segment. : Profitability then is an output, right? Then after that, we said why just, you know, passenger transport? Growth is an output. 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. Not, you know, head of HR or not people person. 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. Thats when people really look and see. : And on the captain side, similar KPIs. Mudassir Sheikha: Some of the people processes is another part of it. So the local adaptation probably gets factored in in some of these things. Often, the strengths that differentiate an early-stage founder-CEO become liabilities as a business begins to rapidly scale. [6] Following the acquisition, Sheikha continued as CEO of Careem and assumed the role of board member and advisor. Whats their culture, whats their DNA. I profile people and startups contributing to the Pakistani technology entrepreneurial ecosystem. Once we do this, we can actually start doing a lot more than passenger transport. Youre not going to get it exactly right every time, but youre going to get If you ask the question every time, then you can start calibrating as well. Mudassir Sheikha: So when we get a phone call and say hey, whats going in? But guess what happens? Its not that Pakistan should do something. 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. You know, if you miss growth in one hour, then its going to be difficult to recover in the rest of the day. We created some values and we just left it there. I dont know if you remember, where you said instead of focusing on problems, focus on people. These are the values that we stand for. This is something that you as the CEO need to own. Shikhar Ghosh: And then you have to live the process. Shikhar Ghosh: Like the customer relationship. : No, it was forced on us. Like off the record, I can say the number, but I think it was quite a bit, almost twenty exact number, right? How do we recruit people? Mudassir Sheikha: Like the customer relationship. Which is speak up, take initiative, see things through impact, be frugal, and make sure to be collaborative with each other. Mudassir Sheikha: When we raised our CVC, we actually promised ourselves that we will get away from that mindset, that were not going to keep patching things because that whole debt was starting to catch up to us. Mudassir Sheikha: So there was definitely a transition from doing everything to then having people who were doing things. But to sort of get it in that shape probably took a lot of time and a lot of thinking and a lot of iteration, right? : So what does your day look like? We are a business thats growing rapidly. [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. And we said we are being ambitious and we are trying to build something really, really big. The product was able to gain startup funding of USD 1.7 million in 2013 from STC Ventures. Youre not listening to them. So the thing that we have done is weve defined a very clear vision of where we want to be in 2030, right? So if your competition is a lot bigger than you, then . So the kids are asleep, then? 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? Whats your sense of the trade off? You know, you can be ambitious in Pakistan and you can be ambitious in Egypt and you can be ambitious in Saudi, right? 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 thats something that weve done in the last-. You know, if you miss growth in one hour, then its going to be difficult to recover in the rest of the day. Mudassir then joined the founding team of mobile testing and monitoring startup, DeviceAnywhere, where among other things, he . . Both on the captain side and the customer side. 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? And this was an initiative that was started by her. "You have to think big from day one," said Mudassir. : The first principle is driven by mission and values. 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. If we become cheaper, they will match our prices and go even below because thats the game they can play. [25] In October 2018, the company secured US$200 million funding from its existing investors. Shikhar Ghosh: So this particular thing is driven a lot by the industry that youre in? 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. You and the founders. Mudassir Sheikha: Yeah, for us it was we will figure it out. Mudassir Sheikha: One is like, look, youre not at home much, so youre leaving at six a.m. sometimes, many times. Saturday is my catch up day. Then we empower them to the right resources to do this and we support them and do this, right? We created some values and we just left it there. [42], Uber and Careem faced heavy criticism in Egypt at the beginning of 2016 by local taxi drivers for operating without official taxi licenses. : So in the Careem operating system, one of the principles is invest in experience to get growth. : 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. We need to help them if theyre not doing it. And thats what we believe is the biggest opportunity in the Middle East versus just a mobility opportunity or something else. Mudassir Sheikha: But the contract was sort of written. So these are experience KPIs that we look at that tell us what retention rates will be for customers on some longer term basis. Not yet. 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? Just, you know, a typical weekly calendar sort of thing. Theres a lot of learning that happens across all these markets thats common, even though theres differences. Mudassir Sheikha: You are serving people in different teams in different locations. Because as we have said multiple times, smart and very capable people, they dont want to work at startups.
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