Junaid Iqbal, founding MD of Careem, shares his journey of transforming the ride-hailing sector in Pakistan, highlighting how Careem outpaced Uber through local strategies and innovation. He discusses the importance of adapting to market dynamics, ensuring passenger safety, and fostering talent within startups. Iqbal also dives into the shift from growth to profitability in tech and the rising potential of Pakistan's economy. With insights into challenges faced and lessons learned, he champions the need for digital innovation to empower local communities.
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insights INSIGHT
Shift from Growth to Profitability
Startups initially focused on growth over profitability due to low interest rates and cheap funding.
Now, profitability is essential as the environment has shifted away from growth at all costs.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Careem's Social Impact in Pakistan
Careem created 10,000 jobs in Pakistan by launching ride-hailing amid safety and cultural challenges.
The service enabled women to travel comfortably, breaking social stigmas and expanding mobile income.
insights INSIGHT
Utilization Limits Bus Model Success
The utilization challenge was the main reason ride-sharing bus models like Swvl struggled in Pakistan.
Dynamic routing to fill seats is key, but building ridership takes significant time and scale.
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The Pakistan Experience is an independently produced podcast looking to tell stories about Pakistan through conversations. Please consider supporting us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thepakistanexperience To support the channel: Jazzcash/Easypaisa - 0325 -2982912 Patreon.com/thepakistanexperience Junaid Iqbal, the founding MD of Careem, comes on The Pakistan Experience to tell the story of how Careem beat Uber in Pakistan and how they sold Careem for over 3 billion dollars! On this deep dive podcast, we discuss the investment and start up culture in Pakistan. Junaid is an investor and entrepreneur with an excellent track record in executing growth and turnaround strategies. As the founding Managing Director of Pakistan, he was responsible for establishing and growing the company's presence in the country. By 2017, Careem Pakistan was the largest market in the network by rides. Between 2017 and 2019, he also served as Managing Director for Careem Saudi Arabia and Managing Director of Careem Pay from 2019 to 2020. Junaid led the turnaround and sale of Elixir Securities, a Pakistan-based global brokerage and investment banking advisory firm. Under his leadership, Elixir became the market leader in brokerage and volumes and led the secondary sale of HBL Bank, worth $1.01 bn, the single largest equity deal in Pakistan's history. Junaid’s first stint as a CEO was at BMA Financial, where he built Pakistan’s first digitally enabled mutual fund supermarket. Prior to BMA, he spent 5 years as a financial journalist producing and anchoring shows for Geo Tv and CNBC. He is also the co-founder of Salt Arts, a music, art and entertainment platform. He graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Economics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. And Please stay in touch: https://twitter.com/ThePakistanExp1 https://www.facebook.com/thepakistanexperience https://instagram.com/thepakistanexpeperience The podcast is hosted by comedian and writer, Shehzad Ghias Shaikh. Shehzad is a Fulbright scholar with a Masters in Theatre from Brooklyn College. He is also one of the foremost Stand-up comedians in Pakistan and frequently writes for numerous publications. Instagram.com/shehzadghiasshaikh Facebook.com/Shehzadghias/ Twitter.com/shehzad89 Chapters: 0:00 Intro 01:40 how Start Ups make money & how Careem came to be 14:25 dealing with the government & regulation 25:43 why Airlift & Swvl failed 29:44 what made Careem so nimble & staying ahead of Uber 43:50 dealing with cases of harassment, creating incentives for captains & customers 57:42 learnings from Junaid’s time at Careem, and the importance of picking the right talent and interview tips 1:14:00 why food delivery failed, data, changing ways of marketing 1:22:32 losing talent to FMCGs, Pakistan’s revenue problem, entrepreneurs solving problems 1:47:10 Q & A
The Pakistan Experience