The CEO of Elopik talks about his success path

On the sidelines of the 10th Web and Mobile Festival, we saw the speeches of prominent people who shared their experiences with other members of the ecosystem. Interesting speech Mahdi NaibiCEO Elopikbecame the context of the team Ecomotive decide to share its content with you dear audience.

The path to success of Olopik

In the opportunity I have, I would like to use my one-year experience and my partner Mr Mehrshad Doctor Let us define for you. I am neither an exceptional person nor a doctor. Anyone can come up with a good idea from nothing with this process that I am trying to explain in detail. good idea , to produce a primary product and finally start a successful company from that primary product. Ourselves in Elopik, ca 50 thousand jobs We created directly or indirectly.

We launched Alupik in December 1995. We named it Elopik. Our market was obviously online transportation. I also found the team. Especially the partner who I must say here remains like a second wife; Because maybe we worked together for more than 15 hours. It was not clear when we want to start this business, nor was its name clear. The market was not really clear because I had never seen an online courier until that day.

I mean that the company that you have in mind from the beginning is not necessarily the way that everything is clear to you; For example, if you know its name or know exactly what your market should be or if you have been with your partner since childhood. The point is that you just need to have the general mindset. I was not in Iran at all and many people ask me why did you return to Iran? The truth is that returning to Iran has always been in my mind. I spoke everywhere, I said that I think Iran’s market is better than anywhere else in the world Launching a startup It’s better.

If I want to say how I came up with the idea of ​​Elopik, I must say that our first idea was not Elopik and online courier at all. Contrary to many people who think that we should invent new ideas in Iran. By the way, it is not like that. We should look to see what has been done in other parts of the world or other markets such as developing countries. It’s like you went into the future and saw what happened. Then you have to go back and see how we should create it. So I think that many people say that we should not implement other people’s concepts here, it is incorrect. Many of these are successful ideas that can be implemented in Iran.

We did the same. We looked at 500 successful startups in countries like Indonesia and Brazil that we felt were similar to Iran in some ways to see how we could transfer their ideas here. Next, we filtered out the startups whose value is more than 100 million dollars. At least we can be sure that if we implement this startup in Iran, it will take at least a fifth of it.

The third filter was based on the fact that it is wrong for us to think that because an idea worked there, it will surely work here and we want to copy it exactly in Iran. So the third issue is that Startup The question is, does it really solve any problem here? The next issue is whether the infrastructure in the country is ready to implement that idea or not. For example, for our business, a number of smart phones were enough, or the available internet speed was sufficient for our work, and even our server allowed us to at least start the work.

If you look at successful startups, you’ll find that they don’t drastically change the way you think or the way things are done. That is, before anyone called and ordered a courier, we gave him the possibility to do this through his mobile phone, and in this way we can provide the user with much more information live. Cultivation is also very important, when we launched Alupik in Iran, other companies were active in the field of internet and passenger transportation. This issue made our work easier to explain to the couriers and to explain our service to the people, and it was one of the main reasons for our growth.

One important thing I have to say is that after all these filters we did, we still didn’t come up with the idea of ​​Elopik. Our initial idea was Car sharing. For example, if someone is coming from Karaj to Tehran or wants to go from Tehran to Islamshahr, he should bring with him those who have the same destination. The principle of the matter is that you should set the basis of the work correctly so that you can quickly change your idea if needed. We finally came up with the idea of ​​Elopik.

The main question is this. If you have a good idea, the market is right, and it’s trying to solve a real problem, how do you go about turning that initial idea into a prototype? If we make a list, the most important topic team building Is. I got along very well with my partner, Mr. Mesicht, and we managed to build a very good team, all of whom have been with us since the beginning and I hope they will continue to be with us. This good team made us reach today, within a year, when we didn’t even have a reliable initial idea, to support tens of thousands of requests daily.

The mistake that many people make in Iran is that they say: Whoever enters the market first will succeed, while this is not the case at all. At that time, when we launched Elopik, many others had entered the field of online courier. What matters is who can reach market size. It is the same everywhere in the world. A simple example is Facebook. Before Facebook, many had come to the idea of ​​a social network in which you can interact, but Facebook was able to grow and take over the market. Elopik was exactly the same. That is, many people had come up with this idea, but the speed of their adaptation to the market was slow. And the thing that creates this versatility is the team.

At the beginning of our work, we hired 50 people for a month, now we hire 500 people daily. We made 100 requests in the first month; But now we have several million monthly requests. Mahdi Naibi

I don’t want to talk much about capital; But capital only gives you the opportunity to increase the initial time between when an idea comes to your mind and when you make the first product. It does not create any other advantage. It doesn’t make the idea better, it doesn’t make the team more successful, and it doesn’t make the quality of the team higher; It only increases your time until the initial implementation of the idea. When we had the idea of ​​Elopik in mind, we knew that we needed many things such as courier, pickup, the possibility of ordering multiple routes, Android app, etc., but the most important thing was that we needed to know if our initial test would work or not; It means to have an origin and a destination and the user can order, even if it takes half an hour for the courier to arrive.

Within four we were able to implement the MVP. After the MVP is built, the only key to agile success is how quickly you can manage both your product and your app to what’s happening in the market and the feedback you’re getting. When we hit Elopic, the targets we set for 24 months, we managed to reach them in three months, and we had to adjust ourselves to this surprise and progress in every way.

I will try to provide some information about Olupik. When we started Elopik, we had one office, now we have 8 offices, one of which is the head office and the rest are recruitment offices. The first day we started working, there were 5 of us; But now we have more than 250 people. At the beginning of our work, we hired 50 people for a month, now we hire 500 people daily. We made 100 requests in the first month; But now we have several million monthly requests. The main challenge for us is how we can continue to grow at this pace.

The most important thing is the first 12 months of a business when you realize that your idea worked. Our example is an Indonesian company that has almost one million drivers who do different jobs; It means Market Police provides you. When we launch Market Place in a month, many of those who used us indirectly – be it ordering food or buying other goods – will be able to shop directly through Elopik. Another point is the service that can be added to Elopik and in this way the drivers of Elopik can cooperate with other companies. And, for example, provide a series of services for First Mobile or Irancell users.

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