{"id":5093,"date":"2017-02-08T16:41:34","date_gmt":"2017-02-08T08:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grab.com\/ph\/?p=5093"},"modified":"2017-02-08T16:41:34","modified_gmt":"2017-02-08T08:41:34","slug":"8-tips-startup-success-grabs-first-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grab.com\/ph\/blog\/8-tips-startup-success-grabs-first-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"8 Tips to Startup Success, from Grab\u2019s First Employees"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong><span style=\"color: #009d3b\">Did you know that Grab started life in a tiny storeroom? Our pioneering\u00a0employees share secrets of how we went from unknown to unicorn startup!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>By Cheryl Goh, Vice President of Marketing, Grab\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PfmRoYC0Fe8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>If you want the lowdown on a company, who better to ask than people who\u2019ve been there since Day One?\u00a0<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">That\u2019s what Grab\u00a0did this January, when\u00a0w<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">e got our pioneering employees to share how\u00a0we got to where\u00a0we are today.* \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The result? Tales of grit, guts and pure perseverance. Read on for career #inspo!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>*Brief history lesson: Grab started life as MyTeksi in 2012. From its initial home base in Malaysia, the brand expanded to Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><b><span style=\"font-size: xx-large\">1. Being Small Pushes You To Give Your All <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cGrab&#8217;s\u00a0first office in Malaysia was&#8230; in a guard house. We later \u2018upgraded\u2019 to a storeroom in the Renault car showroom in Petaling Jaya. I had a plastic foldable table and a stack of boxes as a chair! <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">To save on business trips, we took cheap midnight flights and even shared beds with colleagues. Some of us had our share of enduring snores and being mistakenly hugged at night.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But being small, we had grit\u2026 and hunger. We used to take take 1am flights to Manila and fan out to approach taxi drivers the moment we touched down. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I remember how [CEO] Anthony Tan asked me to develop a plan to launch GrabTaxi in Indonesia one night at 10.30pm. I submitted a proposal eight hours later, and flew to Jakarta the next day to start hiring and finding an office space. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We launched the service within six weeks.\u201d <\/span><strong>\u2013 <\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong><i>Hong Eu Gene, deputy country manager, Grab Indonesia<\/i><\/strong> <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b><\/b><b><span style=\"font-size: xx-large\">2.\u00a0Grab Opportunities\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;I joined Grab after working for nine years at a management consulting firm. At my previous firm, I was comfortable, doing well, and had a good shot at\u00a0being made a partner. I had my first interview with Grab on a Saturday, got a job offer on Wednesday&#8230; and resigned\u00a0the following Monday! I was really scared. For the first few months I asked myself what I had gotten myself into. But the opportunity to build up a company from scratch doesn&#8217;t come often. My advice: Recognise when opportunities come your way. When the stars are aligned, don&#8217;t be afraid to take the plunge. After all, the more you fail, the faster you succeed.&#8221; <strong>\u2013\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><strong><i>Lim Kell Jay, country head, Grab Singapore\u00a0<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b><span style=\"font-size: xx-large\">3.\u00a0If You Don\u2019t Understand It, You Can\u2019t Build It <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cBefore building our app, we made regular visits to a taxi booking centre in Kuala Lumpur to understand their processes. In fact, one of my teammates worked there for 6 months. We learnt how commuters would phone in and wait to be matched to a driver\u2026 sometimes, for as long as 30 minutes. That experience really helped us live and breathe the product.\u201d <strong>\u2013 <\/strong><\/span><strong><i>Aaron Gill, head of business solutions, Grab<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b><span style=\"font-size: xx-large\">4.\u00a0Play With Those Who Challenge You <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cAt the start, established businesses told us: \u201cI give you five months. You will go bankrupt. There is no way you can fight us.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Over the years, we faced stiff competition from rival ride-hailing apps, some of whom were bigger. It was like a David and Goliath situation. But remember you will <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">always<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> gain from facing a Goliath \u2013 you\u2019ll gain maturity, learn something new about yourself and push yourself to get ahead. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The key is to compete on your strengths. Some of our rivals had more funds than we did. So we looked beyond money and focused on building a relationship with our Grab drivers. Happy drivers will result in happy passengers.\u201d <strong>\u2013 <\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong><i>Adelene Foo, regional head of 2-wheels, Grab<\/i><\/strong> \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b><span style=\"font-size: xx-large\">5.\u00a0Don\u2019t Just Problem-Solve With Your Head \u2013 But With Your Heart <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cOne challenge in the Philippines was that not all drivers owned smartphones. We got around this by calling up drivers and manually matching them to passengers so they could see we were giving them jobs. At the same time, we delivered smartphones to them so they could start using our app. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We also gave our drivers bags of rice and canned food as incentives \u2013 small gestures that they really appreciated. Seeing them happy touched my heart.\u201d <strong>\u2013 <\/strong><\/span><strong><i>Rose Perea, customer support supervisor, Grab Philippines<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b><span style=\"font-size: xx-large\">6. Face Time Matters \u2013 And Not The Kind On Your Phone<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><i><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWe faced rival ride-hailing apps during our early days in Singapore. At the time, [CEO] Anthony Tan used to tell me, \u2018Bro, there\u2019s no second place in the war!\u2019 So to build a bond with taxi drivers, my team visited Changi airport and Lavender foodcourt at 3am to introduce them to Grab. I spent weekends attending their weddings, kids&#8217; birthday parties, visiting them in the hospital\u2026 and grabbed <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">coffee with some of them every Wednesday.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That\u2019s how we gained their trust and support. Once we dominated the supply of taxis, our rivals didn\u2019t stand a chance.\u201d <strong>&#8211; <\/strong><\/span><strong><i>Desmond Ng, head of partner quality, Grab Singapore<\/i><\/strong><br \/>\n<i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><b><span style=\"font-size: xx-large\">7.\u00a0Sometimes, You Have To Go All In <\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cIt was a gamble to launch a private hire car service in Thailand. The project could have failed. When I asked my team of three people if they understood what they were getting into, their response was that the only risk they could <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">not<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> take was delaying the launch and being beaten by the competition. That same night we went to Ikea and used our own money to buy furniture for our empty office.&#8221; <strong>\u2013 <\/strong><\/span><strong><i>Vichakorn Varavarn Na Ayudhaya, head of new verticals, Grab Thailand<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b><span style=\"font-size: xx-large\">8.\u00a0Great Colleagues Never Say &#8216;That&#8217;s Not My Job&#8217;<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cOne Christmas eve, the Vietnamese marketing team had to wrap hundreds of gifts for an event. By 5pm, everyone was exhausted. That was when our operations team came by to offer assistance. We knew most of them wanted to go home for Christmas, but they gave \u201cexcuses\u201d like how traffic was bad, so they might as well stay to help! We completed everything by 8pm and had time for a mini celebration in the office. It taught me that sometimes you can\u2019t do everything yourself. So, share your load with a team you love.\u201d <strong>\u2013 <\/strong><\/span><strong><i>Dao Tuan Dung, manager, digital marketing, Grab Vietnam<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Image source: Pexels.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Did you know that Grab started life in a tiny storeroom? Our pioneering\u00a0employees share secrets of how we went from unknown to unicorn startup! By Cheryl Goh, Vice President of Marketing, Grab\u00a0\u00a0 If you want the lowdown on a company, who better to ask than people who\u2019ve been there since Day One?\u00a0That\u2019s what Grab\u00a0did this [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":592,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grab.com\/ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5093"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grab.com\/ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grab.com\/ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grab.com\/ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/592"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grab.com\/ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5093"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.grab.com\/ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5096,"href":"https:\/\/www.grab.com\/ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5093\/revisions\/5096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grab.com\/ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grab.com\/ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grab.com\/ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}