The Life of Brian

An entrepreneur’s life follows many twists and turns. For Brian Dewil, experience with a start-up and establishing the local chapter of a global organisation ultimately landed him in the driver’s seat of New Zealand’s hotly contested rideshare market.

For South African-born Brian Dewil the entrepreneurial gene is firmly established in the family. From a young age Brian helped in the family business, Call of Africa Safaris, which has been operating for 35 years and organises safaris throughout Africa. His father also owns a game farm and lodges across southern Africa, while both his brothers are entrepreneurs (one a movie director whose work includes writing and directing actor Paul Walker’s last movie).

But Brian had long harboured a desire to implement his own business strategy and direct his own business. In his experience most companies are apprehensive about allowing an entrepreneurial spirit to flourish through its employees – and yes, even a family business.

He’d watched the progress and dynamics of a US start-up that began as an on-demand concierge service and morphed into food delivery, and proceeded to build a ‘pitch deck’ for his own business UrbanSherpa, a similar concept targeted at New Zealand’s urban market.

He successfully pitched the business to local investors, securing a salary as part of the deal. However that deal was conditional on him leaving his role as country head of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) – a highly respected global organisation. That role, which involved establishing a board and building the RICS profile and brand in New Zealand had been a marketing and promotional challenge – an achievement Brian was particularly proud of, and together with his UrbanSherpa experience, would ultimately prove instrumental in his later selection as Ola New Zealand’s country manager in 2018.

So he left RCIS and UrbanSherpa became his sole focus; and with some effective guerrilla marketing and further investment the brand was established relatively quickly.

“This demonstrated to me that the New Zealand environment is very supportive of this kind of entrepreneurial spirit,” says Brian. “But I also realised very quickly what it means to start and build and scale a business.

“We’d started with such a bang, and then the challenge was to match demand [in time] with the technology.”

Over two years, there were a number of spin-off businesses under the umbrella of UrbanSherpa. Then the pivotal moment arrived when Menulog approached UrbanSherpa with a partnership deal – effectively refocusing the business totally on food delivery, and requiring the integration of different technology platforms.

Again business “took off” – Menulog provided instant scale, necessitating a massive recruitment exercise for drivers. But recruitment proved difficult – food delivery is a tough gig.

The digital management capacity just wasn’t there, so Brian found himself manually managing the recruitment process.

“It was a fast learning curve. At a time like this being an entrepreneurial CEO is not as glamorous as people make it sound.”

It was also a reminder that building a brand doesn’t happen overnight, Brian recalls. “You have to be prepared to play the long game.”

So what was the one over-riding lesson for Brian from the whole UrbanSherpa experience?

“The big lesson for me was that it’s important that, as the founder or CEO, you have control of the business. I gave away 51 percent of UrbanSherpa. When I did that I lost control of how things roll,” he says.

It’s important for founders to be aware of, and control, the money in their business venture, he adds. “As far as you can, deal with your own money and find as much of your own money as you possibly can.

“As soon as you accept other peoples’ money, life changes, you become obligated and indebted, and you’re simply working for the people you’ve accepted funding from.”

So he doesn’t for a minute view the venture as a failure – simply a series of lessons to apply going forward.

Turning the page

Post UrbanSherpa, Brian made himself available to help and mentor other business founders – many of whom had contacted him via LinkedIn – and to help various start-ups with their growth strategy. One particularly exciting venture is focused on the economics of ‘last mile food delivery’ and utilises the latest in autonomous robotic delivery modules. It may well result in the emergence of an UrbanSherpa 2.0 technology, he says – a case of ‘watch this space’.

Interestingly, LinkedIn has proven to be a very successful business tool over the years for Brian – and a rich source of business connections and opportunities. One of the most significant opportunities came along in 2018, when his UrbanSherpa experience attracted the attention of the recruiters looking for someone to launch and scale the rideshare service Ola to New Zealand; someone capable of starting the business completely from scratch.

In Brian Dewil they found the perfect candidate.

Brian explains how Ola’s brief was all-too-familiar – recruit drivers, harness leading-edge software to connect punters to a service. Brian’s experience and contacts from his RICS days would also prove invaluable.

He was interviewed by the team behind Ola’s Australian launch, and after landing the New Zealand country manager’s job found himself once again in the box seat – initially working from a laptop at home to again plot the emergence of a disruptive business. Only this time the speed of launch was much faster, and he was taking on a virtual monopoly in the form of Uber. He also had great support from the Ola team in Bangalore.

Ola originated in India, and the brand now clocks up a billion trips worldwide over a year. Here in New Zealand it was launched to drivers in September 2018, and after achieving critical mass, went live to the public on November 6^th.

After six months the service has already clocked up half a million trips and has 8000 registered drivers. Marketing has been intensive – initially targeting the 18 to 35 demographic, and later extended to age 55.

The brand’s key point of difference from its competition is its pricing, explains Brian, with a commission rate of 18 percent from its drivers. It’s generally understood that if your drivers are happy then service levels go up.

Looking back over the past seven months, he acknowledges that Ola is business scaling to a different scale, and he has learnt a lot.

“I’d be very surprised if there is any other international company that has come into New Zealand and scaled this fast.” It’s all about providing a choice; a safe and reliable and cheaper alternative, he adds, but it’s not an all-out price war.

“This is beyond a price war. We’re building a brand with a profile and personality, so people can identify with it.’

The main thing people are looking for is reliability, safety and fair pricing, he says, and they’ll judge a rideshare brand on pricing and how long they have to wait for the ride to arrive.

“First and foremost we acknowledge that the driver is very important in the whole scheme of things.”

Reach and penetration

New Zealand may be a small market in which to launch a rideshare brand, but Brian believes that can be a plus. As a rideshare market it’s uncluttered in terms of players, he explains. And for the amount Ola was prepared to invest in the market, they could reach a good proportion of the target population very quickly – that’s Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. The regions aren’t on the radar just yet.

Brian says one major risk of launching in a small market was not being able to match supply and demand – not scaling too quickly is an art, he adds. And that’s why the driver on-boarding process came first.

It’s also important to ensure that your minimum viable product (MVP) at launch is indeed viable.

Kiwis are tolerant but only to a certain degree, he says.

As for developing the Ola brand going forward, Brian wouldn’t be drawn on whether they would copy any categories from India (where they feature luxury SUVs, electric vehicles, on-board movies and tuk-tuks), but he does say they’ll look at introducing categories that suit the New Zealand market and are already working with authorities on ‘first half-mile’ solutions and other public transport-related initiatives.

Challenges and advice

When reflecting on his business journey, one of the stand-out lessons for Brian has been the need to quickly respond to the challenges that crop up every day.

“In the early days I would just react to everything – whereas today I’m a lot more considered in how I react. So, for example, I might take a day to think about [my response to] a particular email. I find everything’s a lot clearer the next day in terms of what I want to say and how I want to react.

“It’s learning how and when to react to changes in the work environment – particularly with a fast-growing start-up.

“In today’s fast-moving business world we all feel compelled to react straight-away to situations – it’s instinctive – but we don’t have to.”

If there was a chance for Brian Dewil to give his much younger self some advice, based on what he knows now, his first message would be to learn patience. “Understand that business is a long game.”

And fitness is very important. You must look after yourself – first mentally then physically – says the man who runs every second day to his office at The Generator, in Auckland’s downtown Britomart.

“To be successful you must be mentally and physically strong, and understand that business is a marathon. Today I’m much more conscious of what I’m doing, and careful about managing each day,” he says.

If he had to pick one word that describes him best, its ‘tenacious’. And most entrepreneurs [and leaders] will agree that tenacity is a vital quality to possess when in business.

“I’ve learnt along the way that the best way to deal with a problem is to hit it straight on,” says Brian. “Confront it as quickly as you possibly can and you’ll soon realise that the problem isn’t as big as you first thought. And by confronting the problem it quickly loses its power in terms of its hold over you.

“I’ve found that approach has made me much more resilient to challenges and problems, and that confrontation in itself is never personal.”

Where to next?

Being Ola’s first New Zealand employee on the ground and building the brand from scratch ranks high on Brian’s list of business achievements. But he’s proud of all his business building efforts over the years – starting with absolutely nothing [but an idea] and building it into something.

“Sure I’ve had help with Ola – but six months ago it was just me and a computer in my bedroom talking to some people in India. Six months later we have half a million trips under our belt – growing significantly as a challenger brand against a large incumbent.

“I love being the underdog, and the fact that we chose to take on a major brand.”

His personal goal for the rest of 2019 and beyond is to continue maintaining a high level of physical and mental health. And for Ola his focus is to keep cementing the brand in the New Zealand psyche and increase its market share until it becomes a household name.

If the brand achieves a 90 percent awareness level with the New Zealand public, and the expression ‘let’s get an Ola there’ becomes part of the Kiwi vernacular, then his job will be done.

Story by Glenn Baker, editor of NZBusiness.