It can happen at any time, anywhere: a mechanical car breakdown or an accident, miles from help. With the advent of MayDay, we can all breathe a little more easily. Head of Business Development & Founding Partner Mohamed Abo El Fotouh brings us up to speed on how MayDay can save your day.
What motivated you to start MayDay?
The concept was created as a result of a personal experience when one of the founders’ family members was left stranded on the side of the road for over two hours waiting for help. The thought just came to us, “How can we make roadside assistance interactions more reliable, safer, timely and easier to manage?”
What is the core of your business? Delivering roadside assistance and other automotive services to motorists in need via a technology enabled platform that connects users with the nearest capable provider ready to help.
Has MayDay been difficult to set up and operate? There was a learning curve in at the start as we worked to build a large network of reliable and qualified service providers across multiple cities in Egypt.
How long was the process of putting things into action?
We were established in June 2018 and it took us approximately 6 months to setup shop, hire a capable team, finalize our software, run some pilots and build our supplier network. We were officially live and accepting requests by January 2019.
What challenges have you come up against?
Being a start-up cash flow is always a concern to monitor and it was surely not easy to find the right talent that early on in our company’s life.
What work backgrounds does your team come from?
Our team has a diverse set of solid experiences across multiple fields from technology, operations, business development to marketing and customer service.
How quickly have you been able to carve out your niche in the market?
We’ve had the good fortune of gaining traction quickly, building a strong name for ourselves through a superior level of quality, improved reliability, wider reach and fixed pricing models.
What is the edge in your service?
A wide network of providers enables us to react faster and in a more cost effective manner compared to our competitors. Technology also helps us monitor our ongoing requests and provides us with the data we need to evolve our operational model. Our diverse team as well has given us a key advantage when competing in the market.
In a digital age, what are the benefits of using a tech platform to coordinate services?
Utilizing technology enables us to provide a more real-time service and enables us to learn from analysing the data pool we’ve collected to enhance our offering to customers. In addition, a major source of revenue is the result of our digital media campaigns, enabling us to reach our customers effectively and accurately.
How did you identify the need for your service in the community?
We ran a survey to better understand the market, customer needs and pain points to find a sweet spot that would make sense for us and validate the business model.
Where, and how, do you think you fill a gap in what is already available?
More reliable service that offers a fixed price and 24/7 support. Our application also includes multiple safety features to ensure that every customer is back on the road safely within minutes.
Where do you see your opportunities for further growth and expansion?
We aim to grow to new markets outside Egypt by 2020, in addition to expanding our set of services beyond roadside assistance and into other automotive services offered to car owners.
Contact Information:
Web: www.getmayday.io
