My Startup World speaks to Fathi Al Sharif and Mousa Yassin, the CEOs of on-demand tech service platform called Geeks. In the interview below, Fathi and Mousa speak about their startup story, the challenges they faced when starting up and their plans for the months ahead.
Tell us about Geeks.
Geeks is an on-demand tech service platform that was founded and home-bred in Dubai with a mission to save, protect and help you with your tech. We do that using a network of highly skilled and rigorously trained Geeks who are ready to come to you anywhere you are and whenever you need them.
What products and services do you offer on the market?
We at Geeks offer a variety of different services that cater to both businesses and consumers. In terms of our consumer services, we have our customers covered if they need support with their phone, tablet or computer.
You can count on Geeks to fix your broken device, but also help you install the latest upgrade, set up a cloud back-up, choose the right anti-virus or memory extension. At Geeks, we also help you with your home tech such as security solutions, nanny cams, lights, thermostats and Wi-Fi.
The best part is that our Geeks come wherever you are and sort out your IT then and there. No hassle! All you do is book online on geeks.ae. Equally important to us is our pillar catering to businesses. We can support small to medium businesses in various ways. From recommending and setting up a wholesome IT network, to managing, maintaining and fixing all the hardware and software through a centralized monitoring system.
We give our client access their own dashboard where they can see all the resolved and pending requests, an inventory of all hardware and software in their office and stats about the type of IT requests they put in so far. We provide transparency throughout the process and that is a big differentiator between us and traditional IT support companies.
Fathi Al Sharif, CEO, Geeks.
What is your startup story? How did you conceive the idea behind the company?
Late 2014, Fathi went through the hassle of fixing a laptop in the market and realized that the process is extremely impractical. Consumers have to go out of their way and spend a lot of money for very simple fixes. This shouldn’t be the case when technology is becoming such an important part of our lives.
He discussed the idea with me and after validating the market need through an MVP (minimum viable product) we both decided to depart from our corporate roles at Microsoft and BP and to build Geeks and provide on-demand IT services to business and consumers whenever needed.
Did you come across any challenges when starting up?
Every stage brings its own unique challenges throughout the lifecycle of the business. At the early stage the main challenges were hiring resources, understanding the customer funnel, figuring out our unit economics and improving efficiency through automating the operation.
When you’re at the growth stage challenges like work culture, motivation, scaling your product and controlling spends move to the top of the list. The single challenge that seems to stick is being able to source and on-board the best people and we believe it’s the single most important factor for the success of any business.
Mousa Yassin, CEO, Geeks.
Which markets do you currently focus upon?
We’re operating in UAE and recently launched our services in KSA.
What is the USP of your services compared to similar service providers on the market?
Consumers that use us are people looking for speed, quality and great customer experience. Businesses that use us leverage data analytics, asset management and proactive real time monitoring.
What is the strength of your team?
We are fortunate to have strong pillars heading every function. This includes Technology, Sales, Operations, Marketing and Customer Excellence.
What is your plan for the company in the next, say, 6 months?
The current focus now is to grow the operation in KSA. Starting with consumer services then introducing the business services. This year we are focusing on scaling in KSA.
