Meet Saygin Yalcin, the Founder and CEO of SellAnyCar.com and Carnab.com. Not content with just one successful venture, he went on to solve another problem he detected in Dubai's used car market which led him to become one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the city.
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00:00 There are two types of entrepreneurs. One that digs out the raw diamond and another
00:07 one that makes it into jewelry. And I like digging for new business models.
00:13 Dubai was an opportunity-driven decision for me. The internet penetration rates were exploding.
00:22 People were coming online. However, they weren't transacting online as we know it today.
00:28 At the age of 24, I then moved to Dubai with just a backpack, pretty much, and started an online fashion store.
00:37 That endeavor became the largest online fashion store in the Middle East at that time.
00:42 When you are in your 20s, even in your 30s, you should go all in, because that's the way how you can
00:49 upgrade from one league to another. So I resigned and tried to solve another problem.
00:55 And that's how selenicar.com was born.
00:58 I tried selling my car on classifies and it's a horrible experience. It takes many meetings, it takes weeks.
01:07 So I said, "There must be a better way." So I looked at other business models in the world and there were
01:11 a few examples which actually had solved this problem.
01:14 Building businesses does not necessarily mean that you have to be an inventor.
01:19 You just have to be the best implementer of a business which might work in other parts of the world.
01:25 So I rented out the garage. We were a small team. We went out with a promise.
01:30 We said, "Anybody who comes here will buy your car within 30 minutes at a fair price."
01:36 Selenicar.com was a surprising success story from the first month onwards.
01:42 Our first month revenue was exceeding half a million dollars.
01:46 That was the problem because we were buying and selling too many cars.
01:50 I had to cover the working capital, which basically means I have to buy first and then wait until I can sell.
01:57 I realized that my team members, while buying the cars, were already calling car dealers and said,
02:02 "Hey, how much would you buy this car for?" So I realized they were doing some kind of an auction.
02:08 So we built the largest portal in the background where car dealers are bidding on your car.
02:14 Today, it's over 25,000 companies who are bidding on your car when you are in our locations.
02:20 And now, Selenicar.com is the largest used car trader online in the GCC.
02:25 We then also moved into retail now with CarNap.
02:29 We noticed that only 1% of the cars are being sold online to consumers directly.
02:34 We believe that's going to be 50% in the next 5 to 10 years.
02:38 And that's where we will use our pole position.
02:40 And now I invest actually back into the city. I love seeing companies grow, so I want to be a small part of that as well,
02:48 as an investor, especially in seed rounds where entrepreneurs are just digging out the raw diamond.
02:54 [Music]