If you Google the word Yakutsk you will be surprised to see the images of the coldest inhabited place on Earth, located in Siberia, a region of Russia, where it is so cold that it reaches -60 degrees Celsius.
When the temperature dropped, taxi drivers doubled their fares. Therefore, the passengers united and demanded fair prices. Then, Arsen Tomsky, challenging an injustice, created a transport application called inDrive in 2013 that allows for fairer charges. InDrive is now available in more than 700 cities in 47 countries, including Mexico, and is the second most downloaded urban mobility app in the world with 150 million users.
inDrive is short for “Independent Drivers,” a group of drivers who coordinated through social media that evolved into a 2,700-employee global technology company headquartered in Mountain View, California.
Arsen Tomsky, founder and CEO of inDrive, had already been developing software for the financial industry since 1993. In Linkedln Arsen highlights a phrase with which he identifies: Challenging injustice (Challenging injustice). Because he believes that if you want to create something outstanding you must have a global vision and challenging goals. Throw your team members a daring challenge with a shot of adrenaline.
Journalists from Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Panama, Ecuador and Argentina had a virtual meeting with Arsen Tomsky who presented his book inDriver: From Siberia to Silicon Valley. Story of the creation of a global technology company.
Lessons from the founder and CEO of inDrive
These are the useful lessons that the founder and CEO of inDrive shared for Latin American entrepreneurs.
“Yakutsk is very very cold. It is a remote town with the most extreme weather conditions on the planet. That makes trading activities difficult. Despite this and being a stutterer I made a successful technology company.”
Arsen Tomsky, founder and CEO of inDrive
- First the team. His first message is that every company founder and CEO should pay attention to building a strong core team committed to the company’s purpose and values. “I have verified that the culture of a company must be based on kindness, openness, honesty, absence of intrigue and pettiness. When a team is upright and healthy, it attracts people in its image and likeness ”, he assures.
- Money is not everything. A common mistake is for entrepreneurs to ignore their purpose and goals by focusing too much on maximizing profit and not so much on challenging injustice. “You don’t have to keep your eyes fixed on money, but on finding something that gives us internal power, that allows us to do our job with joy,” he explains.
- Actions speak first. The founder and the team have to force their hearts to beat more frequently,” he adds. “Purposes give internal power and make people happier.” And, how to cultivate the purpose and values of an organization? “It is not enough to constantly talk about values, the most effective thing, as always, is to show it in daily actions. It is very good to fulfill the mission not only in the company, but also outside of it”, advises Tomsky.
- Mistakes are just a step. “In my book I have tried to show that failure is an essential part of business. You have to take them easy without losing confidence in yourself. Mistakes are often necessary for future success or even become successes.
- Failing to distinguish between business and non-profit activities. Both things are the same,” he says. Because directly carrying out various social and beneficial programs for people is of equal importance to the day-to-day operation of the company. Combining both is potentially very lucrative. “My conviction is to do something against injustice. That builds integrity and motivation,” she shares.
Finally, these are some key aspects of inDrive’s footprint in Mexico and Latin America, a region that this startup reached in 2018. Today they are present in more than 200 cities in 17 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, including Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Panama, El Salvador, Bolivia, Chile, Peru and Argentina.
inDrive offers urban mobility in the city, long transportation distances, freight, package delivery, as well as the possibility of hiring drivers. Soon they will launch a new service called “inDrive jobs” that will help people find work.
“I was able to turn my life around through different oratory techniques and speeches. I would like to inspire other people to achieve greater and greater success in their lives”, concludes Arsen Tomsky, CEO and founder of inDrive.