Tech companies you'll love to work for: Grab

Making a Real Impact

This is a four part mini-series about the cool tech companies we’ve visited. To read about other tech workplaces we’ve visited, click here.

As a young startup, Grab hasn’t quite had the time and opportunity to build a physical office that will incite your envy. Nevertheless, it’s on our list for a very good reason – this is one of the fastest growing ride-hailing apps in the region, in an industry that is just beginning to revolutionize how we think about transport and car ownership. It recently opened a US$100 million technology hub here in April 2015 to devoted to R&D. Since then, the number of app downloads has rocketed up to 10 million, from 3.8 million previously. It now boasts over 185,000 drivers across 28 cities in six different countries in the region.

The company views itself as a social startup as well, and employees are motivated to expand more than just its scale and reach. In our talks with Grab employees, their compassion and focus on the end-user and drivers came out clearly – this is a company that channels its drive for success into creating opportunities for people and improving lives.

What’s cool about this office?

It’s not every day you get to see a company where people genuinely care about the social impact of their work. After all the headlines Uber has generated with its aggressive expansion strategies, it’s almost refreshing to see a ride-hailing firm that isn’t focused on growing just for the sake of growing.

But that doesn’t mean that the Grab team isn’t ambitious and driven to expand the company’s footprint and scale up operations. There’s a saying at Grab – your problem is my problem, or YPIMP for short – that embodies the company’s ethos. Employees are all deeply invested in achieving positive outcomes for all stakeholders. An every man for himself attitude won’t get you anywhere at Grab, and we were struck by the emphasis the team placed on the role of teamwork in resolving issues.

Unsurprisingly, Grab eschews closed-off cubicles in its office design, the better to facilitate collaboration and communication. This isn’t the slickest office we’ve seen, but you’ve got to go deeper to appreciate the culture and values that Grab has fostered. Even though she just joined Grab just over a half year ago, Lauren Lin, an Assistant Marketing Manager, already describes the entire team as being a single close-knit family.

This isn’t some cutthroat startup that just wants to up its valuation. There’s a genuine sense of friendship at Grab, where the end goal is to benefit both drivers and riders and ensure they both get the best possible experience. For instance, Ditesh Gathani, Head of Engineering at Grab, talked about how accessibility features for the blind have been built into the Grab app since its launch. More tellingly, the engineering team included the features without being prompted to at all – they just knew that it was the right thing to do.

As Head of Engineering, Ditesh oversees the entire team, and he says that the engineering minds he’s met at Grab are some of the brightest he has ever seen, his pride in his team clearly evident.

Ditesh also talked about his experiences speaking with Grab drivers, who told him about the impact any app downtime had on them. Struck by the social ramifications system issues could potentially have on drivers, Ditesh came to better appreciate the full significance of the work he was doing.

This place is best for...

Passionate, committed, and capable individuals who want to solve and tackle challenging problems, in fields as different as engineering, logistics, or marketing. As a real-time platform that must be able to scale up and cope with increased volume on-the-fly, Grab provides unique opportunities that are found in few other places.

This is a company that values out-of-the-box ideas and sharing. No idea is too out-there, and employees must be able to keep up with the pace of things, which we’ve heard described as being “ridiculously fast”. The walls are literally papered with impromptu scribbles and post-its, a veritable melting pot of ideas and initiatives just waiting to be realized.

Finally, as we mentioned before, team players will thrive at Grab. If you want to surround yourself with capable individuals who constantly push each other forward, this is the place to be. The ability to work effectively as part of a team will serve you well anywhere, but this is taken to another level here. After all, YMIMP, remember?

This is a four part mini-series about the cool tech companies we’ve visited. To read about other tech workplaces we’ve seen, click here.

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