I built a $2 billion a year super app called Grab with '20 hour' work days.

Anthony Tan didn't need to start a business to be rich.

He was the youngest of three brothers in a wealthy family in Malaysia, with his father, Tan Heng Chew, being the president of Tan Chong Motor, a multinational automobile distributor founded by his grandfather in the 1950s and publicly listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange.

Tan was labeled as a "rebel without a cause," but he aimed to create something that would be "a force for good."

Tan is the CEO of Grab, a multinational ride-hailing giant and super app. In 2023, the company generated over $2 billion in revenue after going public in the U.S. in December 2021, according to CNBC Make It.

As of 2023, Grab is a company that offers ride hailing, food and groceries delivery, and financial services such as payments, lending, and digital banking. It serves over 35 million customers and provides 13 million gig jobs across eight countries in Southeast Asia.

"I recall my meeting with [former President Ferdinand] Marcos in the Philippines, where he shared with my board and me how he literally altered the national unemployment figures."

Business beginnings

In 2009, Tan enrolled at Harvard Business School and met his co-founder Hooi Ling Tan. They bonded over their shared Malaysian heritage and became close friends after sitting together in a class called "Business at the Base of the Pyramid."

In 2011, they discussed the unsafe Malaysian taxi system, and decided to tackle the challenge.

"Tan stated that they wanted to make standard hygiene accessible to women wherever they need to go safely. They both believed they were fortunate and wanted to serve Southeast Asia."

Grab, which was founded by a group of students who won first runner up in a startup contest at the university, received $25,000 in seed money from the prize they won.

Grab, a company with a market cap of over $14 billion, is backed by SoftBank.

However, Tan's journey to starting Grab was no easy feat.

Tan, who grew up working in his family's business, was expected to return to the company after his studies. However, when he presented his idea for Grab to his father, the conversation was taken seriously.

"Tan said, "My father said, 'Hey, I don't think it's going to work out, so please don't disturb me about this anymore,'" and it was tough. The idea of never being enough pushed her to create something that solved real societal problems."

Tan refined the same pitch he took to his mom, who ultimately became Grab's first individual investor. With the money from the startup contest and his mom, Tan invested everything he had in his bank into starting the company in June 2012. At the time, the company was known as "MyTeksi."

'20 hour' work days

The first few years in business were not glamorous by any means.

The Malaysian taxi system's infrastructure was the primary goal of Tan and his co-founder, but the lack of funds posed a significant challenge.

Tan stated that the previous office, located in a humid region of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, was inadequately equipped with ventilation, air conditioning, and WiFi. As a result, they were forced to use their mobile phones for internet connectivity.

The team faced challenges in recruiting drivers due to limited funds, so they had to come up with innovative solutions.

In the early days, Tan traveled across Southeast Asia to convince taxi workers to use Grab.

Tan would give out free coffee to taxi drivers in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, at 4 a.m. every morning before their shift, as part of his strategy to pitch them to join Grab. "That was the only way, and it was just a lot of this," he said.

Tan recounted his memory of meeting taxi fleets in Manila, where they would change shifts at around four in the morning. He then spent time with them, trying to understand their struggles and why they needed more income, all while enjoying some cheap beer.

"He stated that it was extremely intense. During the growth and scaling phase, he was traveling to two to three cities per week, which meant he was working 15 to 20 hours a day, seven days a week."

Driving Southeast Asia forward

In 2018, Uber sold its Southeast Asia business to Grab in exchange for a 27.5% stake, with Uber's CEO Dara Khosrowshahi joining Grab's board of directors. This deal solidified Grab's position as the dominant player in the region.

The controversial dominance of Southeast Asia's dominant super app, which initially aimed to solve the safety issue in Malaysia's taxi system, has been met with antitrust accusations from critics and regulators.

Grab has significantly influenced Southeast Asia's infrastructure.

The region's daily routines have been transformed, and people at the bottom of the social hierarchy have been empowered through access to micro-financing programs, enabling them to purchase smartphones and earn money as drivers.

"What sets us apart is our ability to comprehend their issues," he stated. "Some may argue that we cater to a specific audience, but our niche is vast and has an underserved market."

"Our unique selling point is our commitment to truly assisting our customers, treating them as an integral part of our ecosystem, which sets us apart from our competitors."

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