Jan 4, 2022
Using his engineering background, Bilal Shabandri helped scale and
sell his father’s business by transitioning to an e-commerce space.
From there, he continued with his own entrepreneurial
endeavors.
With his colleague, Bilal competed in a variety of hack-a-thons and
pitching competitions, while also interning at different startup
companies. They both suffered major transportation difficulties,
whether it was an over-crowded subway station, or a transportation
desert. Five minutes before pitching a business idea, Bilal and his
colleague decided to change courses and pitch an idea to solve
transportation problems in UAE.
The two co-founders won third place and decided to start arcab, a
transportation service to bridge the gap between expensive private
transit and cheap but crowded public transit through the
utilization of premium vans. In 2020, Bilal piched arcab at the
2020 GSEA Finals and became a GSEA Global Finalist.
Bilal speaks about shifting his strategy during the Covid-19
Pandemic, navigating startup business learning curves, creating a
consistent outreach plan and the power of working with a
team.