Mohib Hassan is the COO at Sastaticket.pk, and in his current role, Mohib is responsible for establishing Sastaticket.pk as the leading online travel website in Pakistan. Previously, Mohib has held various positions such as Executive Director at Pizza Hut, and Co-Founder at several international startups, amongst other roles where he has often been responsible for leading the company's strategic direction, financial revival, technical innovations, and a renewed focus on stellar customer experiences.
Mohib has extensive experience creating new products, solving customer pain points, and operating businesses of various sizes in multiple industries ranging from insurance to food to the travel industry. He is a mathematics and actuarial science graduate from the University of Edinburgh and Boston University.
Following are the edited excerpts of a recent conversation BR Research had with him:
BR Research: What made you join Sastaticket.pk?
Mohib Hassan: I joined Sastaticket.pk in January 2022. Why did I join Sastaticket.pk? I love to travel, and when an opportunity came to solve challenges for Pakistanis in an industry I love, I couldn't say no. Also, the team here is fantastic. We've got some of the best people, and I look forward to working with amazing minds.
BRR: The last time we met, you mentioned that you had enough funding to survive the pandemic. How did you go about the two years of COVID when flights were suspended and restricted?
MH: In the early days of the pandemic, when flights were completely canceled for a couple of months, we had to undergo aggressive cost control measures. But we also built products during COVID, which our customers loved. The products' NPS goes much higher than any other industry, showing that we resonated with our users. And in the meantime, we continued to service our customers' concerns and questions by keeping our call centers online and running. We expanded our basket during COVID with products like fintech product lines, buses, hotels, visas, etc.
BRR: Have you been able to achieve pre-pandemic growth? Has air travel returned to pre-pandemic levels?
MH: We have surpassed our pre-pandemic growth rate primarily due to the new product lines. On the other hand, air travel is still recovering, and our customers are still gaining confidence in the domestic and international ecosystem for travel with changes in COVID restrictions and regulations.
In terms of growth, all of our verticals have been extremely impressive. For example, our fintech product line grew by 300 percent; our bus business increased by over 200 percent; our visas recorded an all-time high in sales. So, we are hopeful that our verticals will grow exponentially.
BRR: What is the main cost component for Sastaticket.pk?
MH: Regarding costs, the highest cost remains the people we have on board, along with other comparable expenses such as tech infrastructure. But we continue investing in our people because they make this company great.
We have invested not only using the capital funding but also the sweat capital for significant architectural changes and upgrades that include new problem-solving features. These include free cancellation options, closed-loop wallets, fare calendars, WhatsApp integrations, a much-improved refund process, and the integration of powerful analytical tools. We have also invested in other techniques and technologies, such as those that have helped us build better teams much faster. Hence have been able to quickly pick up the talent we require.
BRR: What is your revenue model?
MH: We earn from the commission. Whether selling flights, hotels, or any other service/product, we get a percentage of the revenue as commission. So our unit contributions across all product lines are positive. We do make money using a series of commercial agreements with our suppliers. We earn revenue as long as we hit our targets and continue to grow.
BRR; Does your portal give any insights on air travel demand?
MH: As you know, travel is also a seasonal business with more traffic during summers in Pakistan and during the holiday season in winters. And we have been trying to capitalize significantly on these peak opportunities that occur several times during the year. At the same time, we are also getting aware of our customers, their travel patterns, switching modes, and satisfaction with products launched by us. So we aim to provide a good customer experience, better and improved products, affiliate products, and investments in other technological aspects.
BRR: How would you describe your USP?
MH: While pricing has been a critical lever for Sastaticket.pk in how we attract our customers, what is more important is the level of service that we are providing especially in the international space. Our key strength lies in the quality of service we provide to our customers, including our international clients, and 24/7 availability in our call centers.
BRR: Do you plan for another round of funding anytime?
MH: Absolutely. We are on course to achieve profitability, but we are always open to smart capital that can help us unlock greater avenues of growth. We'd always love to invest money to increase and speed up our growth and look for new avenues.
BRR: What is your view about the slump being witnessed in startup findings across the globe, including Pakistan?
MH: This is the way it works. If you have high inflation, governments will actively work to reduce it, which will have a contractionary pressure on riskier investments such as startups. But unfortunately, this is a global phenomenon, and I hope the new conditions eventually create a new and thriving ecosystem. And I hope that the Pakistani startup ecosystem will evolve accordingly, and we will be able to attract additional capital.
We now see more angel investors entering the market to help companies at an earlier stage. These angel investors usually have connections abroad primarily because of the other investments with other VCs. Though international investors have created the gap, we see local investors are stepping up for Series A, and Series B rounds of investments in startups. I know of corporate that are setting up some funds. So I expect more advanced stage investment to happen with the greater involvement of local investors.
BRR: What goes behind the partnerships that you negotiate with service providers?
MH: Before going into any negotiations, one of the things that we look at is the benefits we can offer to the customers. That is our focus when we go into negotiations. Airlines have various slabs and give incentives for hitting particular targets. We try our best to ensure that we can pass on many of these incentives to the customers.
BRR: How are your clients responding to travel insurance?
MH: The response is quite well. We are perhaps the largest online insurance company in the country because we sell so many policies. We have noticed in our research that the users appreciate the sense of security they get. Plus, travel insurance is also sometimes a requirement for international travel.