$58 Million To Build The Best Parcel Delivery Company w/ Murvah Iqbal | Hived

00:00
Murvah Iqbal
We've just raised $42 million or 31 million GBP. And so that's our series B fundraising announcement.

00:07
Amardeep Parmar
That's Merva Iqbal, CEO and co founder of hive. Since I interviewed her two years ago, the progress has been insane.

00:14
Murvah Iqbal
You know, since I came on the podcast last. I think we've got so many more big customers now. So cars, arca, Nespresso, Uniqlo, John Lewis. So many new brands that we brought on since then. Beneath that, we've grown our head office now to around 120. So across all areas, we're actually now like a very serious company, which is cool and we need to be.

00:34
Amardeep Parmar
You might have seen their vans and trucks about London as they're reinventing parcel delivery.

00:39
Murvah Iqbal
And some of our big customers who I've just listed, a lot of them have actually come via inbound because they've been receiving, you know, private hype deliveries and was like, whoa, that was an amazing experience. I need that for X, Y and Z.

00:51
Amardeep Parmar
The headlines are amazing, but it hasn't all been easy.

00:54
Murvah Iqbal
I think, like last year was 2024. In middle of 2024, I was really tired, I was quite ill and I was like, whoa, okay, that was like a reality check. Slow down. Focus on health, focus on your mindset, because that will ultimately lead to the big picture.

01:10
Amardeep Parmar
Mirva has become a champion representing entrepreneurs in the uk.

01:15
Murvah Iqbal
I think I realised in the past year or so that I actually have an important voice and I'm trying to figure out how I can use that voice in a smart way and hopefully inspire people who look like me or a new gener.

01:31
Amardeep Parmar
Welcome back. For the audience listening, if you want to hear me of its origin story, you want to go to episode 54.

01:36
Murvah Iqbal
54, wow.

01:37
Amardeep Parmar
Yeah. So this is episode 252 today. 246, something like that. So it's 200 episodes later.

01:44
Murvah Iqbal
Wow.

01:44
Amardeep Parmar
And you just had a massive announcement.

01:46
Murvah Iqbal
Yes.

01:46
Amardeep Parmar
So tell us about that.

01:48
Murvah Iqbal
Yeah, we've just raised $42 million or 31 million GBP. And so that's our series B fundraising announcement, which is going to accelerate us, allow us to invest more into our engineers, our product team, our commercial engine and also expansion.

02:02
Amardeep Parmar
So when you said it two years ago. Right, so you're already pretty impressive and like, I remember, so people years.

02:08
Murvah Iqbal
Wow. Yeah.

02:09
Amardeep Parmar
People haven't listened to episode. I remember being really impressed by your childhood Man City playing days. Right. So you were the captain, obviously. And when you came on last time, you'd only actually been going for not that long before you launched Right, Yeah. And all in that time, you've done your series A, you've done some new things. But if you could go back to like, Merv two years ago, what do you wish that you could have shortcutted in terms of learning and be like, do it differently?

02:33
Murvah Iqbal
The unfortunate thing is you can't shortcut. I mean, so we started the company four years ago. It was actually our fourth birthday in two days, which is great. And so the last time I came podcast was halfway into the journey and now two years later, and I think you can't really shortcut the learnings because you have to make the mistakes, you have to fail and get the learnings along the way to build you into a better person and a better company. But I think if I look back now in the past two years and what I'm trying to do a bit more now is enjoy the process a little bit more. I think I've always been quite serious and just getting on to the next things and not celebrating the wins enough, but highlighting when things aren't going wrong too much.

03:09
Murvah Iqbal
So I think in the next version of Hive now, I definitely want to start embracing the journey a bit more, enjoying it and taking a little bit more time off.

03:18
Amardeep Parmar
Can you share any of those mistakes?

03:21
Murvah Iqbal
Yeah, of course. Hiring sometimes the wrong people, that's a big mistake that a lot of founders make. I think sometimes the learnings are only apparent a few years later, you know, a few months later. So I think just sometimes going slower to go faster. We've been in such execution mode of just go, go, go. And now I am really embodying sort of the going slower to go faster mindset. So taking enough time to do strategy off sites, to immerse myself with a different people, away from hired entrepreneurs, other inspirational people, just taking it a little bit slower and calmer, enabled to go faster.

03:59
Amardeep Parmar
And so when you came in last time, the vision was there. Right. So becoming the best parcel delivery company that you can be.

04:06
Murvah Iqbal
Yeah.

04:06
Amardeep Parmar
What's changed in terms of that vision or the way you're delivering it compared to what you planned out a couple of years ago?

04:12
Murvah Iqbal
Nothing. We're just executing on the vision now. I think the main thing that has changed that we've seen more and more develop, is our technology angle. I think even only two years ago, were still building it and building it, but now we have an entire platform end to end, proprietary built that we built internally. That takes time. And obviously the advancement of AI and ML, I think that has really enabled us to go Quicker. So I don't think nothing's changed in terms of the mission, the vision staying the same, we're just executing on it. And it's great. Since I came on the podcast last, I think we've got so many more big customers now. So Cars, arca, Nespresso, Uniqlo, John Lewis, so many new brands that we've brought on since then.

04:52
Murvah Iqbal
And most importantly, we've never lost a customer and think so it's still the same mission, it's still the same vision, it's just executing and really leveraging our technology better now.

05:02
Amardeep Parmar
So this is a podcast that you did a couple years ago before you came on, and one of the things you said back then is that the biggest thing for you is word of mouth, is that so many of the end users, right. So obviously it's not just the companies you're selling to, but the people who are going to get the parcels from them. They're saying, we want to use Hive because of all the systems there. As time has gone on, like what's been the major distribution channels, has that shifted or is it still heavy word of mouth?

05:26
Murvah Iqbal
No, it's still pretty much heavily word mouth. And I think that's if you focus on building a great product, that just happens naturally. And so that's one thing that we've really focused on. And some of our big customers who have just listed, a lot of them have actually come via Inbound because they've been receiving private hypes deliveries and was like, whoa, that was an amazing experience. I need that for X, Y and Z. So it's still very much word mouth, but definitely started to do more on LinkedIn, I think in the past two years. If you follow me on LinkedIn, you would have noticed that I've tried to, you know, share updates a lot more frequently than I previously did.

06:00
Murvah Iqbal
LinkedIn is super powerful and just generally I've also opened up my Instagram to get to let people in a bit more in terms of like, what it's actually like to build a company. And so definitely still focusing on the core product and using that viral word of mouth to get known, but now letting people insight a little bit more insight into what we're doing and whether that's posting on LinkedIn or Instagram. And then in terms of growing the business, we've heavily doubled down, invested in our commercial team. We've brought on incredible CCO who was at Amazon for about seven years. And yeah, so that team is really bulking up. And that's similar across the Whole board. I think that's a key difference from last time I was on.

06:43
Murvah Iqbal
We've really doubled down in terms of our executive team and our senior leadership team in teams. Beneath that, we've grown our head office now to around 120. So really it's now like, yes, we're still focusing on the product, you know, to raise our awareness of brand, but definitely also being really smart about the people that we're bringing on the team.

07:01
Amardeep Parmar
And you mentioned about the LinkedIn there, right? And one thing that helps you do a lot of cool stuff, right?

07:05
Murvah Iqbal
Yeah, exactly. It's a lot of organic content, which makes it easier. So that makes my life easier because I've always found it really difficult to post on LinkedIn and Instagram and a lot of people do. But once you realise actually there's. Every week, there's so much to share. Even this week I was like, whoa. Got so much content to share. And so when you're, you know, when you have momentum, when you are growing, there's just so much organically to share, which makes it a lot easier to share and post on LinkedIn and Instagram.

07:35
Amardeep Parmar
So, yeah, because now I've gone to pretty much two posts a day on LinkedIn.

07:39
Murvah Iqbal
Wow.

07:39
Amardeep Parmar
Because we just have so many bloody announcements all the time and so many things going on.

07:43
Murvah Iqbal
Posts a day. I have two. Maybe I won a week.

07:46
Amardeep Parmar
Yeah, but you're one a week. It's like, I met the king or I did this. It's like, it's a bit different to my husband. Right. And like on those last two years, obviously, that had these. Obviously business grow massively, people have been having a voice in, like, many different rooms. You're speaking at Parliament, you're speaking at big conferences, things like that as well. How do you think you've been able to use that to kind of fight the case with people as well?

08:07
Murvah Iqbal
I think I realised in the past year or so that I actually have an important voice. And it's funny you don't realise that happens as part of the journey of growing the company as well. And so, yeah, I'm definitely. When I'm speaking to politicians in Parliament, I'm always speaking in favour of startups and how can we make the UK ecosystem much more startup friendly? We. What are we doing for EV grants? And then also being a female founder from minority background, I realised I'm in a really privileged position to use that voice and use it wisely. And so I've started to do a lot more engagements like that. Actually at the back of this podcast last time, I had so much feedback, like, wow, I never knew about you.

08:44
Murvah Iqbal
And even still, people find out about me and I'm like, whoa, that's a cool part of the journey that I didn't realise or didn't expect to happen. And I'm trying to figure out how I can use that voice in a smart way and hopefully inspire people who look like me or a new generation to be like, yes, I also want to build a company and can build a company.

09:01
Amardeep Parmar
So I always talk about you behind your back. I don't know. So there's like, hopefully.

09:05
Murvah Iqbal
Yeah, yeah.

09:06
Amardeep Parmar
So there's like. So there's like 20, 50 episodes now, right?

09:09
Murvah Iqbal
Yeah.

09:09
Amardeep Parmar
But it's different people who I use as examples that come to my mind and I think there's some bias towards some of the earlier episodes just because now, like, as more I do more and more episodes, my brain gets more mushy. Right. But like I said, exact thing especially. So you, obviously, you're not from London either, right?

09:24
Murvah Iqbal
No.

09:24
Amardeep Parmar
And that's another big discrepancy. It's like, obviously a lot of people who get funded are born in London or like raised in London, and you've been able to like, showcase that as well. So you've got all these different elements of you that people say, oh, I can't do it because I'm not, or I can't do it because I'm a woman, or I can't do it because I'm an Asian. And then here you are. Right, who's done all these different things? And when you're in those rooms, you said about EV grants and things like that, but what are some of the conversations you're having that you feel like really pushing along and you can see that progress.

09:52
Murvah Iqbal
Yeah. I think one of the key things I've realised during my journey and starting my company is. And the UK is it sees risk taking quite bad. And what I mean by that is when you start a company and when I started a company, I got a lot of feedback from people, oh, why? What if you fail or what happens? And I think there's too much of a failing, know, highlighting failing. And in America, on the flip side, and that's the beauty I've had, I spent a lot of time in the States in the past few years and when you're spending time in the States and immersing yourself with that environment and culture, it's like, whoa. They. They celebrate failure. They're like, whoa. Yeah, that's amazing. What have you learned from let's go again.

10:31
Murvah Iqbal
And in the UK it's like, oh, but what's this person going to say? Or oh. And I think when I'm in those rooms, I'm just thinking that, okay, how can we stop that? Like, you know, the fear of risk taking. How can we make the UK one of the best places to take risks? And also just figuring out how we can attract the best talent in the uk, that's one thing that I'm trying to do is like, make it, you know, really easy for the best talent to come to the UK to work here and start companies. And I think that's the main area that I'm focused on, is enhancing the UK to start a company, essentially and taking away the risk of failing away from entrepreneurs and, you know, making that safer to fail, essentially.

11:12
Amardeep Parmar
And you mentioned there about attracting talent, right? So one of the reasons you're like in the press a lot, right, because you are one of the darlings, right, you are one of these British companies who's done incredibly well very quickly. And it is that example that the UK government wants to show is the example of like, look, you can come to the UK and build that kind of thing. And obviously from personal sense of, I know from you, from before, like a couple years ago, that's a new role to step into. And how has it felt being put in those rooms on that pedestal where now, like, you're the example, you're the one that people are looking up to.

11:43
Murvah Iqbal
I mean, there's still a long way to go for sure. We're still in our early days. I appreciate the comments there, but I think I realise, like, I have a voice now and I want to use that in a powerful way. And I think I don't look at it as a thing of like, I think is. I feel of it as a duty to give back almost to. So now, okay, how can I now support the next generation of entrepreneurs? How can I be that voice?

12:06
Murvah Iqbal
Because I am, I have a seat at the table, I am in those rooms and how can I use my seat wisely and also speak for people like me, essentially, which may be missing in those rooms before, and so using that as a huge advantage, but really now just figuring out how I can give back to the next generation of entrepreneurs. So I never feel like, oh, I'm in these rooms, I'm just thinking, okay, like I'm here now. How can I make the best use of my voice and my time? And that's, you know, going to continue in the next few years, I want to continue to do that because I feel incredibly privileged to be in this position. So, yeah, what. How can I use that now?

12:41
Amardeep Parmar
And we're talking before as well, how things have shifted. So where you now have, like, more international travel and you're. And the pressure and the stress that puts on you. But at the same time, you said about how you're now not working seven days a week anymore, so how have you tried to juggle that as, like, as you're scaling it bigger, more responsibility, but also trying to look after yourself as you scale.

12:59
Murvah Iqbal
So the first two, three years of hive, it was very much an execution. I knew what to do in front of me, and it was like working seven days a week around the clock, just go, go, go. And then once you get to a point where you realise, okay, we've got really strong product market fit, we've got a lot of investment, we're, you know, we're here for the long term. We, our vision is happening, it's becoming a reality. It becomes a mind game and it becomes about how you're well rested in your mind to make those important decisions. Now, a lot of my day is just decision making. I don't, you know, I'm in a lot of meetings, filling out a lot of meetings.

13:31
Murvah Iqbal
I'm, you know, I'm pitching to investors or speaking to big customers, but really, it's all about what I'm saying and I need to be really mindful of that and making sure that I'm in a great headspace. And I think one of the past, in the past two years, what I did do, and I have a now coach as well, who I work with, sort of a mental coach. And it's all about how I stay calm in my mind because there is so much going on. My phone is pinging 24 7. And previously, maybe two years ago, I would look at every notification and, like, and wouldn't miss a single thing. But you realise you just can't continue like that. So, you know, now I'm not working seven days a week all the time. But there are sprints, don't get me wrong.

14:08
Murvah Iqbal
Like, during the fundraising period where I was working seven days a week. So it's really going with ebbs and flows and taking those respites. And then when it's, you know, not seven days a week, it's maybe six days a week or five days a week and a half a Sunday. And then it's about, okay, how am I getting outdoors, how am I eating well, how am I sleeping? Well, because it becomes a mind game. And travel has become a big part of my job now because Hybe's customers and investors are global. And I think I like to be global as well, because spending time in Silicon Valley, in sf, in New York, allows me to immerse myself with other entrepreneurs and they think differently.

14:42
Murvah Iqbal
So I've had a lot of that in my diary now, and it's just juggling all of that, but making sure that mentally I'm really fit, because that's what I'm doing a lot more now is decision making. And it's not just, okay, get these parcels out the door. Go, go, go. It's a lot. Okay, how are we building this team to really come into fruition in three years from now? Because in three years from now, we want to be at this target of our. So that's a different type of journey or mindset that you have to be in.

15:08
Amardeep Parmar
I think a lot of people struggle with that transition, and I think I'm struggling with it right now. Right. Is that in order to grow things at the beginning, you do the things that don't scale, and then now I need to, as you said, better at ignoring notifications and not like, I'm letting a lot of people down all the time. And I need to just get comfortable with that. I can't be everything for everybody. Have you found that transition difficult?

15:27
Murvah Iqbal
Yeah, no. Incredibly difficult. And it's the biggest challenge I'm facing currently. It's like how to reinvent myself. I have to grow quicker than the pace of the company, and Hive is growing really quickly. So that means I have to go really quickly. And it's just about, you know, staying humble along the way as well. And you really taking on, like I said, celebrate the wins, but also just figuring out who are those people two, three years ahead of you and how can you learn off those people and being really open to advice, being. Being really vulnerable and taking on feedback to make yourself a better person. And I think you just realise that the only way you're going to grow is if you are really. If you hold the mirror up against yourself.

16:09
Murvah Iqbal
Every year, religiously, at the start of the year, I'll take a few days out and I will note down all the three. All the few things that I need to change about myself. And I've not done this. It's hard, but for the past 10 years of, like, really religiously sitting down. Okay, this is. I'm not. This is the feedback that I've got, I'm not. I need to figure out how to change it. So being really, you know, open to taking feedback and figuring out how to improve yourself and yeah, you and then having great people around you. I'm lucky enough that I have a very supportive family, supportive friends and once you bring them alongside along the journey a little bit more, they will appreciate, okay, you're really busy for the next six months, I might not hear from you, but that's okay.

16:50
Murvah Iqbal
They get that. And that's one thing I've learned a lot in the past couple of years I think is bringing my friends and family a lot more along the journey and being a bit more open to what I'm doing and what's happening. And yeah, that helps you as well.

17:05
Amardeep Parmar
Oh, hello. Quick interruption to let you know a bit more about Bay hq. We're the community for high growth Asian heritage entrepreneurs, operators and investors in the UK. You can join us totally free@thebayhq.com join there. You'll get our CEO structure in your inbox every week, which is content, events and opportunities. You can also get access to a free startup fundamentals course by joining. Let's get back to the show. Looking at that, as you mentioned a bit earlier about Instagram and how you're opening up that side of you as well and has that been rewarding or have you found that out of you?

17:45
Murvah Iqbal
I mean, I put a lot of push from my marketing team doing that, so we'll find out. I've only started doing it for the past like couple of weeks, but it's really hard to be honest. Like I find my, you know, putting myself out there. But it's also really good because I've had friends text me like, oh, you were in Turkey, have an amazing time. Or another friend text me, I just saw like what you're doing. I'm so proud of you. And so otherwise I wouldn't keep up with my friends. I wouldn't tell them what I'm doing. My friends just like, why are you always so busy? But now they're getting a little bit of flavour for it. Even my parents as well. I guess it's kind of like a broadcast and keeping everyone up to date at the same time.

18:18
Murvah Iqbal
But we'll find out if it's good. But if anything, you know, I've had a few people already direct message me, hey, I just come across you're such an inspiration. So even that's already worthwhile if people are finding out about, okay, I can do that because she A tick in the box for me.

18:32
Amardeep Parmar
And obviously you just came back from Tokyo and you've got like investors from across the world. How is that process of raising this massive series be?

18:39
Murvah Iqbal
Well, yeah, it's hard, you know, wouldn't. I wouldn't be around bush and say it's not freezing capital is really difficult in this environment especially and especially as you go later on. But as I said, always if you just focus on building a great product and having great traction and great metrics, that makes your job a lot easier. So I was really lucky enough that to be honest, my team did most of my work for me in essentially just building a great company. Our growth rates are phenomenal, our SLA is phenomenal type of customers and then that makes my journey a little bit easier. But still it's really tricky. I mean I was with one of our investors recently, new investors and they screened around I think a thousand pitches and only invested in I think like what, three companies or something.

19:24
Murvah Iqbal
So to go through that funnel you're just like, whoa. So it is really tough and it is really hard and also the timing might not be right when you're pitching to investor but the process is really tough. It's. It's like, I think it's like a gruelling like marathon almost and you just have to stay calm in the process and you will get rejected. It's really funny, you get so many no's but you only need a few yeses and were really fortunate to have quite a few. And yeah, it's never easy but if you know you're performing well as a company that makes it a lot easier for you to do and capital is available for companies that are growing really quickly.

19:58
Amardeep Parmar
And what I think sometimes early stage founder take realise is that right at the very beginning you're basically selling you right. It's like, I've got the vision, I've got the skills, I'm going to build this thing. It sounds solutional but I'm going to be the one who does it. Right.

20:11
Murvah Iqbal
Yes.

20:11
Amardeep Parmar
As I say, your stage now you've got so much traction, you've got so much data that the investors and they're going to invest in you, they've got so much more information to make a better decision.

20:20
Murvah Iqbal
Calculated decision, definitely good and bad in a way because you're pitching to lots of different type of investors and one metric to one investor looks amazing. Where the other investor, I'm not sure. So yeah, good and bad because also investors, the process is a lot More harder because investors are requesting so much data, because you have so much data. So it's completely different. But in the early days, it's also really tough as well to pitch on the basis of a. Basically a mission and a vision and the passion that you can give them a pitch, essentially, it changes. And I think that's the key. Learning that I have to learn in my job is like, you know, every time we go through an investment round, it's different. And learning that along the job because I haven't done this before, right.

21:01
Murvah Iqbal
And when it's funny, because investors are constantly investing, so they do this as their job. But as a founder and I first time found it, I'm fundraising for the first time for this company. So I'm having to learn a lot and change my approach, my tactics for Net, every time it gets a bit bigger.

21:18
Amardeep Parmar
What metrics do you think have stood out the most or get your attention? Is it really different between every single investor or is it like, for example, if you say you've got zero percent churn, that must make them stand up. Okay, there's some worth paying attention to that.

21:29
Murvah Iqbal
But the thing is though, in this climate of fundraising and especially in a business that we're building because it's, you know, people look at logistics, every metric has to do, right? So it's like the churn, the customer acquisition, the profitability, your growth rates, the team that you've hired. So it's literally across the whole board, it has to stack up. And so there's not one metric that investors look at. Oh, it's literally like every single metric that they can figure out or proxies for your business have to be the way I describe it, like a star. A star level. And so, yeah, that's why it's become tougher. The bar to fundraise has become a lot higher, which is good, actually.

22:09
Murvah Iqbal
I think it's a good thing because I think good companies will continue to raise and also the lack of capital, maybe not as flowing as it previously was, will allow companies like ourselves to build better, robust companies. We focus more on getting profitability quicker. We focus on making every pound matter. So I actually don't think it's a bad thing. It's just. Hans Fundraise.

22:30
Amardeep Parmar
And so you went to there about profitability and one of the things that's obviously happened since we last spoke is the AI race and all of that stuff about how people are now trying to decrease their cost quite significantly and see if they can go further with less money and obviously just on the Series B. But is the plan now or how you think about the future rounds, you thinking to raise more money in the future or are you thinking about can we use really effectively and maybe not have to raise?

22:53
Murvah Iqbal
I mean there's definitely we, you know, we're in a position like we're in a good position where we don't have to, you know, really go out again to raise. But we want to build a huge generational defining company and we are, we know that's going to require further capital to do that if we want to go quick and so we can go slower and get there, but that's, we want to go, we want to be quicker and get there faster. And I think that's okay though if you're raising capital for that, if you're raising capital because you can demonstrate to an investor, if we invest X amount in three years, we'll be here or if we don't invest in that much actually we'll get there, but it might just take six or seven years.

23:29
Murvah Iqbal
And so for us for this capital, it's all about just doubling down in our engineering and data team to continue to build on our core product and our commercial team. And so for us it's really sensible deployment of capital and I think that's what investors want to see. They want to see sensible deployment. They want to see, okay, is this going to be a good return on investment? Can I, can I clearly see that? I'm going to 10x my capital in whatever the times horizon they're looking at. So as long as you have a really good compelling story and a good outcome, then it's, you know, then it's sensible and that's what venture capital is for and it is available.

24:02
Murvah Iqbal
But you have to be in a situation as a company robust enough because of the market environment to stand on your own two feet, which we can as well.

24:09
Amardeep Parmar
And Liverpool as well. What's the main growth areas you're looking at? So obviously you've been able to get some incredible clients so far.

24:15
Murvah Iqbal
Yeah.

24:15
Amardeep Parmar
But I'm sure you probably hit this for other people you want or other areas you want to move into too.

24:19
Murvah Iqbal
Every E Commerce brand, so every E commerce brand we want to be able to ship their parcels for. And so whether that's food, apparel, electronics, the whole, all of them. And we've got a lot of exciting brands lining up for this year and already next year, which is great. But also we want, we're currently, you know, have been serving the Greater London area but we are excited that we are expanding quite heavily now at the tail end of this year and also next year and the year after. We want to see a rapid UK expansion from here on out. And that's exciting for me and for the company, for Hive, for the team. Everyone to see us now. Okay, we really take that step forward is. Yeah, it's huge for us and obviously.

24:57
Amardeep Parmar
Some people who are in London will see your fans around. Right, We've got Hive on the flight.

25:01
Murvah Iqbal
You have a lot of parcels.

25:02
Amardeep Parmar
Yeah. And you're expanding that fleet quite significantly too, because I've seen you've got some like massive trucks and things now too. What's the strategy there? Or how are you looking at that side of building the fleet and those elements?

25:13
Murvah Iqbal
So we are actually globally the first end to end parcel Delivery company that's 100% electric, which is cool. And so we've had to really think creatively about the trucks, etc. That we're using because we don't just do the final mile electric, we also do the middle mile and that's sort of collecting parcels from all over the country and bringing them back. And we are the one of the first companies in the UK to roll out the new Mercedes E Aptros 600 electric trucks. And that's exciting for us to be one of the first companies to do that. So, yeah, that's a huge strategy, but that's a different sort of capital that we tap into. That's not the venture capital side. So that's a different strategy that we have for that. And that will continue. That will. That will expand.

25:52
Murvah Iqbal
And so hopefully on the motorways you'll. I actually saw one the other day, I was driving back from Manchester to London and I was just thinking to myself, oh, wouldn't it be cool if I saw a hired lorry right now? And I kid you not, 10 seconds later, a hive lorry drove past. I was like, whoa. So hopefully we'll bring more to the roads and more fun to the game. What was it? Red lorry, yellow lorry. So, yeah, exciting times on that side as well.

26:17
Amardeep Parmar
Is it weird when you see the vans about? Because it's like, I guess the drivers don't necessarily realise that you're like the CEO but you kind of feel like you should weigh you or something.

26:24
Murvah Iqbal
Yeah, no, it's funny enough, we actually have on slack in our company Slack, a channel called Spotted. So anytime someone sees a highway go on the road, take a snap and put it in. And I still do it every second time. It does not get boring. So I see. Especially when I'm in London, I might see one like every other day, which is crazy. And I still take. I still get as equally as excited as I saw the first. Sort of like, oh, hi. Oh, which is cool. I think the biggest thing though is when I receive messages from people who might have not spoken to in a while or hey, I just want to let you know that I'm receiving the high parcel today. Oh, hey, I just received a hired parcel and it was amazing.

27:01
Murvah Iqbal
That is really cool and that makes me stop. Oh, we're actually building something in the real world and people are interacting with it. That's pretty cool.

27:09
Amardeep Parmar
And I think I remember this from last month. So you have a few different things in Slack that you're using, like to engage with the employees and things. Have you got any other kind of quirks or things like that?

27:17
Murvah Iqbal
You do so many. We've got a channel called Zero Context Hived which is just like people putting random funny things is. And if I'm so if I'm not caught up on Slack for like two days, I'll go to Zero Context Hyped and I'll just laugh. We also have another one because we take sort of cybersecurity generally quite seriously. So we have. If anyone. Company policy is if you leave your laptop, you need to lock it. And so if anyone's even just got up quickly to go into the bathroom or quickly gone down to get some water and left their laptop open, there's a channel on Slack called Cyber Security is no joke. So someone will go in that channel from their laptop and post donuts.

27:52
Murvah Iqbal
And what that means, basically if your post is in that channel, you have to buy some donuts for the whole team. And that's really funny. So you have to find these moments of like fun and enjoyment within the company because yeah, as you mentioned, we've grown so quickly past four years and that is stressful for not just me, but for the whole team that's working at Hybe. People have been here for a very long time and so the job is stressful, it is demanding, but it's also fun and we want to make it a bit fun along the way. And so, yeah, lots of little quirks that we do across Slack, but even across the company, like sports day is approaching soon and that's a big deal for us.

28:24
Murvah Iqbal
So lots of different things along the way to make it a really fun place to work and to enjoy coming to.

28:31
Amardeep Parmar
Does everybody know that you obviously played for Manchester City? So on Sports Days everyone expects about the best from you.

28:35
Murvah Iqbal
Yeah, of course. And me and my co founder, ultra competitive. A couple of sports days ago we actually had to send a slack apology for how competitive were. So I've had tone it down a notch now. But the team tried to hype it up a little bit as well and try to get that competitive side out of both of us. But we tried to, you know, not bring it out as much. But yeah, they all know and they.

28:55
Amardeep Parmar
Echo completely because obviously as you've got bigger your relationship with people is going to change. Right. It's different when you've got five people like in a kitchen table set up to now 120.

29:05
Murvah Iqbal
Yeah.

29:06
Amardeep Parmar
How what have you kind of learned on that journey as well of like how you've had to change the way you've interacted with people. How do you try to keep still feel welcoming?

29:14
Murvah Iqbal
Definitely. So I think in the early days, every new enjoy any, every new joiner, I would have a coffee one one with anyone joining and now obviously we've had, we're having like too many starters join and now I've started to do a monthly catch up with them but I tried to just be myself with everyone. I want people to know about me, I want people to understand the story of why we started Hive. I want to be approachable. I want people in the office to think that they can speak to me. So generally when I do go in I will always try and have a chat with people. We have a Wednesday team lunch every Wednesday where one of the team members mums cooks food for us for all our sites and we all sit down, stop and have lunch together.

29:50
Murvah Iqbal
So they Wednesday today. So I'm going to have team lunch with the team which is exciting. So you've got to just bring my own personality to the team. Right. And once people get to know me and understand me, they feel, you know, I, they feel more, you know, comfortable with coming back to me and giving me candid feedback sometimes about the company which they're not appreciating, which is important. We need that. So it's trying to, you know, be as approachable and as open as possible to everyone. But of course there's so many team members now, not everyone I'm going to be able to speak to. So it's, you know, doing the things that we can systematically. We have a company all hands meeting every month making sure that we're present for those, making sure that well thought out.

30:30
Murvah Iqbal
So every Friday I do a weekly wrap up on Our slack of all the insights that the team sent to me that they want to share. So trying to keep up communication in lots of different ways to the team to make sure that everyone feels involved as the company is growing, to understand, hey, what's going on with commercial team? What's going with the tech team? What's going on operations and yeah, keeping it all gelled together because ultimately Hive will succeed depending on how well our team operates and how that is cohesive and that works.

30:57
Amardeep Parmar
Well, earlier you mentioned about the commercial team as being like a really big part of how Hive has been able to grow and that's to help you scale. What are the new functions you've brought in that have made a real difference from, say, a couple of years ago?

31:08
Murvah Iqbal
Yeah. So the commercial team, actually we've only brought out at the start this year. So up until the end of last year, it was primarily myself leading all the commercial side of the team. So that is an area that we've heavily, like, brought on a CCO VP of sales double down in that area. I think across the whole board. Right now we're actually a proper company. Like, we have, you know, you're all growing up. Yeah, yeah, exactly. We have a CEO, we have a cfo. Finance team is. Has, you know, really doubled down on finance, even though we have to.

31:36
Amardeep Parmar
We've got a lot of money in.

31:37
Murvah Iqbal
The bank as well, a lot of money flowing. So across all areas, we're actually now like a very serious company, which is cool and we need to be. And so, yeah, it's. I wouldn't say there's not an area that we haven't invested in team wise. It's now just doubling down on some areas of team, whether that be engineering, data, product, and commercial. So it's doubling down on key areas where we need to continue to grow and to continue to evolve in our strategic capabilities.

32:04
Amardeep Parmar
Is there anything that you've let go of as well that you think has been really important to free you up for time wise? Like, the team has taken over?

32:10
Murvah Iqbal
Yeah, I am inherently lazy, which makes it easy. So if I'm doing something and I feel like I shouldn't be doing this, I'm like, okay, which team should be doing this? Okay, we don't have a team and we need to find a team for this, hire a team. So you. That's the mindset. Mindset you have to do. You can't do everything. You have to figure out ways to delegate to get, you know, pass on a lot of things. And, you know, thankfully Now I'm in a position where we have an amazing team that I can trust and they deliver amazing results. So generally the team have got everything on the day to day side, really good. And the thing is that I, I want to spend my time doing is the stuff that I can't be replaced to.

32:48
Murvah Iqbal
So if it's spending time pitching to investors, if it's time spending time with key customers, that's an area that I'll never drop. I love spending time with customers because customers tell us what they're liking and what they're not liking. And that's super important for me to know. So you know that I will continue to hold and continue to maintain those key relationships and hiring. I, you know, we still, I still spend a lot of time in the hiring process because as I said earlier, that hybrid will scale and win based on our team. And so that's a really important place where I spend my time. So every final interview still has to have sign off by me or my co founder and so that will remain as well. So you just got to figure out, okay, what can I not let go of?

33:28
Murvah Iqbal
And what can I let go of? And thankfully being an inherently lazy person makes that easy for me to do.

33:34
Amardeep Parmar
And the other thing that I always think about too, and I always think the best people, the people are going to be most successful. Right. Are the ones who are both lazy or have high standards.

33:43
Murvah Iqbal
Yes.

33:44
Amardeep Parmar
Because then you're like, I really hate that I have to work this hard. And it forced you to innovate.

33:48
Murvah Iqbal
Yes.

33:49
Amardeep Parmar
Whereas if you're hard working naturally and you have high standards, you'll just keep working hard forever.

33:54
Murvah Iqbal
Yeah.

33:54
Amardeep Parmar
But then you don't change things, you need to change. Right. And this is the thing, I really resent some of the stuff I do. It was like, we need to make more money so I can hire somebody so I don't have to do this anymore. And I think that really helps. Right. With some people, they take such pride in working so hard. It's like, I don't want to work hard. I'd rather not. I'd rather hire people and have the money to do that.

34:12
Murvah Iqbal
And the thing is though, the jobs over and out. Right. So I'm still working really hard and doing a lot of stuff, but it's.

34:18
Amardeep Parmar
Working harder than things you want to do.

34:19
Murvah Iqbal
Yeah, exactly. And to be honest, not always, actually. Sometimes I'm doing stuff that I don't want to be doing, but it's important I have to do. So it's just really understanding that you've got to figure out how to scale. Right. You can't do everything yourself. It's like, yeah, initially I was doing every delivery myself. Obviously that can't happen anymore. And so then I go to, okay, I can't do that. I need to hire people to do deliveries and I will manage the deliveries. Obviously, we get bigger. I can't manage all the deliveries now because I need to do other things. I need to find new customers and stuff. And slowly, slowly, you just evolve and evolve. And to the point now where, okay, I need to be making sure that we're on track of our strategy.

34:56
Murvah Iqbal
Okay, are we doing the right things now for two, three years? How are we setting up different things? So the. The role. You're still working really hard. It just becomes different. And things that I can't be doing. And even with this fundraiser, had a great support my CFO this time. Last time I didn't. And so everything is evolving and getting and changing. But it's important to really be really intentional about where you're spending your time and being really relentless and prioritisation. You have to be.

35:23
Amardeep Parmar
And then with the hiring aspect too. So you said you had the final sign off. Right. So what is it that takes somebody who's. Somebody who's close to being good enough?

35:31
Murvah Iqbal
Yeah.

35:32
Amardeep Parmar
But then you're just not quite sure and you didn't quite take them on. What is that bit that just is that extra little source there that you look for?

35:38
Murvah Iqbal
Yeah, it's that we have company values, so I'm always testing for those. And you're not going to get through the door at HIVED if you're not kind. Right. Like, you can be the best person in the world, you can have the best cv, but if. If we don't think you're kind, you're not making it through the door. But you have to balance that with tenacity. So that's our other one. Like, you have to be tenacity. You have to be tenacious because working in logistics is gritty, it's hard. And so we kind of like, are you going to get through the hard times? Are you going to break through those doors? Even when it's like, you know, Christmas peaks and things like that, Are you going to be on the warehouse floor? So kind, tenacity, resourceful.

36:16
Murvah Iqbal
We're building a huge company, but, like, how can we be resourceful in terms of how we think, how we deploy resources? That's a really important one. And fourthly, curious, how are you thinking about the World differently. That's really important because we need to be game changes. We need to think differently. So that's basically what I'm looking for in the final interview. And it might only be a 15 minute conversation, but I'm really trying to understand those key points about you and really figuring out, okay, you're going to really work hard and it's going to work out. So it's less so much about, you know, the team have done the filtering by then about sort of qualifications, etc. I'm just really getting vibe check at the end.

36:52
Amardeep Parmar
I think another thing I think about a lot is that kind versus nice.

36:55
Murvah Iqbal
Yes.

36:55
Amardeep Parmar
Where a lot of people are nice but it might mean that they're not saying what needs to be said.

37:00
Murvah Iqbal
Yeah.

37:00
Amardeep Parmar
Where it's better to be kind. It's like, okay, this is a good idea because this is this reason.

37:04
Murvah Iqbal
Yes.

37:04
Amardeep Parmar
Rather than great idea. But then you don't think about it. And that person has a miscommunication too.

37:09
Murvah Iqbal
Yeah. Sometimes being kind means saying hard things and it is better to be kind. You know, we've had to have lots of difficult conversations where I know that for this person it's not working out hyped and I know actually in that moment the kindest thing to do is let them know because they're not also happy here. And so being kind is. You have to. Sometimes that means saying that things that are not really nice. Remember last time were in the podcast you were like, hey, I need to pause because your hair's that, that's kind to do that. Right. And so you have to find the things that you know, you have to do that. And so you can't misinterpreted kind by nice because yeah. Being kind sometimes is making difficult decisions and doing the hard things at the start. Yeah.

37:51
Amardeep Parmar
And the other bit you mentioned there is being curious and having different insights and ideas. Has been anybody recently who stood out where they came with an idea, like why didn't we think of that beforehand and then now that's going to be implemented or how are you collecting those ideas or getting that too bottom up approach.

38:07
Murvah Iqbal
I guess sometimes to be honest, I have to give a lot of credit to my co founder him, TS Stutz. He spends a lot of time thinking about the world differently and it's funny how we work. He'll bring some lots of crazy ideas and he'll use me as a filter almost to be like but not sure on this one. This is a bit too crazy. Yes. This is Gold. And that is like filtering down to team. You see the team now bringing amazing ideas across the table. And the way you encourage that is by if a bad idea happens, you don't, oh, that's a terrible idea. Not going to go through. You encourage it because people then will feel more comfortable to bring ideas and really understand which is a one way door, which is a two way door.

38:47
Murvah Iqbal
One way door decisions you have to be really careful about because there's no coming back from a two door. Two way door decisions. You can think, okay, we can try it. If it doesn't work out, we'll learn from it and take it back. So really trying. I guess that part of the company comes from Matthias, but it's infused across a lot of team members now. And that's the kind of mental framework, one way door or two way door. But we have to be think different. We have to differently. So yeah, I think Matthias is getting his inspiration from all parts of places. I think about the company culture and how it can be different there. And that's what I'm learning a lot. I read a lot of books, look at other companies, oh, wow, they've implemented this. This would be really cool.

39:25
Murvah Iqbal
Well, actually that can't work for our company because we've got multiple sites in different locations. So there's a lot of learnings to be had. And luckily there's some amazing companies out there that we can learn from. But it's like learning and tweaking and figuring out what makes sense for Hyde.

39:38
Amardeep Parmar
I think not enough people do that. It's. They think about, oh, we need to figure this out ourselves. Like, okay, how are the companies growing? What distribution channels are they using? Oh, does that work for us or not? And there's like so much wealth of information out there about strategies and like, if we don't listen to this podcast, you listen to 20 episodes of this podcast, you'd be like, oh, she did it that way. Maybe that'll work for me too. And it's, yeah, it's just think about things in that way. And one of the hard things is balancing that internal customer feedback side with also getting this outside perspectives and ideas too and trying to juggle that and manage that. Right. And I'm guessing you're going to agree there's probably no magic framework for that.

40:14
Amardeep Parmar
No, it's trying to just figure out how that fits in view.

40:17
Murvah Iqbal
It's staying true to yourself, is being open to feedback, is being open to inspiration. It's really having that lens in the world, but then filtering it for what was hived or what works for you. And I think we take a lot of customer feedback, but also the customers might not know that nuance to why a decision is made like that. So kind of filtering the feedback. So it's really taking as much data points as you can and figuring out, okay, actually a lot of people have said the same thing here. They're probably onto something. Let's double click and double down into that. So it's taking signals, it's learning, but ultimately it's, you know, getting consensus for what works for your company.

40:54
Murvah Iqbal
And that can be tweaking things as well that what you've heard or seen or learned and to make it fit for your company.

41:00
Amardeep Parmar
And you mentioned a hive was going really fast, but you've had to grow faster than that, right?

41:04
Murvah Iqbal
Yeah.

41:04
Amardeep Parmar
What do you think, like, compared to, say, you two years ago, you're like, I've really grown. Like, take a moment to just appreciate your own progress. Right. In terms of, like, what do you feel like? I never thought maybe you didn't have that belief at that stage you could be the person you are today, but what do you feel like you did? Yeah.

41:19
Murvah Iqbal
So exactly.

41:19
Amardeep Parmar
Perfect. Yeah, exactly.

41:21
Murvah Iqbal
You have to manifest it. Like, absolutely. You have to. There's never been a day where I'm not. I've always just like, yeah, of course we're going to be X, Y, of course we're going to be at this scale. Of course we're going to ipo. Like, that's like, of course I'm just going along that journey. Yeah. And so I think I'm not. Yeah. I don't appreciate the successes along the way because in my head, I'm like, we are going to ipo. We have to go get. We're going there. And so it's just about the journey along the way. And I think the biggest learning that I've taken the past few years is just. Yeah, it's really that mental respite is learning when to take it and when not to take it. And listen to my body a lot more. I think last year was 2024.

42:01
Murvah Iqbal
In middle of 2024, I was really tired. I was quite ill, and I was like, whoa, okay. That was like a reality check. Slow down. Focus on health, Focus on your mindset, because that will ultimately lead to the big picture. And it's, you know, the famous. It is a matter of the not sprint. I mean, that quote has been said millions of times. It's. And the reason why it's been said millions has because it's very true. And so I think that's a big lesson I have to learn and just really understanding that. So spending time with other people, like in other industries and learning from people and being open to that and yeah, I think just. Just enjoying it a bit more. I think now I'm a lot more smiling at than I ever was. And probably, if you look.

42:40
Amardeep Parmar
I agree with that.

42:40
Murvah Iqbal
If you look at the last podcast now, I think the last podcast, that came after a really busy day, and I probably texted you five minutes before, like, can I?

42:48
Amardeep Parmar
I think you did. Yeah. We booked the studio. We're paying for it.

42:54
Murvah Iqbal
And that was immediately disrespectful or anything. That was just because I was so busy. The last one on my mind. I want to do this podcast now. I'm just a lot more chill and now, and I think that's. That's the biggest mind shift I've had.

43:05
Amardeep Parmar
And you think some of that is coming with reps as well now? You're so much more used to it. And obviously there's things you do behind the scenes in order to get better. And you said you work with a coach, and I think with some of it, too. It's just the more you do, you'll naturally just feel it's just not as hard as a bunch, which is some of these different things.

43:19
Murvah Iqbal
No, it is really hard still.

43:21
Amardeep Parmar
It's not hard. You're great at this.

43:22
Murvah Iqbal
No, no. It's like. It's really hard. I think the key thing is you've just got to learn to enjoy the process as you go along.

43:29
Amardeep Parmar
I learned with the podcast, like, this isn't as hard as it would have been two years ago, maybe.

43:33
Murvah Iqbal
No. Because I've come to a mindset now that I actually want to share a lot more about what I'm going through. Because I know that two years ago, I was probably listening to podcasts of people two years ahead of me. And I think it's like giving back.

43:46
Amardeep Parmar
Right.

43:46
Murvah Iqbal
I'm now listening to podcasts or things like, a few years ahead of me and things like, what can I learn of them? And so if I'm learning with certain people, I need to be able to share my learnings. And I think I've become more comfortable with that and understanding that I want to give back to different entrepreneurs. And I think in order to do that, I have to do more things like this. And I want people to understand me for who I am and how I think about the company. Also that I make a lot of mistakes. Along the way. And that's okay.

44:12
Amardeep Parmar
So obviously you come in 200 episodes later. Let's say two years time again. Right. So another 200 episodes, is that right?

44:19
Murvah Iqbal
Yep, yep.

44:20
Amardeep Parmar
You're coming again. Right. So quick math.

44:22
Murvah Iqbal
Yeah.

44:22
Amardeep Parmar
So what would you love to be able to say like this, what you've done in the next two years, or you come in here, we'll. We'll play this moment back. So I have a little TV here where we get up like this day. Two years ago, you said you'll be sitting here and you'd be able to say, I've done this. What would you love to be able to say in two years time?

44:40
Murvah Iqbal
I think that the culture at Hybe is still amazing. The team, you know, the team is still here, everyone's there and enjoying, and Hybe is still one of the best places to work. I think that for me is ultimately the biggest indicator, because if we're doing well as a company, like I said earlier, our main reason why we will win is how our team executes. So I think that. And secondly, all the biggest retailers that you're shopping online, I want more of them to be hyped. So when you say to me, I'm ordering Nike, I want that to be delivered by hyped, all those brands, like, I want more and more of those.

45:11
Murvah Iqbal
I think, you know, from the last two years to now, I was able to, you know, spit out so many more new brands and I want to do that next time and more. So I think, you know, ultimately it's just I have a hit list of the top 10 brands I want to bring on. I would really be happy if I'm sat here next time thinking, okay, yeah, we achieved all of that and the team is really happy, motivated, and we're still growing rapidly. I think those are the key areas that I would like to be here in two years and see.

45:39
Amardeep Parmar
So we're going to get to Quickfire now.

45:40
Murvah Iqbal
Yeah.

45:41
Amardeep Parmar
And the first one, which you said last time. So the second time we have to do this, you have to think three new people.

45:46
Murvah Iqbal
Yeah.

45:46
Amardeep Parmar
So who are free Asian entrepreneurs in the UK or investors that you think are doing incredible work? I'd love to shout them out.

45:53
Murvah Iqbal
Investors as well. Okay, so I think first is Simi. I think how he's grown. Simmer eats over the past few years has been phenomenal. And I think he's done in a really smart, lean way, which is really cool. Secondly, Dimple, I think she's doing amazing things at Nature Metrics, leading that and I think I often look to her as well and see what she's doing, like taking inspiration and she's amazing things there. And I think thirdly, Sakshi, I think I love her products. I need to eat healthier and you know how she's enabling. That is really cool to see. So it's funny that two I get, two of them are related to food.

46:33
Amardeep Parmar
I was thinking about that's kind of two persons there.

46:36
Murvah Iqbal
I'm not sure why, but yeah, it's sort of. I guess they're top of the mind right now. There's loads beneath that, but those are, I think current I'm thinking about.

46:44
Amardeep Parmar
And if you want to find out more about you find out more about Hyped.

46:47
Murvah Iqbal
Where do they go to LinkedIn, definitely. Or just message me on Instagram. Open try. I try to be open to respond to a lot of people. But yeah, anywhere or just pop.

46:57
Amardeep Parmar
Me an email and the audience could help you today. Hopefully somebody working at Nike could be.

47:02
Murvah Iqbal
Like, yeah, I mean if you're ahead of an E commerce brand and you want to improve your delivery, yeah, definitely reach out to us. I think that. And also I think the main thing is we're hiring a lot of roles. So look on our website, if there's a role that speaks out to you, please apply. And we take applications that don't meet the normal criteria and normal mould. So just apply.

47:22
Amardeep Parmar
So it's been great to have you on again.

47:24
Murvah Iqbal
Thank you.

47:24
Amardeep Parmar
Have you any final words?

47:27
Murvah Iqbal
No, just thank you for having me, I guess again. And you know, being a huge supporter from early on, I think you've always been a huge supporter for the, for generally the British Asian entrepreneur community, but also for me. I think Yibo is put me in the spotlight whenever open doors for me. So appreciate that.

‍ 47:44
Amardeep Parmar Thank you for watching. Don't forget to subscribe. See you next time.