The UBER of Car Rentals

In this riveting UnNoticed Entrepreneur podcast, Ammar Akhtar unveils the inspiring journey of Final Rentals, a revolutionary platform connecting local car rental businesses worldwide. From humble beginnings in Pakistan to establishing 303 locations across 41 countries, Ammar shares invaluable insights into entrepreneurial resilience, fundraising strategies, and digital transformation. Discover how he's empowering small business owners like "Stavros" by providing them access to global booking platforms, challenging multinational car rental giants with a customer-centric approach. Key discussion points include navigating multicultural entrepreneurship, raising investment capital, building scalable tech solutions, and maintaining a transparent, human-centred business model that prioritises customer experience and local business growth.

Topics:

• 00:01-02:36: Ammar's entrepreneurial journey
• 02:36-04:40: Origins of Final Rentals
• 04:40-07:29: Transition to Cardiff
• 07:29-10:17: Business growth strategy
• 10:17-14:41: Engaging local car rental businesses
• 14:41-18:07: Customer experience philosophy
• 18:07-20:27: Quality assurance approach
• 20:27-24:36: Technology and customer service
• 24:36-26:50: App development strategy
• 26:50-35:29: Fundraising and leadership insights

#EntrepreneurSuccess #TechInnovation #GlobalBusinessStrategy #StartupGrowth #DigitalTransformation

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Chapters

• 11:12 [Ad] Everyday AI: Your daily guide to grown with Generative AI
• 11:59 (Cont.) The UBER of Car Rentals

Transcript

Jim James (00:01)
When you go on holiday and you want to rent a car, you're faced with just a few of the very large branded networks. And in fact, I was having a conversation the other day about how tiring it is, because when you arrive, they try and sell you all the add-ons when you just get off the plane. It's really, really tiring. And I loved Stavros in Crete, who ran his own car rental shop. And I love to walk down the street and meet the guy who actually runs the shop, who owns

the car rental business. But if you are booking a car for a holiday or a business trip, it's very hard to find Stavros until you get there. Well, my guest today has solved that problem for people like you and me who are traveling and also for the person like Stavros in Crete who offers a wonderful personalized service, but until now couldn't be found by people unless they're walking down the street. We're gonna have a conversation with Ammar Akhtar,

who is joining us from actually Cardiff. He's got a great life story, we'll hear about that. But he's actually changing the way that we can relate to the car rental companies, but he's also liberating international clients for people that run local car companies. Ammar, welcome to the show, founder and CEO of a company called Final Rentals.

Ammar Akhtar (01:20)
Jim, thank you very much for having me and thank you for such fantastic intro. I mean, you have really found the Stavros.

Jim James (01:27)
I have, and Stavros, fantastic, runs the business, was willing to stay open later than the Europe car. His cars were clean. His actually daughter was helping, you know, keep the shop open until we could get back from the beach in time. Just a wonderful personal service. Great insurance, great price, everything I wanted, but I wouldn't have found him unless I'd been walking down the street. Final rentals, you're changing that, aren't you? You are helping people

to find that person who runs a company and really cares about you when you arrive in country. So tell us about Final Rentals. You've got a bit of a backstory from Pakistan to Dubai to Cardiff of all places. And so we're going to talk about that a little bit, then we'll talk about how you've built this amazing platform with what we call a dual avatar strategy. You're getting both people that want to rent cars and people that want to hire the cars to us, but also you've raised money recently. So we're going to talk about that

as well. Tell us first of all, why did you start the Finalrentals.com business Ammar?

Ammar Akhtar (02:36)
Yeah, absolutely. So Jim, thank you very much for putting it all together. So moved from Pakistan to Dubai in 2006 when I was 18, 19 years old as a young web developer. And as destiny would have it, my first project was to build a website for budget rent a car. So budget was a very, very big brand. And it was its first, let's say, entry to the UAE, to the Gulf market as a big franchise. So I ended up working with Budget 50, Europe car enterprise.

Herds, Alamo, all these companies in the GCC built their platforms, built their booking engines, loyalty systems for over 16 years as a group CTO, as I grew older. While I was working with these companies, I realized that they have so many locations, people, cars, resources. And I was always thinking how, like you mentioned, Stavros will compete with this or how Stavros will handle this

new wave of expansion because all these companies were having older bookings from a Travelocity or a Holiday Autos or Booking.com or Kayak, Sky Scanner. And I was just wondering what will happen to a Stavros because half of this industry is actually comprising of many Stavroses, Hoans, Gyms, and they're in a car rental business with 40 cars, 60 cars, 50 odd cars. And as you mentioned, the family business, daughter is helping the father to keep the shop open.

I was just thinking about this, how can one build this business or call it a digital franchise and help all these guys come under one umbrella, serve through certain standards and then join these bigger online platforms because I had the technology, I had the knowledge of this. So that was the inception or advent of final rentals. That's how I started and I started with my first two locations in Dubai.

Jim James (04:27)
So started in Dubai, but then you've moved across to Cardiff. Not an obvious lifestyle choice, especially in light of all the rain that, actually, guess Dubai had a lot of rain recently as well, didn't it? And the UAE had a lot of rain too.  I mean why Cardiff?

Ammar Akhtar (04:40)
That's right.

So that's a very interesting question because I will be honest with you, two and a half years ago, I landed at Cardiff Central Station and I had absolutely no clue if I'm in a new country or if it's a part of the UK or how it works. I had no idea, right? And I wanted to own a small place or rent a small place in Cardiff. But I think fast forward today, I think Cardiff really owns me to be honest. So how it works is while I was working in Dubai, I was very happy. I was winning awards. I was one of the top

entrepreneurs in the the the current space and then came COVID-19. When COVID-19 happened, I realized that Dubai wasn't the place for crisis. And what do I mean by that is there were no laws for furlough, for example, there were no government support in terms of how they're going to help us innovators because we're not greedy people. We don't have money in the bank, but we create innovation. Right. And that was a time. Right. And I realized

it wasn't the place for me. as an innovator, just, I think I crossed my time for Dubai and now it's time to explore something else. So I applied for a tax seed, Poland prize tax seed program by European Union. I got into the program, moved to Dynsk in Poland, spent a of years there, built business further, added more locations, grew into Europe, Malta, Caribbean, Florida, worked with some incredible young talent.

And then one fine day I got a call from UK embassy in Warsaw and they said, hey, do you want to have a tea with us? Come, let's have a tea. I was like, okay. So I took a train to Warsaw. Absolutely no clue. I'm like, okay, let's go. Let's see how the embassy is, how the UK embassy is. Let's just see it as a trip to the UK embassy. So when they're like, you are this English speaking founder. Why don't you go to UK? We have innovator visa. You can get an innovator visa. Can go there. Can raise funding. UK is much, you know,

much better in terms of fundraising and all that in comparison to Poland or Europe as a whole. So I studied that whole program and I applied for it, got into it and guess what? I landed in Cardiff. I'm a white person so I have been to London, Coventry, Birmingham, all these places, Scotland. But the moment I landed, I was having a cross UK trip to find a place for myself. And the moment I landed in Cardiff, my first foot in Cardiff, it's like Neil Armstrong, So a giant leap for my company, I would say.

So my first steps in Cardiff, I'm like, you know what, this is my place. This is my Silicon Valley. And since then, rest is history. And I've already looked back, raised money from Welsh angels, raised money from the Welsh financial institutions, raised money from London, from Silicon Valley. It has been quite a journey.

Jim James (07:29)
That's a wonderful journey. I've been to Cardiff, live just across the river, across the estuary, and I live just outside Bath. And Cardiff is a beautiful, a beautiful city. And Wales is an amazing, an amazing country too. Well, we're very blessed then that the UK has this outreach program from the embassy and they've brought you back here to the UK and creating jobs and reaching out. Let's just look then at

Ammar Akhtar (07:46)
Yeah.

Jim James (07:57)
how you've been building the business, Ammar, because

when you have a platform as you do, you have always this problem of you've got to find the customers and the suppliers, haven't you? Because if you have all the people that want to rent cars and nobody that's renting the cars, that's not going to work. And conversely, if you have lots of people with car rental businesses and no incoming traffic, you're not going to acquire any more. So can you just take us through the strategy of building the two parts of the equation?

Ammar Akhtar (08:31)
Yeah, absolutely. So I always tell my team, guys, we are in a supply chain business. And they're like, what do you mean by that? I'm like, we create supply, then we also create demand. And if both ends are working together, only then we are successful. So when it comes to the supply side, we scout. We try and find local businesses around the world. We have a world map always in front of us, the most attractive urban centers that we want to attract, the most important airports.

So we have a method to do this madness and we basically approach those companies through business directories, through Facebook pages. You'd be surprised, some businesses only have a Facebook page, actually. So my team is checking where they are, we have a chat with them, we have a call with them, and we build our supply base city over city, region over region, province over province, in mostly the highly touristic, inbound countries, right? So that's how we approach the supply side. On the demand side,

we are always connecting with platforms who will actually create more bookings for us. So we are connected with a kayak, sky scanner. We are also connected with Discover Network, VIP cars, Outroom cars, BSP auto, autorentals.com. So all these platforms tap into our magic API. And through our magic API, they can reach a gym or Benz or a Stavros and they can book through their supply, their cars, using our magic

connectivity platform. So that's we are solving both sides, both ends of this business. My vision is to, right now we have a booking every eight minutes on our platform, but my vision is to bring it down to every eight seconds and then maybe every eight microseconds.

Jim James (10:17)
Well, there'll be a lot of happy Stavroses out there. There'll be a lot of kit-babs being in. Well, that's wonderful. So you've got then this dual, you know, one-to-one outreach, as you say, a lot of companies, especially in maybe more local markets, don't even have a website, right? And so they'll have a Facebook page, maybe, as you say. Then direct outreach. What do you have to say to those

people to a Stavros, for example, who's got a business, he's built the brand, he's been in there for 30 years, he's paid for the great location. Stavros was on the corner, in fact, at the busiest street where we were. And he says, well, thanks, Ammar, but I've got enough business, I don't want to lose my brand, you're going to take my margins away. Those would be, I could imagine, a few of the objections you have to overcome.

Ammar Akhtar (10:57)
Yes.

Yeah, absolutely. So first thing first is, I think we all have ambitions as people. So Stavros has seen Hertz, Europe car, maybe on the other side of the street, he has seen those bigger brands. And he sort of looks at them, wow, you guys are also on these platforms. So there's a bit of an envy element in here, right? And obviously, Hertz will never have a chance with Stavros because it's Hertz or it's Europe car. They have their own strategy of expansion. They also own the cars

and all those things, right? So when we have a chat with someone like Stavros, for example, so you will meet actually two kinds of Stavroses. Number one is the one that you mentioned that, you know, he's saying, I have 40 cars, I'm always occupied, all done, my cars are on the road. I don't want, you know, more haste in my business. I don't want, you know, to serve 20 customers a day. I'm happy with serving eight customers a day and I'm fine. And I don't have a capacity for that. I respect that, completely understand.

But then you'll find a second type of service who will say, have 60 cars, but you know what, it can be 240 cars if it's done right, if I get more demand, which is not there at the moment. And I really don't know how to get to a kayak or a sky scanner or all these platforms. that's the service is a person that is very entrepreneurial or he wants to scale, right? Scale. So when we are, let's say, filtering out all those contacts that we have or all those leads,

the first discovery call that we have with these companies is to understand what is their entrepreneurial angle, right? If they don't have that, it's okay. We respect that and we shake hands. There's no problem. So that first discovery call is important to vet if they are actually a final rental material or not.

Jim James (12:58)
Right, and you might even find, of course, that the second generation is saying, come on, Dad, you've got the first generation of the business up and running. Where do we go from here, right? Let's start with his daughter, maybe, and say, this is great, but Dad, you know.

Ammar Akhtar (13:04)
Yeah.

So.

So one thing is a blessing or maybe not sure. So when I was doing my MBA, I was doing my MBA, so I did it from Italy, from MIP, Milano. And because Italy is a land of family businesses, many family businesses are there. So they also teach you how to run a family business. So we actually have a course in our MBA, how to run a family business, which is unlike any other MBA, to be honest.

So I've studied that and I love family business. I'm a family person. I love family businesses. So when I'm dealing with those companies, I can tell you it is incredible. And you're so right. There are many companies who were like 28 years old, 30 years old in the business, legacy businesses. And now the daughter is running the business. Father has been taking a back seat. He has retired. And those businesses are one of the most successful businesses on the platform. They make a lot of money. They have incredible service.

The vision is there, the young vision, the young blood. And I think I've been able to tap into that entrepreneurial flair of the people. because they look at me also as an entrepreneur, this guy came from nowhere. He came from Pakistan. And today he runs a business that is spanning 303 locations, 41 countries. How on earth he did that? So they look at me and at this guy, wow, man, I can learn from him. And vice versa, of course. I think I've been able to tap into that emotional part of this business.

And in the end, we all are human beings and we are emotional. I think that's where financials becomes very powerful for them. And their relationship with me is very powerful as well.

Jim James (14:41)
Yeah.

Yes, Ammar. Ammar, think as well, what you've also picked up on is that they'll recognize that if they don't find scale and inbound, those multinational brands will eventually squeeze them out, right? So from a, you know, it's not sustainable in the end to just be independent on your own. What about the issues of brand and margin for Stavros and his daughter?

Ammar Akhtar (14:58)
Absolutely. And they are. Yeah.

Jim James (15:13)
Where do you take the margin from their business?

Ammar Akhtar (15:19)
So we have very small margins on every picked up bookings. So good news is we do not charge anything on ancillary products. So if they are selling a baby seat, a GPS, e-sim card or full insurance, half insurance, we don't really take any commission on that. We only take commission on rental days for cars on the road. And that's all. But just unlike any other program in the world, all these bigger brands, they take commission from every single thing. Right?

That is one very very clear approach second thing is taxation. So our commission is applied after taxation after taxes to keep it very very clean keeping the books very clean So I've never heard from a staffers that hey Ammar your commission is too high because because he has had those conversations before with some platforms and he knows how much a platform is charging. So so when they hear my approach, I like wow, this is fantastic. Absolutely. Absolutely non-greedy approach to business. So volume,

so I believe in volume than just having 10 bookings and making 30%. I would rather make 8% on 1,000 bookings. So that's my approach to business. And I think that has worked really well in almost every country.

Jim James (16:27)
And Ammar, from a practical point of view, does an individual rent the car from FinalRentals.com or do you really make the introduction and then the contract is with the rental company?

Ammar Akhtar (16:43)
So legally, fine and rentals is the introducer or the facilitator of this whole booking process and and we own the whole experience like you will be using fine and rentals, it'll be a brand, there's a way of dealing like like how you book for you know from Ibiz hotels for example, you know, you know what to expect in every country the same in a hotel chain. So we we we manage the experience but your contract is with the local company because because in fairness you own the car you are the local guy you own the car

because I do not own the car, there's no point that I will have a contract with the customer.

Jim James (17:16)
Great. And it's important for the customer to know as well then that they're using your engine almost as a sort of a meta search engine really, isn't it then? And then we've still got a relationship with Stavros, which is part of the ethos, which is to bring business to the small person, rather a smaller operator, I should say, rather than to exploit their weakness.

Ammar Akhtar (17:32)
That's right.

Well, customer knows it. when you make your booking, when you have a booking voucher, it is clearly mentioned that Finerunters is a franchiser of this booking, and this booking will be served by, let's say, Jim James Limited in Greece, as an example. So it is very, clear. We keep everything transparent. Whereas in my industry, transparency is the last thing that people apply. And for me, transparency is the first thing to apply.

Jim James (18:07)
And in terms of the assurance then for the consumer who's thinking, well, I'd like to get a car for example, you've got Jordan car rentals here with FAQs. What reassurance do I have that when I get there, as opposed to Europe car, Hertz, Avis, by and large, we're paying for peace of mind because the cars are all the same. What peace of mind do you give the consumer, Ammar?

Ammar Akhtar (18:16)
Hmm.

Jim James (18:37)
That they're booking from finalrentals.com that the person delivering the car at the destination is going to be there, the car's clean, you know, it's got insurance. What sort of quality assurance do you provide?

Ammar Akhtar (18:51)
So first thing is we do not work with any company that is not following our quality guidelines, right? Or they do not really tick all the boxes before even having a chat of any kind of partnership, right? So we have certain minimum quality standards, right? And then we have a chat and then say what exactly you can do to, let's say, elevate this whole experience. That's number one. Number two is when you make a booking, there are multiple touch points.

So exactly after you make a booking, you will receive your booking voucher. You receive all the pickup instructions. And same thing also goes to the local partner, right? And they confirm that the booking is in the system. Everything is ready to go. So customer also has touch points and the provider also has touch points. Second and the most important thing is if anything happens, for example, you're not able to make it to the location and you are on no show, as an example, or you have to cancel last minute or

something happened, your money will go back to your card. We will not charge a single penny from you. We don't charge any no-show fee. We don't charge any cancellation fee, right? Because we understand that not showing up is not your hobby, right? It's not that you're doing it on purpose. Something must have happened. But we always check on video, you know, happened, know, a flight got canceled or something happened and you can always rebook. We do not charge a single penny on any of this process.

Jim James (20:14)
And presumably the car rental operator, Stavros or whoever it is, they're aligned with the policies that you've got, which are really all about creating a better customer service experience than the multinationals who seem to be competing to offer the lowest price, but with the largest number of optional extras, which can sometimes double your rental fee, actually.

Ammar Akhtar (20:27)
Yeah.

Absolutely, absolutely. So we have this thing, know, it's just a comparison, right? So online world is all about, like you mentioned, if you can guarantee peace of mind or if you have sold that peace of mind, then you will be sold out. And what do I mean by that? If you buy anything from Amazon, for example, right, and you say, I don't want it, Amazon will take it back from you. No questions asked and your money will come back to your account, right?

I ordered a few books for my kid a few months ago and those books were delivered somewhere else. They were not delivered to my post box, for example. I told Amazon, I didn't get them. Okay, no problem, sir. You have £40 back to your account. Instantly, it took 30 seconds. No questions asked. I educate all our operators to think in the same way. Your online customer will never trust you if you have, let's say, hidden costs,

or you take the money and you don't give the money back. And we don't want to owe a single penny. I don't want to see a single penny on my balance sheet that is taken off from a customer who didn't use our service. So I have this very, very clear message. It's all across the board. We don't want to see a single pound on my balance sheet that is not mine. Customer hasn't taken any car, but we're still showing that as a transaction. That's not how we'll do business. And that is very clear. We tell them, day one,

that's how we're going to operate. they understand. Some of them don't understand this. They say, no, I will charge for a no-show. I will charge for cancellation. I understand. We don't align. We move on.

Jim James (22:19)
So it's very clear that if the rental terms across all the operators that are on finalrentals.com would provide the same level of customer service and terms, or they're not on there. Because what obviously one is concerned about with some of the search engines is that an entrepreneur has gone and sort of scraped and got whoever they can find, you know, and they're making money off of commissions, off of running ads. But am I your

Ammar Akhtar (22:46)
Yes.

Jim James (22:50)
working to offset any anxiety of the consumer by this sort of quality assurance, which maybe sort of countermands the current branding that hurts Avis Europe Car. They've got the brand, which gives the brand promise. And you've got to do that in a different way, haven't you, by being aligned with your operators.

Ammar Akhtar (23:12)
Yeah, absolutely. And also, I will not take names here, but you one of my friend, you he booked from a very big brand, you very, very big brand, and he booked from Birmingham Airport, right? So he took the car. And then what happened is he drove to London and he wanted to extend his rental for seven more days. He was paying them for seven more days. He called the company, press one for this, press two for this, press three for this. And he was and he was in that vicious cycle of pressing buttons. Nothing happened. Could not extend the rental.

Could not speak to a single human being on the phone, which is unfortunate in today's day and age. Went to the chatbot, chatbot was useless, right? Went to the broker from where he booked and they said, go to that local company. So it was like a game of ping pong. And he called me and he said, Ammar, guess what? You are doing the right thing. I said, what do mean? He said, you make it so easy for consumers that if someone wants to extend, what do have to do? I said, if they want to extend, they have to swipe right on the app and say how many cars,

how many days they want to extend to and it's done. And he said, I've used this company and I could not believe what he was telling me. It was just unbelievable for me how it is even possible.

Jim James (24:22)
So you mentioned that you've got an app, Ammar. So where is the app? Because on your website, I can't see a link to an app. So how does that work? Where do people get an app for finalrentals.com?

Ammar Akhtar (24:36)
So our app is on iOS and Android stores, right? And basically, what we do is we disconnect the experiences. So when you're on the web, we don't want to send you to an app because we want you to do it on the web. And when you're on the app, we don't want to send you to a web. So that's why we have two separate experiences, right? So our app is available, and you will be happy to know that 19% of all our transactions that happen

are happening on our app. One nine, yes.

Jim James (25:06)
One nine, 19 or one nine, okay. Out of interest, why are you separating the web and the mobile experiences?

Ammar Akhtar (25:14)
Because these are two different customers. So what we learned from our different, let's say heat maps and also the consumer behavior, there are some customers who just love doing it on the web. And then there are customers who are like, know what, I'm only going to do it on the app. It is also a generational thing, right? And that's why before we used to have like a top banner, download the mobile app and all those things, but we have taken those off because

that was sort of a friction or add-on step for the customer, whereas we want them to book and search and book, right? So searching is the most important element for us, and we have improved our searching on location on the website as well as the app.

Jim James (25:57)
They're interesting. You're the first person I've heard who's now separated those two out. But also what I'm hearing from you, Ammar, is that the customer experience and putting the person back into the business transaction is a key difference for fine rentals. And that's also gonna be the case when you arrive in that country and find the person that actually owns and operates the business. So you're gonna get that personal experience all the way through.

Now, let's just move to the personal side of your experiences. We've got about 10 minutes left. And so I'd just love to hear from you from a sort of a marketing perspective. You've managed to build this brand and you've raised money a couple of times now. Can you just share with us the experience? What did you have to do to raise funds for fine rentals?

Ammar Akhtar (26:50)
So interesting thing about raising is when you're raising your very first funding and when you're raising a second funding, these two are different worlds. Like you just cannot compare the two experiences. They are just two different experiences. So when I was raising my first funding round, there were so many things that I didn't know about. So for example, when you running without raising any funds, you are the master of the universe and you are doing everything on your own. You can hire people, you can fire people, you can spend on something that you want to spend on.

You can do many things without any approval, for example, or without any plan even. Like you can say, you can be more instinctive, right? But when you have raised funds, you need to think on a very strategic level, month over month, quarter over quarter, right? So why do you raise funds? First thing first is, right, you should never raise funds if you don't know exactly what are you doing it for. I understand when you raise funds, you become famous, you know, people

write PR for you where you're like, you this company has raised this much money. All that point. That's the red carpet stuff. I understand. But don't don't raise funds for that. Please don't. If you don't know exactly where the money will be used, you know, the funding will, you know, will just be nothing, honestly speaking. And the money will, you know, will just go and your investors will never trust you when you go back to them. So I made a plan of why I raise funds, why I want to raise funds. I think when you are much older in your business, like I've spent many, years in business.

So I was having a very established business in Dubai, then moving to Poland, then coming to the UK. So when I went to investors and I said, you know what, this is what I have built so far, right? And I want to raise funds because I want to reach here. I'm here now, I'm stuck. I want to reach here. And my vision is to be the next Uber or the next big car rental tech, for example. So that really helped because everything was on paper, everything was there. So it's all about planning, having those papers, having your P & L,

and see how it goes. Many founders who start raising funds, they come from a tech background and they don't have a finance background or they don't understand numbers. For them, raising funds will be very, very hard. So understand your numbers. Keep it simple. You don't have to be a CA for that, no. Understand your basic P &L and how it is working for you. What are the levers where you make more money? What are the levers who are giving you losses? And then just go to the investors. In the first round, people will be very kind to you. Angels, because they have been there

done that but if you go to them completely unprepared you will not be able to raise funds or at least the journey will be much longer than what I've seen. So be prepared, get your numbers right and get your levers right and then you know start raising funds. So that was my first experience for the first round. Second round was very different because when you start raising for the second round, you what happens is the first question is what have you done with that money? Right? So what happened to that money by the way

Jim James (29:27)
Yeah.

Ammar Akhtar (29:43)
and what did you build with that money? So that story is very, important. So like I said, these two things are very, very different.

Jim James (29:50)
Yeah, very, very different MRIs, isn't it? As you say, once you've raised the money, you really are working for the shareholders, aren't you? You know, I raised money for an internet business back in 98 from a cement company, venture capital, yeah. And the CEO said, I really don't understand what you're doing, but I understand that the internet is going to be big. So we're going to trust you to help us to get into this space.

Ammar Akhtar (30:01)
Wow.

wow, okay.

Yeah.

Jim James (30:19)
It came with quite a lot of responsibility, raising the money as well. Plus the expectation that they will 5, 10 X their money in about three years, right? I mean, they're taking the risk capital. So it does come and I sometimes think the PR is actually the investors way of getting you on the hook because they make you publicly say, I've got the money. This is what I'm going to do with it. And it's like, that is the

Ammar Akhtar (30:34)
Yes. Yes.

Ha ha.

Jim James (30:48)
best control mechanism ever invented for an investor, right? Because otherwise you have a huge loss of face if you don't make it. But Ammar Akhtar, you have already been building fine rentals. What now for how long has it been? Five years and you've got how many locations?

Ammar Akhtar (31:02)
Five years.

303 locations in 41 countries.

Jim James (31:08)
So there you go, 303 locations, 41 countries. I think we need to introduce you to Stavros over there in Crete. So you get one more location. If there's a learning or a mistake that you could share in building to this 300 plus companies, what would that be, Ammar?

Ammar Akhtar (31:13)
Hahaha

So three fundamental learnings. So first is when you are, I would say, a migrant entrepreneur or an expat who moves from the country that you come from and then you go to Dubai and then from Dubai to Poland and then Poland to UK. I think it's a very difficult journey, I must tell you. Because there are days that you ask yourself, who am I actually? Am I a Pakistani

going to be British, like what exactly is going on here, and then to match that also within that work culture. So when you will raise your first funding round, you will be asked to hire people. And those people might be coming from different backgrounds. They might be approached on LinkedIn, headhunted. They might have worked in bigger companies than what you are building. Managing that work culture is very, important. I think when I raised my first funding round and when I hired

those new fantastic people, I knew very little about building a dynamic work culture. Because before raising the funding, we were working as a family. People who were working for me, they were working on a very subsidized salary. And then when we raised funds, everything changed. Sort of, okay, I was able to manage it, change myself in a month or two. It made me a better person, by the way. But maybe many people could not understand what's going on, the next phase of final rentals.

And that's where you come in as a leader, a founder, as an entrepreneur, and you have to manage that. So if I go back, I would like to manage it in a much better way. Though I have overcome those challenges, of course, but I would manage it in a much better way. I would do it as a transition, not as an abrupt overnight change. That is one thing. Second, and the most important thing is, when you are in early stages, even if you have raised two funding grounds and you are 17 people in the company, when you are in early stages,

it's you the founder that people are believing on. There are many people who don't understand what is final rentals. They understand me. Maybe they've met me. They're like, this guy is building something. I'm going to give him the money. So make sure that your shareholder reporting is right on the money. So have month-over-month updates. Don't leave the investors alone. Don't go back to them after three months. Go back to them after every month. It's fine. It can be a simple update. That's what I'm doing. That's what I'm building.

That's very important. That relationship is very, very important. And that has really helped me in raising the second funding round much faster than what it was in the first funding round. Third and the most important thing is a lot of founders that I meet, they think that when they will raise funds, they will be controlled or something will happen. So if you are thinking, I think it's a mindset thing, right? So in the end, you are the founder, you own 70% of the business, you are the founder.

You build this whole circus and the whole orchestra, right? You have built this whole thing. So, yes, you have new people in, but you have built this thing. So, don't think of yourself as, now I'm being controlled or I have to do this, right? So, please don't, because this will demotivate you in many different ways that you will not know about these things, right? So, just keep your head high, right? Because in the end, people have believed in you. If you have a problem, let's say, if you have a problem with something,

Jim James (34:30)
you

Ammar Akhtar (34:54)
that is a person in your company. That is a person on your board. That is a person on your cap table. Have a chat with them. Have a town hall with them. Have a coffee with them. Solve those problems. Because in early days, the less friction, the better. Because when you will scale and when you will have 50 employees, 100 employees, the playbook will be different. This playbook will not work over there, right? So you have to make sure that you deal with the issues as they occur and don't leave them, know, let's say,

for two months, three months because that one minute of leadership will save you three years later.

Jim James (35:29)
Ammar, that's great advice. Thank you. And as you say, when you take money and when the business scales as an entrepreneur, one has to change your style and some of the conversations that you have with the people and deciding whether those people are still the right people for the business, so it's the joy of being an entrepreneur, isn't it? That nothing stays the same. You plainly learn, I've learned a lot, but you also read a lot and listen a lot. Ammar, if there's a book or a podcast,

Ammar Akhtar (35:47)
Yes.

Jim James (35:57)
that you found useful and inspirational in your journey as an entrepreneur, what would that be?

Ammar Akhtar (36:02)
So, you know, there are many books, right? So, I follow the leaders, right? So, I was reading this book that was about, you know, J.D. Rockefeller, right? It's called The Titan, okay? How he built his empire without having a WhatsApp or HubSpot or all these tools and technologies. It was fascinating, right? Big follower of Tata, the Tata family in India. I think they have built incredible empire. So, how these guys

built this incredible empire that is today, still relevant, right? And then when you talk about contemporaries, young leaders, or maybe not so young, I've read the book of Netflix, No Rules, Rules, recently, that was fascinating because the feedback culture and how the feedback culture changes the company, know, radically as a work culture, you know, that really helps. Last but not the least, I think we all love what Steve Jobs has done to us. So his biography,

by Walter Isaacson was also fascinating.

Jim James (37:04)
I asked for one, but we've got a slu- we've got a library there, which would be great because if we're taking a plane to go and get one of your cars, we've got books to read as well. Ammar Akhtar, If people want to get a hold of you, where can they do that?

Ammar Akhtar (37:13)
Absolutely.

I would like to believe I'm quite active on LinkedIn. So, LinkedIn slash in slash my name and I'll be happy to connect. I'm a very communicative person. I like to connect with people. So, always happy to connect.

Jim James (37:32)
And that's Ammar Akhtar, this A-K-H-T-A-R. And of course, we'll put Ammar's details in the show notes. And if you're going to Cardiff, book a car and drive over to see him. Ammar, thank you for joining me on the show today.

Ammar Akhtar (37:42)
Yeah.

It was an honor. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Jim James (37:48)
Well, it's wonderful to hear another expat entrepreneur. I mean, Ammar has come from Pakistan and then gone to Poland and ended up now in Dubai and now back in Wales. I can associate that, you know, with that story because I went to Singapore and then to China and now to the UK. So there is another whole dimension to being an entrepreneur when you're not in your own culture. So credit to Ammar for building such an amazing business and transitioning and taking such great care of,

plainly his family and his team, and most of all his customers and those operators who he's providing a lifeline to new business. So it's a business with a cause and a business that's got plainly some core values at the heart of it, which is why it's growing so well. Finalrentals.com is the website, and then you can also find the app on the iOS. If you've enjoyed this story with me, Jim James, do please review it on your player and share it with a fellow UnNoticed

Entrepreneur. And next time you go overseas, look for Stavros. I can tell you, in Greece, he rents the best cars. Thanks for listening.