Casablanca, Emptiness, and an Entrepreneurial Pivot
Field notes from a growing city
Hi Friends,
Last month I visited Morocco for the first time. I spent a week surfing, eating, and attending a family wedding full of music and dancing and spectacular dresses.
I had an incredible week, but I also found it hard to get to the heart of Casablanca- to find those moments and experiences that make you understand a place.
It’s getting a little harder to be a traveller in search of unique experiences in the age of the internet and easyjet. But in this city I was particularly interested in its fast growth. Everywhere I looked, there was new construction, especially in the suburb where we stayed, about an hour outside of downtown.
This fast growth led to empty lots and empty streets separating the houses and restaurants where people spent time. It feels a bit eerie to walk for five full minutes in a city without seeing another person. This week, I’m reflecting on cities and emptiness, and the gaps between our expectations of what we’ll find when we travel and what sometimes awaits.
A Walk through Casablanca
1940s jazz is playing softly in the background:
It had to be you
I’ve wandered around, and finally found
The somebody who
Could make me true…
The beaded tassels on the table lamps reflect light from the wrought iron lamps above.
The bartender is making mint juleps.
The air conditioner fights the sweltering heat that sneaks in whenever someone opens the front door.
It is lunchtime at Rick’s Cafe in Casablanca, the charming replica from the 1940s film. Their dress code and waitlists have thwarted many Americans looking to pop in on their way in or out of the city.
Inside Rick’s, the rest of Casablanca feels far away.
Outside, we are not coddled.
Savvy travellers to Casablanca are rewarded with charming garden courtyards tucked away behind tall walls and long alleyways, flavoured dates, and hammam scrubs that remove an entire layer of skin.
But as someone who loves discovering things by wandering through city streets, Casablanca does not make things easy for its travellers.
Innovation Spotlight
I met my friend Abid at PitchDrive Asia. We were two of ten selected African startups to travel to Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Shenzhen and Hong Kong to pitch to investors interested in African markets. Shared hardship breeds community, and our four red eye flights in two weeks with daily public pitches brought this group very close together.
Abid is the Founder of Casky, based in Casablanca, which shares data on motorcycle crashes with emergency service providers. Lying in a ditch, struggling to move and call for help, Abid knows firsthand how dangerous Casablanca traffic can be. He healed completely from his crash (thankfully!) and started a business to help other motorcycle riders.
Their core product is an IOT (internet enabled) device that sits inside of a motorcycle rider's helmet. When it detects what it thinks is a crash, it calls the rider. If there is no response in five minutes, emergency services are alerted.
Hardware is hard. Hardware in Africa is really hard. And I loved his hardware solution.
But over the last two years component parts have been increasing. Casky’s pricing and business model was no longer viable. They couldn’t make or sell their core product and had to lay off half their team.
Abid made the tough call to pivot the business model.
Casky now develops smart service centers for motorcycle drivers. Their software alerts drivers when they need repairs, and provides them with price transparency throughout the process. They’ve partnered with Yamaha and have another large partner in their pipeline.
Their emergency response products are still there and ready for resuscitation.
This is an important story of the difficult decisions that Founders have to make to survive. Abid is now raising money to grow their SaaS model to over a hundred service centers, and maybe, use this network of service centers to roll out their rider safety solutions.
If this newsletter looks different this week, it’s because I’m writing on Substack now. I love the new look and feel, and the archives of newsletters past. If you liked this, let me know what you think by pressing reply or leaving a comment below!
Thanks for reading,
Melissa