AB Majlis podcast: ‘Building a great company takes decades – not years,’ says Saygin Yalcin
SellAnyCar.com founder reveals $135m iMENA investment and his ‘decades, not years’ philosophy for building lasting tech companies
Serial entrepreneur Saygin Yalcin has led a $135 million investment into iMENA and joined its board, positioning the company to become “the next internet champion for the Middle East” with plans for a potential IPO within two to three years.
In an exclusive interview on Arabian Business‘s AB Majlis podcast, the SellAnyCar.com founder revealed his strategy for building the region’s largest marketplaces conglomerate while sharing his unconventional wisdom that true entrepreneurial success requires extraordinary patience.
“Building a great company should take decades, not years. If it’s years, you’re pretty much flipping a business. If it’s decades, you’re actually building long-term proven value for the market,” said Yalcin.
The Turkish-born entrepreneur challenged the startup world’s obsession with rapid growth and quick exits. “Most of the times, stuff doesn’t work,” he explained. “If you still want to do it, and you can endure pain and are happy with delayed gratification, then [entrepreneurship is for you].”
Yalcin unveiled SellAnyCar.com’s latest innovation, ‘ScanAnyCar’, an AI-powered application that allows users to take a photo of any vehicle and instantly receive detailed information including the car’s model, value, and even the worth of its licence plate – a feature that has generated over 3 million valuations since its launch.
“It allows you to take a snap of a car, and then it does something like magic,” Yalcin explained. “It will tell you which car it is, when it came out, how much it’s worth, who owns it if the owner registered with us… it also tells you which number plate it has and how much the number plate is worth.”
The entrepreneur shared his unique perspective on artificial intelligence, arguing that AI is “under-hyped” despite the current buzz. He described a fundamental difference between humans and AI: “AI is geochemistry and humans are biochemistry,” suggesting this distinction creates a natural barrier that AI cannot cross.
“Empathy and love… that’s the ultimate barrier between AI and human. AI doesn’t understand. AI simulates understanding and processes information,” he added.
For aspiring entrepreneurs, Yalcin offered his ‘bicycle, car, rocket ship’ framework for business growth. “There is this bicycle phase, where you have to grow with your muscle power, and then you get to a point where you might need petrol, and you build a car,” he explained.
The “rocket ship” phase – requiring venture capital or “kerosene” as he called it – isn’t necessarily the definition of success, he cautioned.
“Four in a million companies in China are unicorns, nine in a million in the U.S… Everything else is a car, is a regular business. So defining success as the four in a million, the nine in a million, these rare occurrences, is wrong,” Yalcin said.
Yalcin’s entrepreneurial journey began with corporate roles at BMW, L’Oreal, and Capgemini, before founding premium fashion brand Joe Suis. He later launched Sukar.com, which became the Middle East’s largest private shopping club before being acquired by Souq.com in 2012. Souq was subsequently purchased by Amazon for $580 million.
His venture SellAnyCar.com grew into the region’s first and largest online used-car buying platform. The company pioneered a product-led growth strategy with innovative tools like their number plate valuation system, which went from 50,000 daily queries to over 3 million total valuations in just months.
Yalcin also addressed how AI is changing marketplace economics. “Listing fees are dead. AI killed it,” he said, adding that artificial intelligence has shifted the monetisation model by better identifying when platforms risk losing control of transactions.
The full interview can be found on Arabian Business’s AB Majlis podcast, available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and at arabianbusiness.com.
Source: Tala Michel Issa, Arabian Business
About the Author
SayginYalcin Saygin is the Founder & CEO of the Middle East's (ME) first & largest car buying service, SellAnyCar.com and Founder of the first & largest online private shopping club in the ME, Sukar.com, which has been acquired by Souq.com, making him Partner at the Souq.com and Jabbar Internet Group, becoming the largest ecommerce company in the Arab world, with 3000+ employees. In its largest acquisition outside the US to date, Amazon.com has acquired Souq.com Group. He has been selected as a UBS Industry Leader, a network of Ultra-High-Net-Worth Individuals. He was also Advisory Board Member & Academic Lecturer of Entrepreneurship at the Canadian University of Dubai. He was referred to as "the region's online business guru" by the National newspaper in the UAE, while Arabian Business named him as "one of the region's finest young entrepreneurs and a major part of the entrepreneurial scene in recent years". Fortune magazine (mag) named him in the 40 under 40 list, as one of the most influential young people in business, Entrepreneur mag ME awarded SellAnyCar.com, with Saygin at its helm, as the "Fastest Growing Company in the ME", while the National newspaper sees it among a handful of tech companies to "have the potential to break the $1bn barrier". In a cover story, Entrepreneur mag ME titled him as "undoubtedly one of the youngest & most successful internet entrepreneurs in the ME”, awarded SellAnyCar.com as "Technology Innovator of the Year”, while Khaleej Times awarded him as the Technology Leader. Gulf Business selected him as 1 of the Top 10 Entrepreneurs in ME. In a cover story, Arabian Business counts him as 1 of the most successful entrepreneurs to call Dubai home. During the World Government Summit, HH Sheikh Saif Bin Zayed, Minister of Interior of the UAE, presented Saygin as an inspiring story for the country, in the presence of world leaders, incl. HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
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