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In an address to the Assembly Hall at the Paulskirche in Frankfurt, Germany on June 25, 1963, the then USA president, John F Kennedy said one of his famous quotes. “For time and the world do not stand still.” he said, “ Change is the law of life.” And change is upon us at SafeBoda.
In a LinkedIn post, Rob Sanford announced his promotion to the CEO job at SafeBoda, one of Uganda’s biggest startups. (Read our story about the announcement here). A few days later, his predecessors, Co-CEOs Maxime Dieudone and Alastair Sussock confirmed the news in separate LinkedIn posts bringing an end to an era where the co-founders had actively led the company. Alastair became the startup’s chairman while Max’s official involvement going forward is unknown.
Like so many other Ugandans, I wondered who Rob Sanford was. Little was known about him, so I made the trip to the SafeBoda offices in Kyebando to meet him. Rob is a very tall man, towering over most of the people. After quick pleasantries, we sat down to begin our conversation. Our conversation began with a story of how he ended up in Uganda, thousands of kilometres away from his country of birth, the United Kingdom.
“I have always had a passion for travelling. As you can see, I am now in Uganda but I have previously lived in India, Australia and the UK. “ Rob kicks off our interview. “My background is in finance and at some point, I was working at KPMG in London. But I have always had an appetite to try new things. “
This desire for adventure peaked when he decided to move to Uganda. “ A friend of mine had lived in Kampala before and said it was an incredible city. So I started warming up to the idea of moving here. She recommended a list of startups that I could work at, and SafeBoda was one of them. Luckily, they had an open role and I joined as the Global Head of Finance in 2019 which was perfect for me.”
Slowly, but surely, Rob worked his way up in SafeBoda before becoming the startup’s CFO in 2021, a role he maintained until his recent promotion. But despite being in the SafeBoda ranks for about four years, he admits that transition is still not a ball in the park as expected. “I have known for a couple of months that I would be stepping into the CEO role, long before it was made public. This was not a snap decision for Max and Alastair, but a well-thought-out plan to step back. But the transition is still difficult, because Max and Alastair have a history of SafeBoda, and this is their baby. Even 20 years from now, they will still be the co-founders.”
Rob, however, is happy to have learned the ropes under his predecessors and will seek their advice on key decisions going forward. But he recognizes he will have to chart his own path as the new CEO. “Working with them (Alastair and Max) has been amazing. I have learnt a lot from them, not just how the company works, but how to lead as well. But I can’t be Max or Alastair, I can only be myself.”
Rob has arrived at a very difficult time for tech start-ups. The global market environment has shifted from startups pursuing growth to profitability. SafeBoda is not any different. It exited the Nigerian market to focus on becoming profitable in its core market of Uganda. Rob recognizes this challenge but is confident of profitability.
“I was involved in the decision to leave Nigeria. We achieved a lot in Ibadan, but we were unable to reach the same levels as we have in Kampala. But we have a very good opportunity to get to profitability here.” he says.
As the new CEO, Rob will have two priorities. One of them is to keep the growth in the SafeCar vertical. “It is important to us in our journey to profitability. We want to be number one in everything that we do, and that includes car-hailing.”
His other priority is regaining the community. SafeBoda was known for its community where safety was guaranteed. Drivers used to have helmets, and safety nets and followed the traffic rules, habits that endeared them to Ugandans, but have taken a back seat post-Covid. “We suffered a lot with the Covid-19 lockdowns, but we want to return to being the gold standard in transportation and for startups in Uganda”.
Having exited two markets already, it remains to be seen how SafeBoda will expand in the future. So I posed the question of expansion to Rob. “We closed Kenya during COvid-19, and we closed Nigeria to focus on profitability. Of course, SafeBoda wants to be in new markets, but they have to be in the right markets. In the past, we would launch in new markets and attract users through discounts and marketing campaigns, but now, we have to look deeper.” Rob tells me. “For example, does the government in the country want SafeBoda? Can we improve road safety and accountability like we have in Kampala? For now, we will concentrate on Kampala, then expand to new markets as they make sense.” he says without offering timelines.
As we conclude our conversation, Rob explains what success would look like for him as SafeBoda CEO in the future. “I want Safeboda to succeed on the business side and the mission side. On the business side, success is SafeBoda continuing to grow in different markets and is seen as Africa’s Super app with many features and we are the trusted provider in many countries. On the mission side, success is transforming transportation by improving trust, safety and accountability. That would be amazing.”