Meet the Founder: Jalil Salihi
Over the coming weeks, we will be introducing you to the graduates of our first-ever Online Incubator program in Erbil!
And this time we are introducing Jaleel Salihi, founder of ELEVEN.
Can you give a brief introduction about yourself?
I am Jaleel Salihi. 25 years old and a bachelor's degree holder in chemical engineering with several years of experience in the humanitarian and nonprofits field and also in sales retail. I have always been driven to solve problems and face challenges and thinking out of the box and trying to find non-usual and pragmatic solutions in my working years in any field I have worked, and this trait has built an entrepreneurial mindset in my character. However, studying in an engineering department in general and especially chemical engineering opens many business ideas and opportunities to innovate in many industries. The combination of my work experience and also my degree has made me gain many good knowledge and characteristics to be able to run my own projects and to innovate.
What is your business idea?
Our business idea is ELEVEN Auto Service. ELEVEN is the new revolution in the car washing industry as it is the first waterless mobile car wash.
Our mission is to:
save the time of customers as we provide car wash at doorsteps
To save water resources in the region as we wash cars with a new technology method called waterless car wash. Each time a car washed by ELEVEN around 120-150 Liters of water is saved
With a top-notch quality wash, our customers are relieved of any paint damage related issues or a bad wash experience. As we train our washmen relentlessly in order to provide the best car wash experience in town
What challenges is your business addressing?
ELEVEN is the solution to the busy schedule of car owners in the city as fewer people each day have the time to take their car to a car wash. Saving one of the most valuable resources if not the most important one, and that is water. In an average car wash, the amount spent on one car to be washed is 120-150 Liters. In contrast, ELEVEN is using only 7-9 Liters of water per wash.
Many of our first-time customers have had bad wash experiences in regular car washes either because of delays or swirl marks or car scratches, with ELEVEN all that has vanished as we only use top quality and organic materials and give cars after wash an extraordinary shining that last up to days.
Can you tell us about your experience starting your business?
Starting your own project has its own difficulties and challenges by itself, however, if it’s a start-up and an innovative one it increases the chances of facing challenges as you have to take a share of a market cap that has less familiarity with your concept. And for that as the first waterless mobile car wash, we have faced many challenges in introducing this new service to the market and make the audience to enhance the idea and we have tried many ways of marketing from different aspects to tackle this challenge and we have made some remarkable changes in that area. I have learned from my experience as a new business idea owner, that having a solid plan is very important yet what is more important is the implementation of plans and studying the outcome and analyzing figures of your improvements is very essential.
What advice do you have for someone trying to start their own project/business?
My advice would be to think through your idea very carefully upon executing it and study your market very well and have a rigid and solid financial and business model and if you have all the above requirements then all you need to have is these magic words “Patiently aggressive, Eagerly consistent” focus on your work and implement your plan and do not get discouraged, entrepreneurship is a road of many ups and downs till reaching to a certain level of success.
Why did you join the Five One Labs startup incubator?
Five One Labs was a window for me and my team to various sources of information in all business-related fields and add on that Five One Labs truly incubate the fresh business and save it of many common traps that many startups get into. With the training and webinars that are provided by the trainers and the mentors, Five One Labs is the place to be if your business needs to be well organized and wants to understand the market much more clearer as they put all their effort to hand you the tools and skills needed for a startup to flourish.
What progress have you made on your business since joining the incubator?
After our experience in the incubator, we have learned better how to analyze our data and how to plan more systematically and implement more effectively and these skills made us raise our sales and improve our plans to progress much more in the market.
Jaleel with ELEVEN won the third place in our Online Incubator in Erbil and received seed funding as a support to his business!
