Otto Car CEO: ‘Cultural shifts’ are business opportunities

Gurinder Dhillon founded Otto Car in 2015. It leases electric vehicles to private hire drivers, many of whom find their custom on Uber. Dhillon’s London-based company now has annual revenues of more than £55m. 

The secret that Dhillon wanted to share with Business Leader is that entrepreneurs need to be on the lookout for “cultural shifts” on the horizon, as these can lead to business opportunities. 

“There was a time when I used to go out to shop and come home for a coffee,” says Dhillon, by way of explanation. “But now I go out for a coffee and come home to shop.” 

That happened, of course, because of the proliferation of coffee shops on our high streets from the late 1990s and the rise of online shopping. 

It was another popular trend that led Dhillon to find success with Otto Car. 

He started out in business by leasing out London’s iconic black cabs, figuring out there was a market for this. But then he spotted a cultural shift with a direct impact on his industry. 

In the early 2010s, he realised there was “going to be a shift from hailing cabs to scrolling and that there was going to be a big change in how people interacted and how they summoned cabs”. 

The rise of the Uber app in the US was, of course, causing a stir. Dhillon understood that he needed to switch business model before this idea dominated the UK market too. 

He sold his black cab business and switched to sourcing electric vehicles for private hire drivers, who he anticipated would satisfy the new demand for Uber drivers. He lost 70 per cent of his revenue overnight, he says. 

However, as Uber took off in the UK, he went from one car to a fleet of 5,000 in the space of five years. 

“We thought that Uber was like an aircraft carrier,” says Dhillon, “and like all aircraft carriers they need frigates. And we were going to build the biggest frigate to support them on their journey. 

“Spotting those cultural shifts are really important because you can capitalise on them, especially when your competitors are still processing it and not spotting it.”