The man behind on-demand labour app MyKuya talks employment, Iran and the fastest exit story in the Philippines
In the What Matters To Me series, a Generation T honouree describes what they do, why they do it, and why it matters.
Shahab Shabibi wants to get the Philippines working. The Iranian native was only supposed to visit the country for three months; nine years later he’s still around, at the helm of on-demand labour platform MyKuya, which matches people with employment opportunities in a bid to solve the country’s unemployment and underemployment problem. Here, Shabibi introduces his work in his own words.
I started out with a blog back in Iran, where I’m originally from, maybe when I was seven or eight years old. I was blogging about my experiences, and each post would get five to 10 thousand readers. When I was about 13, I started a website with my friends where people from Iran could download music. Since people there don’t speak much English, there was a local version of everything. It was pretty organised; I would say it was a Spotify-like experience, but from 10 years ago. When I was 16, I started a sports media company, again with some friends, and it’s still the number one sports website in the country. So at this point I had a taste of what online, tech-based businesses can do. That’s when I came to the Philippines. My parents are diplomats who were posted here. I was supposed to just stay for a three-month vacation—now it’s been nine years.