Going Out On Top: DriveArabia's Mashfique Chowdhury On Exiting His Business—On His Own Terms

An exit represents a pivotal moment in a founder’s journey, opening doors to new opportunities, conferring a kind of hard-won credibility, and turning the page on one chapter to begin the next. This, in effect, is why, when the UAE-based consumer-facing automotive platform DriveArabia received an acquisition offer from the MENA-based classifieds marketplace Dubizzle Group in 2024, the entrepreneur behind it, Mashfique Chowdhury, didn’t think twice.

In an interview with Inc. Arabia, Chowdhury shares that he conceived the idea for DriveArabia in 2002. “At the time, there were almost no resources related to automotive consumer information, and the majority of the population [was] still using dial-up internet, long before smartphones became common,” he recalls. “DriveArabia.com was conceived and created back when I was still in college, in the midst of an electrical engineering degree. I wanted to introduce transparency in the automotive media space when magazines ruled, and websites were an afterthought.”

Chowdhury built the first version of the platform himself, with occasional help from friends and family, and its website went live in November 2003 as a collection of brutally honest reviews. It soon evolved into a full consumer-facing platform featuring car and industry reviews, vehicle comparisons, pricing guides, and buying resources tailored specifically to GCC markets, covering the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, and Kuwait. Over the following decade, Marouf Hussain and Mohamed Naeem joined Chowdhury to form the company’s core team, and together, the trio developed a network of outsourced partners and contributors. By the time the business was sold, it was serving up to 500,000 unique users a month.

According to Chowdhury, he was aware of the value that an exit would deliver to both himself and the company, and more importantly, that timing was key to extracting optimal value from the sale. “I had a general idea of what I wanted from an exit,” he explains. “It had to be a strategic buyer, because anyone else would offer far less. The business had to be able to run without me; otherwise, it wouldn’t be a real business. And I already had it in mind that I may not be part of the package when we sell, because becoming an employee doesn’t work for many founders. So, in monetary terms, the exit has to be worthwhile.”

For other founders still in the thick of their businesses and considering exits, Chowdhury’s advice is to remain clear about the value of their offering. “You should start thinking of selling when you feel you can’t take it any further by yourself in changing market conditions,” he says. “But more importantly, you have to sell when you’re at the peak of your success, and estimating that can be tough. Nobody will want your business when you’re already past the peak, except at a fire sale price.”

Pictured in the lead image is Mashfique Chowdhury, an exited founder of DriveArabia. Image courtesy DriveArabia.

This article was originally published in the May - June 2026 edition of Inc. Arabia. Check out the issue in full on this link.