Travis Kalanick, Ben Horowitz, and Erik Torenberg reunite to reflect on Uber's early days, the investment that almost happened, and why Kalanick believes the next great technology opportunity lies beyond software. They discuss the lessons of building Uber, the value of founder-led companies, and why Kalanick spent nearly eight years quietly building Atoms before stepping back into the spotlight. The conversation explores industrial AI, robotics, autonomy, mining, food production, and Kalanick's vision for digitizing the physical world, where software, manufacturing, real estate, and transportation come together to transform entire industries. Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 01:09 - The Deal That Got Away: Uber's Series B in 2011 13:22 - Why Uber's 2017 Wouldn't Have Happened with Ben or Marc on the Board 17:38 - When the Pirate Becomes the Navy 21:14 - The Fall from Uber & Finding CloudKitchens 32:00 - 8 Years in Stealth: Building Without the New York Times 34:47 - Digitizing the Physical World 39:47 - Bringing It All Together: Atoms Vision 49:13 - Great Companies Are Always About a Great Entrepreneur 01:04:57 - Creating Problems vs Solving Them 01:17:24 - The Second Industrial Revolution & Resistance to Change 01:28:07 - Building the Team Resources: Follow Travis Kalanick on X: https://x.com/travisk Follow Ben Horowitz on X: https://x.com/bhorowitz Stay Updated: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends! Find a16z on X: https://twitter.com/a16z Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711 Follow our host: https://x.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see http://a16z.com/disclosures.
#startup #founder #productmanager #productmanagement #productops product management podcast, what is product ops, uber startup stories
Mihika Kapoor (Product Lead) and Yuhki Yamashita (Chief Product Officer) of Figma share their unconventional approach to product reviews. They challenge common advice and reveal strategies that may seem counterintuitive but lead to more effective and impactful product reviews. Recorded live at Lenny and Friends Summit on October 24th in San Francisco Slides: https://www.figma.com/community/file/1431158360648248243
#startup #founder #entrepreneur crazy startup stories, cool entrepreneur stories, early entrepreneur podcast clips
#startup #founder #vctok #bigtech best startup stories, business podcast clips, rideshare wars, uber vs grubhub, business breakdowns
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#startup #founder #entrepreneur #uber #productmanagement best startup stories, uber business origin, best product management podcast, product operations, what is product ops
Brian Tolkin is the Head of Product at Opendoor. Previously, he was one of the early employees at Uber, where he was instrumental in launching and growing UberPool, UberHop, and UberExpress and started one of the first product operations teams in tech. In our conversation, we dive into: • How to enable product and ops to work well together • How to run great product reviews • How to make good decisions with limited data • How he uses the jobs-to-be-done framework at Opendoor • How to stay calm under pressure as a leader • Wild stories from his time at Uber • Challenges faced at Opendoor during the pandemic • Much more — Brought to you by: • Pendo—The only all-in-one product experience platform for any type of application: https://www.pendo.io/lenny • Explo—Embed customer-facing analytics in your product: https://explo.co/lenny • Attio—The powerful, flexible CRM for fast-growing startups: https://attio.com/lenny Find the transcript and references at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/scaling-uber-and-opendoor-brian-tolkin Where to find Brian Tolkin: • X: https://x.com/briantolkin • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briantolkin/ Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • X: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Brian’s background (02:14) Career beginnings at Uber (02:49) Transitioning from product operations to product management (06:47) Product and operations synergy (10:00) Surge pricing at Uber (12:18) Scaling challenges, and stories (15:47) Opendoor and Covid adaptations (25:38) Product reviews and Jobs to Be Done (40:30) The challenges of A/B testing (42:23) Increasing conviction in solutions (44:33) Leveraging intuition in product decisions (47:07) Partnering with Zillow (52:55) Staying calm under pressure (56:25) Finding the “kernel of truth” in product management (01:00:21) Failure corner: Early days of Uber Pool (01:06:11) Lightning round and final thoughts Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
Jonathan explains how he went from exploiting Uber's marketing loophole to landing them as a client. 🎙️Find the full episode here: https://youtu.be/mmxTeS0AVMo — On Lenny's Podcast, host Lenny Rachitsky interviews world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover concrete, actionable advice to help you grow your own product. 🔔 For more videos like these, subscribe here: https://www.youtube.com/c/LennysPodcast?sub_confirmation=1 — Where to find Lenny: • Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/ • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
Travis Kalanick, founder of Uber, at Y Combinator Startup School on October 20, 2012. Startup School is YC's free online program for founders. Sign up to access the full curriculum and over $100k in deals! https://www.startupschool.org/ Presented in Stanford Memorial Auditorium by Y Combinator and the Stanford Technology Ventures Program.
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