Josh Butler

I have interviewed 1,000 of the best operators of the last 10 years. Ironically, one of the best I have ever interviewed isn’t actually a Founder. He is the longest serving employee at @Uber. Andrew MacDonald. He rarely does interviews and this was the most insane behind the scenes at one of the worlds largest companies: - Spending $52M per week in China - Lessons from Travis Kalanick - Why autonomy is existential - How AI helps and hurts Uber There was so much in this, I took notes and have added them below: 1. How Does Uber Decide What New Products to Do Versus Not Do? At nearly $250 billion in gross bookings, new mobility or delivery products must show a credible path to billions in transaction volume within a few years to justify organizational resources. Anything smaller risks being swallowed by the demands of the core business. 2. How Companies Need to Extract AI Efficiency Measuring AI ROI on a per-employee basis is nearly impossible because saved hours simply get absorbed by other work. Instead, leaders should capture efficiency through OpEx by capping or reducing headcount targets and requiring teams to produce more with existing resources. 3. Uber Have a SWAT Team of the Best AI Engineers Uber created a dedicated pod of 30 elite AI engineers paired directly with G&A teams and business process owners. By rebuilding workflows from the ground up, they cut weekly pricing processes from 15 hours to two and marketing QA from two weeks to two days. 4. Why We Were Right to Focus on Core Strategy and Divest the Autonomy Business at the Time When COVID erased 84% of Uber’s mobility revenue in three weeks, the company divested its ATG autonomous driving unit. Exiting a capital-intensive race where Uber trailed competitors freed the company to focus on turning its core marketplace into a cash-flowing machine. 5. Will Uber Have More or Fewer Employees in Five Years’ Time? While AI will create entirely new industries, execution-heavy enterprise functions will see significant headcount contraction. Roles centered on customer support, sales ops, content production, and reporting analytics will face substantial augmentation and partial replacement by AI agents. 6. Crazy Story Number One From Working in China At the peak of its market-share war with DiDi in China, Uber burned $52 million per week on price subsidies alone. Competing without access to WeChat made winning nearly impossible, but aggressive capital deployment gave Uber the leverage needed to negotiate a successful local exit. 7. Single Biggest Lesson From Travis Kalanick Travis Kalanick’s operational superpower was walking into a meeting, asking pointed questions, and advancing weeks of expert thinking in 15 minutes. Great leaders create leverage by constantly exercising this problem-solving muscle and teaching the principles behind their decisions. (links in comments) @andrewgordonmac

Post earnings, we met several large institutional investors in New York and Boston post earnings, with the roadshow organized by Jefferies. Today, Jefferies has raised its recommendation on Uber to a "Franchise Pick" as they believe the setup is increasingly bullish.

A visitor at a North Carolina amusement park spotted a large crack on a roller coaster's pillar on Friday. The ride, which was billed as one of the tallest of its kind, has now been closed as crews make repairs. nytimes.com/2023/07/02/us/no…

Thanks!! @brainofjoacohen @SPIN spin.com/2023/04/pearl-jam-g…

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