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If you’ve followed the Kalanick story till now, there’s nothing new in this article. However, it’s interesting to see it all put together. Anyone know what it’

• misun78 9y ago
  Significantly better with Dara who understands the needs for a peacetime ceo. Happy to field any specific questions.
  • moxious 9y ago
    The media has reported on some fairly outrageous cultural excesses. Question -- did you experience these when Kalanick was there? Since Dara showed up, anything specific you can say about what was done and whether it "feels different" and how? In some places the CEO is a distant figurehead, and whatever his or her values, the day-to-day experience is more dominated by your local crew of < 20 people. In other places, culture is truly pervasive. I feel like the reporting is saying that culture is pervasive at Uber, but it would be interesting to hear an inside perspective.
    • uberemployee 9y ago
      What do you mean by cultural excesses?
    • misun78 9y ago
      Both? I experienced nothing anywhere close to the egregiousness mentioned in the media. But TKs ruthlessness, long work hours ethics was always omnipresent. It wasn’t so much top down mandated to work hard but the culture was there. Paradoxically managers at times would have to push the employees to take breaks, vacations etc. I personally relished that environment but understandable how those would other commitments would find it hard. Our compensation structure also encouraged working hard (and all the stress, burnouts and disappointments that stemmed from it) so even if an employee had all the freedom to leave work at 5 pm and do other things, unless you were ultra-efficient in the 8-9 hours at work (which some of the best engineers I worked with were), there was always a risk of missed incentives. In short, it felt like a great company for those who could manage these trade offs. For all others, it was stressful.
  • harryh 9y ago
    Uber is an unprofitable, non-public company with incredibly fierce competition that is expected to face enormous changes do to technological developments. Why in the world would you think it needs a peacetime CEO?
    • misun78 9y ago
      Peacetime doesn’t necessarily mean not being competitive. Uber is at a stage where it doesn’t need to bend the rules anymore. Read up on how Dara handled the Brazil legislation for example. Rather than fighting any regulation as TK may have, he effectively worked with the government to legalize and legitimize Uber. I expect him to do the same in London.
      • harryh 9y ago
        Your definition of peacetime/wartime does not conform to industry norms. Peacetime in business means those times when a company has a large advantage vs. the competition in its core market, and its market is growing. In times of peace, the company can focus on expanding the market and reinforcing the company’s strengths. In wartime, a company is fending off an imminent existential threat. Such a threat can come from a wide range of sources including competition, dramatic macro economic change, market change, supply chain change, and so forth. The great wartime CEO Andy Grove marvelously describes the forces that can take a company from peacetime to wartime in his book Only The Paranoid Survive. https://a16z.com/2011/04/14/peacetime-ceowartime-ceo-2/ https://a16z.com/2011/04/14/peacetime-ceowartime-ceo-2/
        • fpoijasw 9y ago
          Actually I agree with them here, it's much more peaceful now than before. When we were trying to break into China and facing against Didi that really seemed like we were at war. Like we would start a growth campaign and merely hours after we launch, Didi would launch the exact same campaign. Even after the merger I'm not sure if this is true but we found 16 employees who were on both Ubers and Didi's payroll.
        • DenisM 9y ago
  • heymijo 9y ago
    Have you had any experience with Frances Frei? She seems to be a unique talent who seems genuine from her interviews. I'm curious how she is viewed within Uber and what impact she may be having.
    • uberemployee 9y ago
      FF is great. She is leading online courses for all Uber employees about business strategy and culture from real Harvard professors. It’s very educational for everyone. It’s a very unique opportunity for us because she is an expert on what makes companies great. Not just culturally but business strategy too. Having her as a key member of the team is an advantage that t companies don’t have because whereas other people are figuring things out on their own, she actually studied it and taught it. I hope she stays a long time to help mold this company into one of the greatest companies.
      • rhizome 9y ago
        She is leading online courses for all Uber employees about business strategy and culture from real Harvard professors Harvard only?
        • heyyyouu 9y ago
          Yeah, that seems very close minded.
  • losteverything 9y ago
    What are two things uber is scared of? E.g., for a long distance company fear was the cell phone. ($22B revenue to $8B in a five year stretch)
    • sjg007 9y ago
      An open source ride summoning tool? Maybe powered by a cryptocurrency?
      • yellow_postit 9y ago
        Let’s call it BitConnect!
    • misun78 9y ago
      1. Not rebuilding our reputation/changing things for the better. 2. Not competing in self-driving.
• misun78 9y ago
  Forgot to mention I’m an Uber employee.
• uberemployee 9y ago
  Dara couldn’t be more perfect for who we need as a CEO right now and going forward. Culture is definitely shifting toward a more normal work life balance. Things were crazy for many years with how much people worked but for the most part it was out of excitement. Many, many people were overworked however and burnt out. That culture of squeezing out every ounce from everyone is gone, for the better. It’s not sustainable. Frances Frei is a former Harvard Business School professor and arranged for several HBX classes from Harvard professors on business strategy that were very interesting and helpful. Having her as a guide as to how a great company should be behaving is a huge asset. TK was great and built the entire industry but he overstepped his abilities and became his and Uber’s worst enemy. I’m assuming after the SoftBank deal closes many long time employees will be gone. And why shouldn’t they, they are worth millions at this point, but only number in the hundreds. And this happens to all companies in the same situation, like google, Facebook, Dropbox, etc. Overall the pace has slowed dramatically and has a big company feel. But the majority of people, myself included, are fiercely proud of the work that we do and the product that we have built. The food could be better, though. Maybe after we become profitable? (This is an internal joke to all Uber employees)
  • jonny_eh 9y ago
    Just walk to Orench Beyond for lunch every day.
  • deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  • redorb 9y ago
    is the joke that one day you'll be profitable? or the food?
  • jackgavigan 9y ago
    > Frances Frei is a former Harvard Business School professor and arranged for several HBX classes from Harvard professors on business strategy that were very interesting and helpful. Which classes?
• decacorn 9y ago
  For all the uber employees on here reading and defending their stake in the company, the company culture is absolute garbage, it's truly crap. I was interviewed in 2017 and treated like shit, and by that I mean the worst professional experience in my life. I work at a reputable tech company with very reputable people, and I have never experienced the kind of devious, malicious behavior EVER. I can't wait to out the names of the two uber atg employees responsible. Time's up, dickheads.
  • fpoijasw 9y ago
    I'm sorry to hear this. Can you describe what happened?
    • decacorn 9y ago
      No, not at this time. I'm going to make sure the two tech bros get what they deserve, extreme public shaming.
  • uberemployee 9y ago
    I’m sorry you had a terrible interview experience. In 2017 we hired Gayle Laakmann McDowell (CTCI author) to train engineers on how to interview better and how to design better interview questions that weren’t biased. She held many sessions so hopefully our interviewing experience improves but it’s a skill that needs constant training.
    • decacorn 9y ago
      I'll just say this: there is a systemic behavior of tech bros treating everyone like they are the king of the hill and everyone else are peasants. The only way to solve THAT problem is purging the tech bros. Sorry, a big name new hire won't address the situation I experienced. Period.
  • mattnewton 9y ago
    My only experience with the company was a mutual strong no after the rudest phone screen of my life. I was trying to describe how a toy function like the prompt I had just written would be perfect for property checking (a la quickcheck) and the phone screener stopped me partway and berated me for not “getting” unit tests.
• lhorie 9y ago
  Another Uber employee here. I can confirm that whereas opinions of Travis were a mixed bag, Dara is pretty much universally liked. He's very serious about doing things the right way, and him taking the initiative to address the previously-under-covers 2016 leak gets my utmost respect. I got in just a month before TK stepped out, shortly before the Holden report, and Liane Hornsay and Frances Frei joined. Since then, the company implemented a crisis hotline where you can anonymously report abuse, it ran courses about what's considered inappropriate behavior, and there's a huge overhaul going on with regards to the cultural values and the performance appraisal process. Frances was particularly vocal about the inadequacy of the top 3 bottom 3 system that was in place before. I mentioned this before elsewhere, but when Liane had a board member step down the afternoon after he made a sexist comment in a all-hands meeting, it spoke volumes about how serious they were about setting new norms at Uber. I also recall seeing an email a few months ago that basically said that whoever was working on any competitive intelligence project involving spying was to halt all further work effective immediately. The culture of doing things right is definitely becoming a thing.