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Travis Kalanick | All-In Summit 2024

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Travis Kalanick | All-In Summit 2024

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942 segments

0:00

the reason that he was kicked out is

0:02

because of this toxic culture some big

0:05

news that took place on Christmas Eve if

0:08

you missed it Travis kenck planning to

0:10

leave the board at Uber and when he

0:12

showed me what he was working on I

0:13

immediately said hey can I invest a

0:14

popular 70 billion doll ride sharing

0:17

company is searching for a new CEO to

0:19

take the wheel so you want to talk about

0:21

structure being completely screwy

0:24

competition is good I'll bet my entire

0:26

network that Uber will be here and

0:27

thriving in 10 years you're you're at

0:30

War prematurely with your customers

0:33

sorry about

0:34

[Music]

0:36

that all right

0:42

[Applause]

0:44

everybody my

0:49

guy

0:51

um uh I can't believe I can't believe I

0:54

get to sit down with one of the most

0:56

famous investors in Uber

1:00

I'm honored I'm honored to be

1:02

here

1:04

um we we wanted to have a surprise for

1:06

you every day uh I've been you know

1:09

Travis and I have been friends for 25

1:10

years um the first time I interviewed

1:13

Travis was 1999 I was doing a little

1:16

magazine out here digital Coast reporter

1:17

you were doing a little company called

1:19

scour um which was a peer-to-peer

1:22

Network to share

1:24

files um and you were 22 years old I was

1:27

28 I think if we put those two numbers

1:29

together just don't let people do the

1:30

math you know it's just like just keep

1:32

moving was a while ago 1999 um and um I

1:38

just

1:39

remember the enthusiasm drive and fire

1:43

that you had at that time and it always

1:45

struck me I said to myself I don't know

1:47

if he's going to win on this one I'm

1:49

pretty sure he's going to get his ass

1:50

handed to him in fact correct correct um

1:54

but I know this guy's going to win big

1:56

in the future and and sure enough uh we

1:58

got to go on a great journey together

2:00

with Uber and now again with Cloud

2:02

kitchens and I every year when we're

2:04

hanging out I

2:06

say since you left Uber I say you know

2:08

whenever you're ready let's have a

2:10

conversation and here we are and then

2:12

you call me every year I call you every

2:13

year if you're ready just and I'm just a

2:16

block away from

2:17

you you're Alma moer UCLA let's go come

2:20

on I'm like all right let's let's go and

2:24

this year you said okay so here we are

2:26

um let's chop it up let's talk about

2:28

Cloud kitchens you have since uh you

2:32

left Uber been working extremely hard

2:36

and quietly on cloud kitchens what is

2:38

the vision what is cloud kitchens for

2:40

people who don't

2:42

know well uh

2:44

so yeah I mean it it is kind of funny

2:46

when you go from being a tech guy to a

2:48

kitchen guy I mean that's interesting um

2:51

look food has I think we all know like

2:54

food is it's at the center of the Human

2:58

Experience the center of humanity and

3:00

just just how we live but it's got a lot

3:02

of

3:03

problems Health cost convenience like

3:08

all that stuff and it could be a hell of

3:12

a lot better and so um of course in my

3:16

last at my last gig we did Uber Eats it

3:20

was a starting point but the difference

3:23

with food versus rides is that the

3:25

infrastructure was already there you had

3:27

a bunch of cars that were 98% unutilized

3:30

and so you just had to light it up but

3:32

to do food right you needed to build the

3:36

infrastructure and so the mission for

3:38

our company is infrastructure for better

3:40

food and the idea is like can you get

3:44

the preparation and delivery of food so

3:49

high quality and most importantly so

3:51

cost efficient that it starts to

3:53

approach the cost of you going to the

3:54

grocery store if that happens you do to

3:57

the kitchen what Uber did to the car

4:00

and so the quiet part is like we go and

4:04

buy real estate we do

4:08

construction we then go talk to the

4:11

center point of what matters in food

4:14

which is the restaurant tour the

4:16

entrepreneur who's making it who does it

4:20

just because I mean it's a labor of love

4:22

you got to have a deep passion for food

4:24

and a deep passion for people because

4:26

otherwise you couldn't survive in that

4:27

world uh but these guys are like like

4:30

true blue entrepreneurs and they are our

4:32

customer and you do it from their

4:34

perspective and you help them get their

4:38

vision for what they're doing out there

4:40

and do it super super efficiently um and

4:44

so we like to say we serve those who

4:45

serve others we're not the restaurant

4:48

we're the guys

4:49

underneath and uh currently I think we

4:52

have real estate we we have facilities

4:54

in all the major cities in 30 countries

4:57

around the world um we also have a

5:00

software division so we have hundreds of

5:02

thousands of restaurants using our

5:03

software stack um and we have a robotics

5:06

division um that you know got going with

5:10

a lot of the original sort of uber atg

5:12

guys Advanced Technology Group the the

5:14

autonomy guys so we got that crew

5:16

together and um have really you know

5:20

robots that are going to that

5:22

already are out there but are going to

5:26

be out there in a really big way over

5:29

the coming you know quarters and years

5:31

so the premise of uber was hey press a

5:34

button we move you or anything from

5:37

point A to point B what a profound

5:39

simple but profound um insight as an

5:42

entrepreneur and the Insight here is

5:45

hey getting you food uh quickly

5:49

efficiently and then making it easier

5:51

for a restaurant tour to pop up a

5:53

restaurant tell us the economics of a

5:56

food brand um when Jade and I and the

5:59

family were out here here on vacation

6:00

over the summer at Manhattan Beach we

6:01

had a wonderful experience of ordering

6:04

gwenneth Pal's Cloud kitchen and these

6:06

new brands great um yeah great great new

6:10

brands popping up um talk about the

6:12

economics for that food entrepreneur I

6:15

mean It's just tough I think most of us

6:17

know a restaurant tour some of us may

6:20

have even tried to do a restaurant or be

6:22

a part of it in some fashion I like I

6:24

said it's a labor of love but like your

6:27

big costs are going to be labor let's

6:29

call it between you know let's call it

6:32

30% but it can range from like 25 to 40%

6:35

of your overall Revenue occupancy which

6:38

is the the physical space itself uh

6:41

let's call it between six and 12% of

6:46

Revenue uh supply chain is

6:49

30% uh marketing let's call it 10 um I

6:52

know I'm missing something somewhere but

6:54

those are the that's the big stuff and a

6:57

successful restaurant's going to have a

6:59

10 % profit margin and be really pumped

7:01

about that wow um and so yeah that's

7:05

just how it works um you know one thing

7:06

I wanted to say just sort of the high

7:08

level to like sort of how do you connect

7:10

the dots on like sort of where

7:12

Innovation is going is that um you know

7:15

my sweet spot is digitizing the physical

7:17

world and you know you could take that

7:20

to mean a lot of different things but

7:22

it's basically treating atoms like

7:25

bits and so we know the bits world is a

7:28

computer okay computers well CPU

7:30

manipulates the bits storage stores the

7:33

bits Network moves bits from point A to

7:36

point B but if you're treating atoms

7:39

like bits you go CPU manipulates the

7:42

bits what manipulates

7:43

atoms that's

7:45

manufacturing storage stores bits what

7:48

stores atoms that's Real Estate Network

7:52

moves bits from point A to point

7:54

B what uh yeah what moves atoms well

7:59

that's transport of logistics and so

8:03

these are the three sort of core

8:05

Computing resources in a atoms based

8:09

computer and you can say my last gig was

8:11

so much about the network for the

8:14

physical world but there's just a huge

8:16

amount of innovation left in compute and

8:20

storage for the physical world also

8:22

known as

8:23

digitized manufacturing and digitized

8:26

real estate and so our company is really

8:29

sort of

8:30

building atoms based computers and sort

8:33

of our first computer is really a food

8:36

computer so that's kind of how we think

8:38

about it yeah um let's take a look at

8:40

the video of um some of the robots uh

8:44

that are making food in Cloud kitchens

8:49

[Music]

8:59

and that's our lab we're doing that in

9:01

house all in house yeah all this stuff

9:03

is in house

9:05

[Music]

9:22

[Applause]

9:23

[Music]

9:44

so we call this part like look ma no

9:46

hands right so once the dispensers are

9:48

full of

9:50

food nobody touches it and what comes

9:52

out on a conveyor belt is bags of food

9:54

that get delivered amazing right so you

9:58

know LED

10:00

bag sealed you get the general idea so

10:02

now you have a a restaurant that can

10:06

asynchronously produce for consumers

10:09

from what labor is doing and the labor

10:11

is primarily on the on the prep side of

10:14

things so we see there's kind of vessels

10:17

there um I'm assuming they have

10:19

ingredients in them the bowl goes by

10:22

stuff gets dropped in organized covered

10:25

put in a bag label goes on the human has

10:28

no part in that except for maybe

10:31

preparing and and filling prep let's say

10:33

you have prep in the morning this

10:35

machine can run for hours without

10:37

anybody there um and so you know there's

10:42

interesting you know so so it just

10:43

becomes a more efficient thing so the if

10:46

you want to do to the kitchen what Uber

10:49

did to the car you have to make sure two

10:51

things happen one is that you need the

10:54

logistics the movement of food needs to

10:56

go to the cost of that needs to go to

10:58

zero this is a autonomous vehicles

11:00

things along these lines and then the

11:02

production of food must also get uh sort

11:05

of roboticized mechanized essentially

11:08

those two things happen and then we can

11:11

always cook but it can be out of choice

11:15

and um you know I like to say I like a I

11:17

I like horses but I don't ride a horse

11:19

to work and so um you can get higher

11:23

quality food to the people at a lower

11:25

cost and just give people the most

11:27

precious of commodities

11:29

back which is called time to do all the

11:32

things all the other things in life that

11:34

they love and you're strategically

11:37

placing these Cloud

11:38

kitchens um in I get I would assume very

11:42

lowcost real estate but that's at very

11:45

key uh locations that make it very

11:49

efficient to uh deliver the food yeah

11:52

yeah so on the software side we we have

11:56

a software stack that like I said

11:58

hundreds of of thousands of restaurants

12:00

use we're seeing 18% of all online

12:04

delivery in the US as an example our

12:07

software is touching so because we see

12:09

where all of the delivery is we know

12:12

where to put a delivery only restaurant

12:16

facility um and so we find distressed

12:19

real estate or sort of unique situations

12:22

where it's hard to develop and we've

12:24

built a competence in sort of turning

12:27

that into a 30 kitchen facility that we

12:30

then lease those kitchens to restaurant

12:32

tours let's talk about the Playbook this

12:35

is something you worked on really hard

12:37

at Uber hiring Josh in New York will in

12:41

La we had a podcast and you were set on

12:44

that podcast years and years ago hey I'm

12:46

looking for some people to run some

12:47

cities to run Uber and you found this

12:49

eclectic group of Samurai and you let

12:54

them go um and man they cooked yeah talk

12:58

to me about that management principle

13:01

and your management principles hey be

13:03

pumped you know and and bringing that

13:05

enthusiasm that fire and letting those

13:08

cities cook because most people have

13:10

this top down they do things

13:12

sequentially you've really and and in

13:15

those early days got more and more

13:17

emboldened and excited about doing

13:19

things in parallel and letting people

13:21

make mistakes in those regions and

13:24

learning they could I remember Josh

13:26

started doing messenger delivery you let

13:28

other people deliver kittens for a day

13:30

to an office to that was a funny thing

13:32

yeah JD Vance that's when he uninstalled

13:34

Uber um no kittens um but cookies

13:38

whatever it was ice cream trucks yeah

13:41

talk about that model of letting you

13:43

know a th flowers bloom letting these

13:45

Samurai go crazy so look we had a a

13:50

cultural value at Uber called let

13:52

Builders build and I'm sure it was there

13:55

are other companies that I think may

13:56

have said that before us uh but we we

13:59

certainly took a hold of that and look

14:01

as it related to our GM model and and

14:04

how to empower GMS to do well it starts

14:06

with who is the person and we I always

14:10

felt that the the magic making happens

14:13

when you

14:14

cross uh sort

14:16

of uh creative instincts with

14:20

analytical capabilities or prowess

14:23

really so we would just design tests

14:27

that sort of simulated what it would be

14:28

like working together that tested their

14:33

creative stuff their secret their secret

14:36

sauce and creativity but would create

14:39

problems where it was crossed with the

14:41

necessity to analytically solve problems

14:45

got it and so you put those two things

14:48

together with a hungry person that maybe

14:50

just got out their MBA or let's say

14:53

equivalent and they're fired up and

14:55

ready to go and you Empower them and

14:57

then you put

15:00

very simple controls to make sure that

15:05

they're check that like like like

15:07

waypoints that in order to go further

15:09

they have to pass that test once they're

15:12

in the job and just simple things like

15:15

we would have a pricing call in the

15:17

early days of uber where you cannot put

15:20

it up in the app until you pass the

15:22

pricing call the first 30 cities I was

15:24

on that pricing call and the thing about

15:27

price when it comes to Transportation

15:28

it's a amalgamation of all strategy

15:31

across everything across what does your

15:34

cars look like what's the supply the

15:37

supply uh what does uh what does Metro

15:40

or public uh public transport look like

15:42

what is cost of Labor in that City uh

15:45

what are their General alternatives for

15:47

getting around what are regulations like

15:49

ultimately becomes a service with a

15:51

price you pass that and then you run you

15:55

get to run a

15:57

city but that means the previous 30 days

16:00

or 90 days when they're just doing lots

16:02

of stuff I don't have to worry and then

16:06

they get to that point they pass the

16:07

test they know what the criteria for

16:10

passing the test is so it forces them

16:13

into the right mode right let's talk

16:17

about strategy you know one of the great

16:19

privileges of of getting to be involved

16:21

you know in your journey for a little

16:23

bit was we would talk sometimes late at

16:26

night weekends uh when there were really

16:29

dicey strategy moments and I'd ask you

16:32

what you're thinking and we would just

16:34

jam out and a couple of those

16:37

conversations I remember calling you in

16:38

a panic after having taken a lift a ride

16:42

chair and we were only Uber black yeah

16:44

and I said trais I just got out of this

16:46

[ __ ] thing it's $16 it would have

16:48

been 60 I'm pricing sensitive but man

16:51

this is going to change everything and

16:52

you're like jakow and I said don't you

16:54

don't understand J no this is disrup and

16:57

you said we're launching it next week we

17:00

got it you know it is disruptive and you

17:02

saw you know the the Lincoln Town Cars

17:05

were so brilliant you know because there

17:07

were such high margins but you saw the

17:09

disruptiveness of of the rering thing

17:11

and then surge pricing we had a big

17:13

debate about tipping let's talk about

17:15

some of those seminal moments in product

17:18

design yeah and

17:20

competition because this was not

17:23

happening in a vacuum people forget

17:24

there was sidecar there was lift yeah

17:26

and then there were Regulators this was

17:29

a war yeah so I mean kind of a funny

17:32

story I'm not sure if I've ever told you

17:33

this you were you were only six weeks

17:36

behind Zuck right which is I first heard

17:39

about Lyft from Zuck H and he's

17:43

like yo

17:46

yo I think you have a situation on your

17:48

hands and like Su would sort of do that

17:50

like with like a little [ __ ] with you

17:52

kind of sit yeah kind of like that yeah

17:54

he's he's a puck

17:56

yeah and I'm like thank

18:00

you and um but the thing was was look it

18:04

was at the beginning that was like they

18:07

called their rides donation it was a

18:10

donation thing it was non-commercial

18:14

because there was no insurance there was

18:17

no regulation there was basically just

18:20

citizen giving another citizen a ride

18:21

across town and we didn't do anything

18:24

about it for 9 months because we were

18:27

already getting our asses hand handed to

18:29

us and we were doing the legal thing and

18:31

so I'm like dude like we're we got like

18:34

I got threatened by the city of San

18:35

Francisco and the state of California 3

18:37

months after we launched Uber with 90

18:39

days in jail for every ride that had

18:43

occurred yeah so then this thing is like

18:46

it's a donation I swear and by the way

18:48

if you don't give the donation they

18:49

suggest then you get kicked off the

18:51

system yeah right so we're like H we're

18:54

not going to do that and we saw Lyft

18:56

eating our market share up from the

18:59

bottom up because they didn't have

19:01

insurance or regulation or any of these

19:03

other things and then nine months into

19:07

it uh the city of San Francisco the

19:10

state of California because it's was a

19:11

California pu said ah you know it's

19:14

totally

19:15

fine and then we're like oh [ __ ] so then

19:18

we hustled got our thing going which is

19:22

called would at the time was called

19:23

peer-to-peer ride sharing right um and

19:26

then just got working and um um the way

19:29

we did it was like the reason we didn't

19:31

do it in the first place is because it

19:32

was clearly not like legit and but then

19:37

California said yes and so I made a PCT

19:40

with myself that was like I'm never

19:42

going to let this happen again and so

19:44

each and every city we went to we would

19:47

send we would wait for Lift to launch

19:51

and then we would basically say to the

19:52

city we'd send them a letter saying

19:54

there's this really cool thing called

19:55

ride sharing this company called lft is

19:57

doing it

19:59

um we think it's great but our read of

20:01

your regs is like it's probably not

20:05

allowed because you're thoughtful you

20:07

want to be thoughtful but if you don't

20:12

enforce in the next 30 days we're going

20:14

to participate as well great so almost

20:18

every city in the US other than two we

20:21

can talk about those two by the way but

20:23

in all every city in the US other than

20:24

two Portland

20:26

Vegas we were number two in R

20:30

sharing um be for this

20:33

reason um and we did this actually

20:35

internationally we did it across Europe

20:36

we did it everywhere there were other

20:38

folks that were out there and we would

20:40

talk to the regulatory guys say if

20:41

you're going to enforce do it but if

20:42

you're not we're going to participate

20:44

yeah and that work that's kind of how we

20:45

rolled and surch pricing was an

20:47

interesting one you know um the

20:51

Brilliance of the of the Uber

20:53

Marketplace was in many ways tackling

20:58

demand

20:59

and figuring out a way to get uh

21:03

drivers to come out on New Year's Eve

21:05

the worst night of their

21:07

lives to drive and you came up with a

21:10

pretty novel approach which is hey we'll

21:12

pay you double we'll pay you triple yeah

21:14

and if you don't want to participate in

21:16

that as a customer that's fine but we

21:18

think availability is more important uh

21:22

than necessarily having standardized

21:24

pricing and man the world got very very

21:27

upset at this

21:29

and you and I talked about when you

21:30

explained it to me I said that makes

21:31

logical sense and I said you know what

21:33

we should do we should write a blog post

21:35

and that blog post is still up I think

21:36

where you just explained it to people I

21:37

thought Uber took down all my blog posts

21:39

they probably yeah that might be a

21:40

little but this blog post where you just

21:42

said hey here's how to handle New Year's

21:44

Eve leave at this time go back at this

21:47

time but we need to get these people on

21:49

the road and they deserve to be

21:50

compensated so surge pricing there's

21:52

another way to say it

21:54

now I called it surge pricing on purpose

21:57

because I didn't want any body to think

21:59

we were trying to deceive them right so

22:03

we said surge pricing like it's clear

22:04

what's going on um but the other way to

22:07

say surge pricing is called the lowest

22:11

cost reliable

22:14

ride because if surge pricing goes up

22:17

too much then you have drivers that

22:19

aren't making any money um and by the

22:22

way they'll go to the

22:23

competition but if surge pricing is

22:25

exactly at and by the way if surge

22:27

pricing is not enough you're not not

22:28

going to be able to get a ride because

22:29

too many people are going to want it and

22:30

there won't be enough cars sech price in

22:33

the right spot it draws enough Supply

22:36

in and fends off enough customers and

22:40

the market clears so it's the lowest

22:43

cost reliable ride and that's why we

22:45

knew it was a winner even when all of

22:47

the competition and the world generally

22:50

was like hating on this idea

22:54

anytime we were doing surge pricing and

22:56

our competitor wasn't we knew we were

22:58

gaining market share because somebody

23:00

could just come to us and get a ride

23:01

when in the other system they couldn't

23:04

so you're proving reliability you're

23:06

proving it's the lowest cost reliable

23:08

ride that's it yeah um take me to you

23:14

know real quick led to a

23:18

massive super interesting Logistics

23:22

cross with economics problem where at

23:25

the peak I mean and I don't know what it

23:27

is at Uber today but it was like I don't

23:30

know like 150 phds working on this

23:34

problem that we just described huh

23:36

inside the company yeah which is like

23:39

how do you find that lowest cost

23:41

reliable ride is a very very difficult

23:44

problem in a live Logistics system like

23:47

this let's talk about Regulators in

23:49

relation to people being independent

23:51

contractors this is when I realized the

23:54

Press was acting

23:56

without good faith data or logic and as

24:00

a former journalist you know it was kind

24:02

of eye openening to me to be on the

24:04

other side of the table and watching

24:06

this happened because we knew full well

24:09

based on driver data that they loved

24:11

their jobs at Uber because they had Free

24:14

Will and they could go and do any other

24:16

job they wanted and let's be clear the

24:18

average Uber driver during my you know

24:21

let's say at the end of my tenure was

24:23

eight hours a week so they clearly like

24:26

it clearly a side gig yeah side hustle

24:29

and they wanted the

24:32

flexibility over everything else work

24:35

when I want don't work when I want and

24:38

then these

24:40

Union politicians and everything said no

24:43

and the people who own the medallions

24:45

and this is a cobal of really bad actors

24:48

who were saying no they have to work a

24:51

shift and they have to go work for

24:53

somebody who owns a medallion who gets

24:55

50 60 70% of the economics and they

24:59

portrayed us or you as the bad guy in

25:01

all this and this was the exact opposite

25:05

of the

25:06

truth so um yeah I mean it was a union

25:10

problem which is it's very difficult to

25:13

organize people who in this classic area

25:18

which is very Union organized called

25:21

drivers it's very difficult to organize

25:24

them when they choose when they want to

25:26

work their office is their own it's

25:29

their own like nobody controls it like

25:32

there there's just no control and so

25:35

other than the control given to the

25:36

individual and so it was very

25:39

disruptive to the union and their own

25:42

business model and so they had to cut it

25:46

off at the knees and so that became a

25:50

mix of a sort of political discourse and

25:54

like a media push crossed with sort of

25:58

of

25:59

regulatory uh lobbying and like like

26:03

trying to make political apparatuses do

26:05

what's necessary to constrain it and you

26:10

took the approach we will fight there

26:12

are wartime CEOs there are peacetime

26:15

CEOs I put you in the category with Elon

26:17

of wartime CEOs who it does not matter

26:21

how many battles you must battle

26:24

concurrently we're going to fight

26:26

because it's we're on the right side

26:29

yeah of History yeah uh but this became

26:32

acute the number of battles yeah that

26:36

you had to fight the number of fronts

26:37

increase take us to the

26:39

darkest peak of it because every time I

26:42

talked to you I felt fine about it but

26:44

other investors other people felt like

26:46

hey this is too many battles to wage at

26:49

once talk to me about you personally

26:52

fighting all those battles I my

26:54

perception of you was the more battles

26:57

emerged Yeah the more you realized you

27:00

were doing the right thing it filled

27:02

your bucket it powered you it gave

27:04

energy to you to know we were on the

27:07

right

27:08

side so yeah I you know sort of in

27:11

justest I would I would say to folks I'd

27:13

be like

27:15

so you know I'm not sure how it became

27:18

so

27:19

controversial that one citizen giving

27:21

another citizen aide across town became

27:25

such a thing I I'm not sure how that

27:27

happened but it did

27:28

uh the darkest moment I me the thing is

27:30

is like you'd

27:32

keep it was almost like we were always

27:35

pushing into that

27:38

area so like if something became easy

27:40

then we'd push elsewhere until that

27:43

became hard so it was constant is like I

27:46

make the analogy to like

27:49

a to teams that we have in different

27:52

places then and now like a a world class

27:55

marathoner I've never seen a worldclass

27:56

marathoner a mile 19

27:59

look like he's just honky Dory yeah

28:02

right and if he was he's about to

28:04

lose so you push right to that edge of

28:09

what's possible and if that starts to

28:11

get easy you push further now it doesn't

28:13

necessar mean you push in exactly that

28:16

along that axis it could be in a totally

28:18

different area but um as long as the

28:23

problems you're

28:25

solving are greater than the problems

28:28

you're

28:29

creating then you're fine when the

28:32

problems you're creating are starts

28:36

to when the derivative of problems

28:38

you're creating is greater than the

28:41

derivative of the problems you're

28:42

solving then you have a real problem

28:44

right and that's when you have to start

28:46

pulling back get back to above water and

28:50

then go back into it but when I talk

28:52

about creating problems I think of it

28:54

like think of it as like a math

28:56

professor a math profess professor

28:58

without a really cool interesting

29:00

problem to solve is a sad math

29:02

professor and that's how we would think

29:04

about it right these we always pushing

29:06

to the point where we're sweating yeah

29:08

and it's

29:10

like not sure and there could be late

29:13

nights there could be all nighters it

29:14

could be that thing but because we were

29:17

doing the right thing because we had

29:20

great people in the field who believed

29:23

then we could push all the way to that

29:25

edge uh only they could be world class

29:28

marathoners too only two entrepreneurs I

29:31

know have had the audacity to not build

29:36

their products in China everybody does

29:38

that that's pretty easy but to actually

29:40

operate a business in China yeah you and

29:43

Elon uh decided we're going to try to

29:46

compete him with selling cars inside of

29:49

China pretty crazy uh and even crazier

29:52

self- driving cars in China wow yeah

29:55

okay let's go let's go byd like you're

29:57

up against some serious competition and

29:59

it's not

30:00

exactly um a fair game maybe or there

30:03

might be complications to that game um

30:06

we had a long conversation about China

30:08

and I said to you wow we're burning a

30:11

lot of money there what do you what's

30:13

the strategy here let me just hear it

30:14

from you and uh you said we're we're

30:16

going for gold yeah but I mean there's a

30:19

lot of fun there I mean look the thing

30:21

about doing business in China is it

30:24

forces you to rethink everything

30:28

everything like if you go into China

30:30

thinking you got it you're going to get

30:33

your ass handed to you you have to start

30:36

first principles Bottoms Up um let's see

30:40

where could I go with this um look we

30:43

tell me tell everybody the strategy hey

30:44

we're going for gold but they're silver

30:46

and and you how you looked at the world

30:49

in that regard yeah yeah so I'll get

30:51

there is that we so a lot of times when

30:54

you go in ENT China they're basically

30:55

somebody's going you got to have a

30:57

partner if you just go and you do your

31:00

first exploration trip they' be like you

31:01

got to get a partner they're like 50/50

31:04

blah blah blah and I'm like why nobody

31:06

could tell me why so then we just went

31:08

on our own and started building

31:10

something and we never saw on the ground

31:14

we never saw bias we were treated fairly

31:18

on the

31:20

ground um

31:23

but at some point what I'd say is the

31:26

China war went Global and what what I

31:28

mean by that is the Chinese government I

31:32

think it

31:33

was safe there was a there's some

31:36

there's some I think it were called safe

31:38

like a it was like The Sovereign wealth

31:40

of China cic there's like a few things

31:42

like that they started investing

31:44

hundreds of millions and billions of

31:45

dollars in all of our competitors

31:48

globally to drain us of money so that it

31:52

was harder to compete in

31:53

China

31:55

they made apple and I'd love to have a

32:00

discussion with Tim at some point we had

32:02

some interesting words for each other at

32:03

this point but they made

32:06

Apple uh invest a billion dollars in Dee

32:09

and apple doesn't invest anything in

32:11

anybody no that's not their like what

32:13

was he protecting there there's

32:14

something going on

32:16

so whole really amazing story there holy

32:19

cow anyways uh the Chinese War went

32:22

Global and so that's when we had to go

32:25

from going for the goal

32:28

to making sure we got the silver and

32:32

that's when we started negotiating with

32:33

de to basically say we had

32:36

20% of the of the overall entity of the

32:40

merged entity uh but in order to do that

32:42

in China that's when we actually had to

32:44

push our spend super hard because they

32:47

had to be

32:48

scared so I think at the

32:51

peak uh right be right as we were

32:54

negotiating the term sheet we pushed we

32:57

were burning

32:58

I think it

32:59

was $75 million a

33:04

week it's a big number yeah that was

33:07

that yeah

33:09

and but it but we knew we had the deal

33:12

but we only have the deal if they're

33:14

scared right this is a poker so our

33:17

market share was skyrocketing as we did

33:20

this

33:22

they're pissed and tripping and then ail

33:26

who's negot the deal is like just chain

33:30

smoking

33:33

yeah but that's how you get a deal done

33:35

in China right uh and that turned out to

33:38

be there it is um that's that's your

33:43

wartime CEO right there um that deal we

33:47

had invested millions in ch billions in

33:49

China at that point and I think we I

33:51

think we invested yeah we probably were

33:53

around a billion billion and a half and

33:55

the DD St at the time when deal got done

33:58

was we at 891 yeah something like that

34:00

so we turned a bill and a half into

34:01

eight or nine I can't remember the exact

34:03

math but it's something like that uh

34:05

let's talk about in like two years yeah

34:09

let's talk about when you got atin U

34:12

this was heartbreaking

34:14

crushing brutal um you fought hard to

34:19

remain in the seat I got out there and

34:22

did what I could on the Press front to

34:24

try to defend you and and try to keep

34:27

you in the seat but we failed yeah uh

34:30

and it was brutal and it was

34:32

particularly hard on you because you put

34:33

your soul into this

34:35

company yeah well look I think there's a

34:37

little bit more I mean uh you know like

34:40

if an

34:41

investor is

34:43

running a political Oppo campaign

34:46

against you for six months sort of

34:49

generating a crisis every week for six

34:51

months straight it's going to wear you

34:54

down and then you know my

34:58

this one's hard your mom

35:03

passed I

35:05

know I was there with you no no it's all

35:08

good with you but that's that's when

35:11

they went in for the kill uh that I just

35:14

couldn't hang yeah bottom line I just

35:16

couldn't hang

35:19

[Applause]

35:24

yeah

35:26

and yeah

35:28

it was um it was dark it was dark yeah

35:32

so but look I a lot of people go hey are

35:35

you pissed off or this thing and I

35:37

say um

35:40

first I loved it every

35:43

minute I loved every minute but when you

35:47

fall in love again you don't think about

35:50

the ex very much right Cloud kitchen the

35:53

X you moved on

35:58

and you put all that in there in

36:02

in the I I just want to say

36:05

like I am proud of everything you did

36:09

and and watching you do it and getting

36:10

to be there and witness it I learned so

36:13

much from you the community learned so

36:15

much from you and I think we all owe

36:18

like the Playbook I I can tell you the

36:21

impact you had on the Next Generation

36:24

because you know I never talk about Uber

36:28

I brought it up once or twice never talk

36:30

I never talk about it I try to keep it

36:32

lowkey but I brought it up once or twice

36:33

and it was good for my deal flow and I

36:35

got to

36:37

see I got to see I got I'm so honored to

36:41

be here I'm so honored to be here too uh

36:44

but I got to see that famous Uber

36:47

investor and I mean this sincerely the

36:51

number of entrepreneurs who came to me

36:53

who said I started this company because

36:57

I watch Travis I watched what he did I

37:00

want to be Travis you inspired that

37:03

generation along with Elon to say I want

37:06

to operate in the real world I want to

37:09

build something that has an impact and I

37:11

am willing to fight and have that

37:15

entrepreneurial Spirit which I'm going

37:16

to be honest there's a large amount of

37:19

entrepreneurs who don't have the fight

37:22

in they don't have the dog in them you

37:24

got the dog in you you got the fight in

37:26

you you know and and that's so rare and

37:29

that's why you're so successful it's

37:30

because you're willing to fight the

37:32

fight

37:35

yeah

37:40

um you know look we just saw the

37:42

Olympics and I know I made that

37:44

marathoner analogy before but like every

37:46

one of those gold medalists they got the

37:49

dog in them there's no way no other way

37:53

um we're just playing a different sport

37:55

and I think the you know some of the

37:56

interesting parts about this sport is

37:59

that it's it's not just an individual

38:01

thing it's a it's a massive team and

38:05

there's stakeholders in cities and

38:07

citizens and and all that um it's just

38:11

fun you know like a lot of folks go look

38:14

you did the Uber thing why are you doing

38:16

it again I mean you catched in a lot of

38:18

chips you could be just chilling I'm

38:20

like look Serena keeps getting on the

38:22

court she's totally badass why is she

38:24

doing it right you know or take your

38:27

favorite

38:28

star of anything yeah LeBron's in his 40

38:31

what he's 40 now and he he's looks great

38:33

out there so it's because they have a

38:35

love of the game and it's not just

38:37

Showtime that day yeah it's everything

38:40

behind the scenes it's working with

38:42

people especially in this sport like

38:43

again individual stuff is a little

38:45

different like you got to I like the

38:47

magic of working with magical people

38:52

doing it as a crew is where all the good

38:54

stuff happens and they and you know they

38:56

all keep coming back you know I've seen

38:58

a lot of the the the folks who who came

39:01

for a second Tour of Duty with you that

39:02

speaks volumes as we end here um Dar has

39:06

done I got to know him yeah um try to

39:08

support the team over there for the

39:09

Legacy um and he's he's he's done a

39:12

decent job solid job profitable what's

39:15

that let's go they went from my 75

39:17

million a week to profitable I like it

39:20

well I mean it is great the Legacy we

39:22

always knew it was easily to make it

39:23

profitable people were saying oh it

39:25

could never be profitable and you and I

39:26

would talk and be like we were raise the

39:28

price of dollar profitable like it's not

39:30

difficult just do you know look there's

39:33

there's an art to that too it's all good

39:35

yeah um but yeah like like I

39:39

think Uber's gotten to a great place the

39:41

profitability is there that's means it's

39:43

going to be around now we they've got to

39:46

figure out the autonomous thing that's I

39:48

think that's the next big challenge to

39:50

uh to go after well let me just put it

39:52

out

39:53

there he's he's going to do his tour

39:57

and uh his stour is going to end would

40:00

you consider doing what Steve Job did

40:03

and coming back and merging Cloud

40:05

kitchens with

40:06

Uber would you consider it if if if the

40:10

opportunity was there or can can you not

40:13

go you're saying there's a

40:15

chance can you go home I mean if he this

40:18

would be the Return of the King this

40:20

would be my dream if you came back I

40:23

know it's not your dream but it's

40:25

mine could you if Cloud kitchens became

40:28

part of uber it would be it would be a

40:31

trillion dollar company with you back in

40:33

that seat would you take the seat again

40:34

if if it was

40:36

offered would you consider

40:41

it well I definitely know who my head of

40:43

comms would

40:44

be on that note Travis

40:48

Kalen my man I love you great job

Interactive Summary

This conversation features a detailed interview with Travis Kalanick, the co-founder and former CEO of Uber, regarding his post-Uber venture, CloudKitchens. Kalanick discusses his philosophy on 'digitizing the physical world,' his approach to management and strategy—which emphasizes fighting through challenges, parallel experimentation, and empowering teams—and reflects on the turbulent history of Uber, including navigating regulatory battles, international expansion, and his eventually departure from the company.

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