Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi | Full interview | Code 2018

let's start talking about how you got there and an uber at the Christmas party for uber this year you turn to all the reporters in the room and tell them what you said I said thank you for my job yeah you did you did which was really lovely we like that because you like to meet we're egomaniacs so but you when you got you double you didn't think it was part of a really strange process having covered it and stuff like that you didn't think you got the job correct no it was it was one of the most bizarre process he's out there and I was kind of a unknown third party right and which I think you swore to figure out who it was a man who was not a white man who was a person of my I don't I don't know what you got but in any case they were I just I'm still figuring it out I know but you're Persian it said it was not someone you think it was they gave me all kinds of clues but I couldn't figure it out but I had different parts of you and stuff like that but I did figure you out actually eventually but you didn't think you had the job no it was I mean I was competing with these headliners legends of business melt make book men and I was just a guy in Seattle who was running Expedia in my own nest there and and you know the the one of the advantages that that I had was I love my job I love what I was doing at Expedia and at first it was a bit of a lark and like I'm happy where I am I'm doing great I actually talked with Daniel wek who was the next person you have honor remember a conversation over drinks with Daniel and and Daniels like since when is life about being happy like this is about doing something great like this is an important company in your lives you know and like you have to try this and so when they call me again I might you know what what the hell let's let's do this but I didn't take it seriously first I didn't sell myself to the company because I wasn't interested in getting a job because I had a great job I was interested in doing this if I was the right person four so I wasn't particularly like politicking and with all the board dynamics going on I was just like hey this is me I got my strengths that got me it says if if I'm the right person for this role I'm game and I thought there's a very small chance of my getting in and the one person who all along was like you're gonna get you're gonna get it I said my wife so she she she and I bet five bucks and she won right she should have bet more yeah and you you you you when you got it when you found out you got it Arianna Huffington call me yeah yeah and and I was shopping for groceries and she's like Arianna I'm sorry darah I have good news and bad news exactly and usually I'm not the bad news first I'm like give me the good news she said you have the job I'm like well what's the bad news it's a leaked already so it was a little awkward I already had a job and I got this new job and we had to I put our chairman Barry Diller at the time the Expedia chairman in a really difficult position and he handled with aplomb and he was amazing and and we are where we are now so let's talk about where we are now let's talk about the past when thinking about this job you had a company that was toxic and a lot it would like a very toxic atmosphere you had Susan had set off Susan founded set off yeah thing how did you imagined you were going to fix that you had a founder who was making trouble and continued to make trouble while you were there and we'll talk about that yeah but what did you how did you think about when you first came there so I split up I'm an engineer by training and you the way to take on complex problems is to split into component parts and for me first off and super important was the governments of a company the governance of the company you had benchmark and Travis to some extent really battling each other and it was a battle over the control of the company so you had people who were focused on control rather than success and so one focus for me was solve the governance so that you don't have players solving for control but just thinking about the success of the company and I think we've gotten there now second for me was management and culture augment the management team bringing in some of my own folks Tony West Barney Harford looking for CFO now and also we very quickly go after the culture of the company restate what we think the norms in a culture of uber should be we brought that we can't crowdsource that from from the the company itself rather than it being kind of a top-down thing and and I think that's starting to work and and you know the one norm that we talk about all Thomas do the right thing and if we start doing the right thing and if we start acting differently eventually the world will notice and we're not gonna be able to control what in the world will notice eventually the world will notice because the truth comes out in everything good bad and then the third was is looking you know after culture management is thinking about the business strategically setting us up for an IPO and and really setting up the business so that we can be profitable over the long term completing the investments that you did when you were let's talk about the the culture the doctor culture and Travis where you had to do he's on the board he's your big shareholder yeah you got there and I remember you knew we had lunch and I was like he's gonna do something bad to you like just let me just tell you that and you're like oh Cara don't be so negative and I was like I'm gonna be I'm gonna I'm right and so one of the things this the part where you say that all right so no I think you didn't you you did you understand because I think UK I was like you're an adult you didn't come from this country did you did you feel like you can't how did you how did you go into that because here's someone who is hard driving great success huge success yes yes but the methodology was flawed deeply flawed sure listen is its how did you ever worry about dealing with that um I my focus is on making a company succeed I don't want to get into me versus someone else if I'm completely pure about the success of a company and don't think about politics etc the rest I believe will take care of itself and it's a little bit of this you know innocent outlook on life but it's like it's worked for me right so initially he then kicked your shins with a board member so he did but they're like two great board members right you know like Ursula and John are great board members I didn't like how it happened but instead of like focusing on how it happened and the fact is Travis has a right to you know a governmental right to bring on those two board members that focus on that well they're actually two great board members so let me get to know them and I've got to know them and let me use them to help me build a company that is successful but it's also successful in the right way and if I focus on that the rest will take care of itself how did you what is your relationship with him now the relationship is important I mean obviously it's it's highly valued in South Hamill probably chose to valued in some ways sometimes sometimes sometimes sometimes not I mean every every situation is different I said the the I think that the founder relationship is complicated and also frankly the former CEO relationship is complicated I'm a former CEO of Expedia I'm still on the board mark Oakhurst rim has taken over for me my job is to get the hell out of the way you know and and Mark has to make his mark on that company Marcus and make his mark and which means he's the new CEO he's going to do things differently and in doing things differently definitionally it's like do things differently from my choices so I can't get too personal or offended about that and I think with Travis you know early on I was like listen I'm gonna need my space and he did respect that and once we got rid of the control the struggle for control etc my focus is on taking the company forward and now he's kind of found his thing and he can be an entrepreneur and he can build something so he's a board member and just as I informed the entire board form em and we have construction struck today logs but also I am taking the company in a different direction and I think he respects that and I think ultimately you know whether the direction is the right one or the wrong one that will be whatever you consult with him on know a lot but it's I consult with I consult with them the way that I consult with the board and it is a different direction that we're going in in terms of culture the strategy for us is now broadened in terms of mobility etc I did bring in a big partner and Softbank and I'm very happy about that so yeah you know do I consult with them I consult with them just like I consult with the rest of the board okay let's talk about what you've been doing now besides your delightful I'm sorry video which is lovely delightful I like it really I can't yeah thank you that's why you're doing that because I see why you're doing it yeah you know well we're doing it because it was very important for we thought that the confetti our consumers and our target base to know that this is a new Eber and we're turning over a new leaf I'm really looking forward to get the heck off TV very very quickly but the fact is that we are a different kind of company and our values are different and the fact that people had a negative view point of the uber of two three years ago was hurting her brand and hurting her business and we've got to reverse that and so we are putting money in marketing it's a message that I think is going to resonate and we're going to transition into the product itself and some of the steps that we're taking on the product side on safety etc really fundamentally reimagining the product and improving a product in a way that I think is pretty responsible let's talk about that product let's say with the core product you have two components off to the customers and the drivers just recently your driver issues still continue to be something you have to deal with talk about buying long time sure yeah yeah so talk about that issue because last time when Travis was here on the stage of attention he actually when I asked about self-driving he actually told the truth he's like the problem with lubbers business model is the guy sitting in the front seat we and then it's all gravy for us like once we get rid of him it's a great business which I was like thanks so this is something I fundamentally disagree with okay all right the the face of uber is the person sitting in the front see mostly guys I actually would like to have more women sitting in the front seat as well because it's a great form of employment you know you can you can be your own boss you don't need to work full time that is the face of uber right it's we build a delightful app you can get in and get out but ultimately the time that you spend with our service is really the time that you spent with our driver partners so we have launched actually one of the first product ones that we made is launching a new driver app it was built in concert with the drivers we actually consulted them they were involved in in building out the app and we're introducing a lot of futures that there's a lot of still disgruntlement they don't feel like they're paid enough that they're getting you know I get email every day so we have three million driver partners around the world and there are some better disgruntled all of them I think want to make more money but fundamentally they get to be their own bosses and they get to work on their own terms in general I think driver earnings are going up and we have an increased time and distance in certain places and we end with them if they feel you know the push/pull of the system not giving them with anything obviously don't have benefits and other things that well listen in Europe we rolled out a insurance feature with AXA where the driver partners actually do get benefits if they have accidents they have insurance they got maternity paternity benefits etc so we are actually we have to build a great service and actually I think one of the fundamental growth blockers that we have are are we going to be able to have enough driver partners in recruiting enough driver partners long term so one is we're working on the product very very actively to is we are going to work on earnings and maximizing earnings as long as it doesn't fundamentally hurt the price of the product and that's so for example pool is a product and we're investing hundreds of millions of dollars in pool in order to get two people into a car those two people can pay a much much lower rate and the driver doesn't have to take the brunt of brunt of that and then we are also looking at benefits you know there's this as you think about the gig economy and independent workers etc there's this you know independent workers there's a second-class citizen that all of a sudden doesn't get access to benefits health care etc just because they've chosen to work for themselves versus you know that's outsourced their career to to a company I think when you think about the future of work work is going to be much less about a company then it is going to be about the work itself and so part of what I want to do we want to do it uber is to think about the independent workers not bringing in second classes and can we economically build out benefits packages and insurance so that this this can be a safer way of living while at the same time being your own boss competition for drivers starting to get rougher rougher listen it's it's I think that the competition for drivers is a bigger competition within the economic context because economy's getting better and as you know unemployment rate is at an all-time low so we have to compete against the economy for drivers it's not necessarily us versus lyft etcetera it's our sourcing just more drivers that come onto the platform and we have to make it more attractive because their alternatives are becoming more attractive it still talked about the core business I'd noticed it just in San Francisco the prices going up quite a bit like yeah yeah talk about because then and now I'm like I think I'll just walk or I think I'll just it's not quite as like wow it's a good bike no I'm taking one of those scooters those things are not scooters e-bikes so I do think Tong time and distance has has come up right you just buy you bought one of those plaything we bought jump shot which are key thugs yeah and a very very important push for us is to innovate to lower costs in other words not just take the rates down in order to lower costs but actually use innovation to lower the cost of getting from point A to B and examples of our pool again and we've expressed we have launched a new product which is go express pool where you meet at a certain point you meet at a certain point you may wait so you may walk a block or two you may get dropped off a block or two from where you're going it allows us to match much much more efficiently and allows the the ride to take less turns so the ride itself becomes much more efficient and then we are thinking about alternative forms of transport if you look at jump the average length of a trip at jump is two point six miles that is 30 to 40 percent of our trips in San Francisco or two point six miles or less jump is much much cheaper than taking an uberx and something it's like hey let's cannibalize ourselves let's create a cheaper form of transportation for me from A to B and for you to come to ver and uber not just being about about cars and uber not being about what the best solution for us is but really being about the best deliver bikes scooters bikes perhaps scooters I want to get that bus network on I want to get the BART or the metro etc onto verso any way for you to get from point A to B but you want to start your own Bart no no no we we want to we're not going to go vertical everywhere just like Amazon sells their party goods we are going to also offer their party transportation services so we want to kind of be the Amazon for transportation and we want to offer the BART as a an alternative is a company called Mesabi that is is connecting metro etc into an instant payment system so we want you to be able to like say should I think the BART should I take a bike should I take an uber all of the it to be real-time information all of it to be optimized for you and all of it to be done with the push of above any transfers any transportation totally frictionless okay is also a growing business for you it's in exploding business in a good way it's now at a six billion dollar bookings run right growing over 200 percent I think we are going to be the largest food delivery business in the world X China and it is it's taking advantage of our customer base it's taking advantage of our brand but also kind of we create a start-up within within the company that can use all of our local infrastructure in all the cities that were in and you know eats isn't only 250 cities on a global basis and they got another 350 to go in order to catch up to our rise business so that's a promising business these other ones are the ones you're looking for growth because it because you you all need to keep that fast listen it's it's that the way I think about growth is there's a quarter odds business which is still growing very very healthy we've got overall the growth rate of our business this last quarter the revenue growth was 67 percent the rides business we haven't disclosed but you know it's got to be at healthy rates in order for the overall business to be growing at 67 percent on on a revenue basis so you got the rods business itzá scaling we've got businesses like freight that are going to be bigger businesses three to five years from now and this concept of uber as a platform for us is something I think that's very very exciting kind of five to ten years from now what about self-driving nobody thinks you're staying in self-driving I don't I do think we're staying in self-driving about nobody listen were for the first thing that we've got to do is we have this incredible tragedy and we've got to get back on the road but we have to be satisfied absolutely satisfied that we're getting back on the road in the safest manner possible that's my focus right now and we're working with a team to do so and we got panel of outside experts former Arab fantasy yeah yeah we close Phoenix but we will get back on the road over the summer and you know I actually think that this focus on really really getting back on the road in a safe manner as possible ultimately long-term is you know it's this is a difficult circumstance for everyone involved you know first the victim and the victim's family but this is going to make us a better company and I think when I think about autonomous we want to play in it the technology that we're building is incredible ultimately I think that we're not going to look to own the technology for ourselves and what license it to third parties will work with OEMs etc I think autonomous is is kind of a horizontal technology that should be available to everybody so that is something that we will look to me we will look to part you would still look at it is an existential threat to your business because a lot that's a Travis Oda back it's existential if we don't have access to the technology right so what do you have to make it what is well listen we have to have access to it and I think they're gonna be many autonomous players and that's why I think as a principle we will license out our own technology and then we'll look to build around other autonomous technology as well we're neutral we're you know we're network company so if GM builds autonomous technology you know I'd welcome way mo to to put cars into our network as well you want to be totally new how is your relationship with way mo now getting better listen I've you know it's it's you build relationships slowly but surely I had a long relationship with the glue Lola and I think we have a trust level and you know we're having discussions with way mo something happens great if not to about putting them onto our network right I mean they're they're an incredible technology provider out there they're they're building you know they're serious about autonomous and to the extent that that technology and catch off on the network I think would be a good thing now it's up to them whether they want to do it or not right and what are you using to convince them to do so that this is economics but they need to be yours I think that if you're building there is anima Sforza have a highest utilization rate because it is ultimately going to be autonomous will be shared that's fundamental to the technology if it's shared you want to have a high utilization rate possible and owning or being a part of the largest ride-sharing network on a global basis will enable you to get highest utilization out of your autonomous cars and ultimately I don't think it's gonna be black and white I think that our network is gonna be a hybrid network for a long time I mean there's this kind of as the drama of kind of our machine's gonna replace humans you know no machines augment humans the magic is like machines and humans together part of the thing that's better you see it in manufacturing car manufacturing you saw you know Facebook even talked about when they're looking for hate speech it's a combination of humans and computers Computers can't do it alone humans can't scale machine yeah and ultimately our network is going to be a machine network and a human network together and I think that's a unique magic that uber can bring what about these other things that you were going into the vertical lift and takeoff chef Holden just left he was doing Oh Jeff brought in Eric to to run elevate and and I think Eric is an amazing executive to run elevate and you know for us it is about defining the future of mobility for cities and if three and the issue the fundamental issue is that 50% of world's population lives in cities now it's going to two-thirds of the world population the infrastructure the the transportation infrastructure of cities cannot keep up with that kind of growth so one is you got to be smarter which goes to sharing cars getting away from car ownership which is pool second is you need to build out alternative forms of transport not just cars which is the bikes that we're getting into and the third is just like residential has gone three-dimensional skyscrapers and commercials gone three dimensions you're going to have to build a third dimension in terms of transportation and elevate for us is the third dimension that we're taking a big bet on but it's a long-term bet and we're doing it with a number of partners out there all right last couple questions and then we'll get to the audience so I think a lot of people feel that you're just going to carve up the world that with that you that you did you're getting rid of you got rid of China that you'll do that in other markets so we sold in Southeast Asia right we are in a position to win in every market that were in and part of the reason why we sold in Southeast Asia is one we believe in grab and anthony who runs that business but we wanted to have enough dry powder to win it everywhere we're in India in the Middle East Africa etc we are going to be I believe the winning player in those markets and we're going to control our own destinies in a lot of ways the investment Yahoo made in China was what made it like and right now you're hoping that won't be the path to my success right alright last question when are you going public 2019 second half of 2019 right and we're on track I need a CFO you need a lot you need some women executives that would be kind of nice that would be definitely kind of nice and working on it working on it it's not-- I am you know - we talked about on recruiting etc in order to build a diverse let in order to build a diverse team you've got to build a diverse slate right and that takes time like it's not you can see it but it actually takes time to find the talent out there and to find diverse talent out there and if I'm gonna tell my execs to do it I've got to do it myself right and so it is taking time I don't know whether it will be a woman or a man but I'm gonna make damn sure I look at both yeah this particular company could use some women executives I agree you can do it we'll make it out questions from the audience right here hi Sigrid yes Corey how are you Sid Wilson president and CEO for the Hispanic Association on corporate responsibility in Washington DC you've had some some pretty high-profile diverse hires Tony West our general counsel you just hired Paul Young Lee as your first chief diversity all right great and and I know Balsamo st. John's such a chief marketing officer yeah okay grand officer yeah oh okay she brand officer sorry my question is is that you know you hear about a lot of the Silicon Valley CEOs who talk to other CEOs when it comes to issues of diversity inclusion what what are you hearing when you talk to your fellow colleagues who are the seals of the other Silicon Valley companies about what you mentioned is the challenges that you're finding because this morning I asked the same question of Randall Stephenson at AT&T who who don't seem to have a problem finding diverse talents and yet you hear Silicon Valley companies and CEOs mentioning that they're finding challenges finding people of color that can serve in these high-ranking positions and you found some yeah what you know well what's been your your observations so I don't have a lot of time to talk to other CEOs in Silicon Valley right now just honest answer and and it goes to two things one is building a diverse slate so that you you're looking at all kinds of talent both in terms of underrepresented minorities and women as well you just have to put in the work I do think that there's too much of a focus on hiring and not enough of a focus on development I'm a huge believer in talent development if all you're doing is hiring then it's like you're trading you know with each other you're not actually building talent within these companies development takes time and one of the reasons well I'm really excited to have Bo on the team is like I'm committed to developing diverse talent at this company not gonna happen overnight gonna take five to seven years but then I think that we've succeeded if we build some real stars of this company over a period of time okay thanks sure let's keep the question sharks we only have short amount of time because we do have a drone thing going on so I can't ask three questions yeah Hagar Jason don't worry from recode question about ubereats we talked about believing you'll be the number one food delivery company outside with the exception of China I think we are you think you are yeah globally what is the long term differentiation of that business to consumers is it the partner is the partner restaurants is it just scale and the second part of that is curious in the u.s. if you think you'll need any acquisition of other brands in the space to strengthen your your hold here I I think that the magic that we have is the hard core execution and getting the delivery in under 35 minutes and getting in under 35 minutes every single time to move that success factor from like 98% to 99% is incredibly difficult but I think we have a team that is just really driven to making us as perfect and as fast as possible and I think it's that simple and I don't see anyone else as dedicated to just being fast every single time that's a secret it seems simple but it's really hard to execute on and the second second question was just acquisitions in the space I think we will be opportunistic I've done lots of acquisitions in the past we don't need an acquisition but listen this is a big space there's a lot of growth in it I think that deliver is going to be a much much bigger portion of kind of eating and and consumption going forward plan number one is organic and we'll be opportunistic if their acquisitions out there we just don't need to do it ok quick questions good hey dark gratulations I Chris Piper see if hop as long as we have humans that are driving just curious because a lot of the safety measures seem to be aimed at the rider and I'm just curious what you're doing for the driver now that I've got family members and friends that are drivers yeah so we are today for example we rolled out a 911 emergency button for riders we're doing the same thing for drivers as well and I think that in general we are trying to get much better at identifying and rating our community and that includes both riders and drivers and flagging unsafe riders just as we flag unsafe drivers as well um we really are I believe that it's a competitive differentiation if we make Luber the safest ride sharing platform on earth for both riders and drivers I'm sorry we can't get first I apologize I have one more question what's things scares you the most right now is CEO what scares me the most is that the company's too dependent on me making decisions it's it's when when a decision has to come to me it's a failure because then the team doesn't know what to do I've spent enough time on kind of putting my team together I've spent a little too much time doing and I got to get the team and that team has to get a line so hopefully they can they can just fly without me all right Derrick oh sorry [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Channel: Recode

Views: 83,922

Rating: 4.5344181 out of 5

Keywords: Uber, Recode, Dara Khosrowshahi, Code, Code Conference, Code Conference 2018, self-driving, ride-sharing, Amazon, transportation, kara swisher, kara swisher interview, kara swisher recode, recode interview, dara khosrowshahi interview, dara khosrowshahi farsi kara swisher, uber, uber interview, dara khosrowshahi farsi uber, uber dara khosrowshahi, uber dara interview, uber dara, kara swisher uber

Id: Lq8UvZa3SFg

Length: 31min 47sec (1907 seconds)

Published: Wed May 30 2018