In conversation with Travis Kalanick | All-In Summit 2024
12 Sep 2024 (7 days ago)
Jason intros Travis Kalanick
- Travis Kalanick left the board of Uber.
- Jason Calacanis first interviewed Travis Kalanick in 1999 for a magazine article.
- Jason Calacanis and Travis Kalanick have been friends for 25 years.
What Travis is working on at Cloud Kitchens
- CloudKitchens aims to improve the food industry by creating a more efficient and cost-effective infrastructure for food preparation and delivery.
- The company builds and operates kitchens in major cities worldwide, leases these kitchens to restaurant entrepreneurs, and provides them with software and robotics to streamline their operations.
- CloudKitchens' goal is to reduce the cost of food delivery to approach that of grocery shopping, ultimately giving consumers more time and access to higher-quality food at lower prices.
Travis's operating playbook
- A management principle employed involved identifying individuals with a blend of creative instincts and analytical abilities.
- Potential general managers were given tests designed to assess both their creativity and their analytical problem-solving skills.
- A key control mechanism involved a mandatory pricing call for new general managers, ensuring they grasped the strategic implications of pricing before being granted control over a city.
Strategy at Uber: Competing with Lyft, surge pricing, dealing with bad press
- Lyft's initial business model involved riders giving "donations" to drivers to avoid legal and regulatory issues. Uber chose not to engage in this practice for nine months.
- Uber adopted a strategy of informing city regulators about Lyft's potentially illegal ride-sharing practices, leveraging regulations to gain a competitive advantage.
- Surge pricing, while controversial, was implemented to ensure driver availability during peak demand periods and was seen as a way to provide the "lowest cost reliable ride."
Being a "War time CEO" and competing in China
- Wartime CEOs are willing to fight many battles concurrently and push to the edge of what is possible.
- The most challenging aspect of doing business in China is that it requires a first-principles approach and a willingness to rethink everything.
- In the case of Uber's expansion into China, the Chinese government invested in competitors globally to make competition more difficult.
Travis reflects on getting ousted as CEO of Uber and his future
- An investor ran a "political oppo campaign" against Travis Kalanick for six months leading up to his ousting from Uber.
- Kalanick states that he loved every minute of his time at Uber and compares starting a new company to falling in love again, stating that "when you fall in love again you don't think about the ex very much."
- Kalanick believes that Uber getting to profitability is a sign that the company will be around for a while and that the next challenge for the company will be to figure out autonomous vehicles.