[on Uber’s Early Organizational Structure] “Uber always thought about it as a twin-turbine plane: maybe for a short period of time, you could operate on one engine. But if you want to operate at full efficiency, you need both engines working in tandem and working effectively together.” Brian Tolkin, (@briantolkin)
We’re super excited to be joined by Brian Tolkin, one of Uber’s first ~100 employees who built their “Product Ops” organization and then went on to lead Product Management for UberPOOL and all shared rides on the platform. We dive into the nitty gritty of how Uber built their “twin turbine” engine of decentralized real-world Ops and centralized Tech Product, and how the organization evolved as it scaled. We also cover Brian’s new role at OpenDoor and the tight ops + product coupling they’re building now in real estate.
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Links from the Show:
Stanford Venture Capital Club
Ben Evans: The End of the Beginning (video)
Lyft IPO (Acquired)
Pre-Meeting Narrative Example
OpenDoor.com
The Outsiders Book Club Discussion with author Will Thorndike
Primer on SPACs with Kevin Hartz and Troy Steckenrider of A* and AONE
Recording -- 7 Powers Book Club Discussion with Hamilton Helmer
VC Fundamentals Part 2: Investment Decision Making
Arming the Restaurant Rebels with Tock CEO Nick Kokonas
VC Fundamentals: Consumer Investing Master Class with Sarah Tavel, General Partner at Benchmark
VC Fundamentals Part 1: Sourcing
Pricing: everything you always wanted to know but were afraid to ask, with ProfitWell CEO Patrick Campbell
High-performance Hiring & Interviewing with former Amazon Worldwide GM of Prime Membership, Anna Collins
The Jason Calacanis Special (cont.)
Adapting: Mystery - How to Grow When Your Original Business Goes to Zero (with cofounders Shane Kovalsky & Vince Coppola)
Everything you need to know about Pre-Seed (with Charles Hudson of Precursor Ventures)
Remote Work, No-Code, and Products that Sell Themselves (w/ Zapier CEO Wade Foster)
Reverse Interview: Acquired Strategy, with Nathan Baschez of Divinations (& former Gimlet Media + Substack)
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (with Chetan Puttagunta, General Partner at Benchmark)
Cameo CEO Steven Galanis on building the first non-advertising driven social media company (at least in the US!)
Building Webflow, and the No-Code Movement (with Vlad Magdalin, Co-Founder and CEO)
Early Stage and Enterprise Investing (with Chetan Puttagunta, General Partner at Benchmark)
Chewse CEO Tracy Lawrence on growing both as a company and a founder
Marketplaces Deep Dive with Ramesh Johari
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