Macdonald: Corporate incubation is slower because teams get fat on resources
Andrew Macdonald (Mac) · Uber President on Travis, China & Self-Driving | Why Autonomy Is Existential | How to Beat DoorDash · Aug 17, 2026 · at 13:10
Andrew Macdonald (President & COO of Uber) analyzes why large corporate balance sheets and headcounts hinder zero-to-one innovation compared to lean startups.
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“The other challenge of standing up a new business with a big company with a big P&L and a big balance sheet is people just get fat on the resources, right? And so you don't build it the way you would build it if you were a startup because you just have more resources. So you end up moving slower, consuming more cash, taking more, like getting more heads than you otherwise would if you were actually starting up from a zero to one. And as a result, like, it's not that you necessarily build something better. You just are slower, and you're constantly actually chasing the people who are doing it from first principles”
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