Jun 13, 2023 · 1h 37m · acquired
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi · Acquired
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In this in-depth interview on Acquired, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi details his executive journey from Expedia to Uber, explaining how operational discipline, governance restructuring, and supply-side flywheels transformed the company into a profitable global mobility powerhouse.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Ben and David hold 32.1% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Ben and David as informed peer 3.3 Guest teaching 1.7 Guest disagreement 0.2 Ben and David pushing back 0.2
speaking balance: gold is Ben and David, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 1:25:20 Rejecting the binary choice between Eats and Mobility
Dara immediately rejects Ben's forced choice question on whether he would rather own Eats or Mobility, pointing out that Eats is also transportation and comparing it to picking a favorite child.
Hardest push from Ben and David ▶ 33:40 Probing on ride pricing levers and profitabilityBen pushes back on the passive view of pricing by pointing out that Uber is reaching profitability, asking what levers Dara actually controls if the market dictates price.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 30:15 Schooling the hosts on dynamic labor market spot pricingDara reframes the common misconception about Uber setting higher prices, explaining through economic principles that ride prices reflect spot labor market supply and demand.
Ben and David hold their own ▶ 1:09:20 Framing the SoftBank governance maneuver as a prisoner's dilemmaBen demonstrates sharp game-theoretic insight by characterizing the high-vote share conversion negotiations as an $80 billion prisoner's dilemma.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Ben and David as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Ben and David pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Welcome, Performance Update, and Episode Roadmap | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Friendly introduction and episode overview where the hosts set up the narrative around Uber's financial transformation and Dara's career trajectory. | |
| Navigating Expedia's Acquisition and 9/11 Travel Crisis | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Dara shares the story of IAC closing the Expedia acquisition right after 9/11 and draws parallels to navigating the COVID-19 pandemic at Uber. The hosts ask engaging narrative questions. | |
| Barry Diller, Allen & Company, and Career Principles | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Dara recounts his early career at Allen & Company, working with Barry Diller, and general career philosophy. The conversation is collaborative and storytelling-focused. | |
| Sponsor Spotlight: Common Room Platform Capabilities | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Mid-roll sponsor read for Common Room; monologue by the hosts. | |
| Supply-Led Strategy and Marketplace Flywheels at Uber | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Dara details the strategic shift to supply-led marketplace dynamics and cross-promotional flywheels between Rides and Eats, giving deep operational insights that the hosts probe effectively. | |
| Operational Scale, Network Density, and Pricing Realities | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Dara explains how market spot pricing works for labor, correcting the host's premise that Uber arbitrarily sets high prices, and discusses algorithmic marketplace matching. | |
| The Secret Recruitment to Become Uber CEO | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Dara shares the behind-the-scenes narrative of his secret recruitment to become Uber CEO, with Daniel Ek and Barry Diller playing key roles. | |
| Sponsor Spotlight: Vouch Specialized Insurance Solutions | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Mid-roll sponsor read for Vouch insurance; monologue by the hosts. | |
| Restructuring Governance and Resolving the SoftBank Dilemma | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Dara unpacks the complex corporate governance restructuring, bringing in SoftBank, and eliminating high-vote dual-class shares to resolve boardroom power struggles. | |
| Sponsor Spotlight: PitchBook Uber Retrospective | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Sponsor read for PitchBook; monologue by the hosts reviewing historical Uber financing rounds. | |
| Public Communication, Media Strategy, and Autonomous Vehicles | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | A lightning round covering public communications, his board tenure at The New York Times, and a pragmatic assessment of the long timeline for autonomous vehicles. | |
| Take Rate Philosophy and Prioritizing Platform Earners | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Dara rejects a binary hypothetical between Eats and Rides, arguing for low platform take rates to maximize driver earnings and platform longevity, concluding with reflections on building for earners. |
Statements from this episode (23)
Khosrowshahi: IAC closed Expedia acquisition post-9/11 with zero deal changes
“No changes to the deal. It's like, we're gonna do this.”
Khosrowshahi: Uber lost 85% of mobility volume while bleeding $2.5B during pandemic
“85% of your mobility volume, which was the profit driver of the company falls off a cliff. And Other CEOs, you know, they lost a ton of business, but most of these businesses were profitable. We were losing two and a half billion dollars, and then it just got …”
Khosrowshahi: Diller Launched Hostile QVC Bid to Acquire Paramount
“Sumner Redstone, who was running Viacom, had come to an agreement to buy Paramount Pictures, which was Barry's old home, and Barry thought that he was getting a steal, so he decided to go after Paramount in a hostile tender offer, to come in as kind of a third…”
Khosrowshahi: Uber has 5.6 million active drivers and couriers
“5.6 million drivers and couriers who are earning on our platform.”
Khosrowshahi: Rides drives more new Eats customers than all external ads combined
“Yeah, we get more new customers from Arise than we do From Google, Meta, Instagram, you know, all of these other channels combined.”
Khosrowshahi: Uber will never cap driver onboarding to protect earnings
“No because one of our core philosophies is this is an open platform, and if your background check comes in okay, et cetera, then you can have access to earnings opportunities.”
Khosrowshahi: Uber intends to wire up every single taxi globally
“There are four and a half million taxis in the world who would imagine that Uber will be working with taxis, but we're going to wire up every single taxi in the world.”
Khosrowshahi: Uber's ML matching efficiency yields roughly 5% annual throughput growth
“Every year when I can't speak to how our competitors are matching and pricing, but every year matching and pricing probably improves by five percent a year. So you improve your, the marketplace throughput by about five percent.”
Khosrowshahi: Year-over-year Uber ride prices are down as supply outpaces demand
“Now, in this environment, where we are adding supply faster than demand because the supply is really coming into the marketplace, prices in Uber now, year on year, are down.”
Daniel Ek referred Khosrowshahi for the Uber CEO role
“And then I was at the Sun Valley Conference, the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference. And having drinks with Daniel Leck. And he's like, Dara, you know, did you get the call from a headhunter about the Uber job? I think you'd be perfect for the job. And I di…”
Barry Diller helped edit Khosrowshahi's Uber CEO presentation
“He's like, show me the presentation. It was a PowerPoint. So I showed him PowerPoint. And he actually helped me in the PowerPoint. He's like, this is good. This is good. You have to add, add this page. So it's just, it shows you the kind of person he is, which…”
Khosrowshahi: Former CEOs on boards create hesitancy for new leadership
“The job of the new CEO to some extent is to be the CEO and do something different from the old CEO. Like that's definitional and the, you know, a little bit about that. Yeah, exactly. There could be hesitancy at a board meeting, et cetera, because the Old pers…”
Khosrowshahi: DoorDash is larger than Uber Eats in the US
“Like DoorDash is larger than we are in the US.”
Khosrowshahi: Walmart uses Uber's fulfillment services without joining its marketplace
“So for example, Walmart, Isn't in our marketplace because they're Walmart, they have an incredible brand, et cetera, but they use our fulfillment services”
Khosrowshahi: Travis Kalanick sold all his Uber shares after lockup expired
“After the IPO, after the lockup, Stayed. Travis sold all his shares.”
Khosrowshahi: Son threatened to invest billions in Lyft if Uber rejected SoftBank
“SoftBank wanted in, and in typical MASA fashion, it was like, hey, if you don't let us invest in you, we're going to invest in that pink company, right?”
Khosrowshahi: Uber eliminated all dual-class super-voting shares for SoftBank deal
“We literally had to, like, get everyone to agree to blow up the high vote shares. I think it's actually the only time when tech, a tech company like, they blew up all of the high votes.”
Khosrowshahi: NYT's subscription bet was not supported by data or financials
“I think that the bet that they made in quality was very much a bet on their identity That wasn't backed up by data, and certainly wasn't backed up by their financials, but the company went all in and, ah, they really benefited.”
Khosrowshahi: Autonomous vehicles will take 10 years to become material in transportation
“My instinct is that you will see small scale continued experiments kind of get bigger over the next five years, but it's going to take a good 10 years for it to be a material part of our network or transportation at large. But that's a guess.”
Khosrowshahi: Uber treats a rideshare fulfill rate below 98% as a disaster
“If you look at our ride share service, for example, if our fulfill rate Which is the percentage of the time someone asks for a ride, and then there's a car available, if that's less than, call it, 98%, that's, like, all hands on deck. Like, it's a disaster.”
Khosrowshahi: High Take Rates Are Dangerous for Marketplaces
“So, I will answer somewhat seriously, which is high take rates are dangerous. So, our job as a company is to grow volume as much as we can, as fast as we can. And make your shareholders happy enough. Yep. Minimizing the take rate, which is taking as much of th…”