INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
In the days of Uber 1.0, the ethos seemed to be about doing all the wrong things
Now, with former Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi at the helm, Uber is clearly on its way to becoming a sort of Expedia for transportation
Though, Khosrowshahi has previously likened Uber business to aligning more with the idea of an Amazon for transportation.At TechCrunch
Disrupt San Francisco in September, Khosrowshahi will join me to discuss Uber big plan to own the entire transportation experience for
people, the highs and lows of his first year on the job, Uber upcoming initial public offering and much more.Under Khosrowshahi leadership,
Uber officially became a multi-modal transportation platform with its acquisition ofJUMP Bikes for about $200 million, the launch ofUberRENT
and a public transportation partnership with Masabi.Oh, and Uber is also working on electric scooters, as well as flying cars via its
Just like residential and buildings have gone three-dimensional, Khosrowshahi said at a tech conference in May, &you&re going to have to
build a third-dimension in terms of transportation.&For Uber,Elevate is its &big bet& on that third-dimension of transportation, he said
The big plan with all of these modes of transportation — whether that bike sharing, electric scooter sharing, ride sharing, flight sharing
or whatnot — is to become a multi-modal transportation service.Under the leadership of Khosrowshahi, Uber also seems to be moving into an
era where the company works with governments, instead of in spite of them
This is quite the 180 for Uber
Before the days of Khosrowshahi, Uber wasreluctantto share data with cities
Now, Uber is expanding Movement,a platform that anonymizes and aggregates Uber datato map travel times, to 12 new cities across five
The intent is to help urban planners, local leaders and civic communities make more informed decisions.While Khosrowshahi is making positive
moves in a business direction, it worth noting the company is still in need of a chief financial officer, and there have been some
high-level departures that have continued under his leadership
In June, for example, Uber chief brand officer, Bozoma Saint John, left a little after one year of joining the company.At the time, Saint
John told me that while ¬hing horrible or terrible happened,& Uber corporate culture has not &righted itself 100 percent.& At Disrupt,
Khosrowshahi and I will also discuss Uber corporate culture and what it going to take to fully recover from its 2017, which entailed reports
of sexual harassment, mismanagement and a toxic work environment
Then, just this month, Uber chief people officer, Liane Hornsey, resigned following an internal racial discrimination investigation.This
should go without saying, but there will be a lot to discuss
In order to see him in person you&ll need to grab your passes to Disrupt SF, which runs September 5-7, are available here.
