Hi there! Welcome to A Letter a Day. If you want to know more about this newsletter, see "The Archive.” At a high level, you can expect to receive a memo/essay or speech/presentation transcript from an investor, founder, or entrepreneur (IFO) each edition. More here. If you find yourself interested in any of these IFOs and wanting to learn more, shoot me a DM or email and I’m happy to point you to more or similar resources.
Planning letters through year end and realizing Letter #150 will be last week of December... might be a good time to retire it!
In case I do, I figured I would open up suggestions for the last 5 letters--who on this list (or off) would you most want a letter from? Alternatively, if you’d like to see this keep going, send me a note with what you’d like to see more of next year. DMs open on Twitter, email me here, or just comment below.
Today’s letter is Dara Khosrowshahi’s S-1 shareholder letter for Uber’s IPO in 2019. In this letter, Dara starts out by referencing Uber’s conception 10 years prior and the three key drivers that supercharged their growth and created a new standard of consumer convenience. He then dives into some of the attributes that made Uber so successful, but also led to some missteps, before sharing some of the changes they implemented after he took the reins as CEO and acknowledging that the work is just beginning. He then ends with a commitment to the prospective shareholders that he won’t be perfect, but he will listen to them and treat customers, colleagues, and cities with respect and run the business with passion, humility, and integrity.
Dara Khosrowshahi is the CEO of Uber, which he joined in 2017. Prior to Uber, Dara worked for Barry Diller across a number of companies in a variety of roles, and became known as one of the “Killer Dillers” alongside major internet/media execs like Michael Eisner (CEO of Disney), Jeffrey Katzenberg (Founder of Dreamworks), Dawn Steel (President of Columbia Pictures), and Garth Ancier (President of BBC America). Dara’s last job working for Diller was as CEO of Expedia, which he grew via a mix of acquisitions and aggressive investment in mobile (now more than half of Expedia’s traffic). He joined IAC and started working for Diller initially in 1998 as VP of Strategic Planning, before quickly being promoted to an SVP in under a year. He then served as President of USA Networks Interactive (1999-2000), IAC’s EVP of Operations and Strategic Planning (2000-2002), EVP and CFO of IAC (2002-2005), and CEO of IAC Travel (2005, IAC Travel spun off Expedia, where Dara was CEO until he departed for Uber). Dara started his career in investment banking at Allen & Co.
I hope you enjoy this letter as much as I do!
Related Resources
Barry Diller / Killer Dillers
Uber Investors
Angel Investors
Chris Sacca Compilation - 464 pages
Naval Ravikant Compilation - 520 pages
Jeff Bezos Compilation - 501 pages
Benchmark
Letters
Compilations
Bill Gurley Compilation (652 pages)
Mitch Lasky Compilation (474 pages)
Sarah Tavel Compilation (300 pages)
Letter
Ten years ago, Uber was born out of a watershed moment in technology. The rise of smartphones, the advent of app stores, and the desire for on-demand work supercharged Uber’s growth and created an entirely new standard of consumer convenience. What began as “tap a button and get a ride” has become something much more profound: ridesharing and carpooling; meal delivery and freight; electric bikes and scooters; and self-driving cars and urban aviation.
Of course, in getting from point A to point B we didn’t get everything right. Some of the attributes that made Uber a wildly successful startup—a fierce sense of entrepreneurialism, our willingness to take risks that others might not, and that famous Uber hustle—led to missteps along the way. In fact, when I joined Uber as CEO, many people asked me why I would leave the stability of my previous job for one that was anything but. My answer was simple: Uber is a once-in-a-generation company, and the opportunity ahead of it is enormous.
Today, Uber accounts for less than one percent of all miles driven globally. Just a small percentage of people in countries where Uber is available have ever used our services. And we are still barely scratching the surface when it comes to huge industries like food and logistics, and how the future of urban mobility will reshape cities for the better.
Building this platform has required a willingness to challenge orthodoxies and reinvent—sometimes even disrupt—ourselves. Over the last decade, as the needs and preferences of our customers have changed, we’ve changed too. Now, we’re becoming something different once again: a public company.
Taking this step means that we have even greater responsibilities—to our shareholders, our customers, and our colleagues. That’s why, over the past 18 months, we have improved our governance and Board oversight; built a stronger and more cohesive management team; and made the changes necessary to ensure our company culture rewards teamwork and encourages employees to commit for the long term.
Because we are not even one percent done with our work, we will operate with an eye toward the future. We will optimize for the happiness and loyalty of our customers rather than marginal trip or transaction growth. And we will not shy away from making short-term financial sacrifices where we see clear long-term benefits.
Our continued success come from stellar execution and the strength of the platform we have worked so hard to build. Our network spans tens of millions of consumers and partners and represents one of the world’s largest platforms for independent work. Our engineering and product teams are solving some of the most difficult problems at the intersection of the physical and digital worlds. And our regional operations teams let us build and run our business as true citizens of the cities we serve.
I want to close with my commitment to you: I won’t be perfect, but I will listen to you; I will ensure that we treat our customers, our colleagues, and our cities with respect; and I will run our business with passion, humility, and integrity.
Dara Khosrowshahi
Wrap-up
If you’ve got any thoughts, questions, or feedback, please drop me a line - I would love to chat! You can find me on twitter at @kevg1412 or my email at kevin@12mv2.com.
If you're a fan of business or technology in general, please check out some of my other projects!
Speedwell Research — Comprehensive research on great public companies including Constellation Software, Floor & Decor, Meta (Facebook) and interesting new frameworks like the Consumer’s Hierarchy of Preferences.
Cloud Valley — Beautifully written, in-depth biographies that explore the defining moments, investments, and life decisions of investing, business, and tech legends like Dan Loeb, Bob Iger, Steve Jurvetson, and Cyan Banister.
DJY Research — Comprehensive research on publicly-traded Asian companies like Alibaba, Tencent, Nintendo, Sea Limited (FREE SAMPLE), Coupang (FREE SAMPLE), and more.
Compilations — “An international treasure”
Memos — A selection of some of my favorite investor memos
Bookshelves — Collection of recommended booklists.