Bradley Jacobs was one of Uber&#x27;s earliest employees — and in this episode he breaks down the whole story. From the Wild West days of launching cities, crushing Lyft with 90% market share, to launching Uber Eats in Miami in record time and building Uber Freight to a $1 billion valuation. If you&#x27;ve ever wondered what really went on inside Uber, this is the episode. Topics covered: How Uber got 90% market share against Lyft The backpack full of iPhones story Launching Uber Eats Miami in 6 weeks Uber Freight&#x27;s rise to $1 billion The ruthless culture of winning at all costs Sixth Summit: Join the waitlist at ⁠sixthsummit.io/hackathon⁠ and use the code FYOG Lodgify: Offering 20% off any of there yearly or bi-yearly plans until the end of July, using the code FYOG20 ⁠here⁠ #KassidyWarren https://www.instagram.com/kassidy.warren https://www.linkedin.com/in/kassidywarren #BradleyJacobs https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-r-jacobs/ Watch #ForYourOwnGood on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@KassidyWarren

How Uber Beat Lyft (And What Founders Can Learn) | Bradley Jacobs 

For Your Own Good

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** For Your Own Good

## Participants

- **Kassidy Warren** (None)
- **Bradley Jacobs** (None)

## Transcript

Uber was exploding, like probably the best product market fit before ChatGPT. You were responsible for the launch of Uber Eats. I love building shit. I owned the market as if it were my baby, as if it was my company. We have 90% market share. When you have that one KPI that does make the difference and you nail it, that's when people come to you. Early days were kind of the wild west. You're in charge of this market and it's yours and you can do anything you want.

I would ride around with a backpack full of iPhones and I would say, if you switch to Uber right now, I'll give you this phone and I'll give you $500. How much did Uber think about their competitors? Obsession. They would buy credit card data and we had to the number detailed market share data for every city. Uber was taking a big loss and pissing off a huge number of the industry because that's not how the industry was run.

You said the most selfish thing you could do is keep your expertise to yourself. What do you mean by that? If you fuck up a product launch at Uber, you get fired. Bradley, you were one of the early employees at Uber. You were responsible for the launch of Uber Eats in multiple markets. You were around when Lyft launched in the rally market and responsible for that specific market.

I want you to take me through what it was like in the early days, the culture, the fundraising, the money, everything that was going on, especially when Lyft ended up in Raleigh and why Uber ended up with 90% of the market share in that market and what that represented about the difference between Uber and Lyft across the world. Early days were, they were kind of the wild west, frankly.

It was, you're in charge of this market and it's yours and you can do anything you want, basically, including emails, driver comms, even pricing we could play around with, incentives. I mean, it was, and I at the time was 24 years old and it was figure it out and it was just win. Like that's really what it was. It was win. And so when we launched, we launched within hours of Lyft in the Raleigh market. There's two big differentiators.

One is we had a dedicated city team. So me and my boss, it was like Raleigh was our world and it was live, eat, sleep Raleigh, frankly. Like late at night when everyone's at the bars or getting Ubers from the bar's home, we were on our computers watching the market, honestly, for a while. So just fully dedicated to the market. And then the second part is, you know, Raleigh's actually in a triangle with Durham and Chapel Hill. They're all like 30 to 40 minutes from each other.

We launched in a five mile radius of Raleigh and everywhere else was blacked out. It said like Uber's coming soon. Lyft launched everywhere. They launched the entire triangle all at once. So our KPI, right, our, everything we focused on was five minutes, you get...

How Uber Beat Lyft (And What Founders Can Learn) | Bradley Jacobs

Transcript

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Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
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How Uber Beat Lyft (And What Founders Can Learn) | Bradley Jacobs

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.