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Scott Gorlick
@sgorlick
Startup Helper | Employee #99 @Uber | gorlick.co
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Joined August 2010
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    Scott Gorlick
    @sgorlick
    May 2, 2024
    Today, Uber is a $140B company with more than 6 million drivers. But in the early days, we had to overcome the same chicken and egg problem many startups face: Without drivers ➡️ riders couldn’t get a car And without riders ➡️drivers couldn’t make $ Here’s how we solved it:
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    Scott Gorlick
    @sgorlick
    Aug 17, 2020
    In 2 years, Uber went from being in just a few cities to more than 100. How did Uber grow so quickly? We recruited hundreds of thousands of drivers. I get asked a lot about how we did it, so here are some lessons that might be helpful to other startups 👇👇👇
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    Scott Gorlick
    @sgorlick
    Jul 10, 2024
    In 2012, I joined Uber as employee #99. Our biggest challenge? Finding drivers. Here’s how we signed up the first 1M drivers at Uber:
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    Scott Gorlick
    @sgorlick
    Aug 20, 2024
    Today, Uber is a $155B company with 7M drivers. But in the early days, we had a big problem: Most drivers didn’t have smartphones to use Uber. Here’s the inside story of how Uber accidentally became the world’s largest buyer of iPhones...
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    Scott Gorlick
    @sgorlick
    May 21, 2024
    In 6 years, we grew Uber from 10 cities to $10B in revenue. How’d we grow so fast? We hired local teams in every city. This was our playbook:
    1.2M
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    Scott Gorlick
    @sgorlick
    May 2, 2024
    Replying to @sgorlick
    We solved the chicken and egg problem at Uber by doing 3 things: 1. Paying drivers hourly until we had enough riders 2. Positioning cars in busy areas for faster pickup times 3. Encouraging riders to refer their friends And then the growth flywheel really started to spin.
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    Scott Gorlick
    @sgorlick
    May 2, 2024
    Replying to @sgorlick
    From my time scaling @Uber, I’ve seen that the right people working on the right thing at the right time can change the world. Every startup is different, but the tactics we used to grow can be applied at other companies. I’m breaking down the best ones on X for free :)
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    Scott Gorlick
    @sgorlick
    May 2, 2024
    Replying to @sgorlick
    1/ When we launched a new city, we didn’t have 100s of people requesting rides on Day 1. But we had a few. Since we wanted riders to see cars on the road 24/7, we paid drivers $30/hr to be online even if Uber wasn’t busy.
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    Scott Gorlick
    @sgorlick
    Mar 25, 2019
    I'm convinced that very few unicorns would exist without @amazon AWS & @stripe. Both are critical to helping startups scale. Since AWS & Stripe make $ on each transaction, they have equity in every startup. As the startup grows, so does Stripe/AWS revenue. Picks & shovels FTW
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    Scott Gorlick
    @sgorlick
    May 2, 2024
    Replying to @sgorlick
    2/ On weekends, we’d put cars close to bars + restaurants where we thought people would be. When you requested an Uber and a black Lincoln Town Car rolled up 2 minutes later, it felt like magic.
    249K
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    Scott Gorlick
    @sgorlick
    Mar 23, 2019
    Before @Uber switched to @zoom_us in 2014, we tried every meeting software. All of them failed miserably. From Day 1, Zoom "just worked.” With > 20k employees in 100s of offices, Zoom helped us communicate better & scale globally. Thank you Zoom & major congrats on your S-1!
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    Scott Gorlick
    @sgorlick
    May 2, 2024
    Replying to @sgorlick
    3/ If a friend was riding with you who hadn’t tried Uber yet, we made it easy for you to refer them. Each of you would get $10 off your next ride. And your friends would refer their friends. Word spread fast.
    240K
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    Scott Gorlick
    @sgorlick
    Aug 17, 2020
    Replying to @sgorlick
    We tested everything. Some things worked, some didn’t. But we didn’t know until we tried. If you want to hear more, sign up to get my newsletter where I’ll occasionally share my thoughts on tech & other interesting nuggets about my time at Uber.
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    Scaling... | Scott Gorlick | Substack
    From scottgorlick.substack.com
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    Scott Gorlick
    @sgorlick
    Jul 10, 2024
    Replying to @sgorlick
    Here's how we signed up the first 1M drivers at Uber: 1. We cold called 2. We had a clear pitch 3. We asked for referrals 4. We went where driers were 5. We doubled down on Craigslist 6. We helped drivers make more money
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