Ground game and timing: the secret to Uber's success (according to me)
Uber's success is often considered a given now and a master class on building the world's most successful startup. People often only point to the technology as the thing that made Uber successful.
While no doubt the idea and technology were pivotal, Uber was not alone in the “push button, get ride” space. What Uber also had going for it was good timing and a world-class ground game. Of course, in the same breath people talk about the heavily subsidized rides, the toxic “brogrammer” culture, questionable ethics, the ousting of a maverick CEO, and so on. But that also misses the point. When Uber started putting people in cars in 2010 or 2011, it obviously relied on both a driver and a rider to have a mobile device with fairly decent reception and GPS. With the launch of iPhone 4, the 3Gs got cheap – and that meant the technology needed to run Uber's software spread. Combined with the “free money” VC landscape at that time, Uber was able to purchase these recently “outdated” iPhone 3Gs and put them in the hands of drivers.
Who was putting those phones in drivers' hands? Uber's Driver Ops (DOps) team.
Uber invested early and often in “boots on the ground”, and it yielded dividends far beyond what many might recognize. While Uber definitely hired some bright software engineers (and data scientists, which is another key to its success, but that's another story), they also hired the aforementioned “DOps”, “CMs” (Community Managers) to get out on the streets to recruit both drivers and riders, and “city launchers” replicating this strategy in every new city with a local flair.
This really made a difference. As an example, Uber's biggest competitor in the US, Lyft, almost broadsided Uber with its peer-to-peer model. Until that point, Uber had been capitalizing on a “premium” experience with fancy “black cars”. That worked wonders, but it left a huge addressable market that Lyft was eating up.
When Uber launched UberX, it was essentially a copy of Lyft, but what gave Uber its advantage was that it already had teams of people to recruit and support drivers, and then get riders in those cars. Lyft relied on a “feel good” model where drivers were essentially tasked with self-support which, while admirable, was not scalable. Especially compared to Uber's city teams.
Lyft survived (see both “cheap funding” and “questionable ethics”), but its always been as a distant #2 to Uber.
Uber wasn't necessarily the first, and didn't just have the best tech. Uber succeeded through being at the right place, at the right time, with the right preparations. Cheap iPhone 3s and city teams were the final pieces that took Uber's innovative idea from imagination to impact.
So what's the takeaway? It's Luck + Preparation. You can't outsmart timing. Sometimes an idea is too early or too late. You can, however, prepare. Preparation isn't just the best tech. It's "boots on the ground". It's the combination of innovation and implementation. A well executed solution AND real people getting that solution into user's hands.
First published on LinkedIn, 26 February 2024.