Dara Khosrowshahi

And when you overplan your career, you know, there's this human bias, which is to look for signal that agrees with the plan that you have and ignore it, everything else that doesn't agree. With it. So my advice for young people is like, don't over plan. You never know what opportunities are going to come up. I plan to stay at Allen & Company my whole life. It was my place.

My brother wound up being there. But... Being open to possibilities, being open to opportunities. And then when you get that opportunity, going all in, you know, like it's just don't hedge. If you're going to be in something, go all in and do what's required of you. And then like 50% more, like blow people away. And then, you know, tomorrow maybe something else comes up and you'll get there.

My brother wound up being there. But... Being open to possibilities, being open to opportunities. And then when you get that opportunity, going all in, you know, like it's just don't hedge. If you're going to be in something, go all in and do what's required of you. And then like 50% more, like blow people away. And then, you know, tomorrow maybe something else comes up and you'll get there.

But like while you're in, you go all in. But at the same time, like keep your eyes open because you never know.

But like while you're in, you go all in. But at the same time, like keep your eyes open because you never know.

God, I learned so much. Booking was an execution machine. And their focus, when we talked about focus, was hotels, hotels, hotels. And Expedia was much more, it started with air, right? And hotels was to some extent secondary. And so I think one of the lessons is like, hey, go after the larger market.

God, I learned so much. Booking was an execution machine. And their focus, when we talked about focus, was hotels, hotels, hotels. And Expedia was much more, it started with air, right? And hotels was to some extent secondary. And so I think one of the lessons is like, hey, go after the larger market.

And if you're a marketplace business, go after fragmentation of supply, which is if you think about hotels, there's so many more hotels in the world than there are airlines. So I think they focused completely in the right area and built a global business first and just were an absolute execution machine.

And if you're a marketplace business, go after fragmentation of supply, which is if you think about hotels, there's so many more hotels in the world than there are airlines. So I think they focused completely in the right area and built a global business first and just were an absolute execution machine.

The other area was that Expedia was probably more focused on building demand, kind of consumer demand, brand, etc. Booking was more supply-led.

The other area was that Expedia was probably more focused on building demand, kind of consumer demand, brand, etc. Booking was more supply-led.

Totally. But for them, it was about building up the hotel supply. And as you built up the hotel supply, every hotel became another piece of data that you could... market through Google or meta search. And if you have 100 hotels in a market and you expand that to 200 hotels in the market, that market is also going to convert better.

Totally. But for them, it was about building up the hotel supply. And as you built up the hotel supply, every hotel became another piece of data that you could... market through Google or meta search. And if you have 100 hotels in a market and you expand that to 200 hotels in the market, that market is also going to convert better.

So not only do you build kind of a new segment of demand, but then if there's a search for hotel in Nice, Nice becomes a better product and convert more. If it can convert more, you can get more traffic from Google, et cetera. They play that optimization game like no one else.

So not only do you build kind of a new segment of demand, but then if there's a search for hotel in Nice, Nice becomes a better product and convert more. If it can convert more, you can get more traffic from Google, et cetera. They play that optimization game like no one else.

And for me, the biggest lesson as I came to Uber was Uber's a marketplace business, very, very fragmented supply base, right? It's 5.6 million drivers and couriers who are earning on our platform. And a few million restaurants? Yeah, close to a million restaurants. And for us... Our growth is also supply-led.

And for me, the biggest lesson as I came to Uber was Uber's a marketplace business, very, very fragmented supply base, right? It's 5.6 million drivers and couriers who are earning on our platform. And a few million restaurants? Yeah, close to a million restaurants. And for us... Our growth is also supply-led.

So if you think about post-pandemic and one of the reasons why I think generally we're doing really well and gained a bunch of categories, share versus lift coming out of the pandemic, was because we really focused on bringing those drivers back to the platform, building our service, et cetera.

So if you think about post-pandemic and one of the reasons why I think generally we're doing really well and gained a bunch of categories, share versus lift coming out of the pandemic, was because we really focused on bringing those drivers back to the platform, building our service, et cetera.

And it was a supply-led way of building the business, which definitely was a learning that I took from Booking.com.