Building Product & Ops at Uber (with Brian Tolkin)

[on Uber’s Early Organizational Structure] “Uber always thought about it as a twin-turbine plane: maybe for a short period of time, you could operate on one engine. But if you want to operate at full efficiency, you need both engines working in tandem and working effectively together.” Brian Tolkin, (@briantolkin)

We’re super excited to be joined by Brian Tolkin, one of Uber’s first ~100 employees who built their “Product Ops” organization and then went on to lead Product Management for UberPOOL and all shared rides on the platform. We dive into the nitty gritty of how Uber built their “twin turbine” engine of decentralized real-world Ops and centralized Tech Product, and how the organization evolved as it scaled. We also cover Brian’s new role at OpenDoor and the tight ops + product coupling they’re building now in real estate.

Sponsors:

• Plaid: https://plaid.com

Be sure to follow the Acquired Podcast:

Acquired.fm

@AcquiredFM

Links from the Show:

Stanford Venture Capital Club

Ben Evans: The End of the Beginning (video)

Lyft IPO (Acquired)

Pre-Meeting Narrative Example

OpenDoor.com