

A startup CEO drives for Uber - elmyraduff
http://venturebeat.com/2014/10/25/a-startup-ceo-drives-for-uber/

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austenallred
Before your startup is in an accelerator or has raised your seed round driving
Uber to remain afloat is downright scrappy.

After you've raised your seed round, it raises huge red flags for me. Your
seed round should enable you to not have to worry about money. That's pretty
much the point. Uber _should_ just be a distraction at that point, and one
that should be squashed quickly. The fact that the "CEO" is putting all of his
money into getting coffee and flying around says to me that this person is
"playing house."

But then again, I don't know the exact circumstances, maybe he's figured out a
way to turn every dollar spent on Adwords into two. I doubt it, but who knows.

~~~
applecore
Driving three to five hours a night a few nights a week isn't so bad as a
relaxing hobby, nor does it need to be "squashed quickly."

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peterjancelis
> "the myriad expenses that we startup founders incur (from coffee shop tabs
> to gas costs to cross-country flights for meetings with investors)"

I fundamentally disagree that these are non-avoidable expenses.

~~~
obviouslygreen
It's not about avoidability. This is what happens when someone is more
concerned with looking like a startup founder than founding a startup.

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andrea_s
I'm always torn when I hear about the "CEO" of such a small company (or, in
more extreme cases, the CEO of a one man band) - from one side, I see that it
gives a clear impression of how the tasks are distributed within the company,
but it still sounds a bit weird. What do you think?

~~~
patio11
Is social status policing a high priority for you? If so, that complaint makes
a lot of sense. If not, it is a silly thing to worry about.

Note that if social status policing is a high priority, you should probably
start working on rules for who is and is not allowed to call themselves a
Founder, because as of late that title is receiving attention. (No lie: I once
got told in the Valley that having Founder on my business cards was "A bit
disingenuous, no?" because I wasn't as founder-y as Founders who founded
foundable things.)

~~~
pdpi
I'm not sure it's about policing social status. To me, calling yourself "CEO"
of a tiny startup reeks of self-aggrandizement, which is the sort of attitude
that rubs me the wrong way.

~~~
tptacek
You might not be connecting the dots here. The concern or even attention to
"self-aggrandizement" is itself a form of social status policing. That's
literally what the term means.

~~~
pdpi
Maybe we have read "social status policing" to mean completely different
things. To me, that suggests caring a lot about status, and worrying a lot
about people laying claim to more status than what they're due. My issue here
is with people turning status, either deserved or otherwise, into a bigger
thing than it is.

Social status is only very rarely material to any given conversation, so I do
care when people feel the need to bring it up, and when they feel the need to
give themselves pompous titles, because they're signalling to me that they do
care about status, and they're going to make it an issue in our dealings.

~~~
nostrademons
Aren't you also signalling that you care a lot about status by complaining
about it? Usually when people _actually_ don't care about something, they just
make note of the fact that somebody else does and slightly alter their
dealings with that person to get a more favorable outcome. An argument isn't a
favorable outcome; negotiating more of something you do care about (like
equity, or influence, or effort on their part) in exchange for something they
care about (like titles) is.

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nebula
<i>Whatever the reason, I’m beholden to no shift schedule. There is no
conflict between the demanding schedule of my startup career and my
moonlighting as an Uber driver. It is truly a symbiotic relationsh</i>

Is it just me or does it really sound like a PR exercise of Uber + his
startup?

~~~
tonyjstark
I was thinking the same thing. Hey, you meet investors when driving for Uber
and driving around for 4 hours after a 10+ working shift is perfect for
distraction. You don't need sleep and rest. And you make good money ($800 in
12 hours), athought I think I read somewhere that the average Uber driver in
New York makes around 700$ a month (sorry, don't find the source but correct
me if I'm wrong).

~~~
ripb
>(sorry, don't find the source but correct me if I'm wrong).

I had a quick look myself, as I found the figure interesting.

According to Uber[1] an UberX driver in NYC averages almost $91k per year
based on driving a 40 hour week. However, in a follow up by BI[2], this figure
seems to be widely refuted by Uber drivers across a number of states. For
example, one in NYC says he drives 40 hours a week and doesn't expect to take
in $50k this year, but that you can clear $4k a month after Uber expenses,
gas, etc. doing 40 hours without too much hassle.

1\. [http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-drivers-
salary-90000-201...](http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-drivers-
salary-90000-2014-5)

2\. [http://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-money-uber-
drivers-r...](http://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-money-uber-drivers-
really-make-2014-7)

~~~
tonyjstark
Thanks for your findings! So the earnings are not that bad, seems like I mixed
something up badly and his claims are realistic.

~~~
ripb
Yeah the earnings certainly aren't too bad, although realistically how far
will $4k per month pre-tax go in somewhere like NYC?

It does offer more benefits than just pay though. I mean you get to choose
your own hours, can work as much overtime as you like, comparatively low
responsibility, etc. If one could get $90k-$100k out of it with 40-50 hours a
week, it would certainly be attractive.

~~~
alistairSH
I'm dubious that you can actually choose your own hours AND make a decent
living. With surge pricing and higher demand in the post-work hours, I would
assume you have to work those hours to maximize income, no?

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CHY872
Over the summer I got an UberX from Sunnyvale where the guy who showed up was
in a VW Toureg, a fairly snazzy car with a glass roof etc etc. Apparently he
was a fairly successful electrical engineer with someone or other who was
wondering with his buddy whether Uber or Lyft were better, so to settle the
bet one drove for Uber in his free time and one for Lyft. Seemed like a pretty
cool bet from a pretty cool guy.

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minikomi
Rent a flat above a shop, cut your hair and get a job. Smoke some fags and
play some pool, pretend you never went to school.....

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barrkel
I don't think it's such a bad choice of an extra job because of all the
different people you'll get to meet.

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korzun
> Like many in my MBA class, I had the choice to accept one of a handful of
> six-figure opportunities offered by top tech and consulting companies.

Yeah, no.

> So I signed up, and in the first weekend of sharing my car with strangers —
> roughly three to five hours a night over three nights — I earned $800 net.

That's not a net, car repairs and maintenance add up. This sums up most of his
logic.

> I pick when I drive based on personal whims. Sometimes I am driving from
> north Austin to downtown and I just provide a quick ride to an Uber
> passenger on my way.

You have a limit of how many rides you can cancel. This does not add up. Nor
do all the passengers give you destination prior to acceptance.

How many 'MBA' instances can you fit in an article? This is a basically a PR
story on some kid who is burning thought small unverified rounds every other
month.

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theundead
You're spot on. I know of the author of the article (Austin is a small scene),
and he is basically an MBA type who has been stuck playing startup the last 4
years. He has effectively made 0 progress in that time and it took over 3
years just to launch the MVP. Think about that...3+ years to launch anything
working at all (before that they just had a splash page for years littered
with hyperbole). In fact they "launched" quite recently and the product is
pretty bad. They're burning through money and time like it's nothing. Several
classmates that were involved somewhat early on realized what a joke it was
and cut all ties to the thing.

~~~
650REDHAIR
(Disclaimer, the author is a personal friend and investor of mine)

Well, that's completely wrong. He's launched, hit revenue quickly, has taken
sizeable outside funding, and is one of the hardest working guys I know.

There's only so much work you can do in a day before you start hitting walls.
Some people read, some people jog, and some people drive. At least this way
his expenses are covered and it let's him clear his head for awhile.

Also, you seem a bit bitter- like you dropped out of your MBA to work on a
failed startup and now you're regretting it...

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negamax
I am surprised by the negativity in this thread. Since when did founding a
startup start having a fixed set of rules?

Further, if he gets a break in terms of bigger investor who happens to be a
passenger. This is what everyone will start doing!

~~~
chulk90
I agree. Starting a company isn't a glamorous lifestyle that mass media
portray it to be. During startup, you spend a lot of time figuring out how to
cut down food and housing costs, how we're gonna pay for salaries and office
expenses 6 months later, etc.

You have to try EVERYTHING you can, and that's what makes / breaks a startup.

P.S. A lot of people on HN or even many people at Startup School seem to be
interested in startups for the "lifestyle" that doesn't exist in real life. In
the real world, your company is not Pied Piper.

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realdlee
The author says they raised a "small seed" round, so the funding might be much
smaller than the typical seed rounds we hear about these days.

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butwhy
Guess you found some upsides. For most people, I think someone with such
education and such a role at a company is making a stupid decision by doing
this. There is such thing as an "opportunity cost" that is wasted when you
perform unskilled labor in favour of time that could be put towards the
company you are responsible for (and the people you are responsible for).

~~~
650REDHAIR
Can you operate at 100% on a single idea for 100% of the time? I can't. I
usually pick up a book or drive to unwind and then come back to a problem. If
I could get paid to do that- why wouldn't I try it?

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pavanred
I recently met a Uber driver who had retired from a successful career in the
semi conductor industry and was trying out driving for Uber as he gets to meet
new and interesting people.

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Cacti
lol. "CEO".

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dansky
Uber is the new "McJob"

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eclipxe
What bubble?

~~~
kunaalarya
How does this say anything about a bubble? if this were 1999, he wouldn't need
to drive Uber cause his startup would be able to raise a couple million

