Travis Kalanick is a well-known American young entrepreneur CEO, and the great man behind the Uber. He earned a great fame and name as the co-founder and CEO of Uber cab and is right now one of the billionaire and a successful businessman.
The 39-year-old entrepreneur was ranked 290 in Forbes list of 400 Richest Americans in 2014 with an estimated wealth of $6 billion.
Here are the 10 success lessons from Travis Kalanick – “CEO of Uber” for the entrepreneurs,
1. Find something broken that you’re passionate about
The idea of Uber came when Kalanick faced the simple problem of finding a cab in Paris. Whether it’s Amazon or Google, every big business we see today is helping people solve a problem making their life that much easier and better. When your business is based on solving a specific problem, you add value to the life of your customer.
“Uber didn’t begin with any grand ambitions, it began as the answer to that simple question.”
2. Be analytical and creative
Uber has data to analyse demand and taxi availability in order to provide a cab in 5 mins anywhere in the world. It has at the same time used innovative marketing tools to acquire more consumers. One day in the year, the company runs a campaign called Uber Ice cream wherein you click a button and ice cream gets delivered to the consumer.
Travis while explaining this quoted Albert Einstein which says,
“Creativity is intelligence having fun”
3. Work towards giving people a better option
One of the biggest reason for Uber’s success is that consumers are driven by convenience and price. Going from one place to the next is as easy as tapping your phone. Uber has also built in algorithms to make sure there are enough cabs in your vicinity.
Though the surge pricing does not please customers, it does make sure that enough cabs are available to you when the demand is high, benefiting both, the cab owner and the customer.
4. You will make mistakes; Learn and move forward
Kalanick is known to be brash and confrontational. When it comes to defending his company practices, he has stood against taxi industry, rival cab companies, local regulators and sometimes even his own customers. He is incredibly driven by what he does and is not afraid to show it. But there have been times when he has admitted that he probably take the right approach.
5. How hard is your problem?
The more difficult the problem, more effective would be the solution and that in turn would click with consumers. Travis calls himself the Problem Solver-in-charge at Uber.
6. Roadblocks may slow you down but don’t let them stop you
Uber has had its fair share of difficulties and still is fighting regulation in new markets. The company even had to fight existing laws to expand it’s business.
From cab unions to city regulators, while Uber takes every effort to make commuting as seamless as possible for its customers, it’s own journey has been very rocky. But every step of the way, Kalanick has stood his ground by doing what he calls ‘principled confrontation’.
7. Do not be afraid to start small
Just five years ago, Uber was only a four-person team in San Francisco. Like in any new venture, it was a difficult time with crunched resources and most of the effort went into keep the business afloat.
8. Make magic! Do things which astounds people & makes them talking!
Travis emphasis that the best way to make magic is to let people enjoy the joy of being a part by either giving them money, helping them save money, or giving them value for money. Travis even mentions the case of Steve Jobs by saying,
“Hire the right people. See the future and get your team excited. Steve Jobs had a patent for the iPhone and saw the future for smartphones before anybody else.”
9. Selling and storytelling
Travis believes that the best way to create a connect with customers is to learn to hustle and tell a good story. In order to explain this point Travis then played a video of the world seen through the eyes of a taxi driver, including – everyday sights and marvels, we generally take for granted to further his point.
In order to explain this Travis mentioned,
“Elevate your storytelling from just a taxi ride to the story of life and its meaning. Learn how to hustle – #AlwaysBeJugaading! There are ways to sell things with honesty, passion, and integrity. While Uber is about transportation you can still inspire people with a good story.”
10. Adventure, doing the impossible is all entrepreneurship is all about!
The Uber team spent four weeks in Varkala beach in Kerala coding. Travis is a firm believer that doing the impossible is all entrepreneurship is all about.
Talking about seeking adventure, he adds that Uber decided to do the impossible by trying to enter China, a market that almost no foreign company has been able to gain a foothold of.
