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“They were looking at an error page, and they were failing.
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To sign up, many visited internet cafes that were not running the latest versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome.
#Workdone techcrunch drivers#
“It’s important to have driving directions, but if you have surge pricing every time you get into an Uber or if you cannot get an Uber, there is no point of having Uber.”Īfter doing driver outreach, it became clear that they hadn’t been listening closely to customers: In 2011, most drivers used flip phones with rudimentary web browsing capabilities. “We realized that there were multiple products that were conflicting … between onboarding drivers, internal systems and driver directions within the app,” Dame said. In response, Dame directed members of the company’s separate rider and driver teams to focus on a single problem. After Uber launched, early customers frequently encountered surge pricing because the platform wasn’t onboarding drivers quickly enough.
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“I think that the first thing you need to do is hire people who have low ego and have low ego yourself,” she said. Trust me with what you don’t know or what’s not working, because once we invest, we’re going to have to work on this stuff anyway. Set aside your ego and listen closely to customers Early-stage employees are accustomed to using ad hoc processes to get their work done as they sprint for growth, so I asked how she approached the work from a cultural perspective. In a fireside chat at TechCrunch Early Stage, we discussed her experience validating product ideas, gathering actionable customer data, creating user-centric work cultures and handling some of the unique challenges that come with scaling teams from a few dozen people to several thousand employees.Īt Uber, Dame led strategic programs that helped the company grow from 80 employees to 7,000, which included transitioning from spreadsheets to systems that created transparency and accountability. In her capacity as partner, she offers portfolio companies’ founders a range of services that includes advising them on recruiting, marketing and comms, and product development. After a startup reaches product-market fit, however, savvy investors might compete for a chance to participate.Īchieving product-market fit is not a linear process, which means each company must find its own way, according to Frederique Dame, an investing partner with GV who previously led product and engineering teams at companies like Uber, Smugmug and Yahoo. Until a company builds a growing base of customers who are deeply engaged with its products, asking investors for money is a largely egotistical exercise. Fundraising is often presented as the most important step on a founder’s journey, but that is placing the cart before the horse.