Travis Kalanick 复盘 Uber B 轮融资拍卖技巧与教训

We know what Uber's 2017 was like.

Travis Kanic has stepped down from his role as chief executive.

That wouldn't have gone that way if Ben or Mark was on the board. You're in this hell. You're dealing with the lawsuits.

You worry about the lawsuit

and you say, "Hey, let's build again." It's not as much about where you start. It's about why you start.

He's one of the very rare guys who made as much money as he did and wanted to keep playing. Also remember I did it stealth.

I know some of the techniques I use very aggressive but that name you can't use that name.

And I remember David Drummond from Google was on our board and he's like no Travis that's not a thing dude. [laughter] You got to change it. The meaningful thing about [music] Adam's food is can you make the preparation and delivery of a quality meal so efficient that it approaches the cost of going to the grocery store? If it does, you do to the kitchen what Uber did to the car.

A lot of that idea to build [music] a company, a great company. It's always a great entrepreneur.

Travis, this is the I'm back podcast. This is the return of the kingd episode. Um,

return of the mech. That's [laughter]

I'm all about we can return. I don't know what the right thing is, but we got to come up with a walk walk-on song for sure.

Return of the Mac. return.

And it's not just it's not just a return of Travis, but it's also a return of this partnership or or what could have been uh and this relationship with Travis and Ben. So, I want to read a quote from Travis from your launch post. I've known Mark and Ben for a long time and we got oh so close to partnering up at Uber in 2011. I Travis blame Mark. Ben blamed himself, but let's just say it was all on us and it was it was on all of us.

And in 2017, Uber suffered the consequences of not having Mark on the board. If you know, you know. Travis, tell the story.

Okay. So, um, this will be interesting because I think Ben and I have maybe discussed this once or twice.

Yeah. Painful

and and I think that there could

I'm not sure if there's a difference of opinion on what happened, but I'll tell you what I thought happened.

So, I'm in fundraising mode. This is our series B. This is 2011. Uber started 2010, June 2010.

I'm raising our series B. Earlier that year, I did series A with uh VCL Main Remain Nameless. And uh I'm hardcore like it's interesting. I was such I went through such tough times as an entrepreneur pre- Uber that once I'm in Uber and things are working, I'm still acting like I'm not going to eat tomorrow. So I I would do everything right up to the line, like be perfect. And so I have this whole fundraising process that I would do just to perfection.

And that means I'd run an auction. So met with A16Z guys, met with lots of folks. And it was a what I would call winner takes all auction, meaning there's one major lead. They're going to set the price and then everybody else will fall in. So I'd go to the one guy, you know, I'd tell him what the story was and uh they're like, "Oh, you know, we're interested. He's leaning forward." And I would, they're like, "So, how much you raising?

What's the price?" And I I would do this thing where I would say, "Um, we don't know what like this is going to be one of the hottest deals in Silicon Valley this year. We don't know where the price is going to be, where it's going to go to, but it's at least blank." And I call this the uncapped anchor. Meaning, I'm never in a place where I'm negotiating with somebody where I'm here and they're here and we meet in the middle.

I'm always saying it's at least this and it can go up, but I start low.

So, it all go

so that everybody's pumped, leaning forward. He's like, "Okay, you can see body language. You can read. It's good."

You go to the next The next guy literally comes to your office. An hour later, same thing happens. He's fired up. I'm showing all the analytics. It's great. Uh, okay. So, we're interested. What's What are you thinking about price? Whatever. I'm like, it's if the last one was at least 2x our previous round. It just became 3x. I'll say, "We don't know. One of the best deals in Silicon It's going to be one of the top deals in Silicon Valley this year, but it will be at least 3x our last round."

And he's like, "Okay." You then go call the guy before and you're like, "Hey, just, hey, look, dude, just went from 2x to 3x." You know,

we'll see where it goes. I don't know. They start getting nervous. Anyways, you get all the way to the top

and then you go going once, going twice. And uh it's kind of funny in this particular case, Yuri was almost coming over the top. So, we got to 375 with 3775 million pre with A16Z. Yuri almost came in at 400, but he was like, "No, I can't do it." And so I'm like, "Okay, going once, going twice, sold."

Yeah.

And it's funny because that's a high momentum deal, and that's how you do it. And at the time, you almost should feel a little shy about doing something like that. And it's a little bit crass, let's just say, but that's how I was wired back in the day. Like just go all the freaking way, all the way. Like

run the touchdown, like score the touchdown even when you're gonna, you know, it's a little much.

So we're starting to work. you're going to get a term sheet going, the whole thing. And uh I get an email from Mark. Um and it was like uh hey, let's uh hey Travis like let's go to dinner. I think it was like tomorrow night or something like that. Let's go to dinner. And I said send me the term sheet and then yeah, we can go to dinner. And he responded he said let's go to dinner. And I'm like oh that didn't I didn't like that.

So came down south this neck of the woods.

Yeah. because I was in San Francisco and uh this little sushi place, I don't remember the name of it. And he said, "Look, I know we talked about 375, but went to the partnership. They don't agree or they just didn't think it was the right number. We're the best we're going to be able to do is 210. See that?" So that I'm just telling you how it went down for me.

Yeah. Wow. Well,

and and so then I'm like

story was definitely different on the other side, but

so but I want it be interesting to hear it.

I've got I've got more than the hour we have scheduled here if we want if we want to take time. But anyways, I had a high momentum deal. It went all the way to the top. I auctioned it,

cleared the market,

and the bottom came out from it. And so I had to go back to everybody else and say 210 is the new number. Yeah.

Like, "Hey guys, the guy who won backed out. I'm now back at 210. We're starting the auction over." It was super awkward and weird because people you lose credibility in that moment. And I built it back up. And

uh basically it ended up being Menllo Park. This is how Shervin got involved in Uber.

And at some point I told Shervin to stop negotiating against himself because [laughter] he just kept driving it up without anybody else. I'm like, "Dude, you won, dude. It's fine. I didn't want the same thing to happen again. You know what I'm saying?

Uh, so I'm I am very clear about the 375 and the 210 and the experience I had, but there may be another side of that story.

Yeah. Well, you know, okay, let me just tell you what I actually remember. Um, and then what I kind of remember. So, I remember you came in for the pitch and I think it was just you. Yeah, that's that's

which is uh by the way unusual. So normally people don't particularly in those days very rare that entrepreneur would come in with no team members on a deal that size. That was a big deal by the way that wasn't that was a high price deal at now it's like a [ __ ] 375.

Yeah. You'd be like dude preede preede [laughter]

pre pre and

right

yeah the pitch was super impressive. And then um the other thing I I I recall pretty closely was uh like Travis had definitely like read