Dara Khosrowshahi - Uber's Bet on AVs, AI, and Building a Super-App

**Patrick O'Shaughnessy** (0:00)
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Hello and welcome everyone. I'm Patrick O'Shaughnessy, and this is Invest Like the Best. This show is an open-ended exploration of markets, ideas, stories, and strategies that will help you better invest both your time and your money. If you enjoy these conversations and want to go deeper, check out Colossus, our quarterly publication with in-depth profiles of the people shaping business and investing. You can find Colossus along with all of our podcasts at colossus.com.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:00)
Patrick O'Shaughnessy is the CEO of PositiveSum. All opinions expressed by Patrick and podcast guests are solely their own opinions, and do not reflect the opinion of PositiveSum. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions. Clients of PositiveSum may maintain positions in the securities discussed in this podcast. To learn more, visit p-s-u-m dot v-c.

**Patrick O'Shaughnessy** (2:28)
My guest today is Dara Khosrowshahi, the CEO of Uber. Before Uber, Dara ran Expedia for 13 years. We start with why he took this job in 2017, and a big part of this story is Daniel Ek, who told him that life is not about happiness, it's about impact. We talk about what the chaos felt like on day one, and how his family living in Iran when he was nine shaped the way he handles pressure today. We spend most of our time on autonomous vehicles and Uber's role as the demand aggregator in a world of physical AI.
Dara explains why Uber is a supply-led company, what it will take to win, and why he expects many winners in AVs rather than just one.
We also discuss Uber's $10 billion in free cash flow, the push towards a single app for everything, and what he has learned from Allen & Co, Barry Diller, and Reed Hastings. Please enjoy my great conversation with Dara Khosrowshahi.
So I think I have to begin with the story you were just telling me about how you took the job here, how you heard about it. And the reason I start there is because I want to know what the company felt like to you when you showed up, how that's evolved, and then very importantly, what the current moment feels like, which I think is the most interesting question for the business possible. But I love the origins, so I would love to hear, how did you hear about this job in the first place?

**Dara Khosrowshahi** (3:38)
What was the backstory? Yes, I've been an Expedia for 13 years, CEO working with Barry Diller and loved the experience and I loved where I was. At the time, like Uber was in the news all the time, right, it was in the business news if you're interested. So obviously I was reading about the situation at Uber, it seemed pretty chaotic and pretty difficult. And then a headhunter called me out of the blue and said, are you interested in the Uber CEO job?
And at the time I said, you know, no off and way, who would even think about it at the time? And I had a considerably lower profile as you can imagine, so I kind of blew it off. I was at the Sun Valley Conference, Allen & Co. Conference, and was having a drink with Daniel Ek and my wife. And Daniel said, hey, Dara, did a headhunter call you? I recommended you for the job. I thought you'd be great for the job. And I was like, oh, that's why it happened. Like, what are you, crazy?