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A startup CEO drives for Uber

venturebeat.com

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Re: A startup CEO drives for Uber

#31

Post by ripb »

tonyjstark wrote: post #18
ripb wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>(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…

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

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.

Re: A startup CEO drives for Uber

#33

Post by gyardley »

andrea_s wrote: post #6

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?

Titles are tools, and you should use the right tool for the right job. Using the wrong tool at the wrong time makes you look like the tool, but in the right context they're useful.

I've found that using the 'CEO' title can make your company sound more established when dealing with people who aren't your peers - especially when doing business development with larger companies. Back when I was running an smartphone analytics startup, I had a 'CEO' business card for dealing with, say, Time Warner, and a 'co-founder' business card for dealing with indie game developers. This scheme seemed to work fine.

Re: A startup CEO drives for Uber

#34

Post by dbg31415 »

austenallred wrote: post #28

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…

Exactly.

Re: A startup CEO drives for Uber

#35

Post by bichiliad »

peterjancelis wrote: post #9

> "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.

Seriously, you can buy pretty good coffee beans in bulk, and you can buy a passable coffee machine and espresso press for $100. If you're still scraping things together, I think your developers will be ok with that.

Re: A startup CEO drives for Uber

#36

Post by hnafficianado »

andrea_s wrote: post #6

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?

When we started our company, we were loathe to call ourselves CEO or CTO or anything else. It felt too big for where we were, and it felt self-aggrandizing. Instead we decided we'd just skip titles until we had more than three people.

This was a mistake.

It made it hard for external folks to understand who was the best contact for different types of requests, and we wound up with all of us doing every type of work.

It also made it internally, because we had inadvertently hamstrung our ability to specialize, even though we had unofficial definitions of what each of us did.

So we decided to stop giving a shit if somebody thought it was pompous, and we gave ourselves titles. It instantly solved a whole host of communication problems, many of which we hadn't even identified.

Don't be afraid of organization. Don't be afraid of titles. Don't be afraid of somebody who thinks that you can't be a CEO unless your company is of a certain size or maturity.

It turned out that titles exist for a pretty good reason.

Re: A startup CEO drives for Uber

#37

Post by pdpi »

tptacek wrote: post #27
pdpi wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

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.

Re: A startup CEO drives for Uber

#38

Post by alistairSH »

ripb wrote: post #31
tonyjstark wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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.

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?

Re: A startup CEO drives for Uber

#39

Post by DSingularity »

peterjancelis wrote: post #9

> "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.

Yup. Another startup founder that wants to found a startup more than they want to create something great.
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