He Quit Uber to Build a Trillion Dollar Company
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- Опубликовано: 3 ноя 2023
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Enter your email here: johncoogan.com
ABOUT JOHN COOGAN:
I am the co-founder of soylent.com and lucy.co, both of which were funded by Y Combinator (Summer 2012 and Winter 2018).
I've been an entrepreneur for the last decade across multiple companies. I've done a lot of work in Silicon Valley, so that's mostly what I talk about. I've raised over 10 rounds of venture capital totaling over $100m in funding.
I work mostly in tech-enabled consumer packaged goods, meaning I use software to make the best products possible
CONTACT:
You can get in touch with me via Twitter: / johncoogan
Disclaimer: This video is purely my opinion and should not be regarded as a primary source. I am not a financial advisor and this is not a recommendation to buy or sell securities. Always do your own due diligence. 
Наука
Thanks for watching! Just to be clear, Traba didn’t pay me to make this and I don’t have a stake in the company. I do work with one of Mike’s investors (Founders Fund), but they don’t get input into what topics I talk about on here. Hopefully this story is valuable!
As a founder, it's always great when one of your videos drops!
Our statup is growing fast, I hope one day we'll be big enough to merit a video 😄
Why not call it the next 20 trillion dollar company? Both claims are equally silly and unfounded.
I used the Winolo staffing app to choose shifts at a Fashion Nova fulfillment center in California in 2019. Fashion Nova gave incentives to consistently accept work, but I was free to never accept again and choose shifts at another company without penalty. The app lets companies accept, reject, and add a rating on our profile. Winolo didn't contract with a lot of companies that fit my criteria, but still, they implemented this concept years. It seems like you are misrepresenting the industry? I just checked, and Winolo has 1M downloads on Google Play.
WHY YOU SO MAD BUD?@@Akash.Chopra
@@ramsyrama all caps? Lol. Why would I be mad? Everyone claims and thinks they will be the next big thing but I didn't see anything that substantiated those claims from the video beyond people restating the arbitrary number, almost as if it's the mission rather than a byproduct of the mission.
Traba, announced a $22M funding round led by Founders Fund last month where John Coogan is Entrepreneur-in-residence nothing to see here...
Shilling
What advantage do workers have compared to a normal employment agency?
Ultimately just an employment agency with an app...
Exactly lol
Sounds similar to WeWorks story..
In fairness lots of startups are "XYZ, but with an app"
I quit flipping burgers to build my bazillion dollar astroid mining company.
dude, respect. i believe in you man!
Definitely not a trillion dollar company
true, but its always good to have a goal, even of they don't reach trillion but 100 billion ita finw
Could be if they turn jobs into Uber
This vidéo is a million dollar publicity for this business tho
@@timauthee861 Agreed could just be an ad
It's called as clickbait
John works at Founders Fund himself - seems like there is some interest in making this company sound good. Great video in how the story is told, but I work in VC and have seen a couple of these short-term labour market apps. Where they typically struggle is expanding to new countries, where regulations, tax, etc. become very difficult to solve (some countries explicitly have laws to make this more diifficult , see EU Uber Case). Well presented video, great story, but one that seems to be told by an insider.
Yeah this does seem like one of those the uber of blank companies and those usually don't work out well.
What keeps these types of endeavors from working within the USA?
@@danielclawson2099 Such a great question, jumping in on it.
For sure, tons of hard roadblocks ahead. Will be interesting to revisit this in a few years and see how many of those held up vs being able to work around.
@@JohnCooganPlus It also seems like the roadblocks itself are defining the pricing power in this case due to sheer amount of capital needed to coordinate across all those jurisdictions.
John you have very high quality videos, but I believe ethically you should mention that you are part of the founders fund team when you do videos on companies funded by the founders fund. It should stated in the dialogue of the video and be mentioned in the video description
good point! in the video I do mention that Keith Rabois is my colleague, and I left a note in the description and also added a pinned comment with more context. it’s a bit odd because I did meet Mike through Founders Fund, but actually 2 years ago before i worked there, and FF didn’t ask me to make this or anything like that. I think adding more detailed context is important for these early stage companies, as opposed to SpaceX, Palantir, etc.
Same.
😬
Don't sweat it John. Make whatever content you want. This is your thing. Cant make everyone happy.@@JohnCooganPlus
Agree
They didn't answer the question why the others didn't succeed so far. It's not because they are not inteligent enough. It because of complicated laws and employee rights and unions. This is the problem. The problem is not money (market is big enough)... the problem is not tech (employees are on facebook and have lot of apps already) ... the problem is giving answers to insurance, worker rights, unions, handling work accidents, handling travel costs, etc... that will help employees and companys.
yeah I think it actually a bit funny that he came from uber because it seems that they are trying to bring the gig economy to warehouses. I guess their hope is to skirt laws like Uber but I don't know if something like that can work a second time. Also generally companies that can be described as the Uber of something don't work well.
Our government and loopholes. Lobbying. 🫴
I’d bet money the answer the ceo would give is, “at Uber we simply ignored the laws, my plan is to do the same thing here”
Traba could potentially make a difference here by using their economies of scale and bargaining power to get decent benefits for temp workers. I think in this day and age everyone knows that the gig economy is unsustainable at the current price points and workers need some basic benefits.
there are only 5-6 Trillion dollar companies out there. This is not ambition but extreme naive arrogance
Pimps make a lot of money
exaclty maybe a billion dollars sure but TRILLIONS NAHH
Because people think like you do, that some times these big companies succeed. Because nobody thinks it can be done. If everyone thought it could be done, it would be easy and everyone would do it. In a sense, you're negativity proves potential.
A trillion dollar company. Amazon is $1.4 Trillion with 1.4 million staff and 70% of earnings come from AWS. Take out AWS and Amazon the goods company is about $400M and has 1.3M of the staff. Amazon actually have a business not just selling labour. Let’s assume Mike could make the same income as Amazon per employee which is a very big ask. But if he did he would need to have more than DOUBLE Amazons goods business staff worldwide to get close to that $ Trillion . Great to have goals but it’s hard to even imagine this is even remotely possible
But look at the branded t shirts.
The margins will never make sense with tax and insurance workers comp etc we run a labor contracting company and margins are not amazing with hired labor
'Here at this startup we're trying to solve the problem of people having secure employment.'
Yeah lmaoooo
doesn't secure employment include insurance, benefits, and vacation time?
Many of this channel videos seems like an advertisement everytime he talk about this "revolutionary founder", dont get me wrong, that completely fine. Its made to motivate other, but sometimes it become too oversimplified and lack the criticism this founder face. Remember how he delete the video about how great SBF when the fraud unraveled.
Agree
Traba, announced a $22M funding round led by Founders Fund last month where John Coogan is Entrepreneur-in-residence so surely it's advertisement in some way
@@modirisakya and it's coming off as a bad place to go work 😂 long hours are expected they want to copy China's model of work with their bullshit 996 model. 9am to 9pm 6 days a week. very unlikely that you get paid over time. Watch them announce layoffs soon enough. And then take their new profitable company (after layoff$) to raise more money for their exit.
Good point
A month to build an app. Starting early and staying late. Sounds like terrible place to work. How ironic.
The thing about busting your balls for a Startup like this is that they wont hesitate to lay you off if it's not going well or even if it is going well they still do layoffs to show that they are profitable to get a new round of funding. Just do the 9-5 and start your own thing after work. Work hard for yourself.
My thoughts exactly. I'm sure those early employees got some stock and so are incentivized to work long hours. Otherwise, yeah sounds like a miserable place to work
It’s just a sliding scale of risk + effort + reward
9-5 : low risk, low effort, low reward
Work for startup: medium risk, high effort, high reward (early startup employees become very rich off stocks of the company hits it big)
Start a startup: highest risk, high effort, highest reward
So its a staffing company
This guy said the staffing industy is a 500 billion dollar industy, and yet it doesn't work. Obviously it does work, because it's worth 500 billion. How could one company corner the entire market, and double the industry size? Boggles the mind how these slave drivers think.
This channel should be renamed to “Founders Fund”
He has that silicon valley girl accent 😂
John, hope you're checking the comments + dislikes and understand how this video is not looking good for you.
1) The ridiculous claim
2) Your interest in the company's success
3) The issue with pushing employees to work long hours without stakes in the 'trillion dollar' company
Especially raised a brow at #3. I'm a hardworking guy, but I don't at all support abusing worker's rights to live their lives either if they don't have a god damn ownership stake.
Yep, I see it and understand the pushback. Just to be clear:
1. Yeah, I agree the $1T goal is ridiculous, but I think there's value in aiming high.
2. I clarified this in the pinned comment, but I don't own equity in Traba and they didn't pay me to make this. I do work at Founders Fund with Keith (which I disclosed in the actual video) but I met Mike 2 years ago.
3. I should have clarified this but Traba employees definitely have stakes in the company they are building! Not mentioning this was a miss. Working long hours without extra compensation is bad, but that isn't the situation.
Explain what's going on? I barely even understood the video
@@JohnCooganPlus I cringed at this video. I've founded and been part of the technical side of several different startups and this was one of the most disappointing videos you have made.
@modimihir made a few very good points but I would like to elaborate this further.
What Traba is doing is taking a stake in low-paying work/gigs. They're creating a micro-ecosystem of efficient and poorly paying low-brow work that most folks are aiming to get out of. There are already several companies and staffing agencies that are currently doing this. They are simply opening the marketplace up to the long-term detriment of workers.
I wouldn't be so quick pat them on the back and personally, I have no respect for founders or companies whose aim is to take advantage of low-skilled workers and it is quite telling how out of touch with modern society you have become John. I could never imagine promoting such a company and I have worked with a couple of companies you have profiled with questionable ethics.
Change the title because they are not a trillion dollar company and it's very doubtful they ever will be. Instead, they are more likely to work against workers rights and campaign and champion further erosion of the few rights that do exist.
The other important thing to note here which you really missed the mark on, is that labor shortages in the modern day marketplace are almost always a direct result of poor of pay. Supply is abundant in this country, but employers are not willing to pay what employees rightfully are due. Traba is working to take advantage of that situation by saying "here's gig work, here's this individuals profile and record" and subsequently works to help empower the employer over the employee.
There is nothing in this business model that helps the worker, it's an upside down pyramid of wealth distribution where worker benefits get captured by companies like Traba.
Unsubscribed.
The founder apparently took the framework of Task Rabbit and Fiver but is applying it to business who need short term gig workers ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ @@Eurotool
Maybe "He Quit Uber to TRY to Build a Trillion Dollar Company" would be a better title.
This hits so close to home! I remember in my last startup where us three founder got our first customer by talking to a lady who was a convenience store owner around the corner from our office and she would go to a warehouse to pick up cartons of cigarettes every morning at 6am. Delivering those for her ourselves every morning before work and taking notes about every bump on the road was our first $10/day. Doing what is perceived as "dirty work" and things that don't scale early on was the secret to developing empathy in process of our product that led to success.
The truth is, there really is no work life balance when building. People who peddle this misconception that you can work nice hours and still build a startup from scratch are either extremely wealthy already and afford that luxury or they have never built a startup. True grit and eating sand is what is required. But the funny thing is, you do it with a smile when you are in it.
You can literally see this on the face of the founders here which is the reason why they are in the best position to win!
❤
Uber is shit for workers. This sounds like more of the same; So what about job security, sick leave, retirement benefits etc
Exactly. Exploiting people. This sounds like trash.
Tbh this staffing industry is already very exploitive, hopefully Traba centralizing it and indirectly making the industry known creates more transparency by bringing it out of the shadows. To be clear, this industry has none of the benefits you currently speak of, it is one of the rawest forms of temp work.
I was intrigued until they started raving about the work hours.
Absolutely garbage mindset that only results in harm, working many hours do not imply productivity, it's essentially the biggest source of all problems at a systematic level in all of Asia and parts of the Americas.
Too many buzzwords and gimmicky, maybe Traba can prove me wrong maybe in a few years, I'd love to read counter arguments though.
Oh, wow. Startups nowadays are now predicting they will be a “trillion dollar company”? People who say they are going to be a trillion dollar company end up not becoming one. All of the big tech companies did not say ridiculous things. In fact, I am more suspicious in companies that make such grand predictions. Leave it to the overhyped, highly speculative companies to make such a claim.
They say that so they can entice employees to work 72 hour weeks believing that the 0.001% equity they have is going to make them a millionaire lol
They are way too naive. First become a unicorn company then IPO, then maybe they can start talking about a trillion dollars.
Meta Platforms is more Likely to Hit a Trillion dollars before Traba ever comes one.
Apple logo
Apple
AAPL
$2.854 T $182.56 0.41% 🇺🇸 USA
2 Microsoft logo
Microsoft
MSFT
$2.693 T $362.34 0.50% 🇺🇸 USA
3 Saudi Aramco logo
Saudi Aramco
2222.SR
$2.164 T $8.95 0.15% 🇸🇦 S. Arabia
4 Alphabet (Google) logo
Alphabet (Google)
GOOG
$1.653 T $132.79 0.29% 🇺🇸 USA
5 Amazon logo
Amazon
AMZN
$1.466 T $141.95 0.53% 🇺🇸 USA
6 NVIDIA logo
NVIDIA
NVDA
$1.147 T $464.67 1.11% 🇺🇸 USA
7 Meta Platforms (Facebook) logo
Meta Platforms (Facebook)
META
$813.41 B $316.52 0.72% 🇺🇸 USA
I love how a lot of the business concepts that we learnt in startups have been unlearnt through this video and props to Trada founder team and even the investor in making this business work and their belief it will be a trillion dollar business!
Yeah, betting against AI and automation... The only way this company hits a trillion dollar cap is if the USA hits hyperinflation on the level of Hungry during the first year after WW2(1945-1946, Prices doubled every 15 hours which equaled out to a daily inflation rate of 207%).
Don't get me wrong dude. I'm rooting for you in a way that it's difficult to explain; Check it out, the only way you have ANY chance, ANNNNNNNNY chance of beating "automation" and AI in general is to integrate with it. So as you continue to evolve with your business and it's strategic values of staying "team human," I HIGHLY, HIGHLY, HIIIIIIGGGHHHHLLLLYYY suggest you think about how the work around the whole surpassing AI thing by getting a hold of Elon and asking him how to do something like integrate Neurolink with "everyday" human beings in order to remotely have a speck of reality to this idea!
McMaster-Carr... boring?? I almost spit out my coffee! If you're a hardware geek, MMC is one of the coolest companies!
"I was responsible for launching Uber Eats in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and saw what it takes to launch a successful marketplace product"
Anyone care to check how Uber Eats is doing in Brazil? :)
This video is advertising.
No business innovation, no technology innovation!!! Overvaluation, sweat job culture. Reminds me with WeWork. Give it a couple of years and the music will stop.
A worker that needs to make economic sense doesn’t care at all about the company he is working for. You cannot get good quality with that model at all. Of course that tech company does a better job than these other old school companies, but a real business has socially insured workers.
Yeah a big problem with these apps is that there’s 0 quality control of workers.
And if there are - that’s a ton of overhead, and you might as well just be a temp agency lol.
Also tons of fraud. What could go wrong with “you just download the app, and you just working”?
Why do they all talk the same? This is giving human centipede vibes.
😂
Dude sounds like a 90s Valley Girl.
Please don't take funding as "growth". Revenue is growth, having customers paying you is growth, funding is fantasy.
yeah, it would have been better to share revenue growth numbers. to be clear they do have paying customers and are growing revenue.
I am going to make a trillion dollar company it’s call BIg dreams no substance
Loved it a lot. this is awesome. Good luck to you guys. I hope I will see another video after your company worth hit trillion!
It seems to me he expects an unreasonable amount of extra work from his own employees with no extra compensation, simply for the privilege of working at "the hot new tech startup". I assume he will carry this mentality to his app as well, where he will expect employees to work in less than ideal conditions, with no job security and no benefits, simply because they're using the "cool new app"
What happens when the app is no longer new and exciting? How is he going to continue to "out work the competition" if he makes a company as entrenched and big as uber?
0% chance this becomes a trillion dollar company
If he takes what the agencies usually charge and adds it to the hourly rate for his workers it could work. But, you and I know he won't do that LOL
ah sorry should have clarified. employees do get extra compensation for longer work hours!
@@JohnCooganPlus My criticism remains that I think this business model seems quite unsustainable, and unable to reach the magnificent heights the founder is talking about. I have no doubts this app could carve a niche in the realm of gig economy jobs. But at the end of the day it's basically just a combination of Indeed and Uber. I do appreciate you highlighting up and coming founders though, because I think it's a very important thing for us to support innovation and I love your videos
This was great, thanks for sharing
I signed up, but most jobs pay $14-15 per hour. That’s not gonna work out.
There are a lot of immigrants, who were making a dollar or $2 a day in their home country. They would be ecstatic to work for that money
@@ozzy3836 True. But also they could eat a full meal for 50 cents and rent didn’t cost them $2000/mo.
@@ozzy3836 Taco Bell starts you at $20/hr
This is Amazing, explaining in simple and easy mode mix with interviewing the real player - glad you did this.
Startups are dying because every new company in tech are grifts. Not saying this one is but it would be refreshing to see something actually useful to the economy and society.
Amazing video John, thanks for making this!
5 min in, I am thinking he's started a temp agency.... Not sure yet... This guy's way too smart for me to figure out temp agency will never be a trillion dollar industry.
When everyone thinks they are the greatest in the entire world, this is not a proof for excellence but rather hubris.
Awesome video. Thnks Coogan for an amazing Content.!!
loving these business videos!
John when its comes to your analysis you just don't know how to disappoint ❤am engrossed to your content
Is this a ad?
Cmon, this is pure promosion without any reality check.
Disappointed.
We've been bamboozled 😂
He Quit Uber . . . {hoping} . . . to Build a Trillion Dollar Company!
He Quit Uber ... to Become Delusional!
*Fixed your fix
@@reprovedcandy same thing
your fixed was even more fixed
Keep up The good work! Grate stories
Great work with the video keep it up.
this sounds like a basic company that's overworking their employees based on an overbearing board of directors lol... anytime every employee is media trained to say "trillion dollar company" ==> they are just trying to hype up their valuation. it's like elon saying tesla roadster will make you cool. john, are you 'covering' this company for a price that is 'unseen'? like analysts 'cover' certain stocks on request from big firms to pump up their price, and receive + points from the firms? this vid seems like a fluff piece when comparing to other videos of yours.
you know, this american mindset of "working super hard", its only benefiting C-levels and stackholders. You only have one life...
Selling trillion dollar dream....
I've learnt alot from the video. If it's an add or not, the main thing is that i have learnt something new.
Thanks for the inspiring video
Absolutely phenomenal video
These fake valuations…..
John great video as always but it would be good to disclose your interests. Also this is going to run into same issues Uber and Airbnb; but you’re commodifying human labour which will be highly litigious and might likely be the largest cost of this venture. The guy encourages his own team work 72 hours. How much do you think he is actually paying his labour 🤔
Yeah I don't want themt to fail but it seems like their hoping to skirt labor laws. Like Uber and Bird did at the beginning.
I agree with this guy a million percent all I see is a concept that would lower wages and ultimately harm the worker if he is successful
He made it seem the guy founded uber and then already created a trillion dollar company what a joke😂😂
wish The video creator actually pushed back and ask Traba the math in how they are getting to a Trillion dollar valuation (thus billions in revenue like MSFT) Would be interesting to hear the long term plan instead of just Traba saying Trillion dollar company over and over again.
This was Awesome! Great story!
Market capitalization of Uber (UBER)
Market cap: $97.57 Billion
As of November 2023 Uber has a market cap of $97.57 Billion. This makes Uber the world's 140th most valuable company by market cap according to our data. The market capitalization, commonly called market cap, is the total market value of a publicly traded company's outstanding shares and is commonly used to measure how much a company is worth.
Everyone in silicon valley believe they will build a trillion dollar company 😂😂
Majority of UberEATS market share comes from Postmates purchase so it's not like he did much lol
wtf is this video. it's just a normal startup. and they paid you to do this video
hahaha yep
It seems like he's an investor
14:36 Yeah, all those people working the factory line making Model T's, then at the end of the day Mr. Ford would of course Venmo the workers their daily wages.. Yah know, "old school like that..."
This video was insanely good, think big!
just cause people in the company say its gonna be a trillion dollar company, doesnt mean its true. might as well be paid for it as they are for their work there
Add more background music actually just background music whould be enough 😊
This is an ad.
Would be nice to have the subject's details in the description so we can learn more, follow, etc.
This is not a trillion dollar company
Yeah if this is a trillion dollar company then Uber is worth a bajillion
Yep, I was ultra ultra confused as I was watching this as to what exactly they did differently. Then I checked out what they do on both the business front and worker side. I haven't dove super deep into what exactly they do, but this feels like promotion for another gig platform. See other gig platforms and their longevity, etc...
The only thing I can tell they do differently is pushing every employee to put in 100 hour works weeks to recruit more businesses and expand. If that's their competitive advantage... I wish them all the best. Plus that tech industry standard 30% cut...
All I can say is I wish them the best of luck.
It would be good to put some description of the video on the video description
I already hate this company. PLEASE 'DON'T BE EVIL' WITH THIS COMPANY! you are going to be responsible for all employees out there. since your customers are the employers i doubt you ever give care to the employees, when business is tough you will squeeze these employees,hence why i hate this company already, please prove me wrong. there are somethings you should not break in society for it to function, peoples jobs, security, instutional strength are some of them. PLEASE PROVE ME WRONG AND BE A GOOD COMPANY!!
Trillion dollar company?! Seriously?!
Hell yeah I support this completely
Every startup claims to be the next big thing. I've never heard a founder say "Im building the next one dollar company".
Connecting demand with supply is a great idea. How do workers get paid? Do workers have any benefits? E.g. medical, holiday pay, etc? Do workers get information on potential employers? Do employers get information on potential workers? Do workers and employers rate each other on the app?
Manpower 2.0. If manpower and upwork had a baby, this would be it. 😂
Wow this is the libertarian dream it really reminds me of that libertarian copy pasta. A small excerpt from it
“Let this be a message to all your central-banker friends out on the street,” I said. “No matter how many bitcoins you steal, you’ll never take away the dream of an open society based on the principles of personal and economic freedom."
"He nodded, because he knew I was right. Then he swiped his credit card to pay me for arresting him."
It's a great solution to a problem , but it's not giving a trillion dollars :(
How is it really different from already existing freelance marketplaces. They could just snatch his lunch.
Love these vids. Keep them going man. It's great stuff.
Pretty amazing story, very inspiring
Very smart idea. My sister has had to deal with staffing for a large company and its a nightmare.
Sounds like a nightmare.
The real challenge is counting how many times the word “like” was used by the tech bros in this video
I believe on you when you were on starting phase 😜😂 great job and my prediction 😂
upwork enters the chatroom
Amazing story!
Why a click bait title? Trillion dollar company by running part-time staffing? 😂
we had an app like this in the Netherlands for years, nothing new
Tbh this is work is cool , dream is bullshit
I can't wait for the pump n' dump IPO in 2025 😂
Uber Eats has the worst employee treatment in the world. Clout's vanished. Not to mention the lousiest customer service on the planet.
This video is basically an ad.
1 trillion dollar market value seems like a joke for this company
that's all, no much noise
PAID AD
So now this is the new start-up marketing strategy. Smart
This is amazing
I went over this company. It won't be a trillion nor a billion dollar company. Sounds like a scam.
It's not about funding but revenue.
If he’s not carful his team is going to burn out. Anyone with a family knows the risk of working 72 hours a week.