Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi Has A Warning For Young Founders: ‘Don’t Try To Build Another Uber’

Uber Technologies Inc. (UBER) CEO Dara Khosrowshahi shared a word of advice for young founders looking to enter the mobility segment and compete with it.

Speaking on Robinhood-like discount brokerage platform Zerodha’s co-founder Nikhil Kamath’s podcast, People by WTF, Khosrowshahi cautioned founders from giving in to the lure of massive markets such as mobility right from day one. Instead, he advised them to look for fit and added that the right scale will come automatically.

Uber’s shares were down 0.64% in Monday’s pre-market trade. Retail sentiment on Stocktwits around the company trended in the ‘neutral’ territory.

Khosrowshahi went on to recommend that instead of trying to build another Uber, founders build something that the ride-hailing giant can acquire later, urging entrepreneurs to solve for smaller markets first. “You’re way overthinking TAMs (Total Addressable Markets). The big TAMs are taken. Go after the small TAMs where you can create a network effect without enormous investments,” he added.

The Uber CEO also called India an “absolute must-win” for the company, not just in the short term, but 10 years from now.

Meanwhile, Citizens JMP reiterated its ‘market perform’ rating on the Uber stock, according to a report by Investing.com. The firm expects Uber to deepen its collaboration with Apollo Go to launch autonomous vehicles (AV) in the Middle East. It views Apollo Go as Alphabet Inc.’s (GOOG) (GOOGL) Waymo’s closest international competitor.

Eventually, the firm sees Uber extending its partnership with Apollo Go beyond just the Middle East to other international markets.

UBER stock is up 60% year-to-date and 32% over the past 12 months.

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