A fond farewell from Uber

After 3 incredible years, Dec 3rd was my last day at Uber.

I am sharing the farewell email I sent to my fantastic colleagues at Uber (adjusted to what can be shared externally).

I have been fortunate to be part of the Uber global phenomenon for the past 3 years and what a ride it has been. Through this journey, I have got to know so many of you incredibly talented and passionate people both professionally and personally, and I am taking with me lots of memories and friendships. Without your support, trust and collaboration, my time here would not have been the same. 

Here are some of my fondest memories - 

Championing Taxis and Hailables: 3 months into my time at Uber, I decided to trust a few of you to give away a PM lead position and instead be the first person from tech to be on team taxis! It was scary but one of the best decisions I made at Uber. It was an incredible journey of growing something from zero to one to now over a $XXXM in revenue contribution! In the process I learnt to not just build products but also businesses and most importantly teams. 

Launching meter integration hardware in Japan: We went from knowing nothing about archaic taxi meters to building our own hardware that connected to taxi meters and provided us with off trip information across any demand source. This was many months of cross company collaboration with GSS team, outside consultants and reverse engineering. 

Many trips to Japan: A very small and yet welcoming team in Japan. Many sleepless nights in Tokyo, Kyoto and a few other cities while we traveled to learn about taxis, meet potential partners and also indulge in food and the culture. All my coworkers in Japan, a huge shout out to you for being incredibly generous. 

Building and growing a new way to dispatch: This was a tough one with many polarizing views, challenging the core algorithms and how we did business, which made it all the more interesting. It was a new way to send dispatches to drivers built on top of existing matching infrastructure, the Uber brain! 

Autos in India: My time working with the India team was nothing short of awe. The true hustlers! We did many rounds of user testing, product testing, made auto driver lead marketing videos and truly pushed the low cost rides segment that is the backbone in India. 

Seattle events and recruiting: One of my goals at Uber when I joined was to work towards building a culture of belonging. Through multiple diversity related events in the Seattle site and driving consistency in the hiring process, I feel proud to have worked with so many of you who champion this cause every day. 

Premium Reservations launch: Even though I have only been a part of the rider org since COVID hit, we have accomplished a lot. Just last week my team did a press release to announce the launch. We have already surpassed pre covid reliability numbers, the top KPI for offering reservations!

Hourly and COVID response: What can I say about this one? So much potential, so much excitement to get this out. We got a dirty MVP out to test the waters, then 6 weeks later launched the COVID response version to make travel safer when one has to. I am a bit sad that I will not be here to see V1.0 launch after putting a lot of effort in reimagining what Riders would want and Drivers would benefit from. 

Overall, I am grateful that I was able to transcend the organizational boundaries and work on compelling end to end experiences across Rider, Driver and Matching to serve our customers and build durable businesses. 

But most importantly, it won't be the work and accomplishments I will cherish many years down the line, it will be the strong and talented people I worked with and how they made me feel welcomed at every step of the way! I hear you all who have had to juggle mental health, parenthood, taking care of a sick family member and still showing up for your team! 

As for what's next for me, I am starting my new adventure this week. Its announcement can wait for now while I gear up.

Goodbyes are not forever and I will see you somewhere/sometime/someplace.  

Cheers,

--Megha