Treat The Company's Money Like Your Own, Even After You Sell

Last week I attended the Skift Global Forum, which brings together thinkers and doers in the travel space to think and do with each other. It was held in Brooklyn, New York City, in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

One of the most interesting observations I made was at the close of the event. Skift had arranged for several Big Red Buses (these are double decker tour buses) to transport attendees back to Manhattan, which was good because the nearest subway was a 15-minute walk and the trip back to Manhattan would have cost about $40-$45 by taxi or Uber. There were four of these buses lined up ready to go at 6.30 p.m. after the closing reception.

But nobody used them.

Nearly everyone, including many young and energetic entrepreneurs, many of them, I assume, funded by venture capitalists, called an Uber car.

On my Big Red Bus into Manhattan (and they are big) there were five people. Me, the tour guide, two other attendees (both from Colorado), and the driver. That's all. Of the several hundred people who left the closing cocktail party, the Big Red Bus held five people.

Now, I could have called an Uber as well and expensed it (Uber is now a "category" on our Concur expense reports at TripAdvisor). But I thought what the heck, even though I don't own Airfarewatchdog.com any longer, the Uber ride would have cost $45 and the Big Red Bus was free. My boss wouldn't have blinked an eye when he approved my expense report. Maybe when you bootstrap a company from nothing, that mindset never leaves you.

Riding into Manhattan over the Manhattan Bridge, I noticed something else strange. Traffic was clogged, as usual, but it wasn't clogged by a sea of yellow. Looking out the window as we inched along Canal Street, I noticed a sea of compact black cars, mostly Toyotas and other Japanese makes, with distinctive Taxi and Limo license plates. Uber cars. I mentioned this to the Big Red Bus tour guide and she said she's noticed the same thing lately. Fewer yellow cabs, more black cars on Manhattan's clogged streets.

And then this morning I got an email from Uber touting UberPool, "Now 25% cheaper than UberX—guaranteed."

In the example, Uber compared a ride from "FiDi" (the Financial District) to Grand Central Station. $18 in pool, $24 in uberX, and $28 in a yellow cab.

What was missing in the comparison was the subway. Now honestly, I can understand why some people may have opted for an Uber from the Brooklyn Navy Yard instead of the Big Red Bus. Uber is cool, and the Big Red Bus is for tourists and not so cool.

But who in their right head would spend $28, or $24 or even $18 to ride from FiDi to Grand Central through Manhattan's Uber-clogged streets and highways (turns out you were right about that, Mayor DeBlasio), when there's the subway. The NYC subway will speed you the five miles from Wall Street to Grand Central on a new shiny express train in something like 15 minutes for $2.75.

I used to live in Battery Park at the tip of Manhattan not far from Wall Street and I would never have thought to take a cab "into the city", even before a couple of rate hikes that have brought the fare to $28 (you can fly from LA to Vegas sometimes for $29 each way). Not only is the subway better for the planet, but it's faster and cheaper. So who are these people who would take an Uber from Wall Street to Midtown? Probably the same ones who piled into the Ubers at the end of the Skift shindig.