A clutch of startups on March 11 asked Uber’s global chief technical officer Thuan Pham how over-hiring could be avoided when building a company. “Ask what problem your company has to solve and find a person with the right skill-sets,” said Pham, who was addressing entrepreneurs as part of the company’s mentorship session ‘UberEXCHANGE’, at IIT Delhi.
He said they must constantly evaluate and develop key business and product metrics to see pain points.
This is Uber’s idea of its new exchange programme, which has little to do with the car business. The cab aggregator is mentoring about 50 startups in partnership with the labour ministry as part of a series of leadership talks by senior Uber executives.
India is the first country where Uber is implementing this programme.
As part of the mentoring series, Uber will hold six-ten live sessions by senior global leaders across India. These are startups that have signed up on Uber’s blog. The company will shortlist 10 startups by the end of the year after meeting with 50 of them over these live sessions throughout the year.
The company is on the lookout for startups that address issues concerning urban India. Some of the startups attending the event include fin-tech company Trupa, map-based invitation app MapMyMeet, walking tour aggregator SeekSherpa, space products creators Team Indus, and Parabeats.
The talk at IIT Delhi was followed by the inauguration of ‘Start Your Own Business’ section as part of the National Career Portal.
At the end of the Uber exchange programme, the company will shortlist 10 startups and invite their heads to the US for further mentoring. Apart from Pham, the mentoring will be done by Uber India’s CEO, Amit Jain, and Deepak Bagla, CEO of Invest India.
“Uber was one of the first startups in the world and we are planning to help other startups with mentorship in the form of talks where startups are invited to present their case studies and unique problems,” said Akshay BD, who handles government relations at Uber. “The startups that get selected will help to solve problems of scale.”
In each session, a different challenge facing entrepreneurs is addressed. For instance, fundraising, product design, engineering and how to scale a business. At the end of the programme, Uber and Invest India will fly the heads of 10 startups to San Francisco, where they will be introduced to global investors, fellow entrepreneurs and the team at Uber.
This public-private initiative will enable students, entrepreneurs and industry leaders to learn from each other, helping create a culture that celebrates risk-taking and views failure as an opportunity to learn. It will also support the prime minister’s vision to make India a global hub for startups.
Pham told that the company wanted to share its learnings with the Indian startup ecosystem, which he is certain will be one of the fastest growing innovation hubs of the world. “This is a progressive move by the ministry to boost India’s economy and offer a variety of new work and flexible opportunities that go beyond traditional employment.”
Labour Secretary Shankar Aggarwal, who inaugurated the site, said participation from the industry is essential to create a wide range of entrepreneurial opportunities for unemployed. This initiative (NPS) aims to make it more convenient for an individual to start a business. “Companies such as Uber are changing the way traditional employment works, offering flexible and high earning opportunities,” he said.
Source: The Economic Times
