Lessons from a two-time unicorn builder, 50-time startup advisor, and 20-time company board member | Uri Levine (co-founder of Waze)

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

Lenny Rachitsky

Technology, Business, Entrepreneurship

5 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 9 June 2024

⏱️ 83 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Uri Levine is the co-founder of Waze, the world’s largest community-based traffic and navigation app, acquired by Google for over $1 billion. He’s also founded nine other companies, been on the board of 20 companies, and advised more than 50 companies. He’s most recently the author of Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution: A Handbook for Entrepreneurs, hailed by Steve Wozniak as the “Bible for entrepreneurs.” Uri is dedicated to creating impactful startups that solve real-world problems and has seen everything from failure to moderate success to big success. In our conversation, we dig into:

• Why falling in love with the problem is key to startup success

• The phases of the startup journey and how to navigate them

• Why firing is more important than hiring

• How Waze iterated to achieve product-market fit

• Tactics for telling a compelling story when fundraising

• Much more

—

Brought to you by:

• Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security

• Mercury—The powerful and intuitive way for ambitious companies to bank

• LinkedIn Ads—Reach professionals and drive results for your business

—

Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/lessons-from-uri-levine

—

Where to find Uri Levine:

• X: https://twitter.com/urilevine1

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/uri-levine

• Website: https://urilevine.com/

—

Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

—

In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Uri’s background

(02:50) Falling in love with the problem

(09:03) Signs this is a big enough problem

(10:54) The importance of passion

(12:06) A pivot example

(14:01) Where to find startup ideas

(21:57) Finding product-market fit at Waze

(29:45) The different phases of a startup journey

(36:47) What investors don’t want to hear

(39:53) Fundraising tips

(48:02) How to make your presentations stronger

(50:32) A wild fundraising story

(53:46) Firing and hiring

(59:50) The 30-day test

(01:04:12) Understanding users

(01:12:10) Talking to the right users

(01:15:36) Lightning round

—

Referenced:

• Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution: A Handbook for Entrepreneurs: https://www.amazon.com/Fall-Love-Problem-Solution-Entrepreneurs/dp/1637741987

• Waze: https://www.waze.com/

• Ben Horowitz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/behorowitz/

• Ben Horowitz quote: https://quotefancy.com/quote/1635284/Ben-Horowitz-As-a-startup-CEO-I-slept-like-a-baby-I-woke-up-every-2-hours-and-cried

• Michael Jordan quote: https://www.forbes.com/quotes/11194/#:~:text=I've%20lost%20almost%20300,that%20is%20why%20I%20succeed.

• Steph Curry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Curry

• How Airbnb Used Word of Mouth to Change the Travel Industry Forever: https://truested.com/story/airbnb

• Space Mountain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Mountain_(Disneyland)

• How Netflix builds a culture of excellence | Elizabeth Stone (CTO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-netflix-builds-a-culture-of-excellence

• Steve Wozniak on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wozniaksteve/

• Uri’s post about the conference in Guatemala with Steve Wozniak: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/uri-levine_jewishnewyear-speakers-book-activity-6980089544079486976-0ADa/

• Leonardo da Vinci quote: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9010638-simplicity-is-the-ultimate-sophistication-when-once-you-have-tasted

• Geoffrey Moore on finding your beachhead, crossing the chasm, and dominating a market: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/geoffrey-moore-on-finding-your-beachhead

• Nana Korobi Ya Oki: https://ikigaitribe.com/vlog/nana-korobi-ya-oki/

• That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea: https://www.amazon.com/That-Will-Never-Work-Netflix/dp/0316530204

• Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones: https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299

• 8 Great Chess Apps for Beginners and Grand Masters: https://www.wired.com/story/best-chess-apps/

• Pontera: https://pontera.com/

—

Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [email protected].

—

Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You've been on the board of 20.
0:04.0	You've also built two unicorns, including Ways.
0:06.3	The biggest startup lesson you seem to have taken out of that is to fall in love,
0:09.7	fall in love, fall in love, fall in love, fall in love,
0:10.9	fall in love with the problem.
0:12.2	And then actually what you're trying to do is engage
0:14.4	everyone else to fall in love with the same problem to go into this journey into this
0:18.7	path and follow your leadership there. Anything you wanted to share around hiring and firing?
0:24.0	Every time that you hire someone new, mark your calendars for 30 days down the road and ask yourself
0:29.7	one question.
0:30.7	Knowing what I know today, would I hire this person. If the answer is no, fire them immediately.
0:36.0	Let's actually talk about fundraising. Most people are missing the most important slide of their presentation.
0:42.0	It's the first slide. This slide is going to be presented for the longest period of time.
0:46.0	This is the place that you're going to put your strongest point.
0:49.0	The second most important slide is the last one.
0:58.0	Today my guest is Uri Levine. Uri is the co-founder of Waze and nine other companies.
1:01.8	He's sold two companies for over a billion dollars. He's also been on 20 different startup boards,
1:06.9	including a dozen he's still currently on. He's also advised over 50 founders and startups over his career.
1:13.0	More recently, he wrote a book that summarizes all of his advice
1:16.9	for founders called Fall in Love with The Problem,
1:19.9	Not The Solution, a handbook for entrepreneurs. In the forward to the book,
1:23.9	Steve Wozniac said this book will change your life and become your Bible if you're
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Lenny Rachitsky, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Lenny Rachitsky and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.