The Rise of a Dealmaker: The Emil Michael Story at Uber | EP 37 | Aarthi and Sriram

In this episode, we talked to Emil Michael, Silicon Valley's best dealmaker. This was a masterclass in negotiation, art of making deals, when to walk away from them, his story, working with Travis Kalanick at Uber, and so much more.
0:00 Intro
2:32 Uber: The best product-market fit of all time?
6:38 Relationship with Travis Kalanick
10:37 Adapting to the market environment
12:59 Uber in China
12:33 Emil: A Master Dealmaker
24:40 How Emil approaches every deal, behavioral analysis
34:50 When to give up
38:20 How much to share, projecting strength
42:40 Dealing with Facebook, Google
45:40 Valuation vs Structure
49:50 Pseudo-product-market fit
51:53 Lay-offs and the Great Reset in Silicon Valley
1:02:09 Operating with a scarcity mindset, founder's motivation
1:07:19 What makes a good founder?
1:11:40 Working in the government
1:15:57 Is it a good time to start a company
1:17:40 Emil's legacy
Emil Michael is an investor and strategic advisor to many high growth tech startups. He was the Chief Business Officer at Uber, during it’s period of expoential growth where it was the most valuable startup in the world. He’s also held leadership roles at Tellme Networks which was acquired by Microsoft, and in the Office of the Secretary of Defense under the Obama administration. Today he advices founders on fundraising, M&A, corporate strategy and culture, global expansion and building exec teams.
Born in Egypt, with degress from Harvard and Stanford, to us, Emil is the embodiment of the American Dream, and how an outside can truly make it and become an insider.

[@consultanthuma]

Great interview ❤️ I like it

[@prithviye]

Emil's a chessmaster. Great interview!

[@arijitgoswami3652]

The most awaited podcast❤ Thanks a lot, Aarthi and Sriram for making a colab with Emil

[@chan90s]

Sriram bhai, can you please make video on Visas for founders. Any international founders navigated well ? You can invite someone on the show

[@AetazazSiddiqi]

Hi guys! Just subscribed to your newsletter & discovered this podcast, & I love the content so far. Is there any way we could find this on Google podcasts as well? That would be incredible

[@anjaliachary5353]

👍👍👍

[@SachinDolta]

Emil, i like you

[@vasanthr787]

Thanks for the great podcast, @aarthi and @sriram