When Uber first approached now-CEO Dara Khosrowshahi about leading the company, he ignored the call.
It’s 2017, and rideshare apps are going through a “historically difficult time,” Khosrowshahi told LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky in a recent interview. Uber has faced numerous issues, including sexual harassment allegations, an FBI investigation and multiple firings related to workplace culture investigations, to name just a few.
“When I first got the phone, my first thought was, ‘Nothing,'” he said. “I thought, ‘Why would I do that?'”
Khosrowshahi is also not in the market for a new job. He’s entering his twelfth year as CEO of Expedia, and he’s still “having fun,” Roslansky said.
He was ready to call Uber’s board of directors and quit as CEO — until a conversation with a friend changed his mind.
That friend is Daniel Ek, founder and CEO of Spotify.
The pair were sipping cocktails at an investor conference when Ek asked if Uber had called him, saying he had recommended Khosrowshahi for the CEO gig.
Khosrowshahi admits he was on the fence about joining Uber because he likes Expedia. Then, “Daniel looked at me with cold Scandinavian eyes and said, ‘You know Dara, since when does life become happy? It’s about making an impact. You have to make an impact,'” she said.
The conversation with Ek was a “special moment” that made Khosrowshahi rethink what he wanted from his career, he added. Although he was satisfied with Expedia, Khosrowshahi knew that steering Uber, one of the most influential and fastest-growing businesses at the time, through a series of crises, would allow him to have a “huge impact” on the world.
The next day, Khosrowshahi called the headhunters again – and in August 2017, he was announced as the new CEO of Uber, after a vote of the board.
At the start of his tenure at Uber, Khosrowshahi changed the company’s cultural norms, ditching the “growth at all costs” ethos popularized by Travis Kalanick, his predecessor and co-founder of the ridesharing app, in favor of principles like “Build with heart” and “Do what’s right.”
As Uber continues to face challenges ranging from lawsuits to driver strikes, the company’s public image and profits have grown under Khosrowshahi’s leadership.
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