Eugene, I think that when we met for the first time is 2 years ago. When did you come to Japan?
Eugene)I came to Japan for the first time in 2017, moved over around July 2018.
Before you came to Japan, you created your own company and chosen the batch of Y Combinator. After that, you joined Uber. First, I wanna ask about your startup.
Eugene)My cofounder and I started an IoT (internet of things) company. I grew up in the Bay Area, so I’ve always been interested in startups since my late teens. Seeing companies like Google and Facebook started around me made me realize how technology can dramatically accelerate the progress of humanity.
How was your experience like at Y Combinator?
Eugene)Being a founder is very tough and can be very lonely, so it helped to see other people facing the same problems as you and being able to share advice on how to solve them.
2. Working at Uber
Then you worked at Uber, when did you join Uber?
Eugene)In October of 2014. When I joined, there were about 200 engineers, and 1500 people at the company. When I left, there were 2000 engineers and about 25000 employees. I joined Uber because I strongly believed in the company’s mission, and personally experienced the problems that Uber solved.
I see. So, you experienced the growth phase of Uber. How did you feel about Uber’s extraordinary growth?
Eugene) I built most of Uber’s fare system - the system responsible for all the money coming into Uber. It was a bit overwhelming to see the number of trips being taken by people all over the world, and the amount of money being earned (and spent!) by the system I built. It taught me many things about how to engineer systems where you’re always trading off engineering best practices and time to market.
3. Why MeetsMore?
Why did you decide to go from the world’s most successful startup, Uber, to a tiny startup, MeetsMore?
Eugene) I joined MeetsMore because we have a chance to build the future of local services.
A huge part of Japan’s economy comes from services, but it’s very inefficient. Pros have to spend a lot of money to attract new customers. And customers have to find pros one by one, call them, and hope that they can find some reviews online.
Solving this problem for customers and professionals will completely change how people use local services, like how Google changed what it means to search for information. It’s a massive, incredibly complex, terrifying undertaking.
Joining MeetsMore was not a decision, it was a calling that I could not pass up.
I’m very impressed to hear that. How do you think about MeetsMore product comparing with Uber?
Eugene)Unlike Uber, where the communication between the riders and drivers is mostly “hello, goodbye”, we’re responsible for helping people with some of the most important moments in their lives - their weddings, their school graduations, and even their taxes. It’s so important to help each customer find the right pro for their job.
What’s your favorite part about working at MeetsMore?
Eugene)MeetsMore is a very interesting company to work at because we have so many different challenges with our product.
Since we offer many different kinds of services, the expectations for each service are quite different - sometimes it feels like each service is its own product.
Building an experience that can work across many services and address the nuanced differences of each one is incredibly difficult and at the same time incredibly rewarding.