40 Minute Mentor

Episode 8

September 12, 2019

Leadership Lessons From Building Uber In The UK with Fred Jones

In today’s episode of the 40 Minute Mentor, I’m joined by my first guest from a tech Unicorn, as I speak with Fred Jones, Board Director and Head of New Mobility for Uber UK and Ireland.

Uber need no introduction, they’re one of the world’s biggest tech businesses and have grown from a small scale start up in 2009 to one of the world’s most valuable companies, with a market cap of over $56 billion.

Having started his career on Consulting, Fred joined Uber in 2015 and climbed rapidly through the company, to where he is today. For those of you who are considering making this move yourselves, Fred’s journey from Consulting into tech is a really interesting one and something we discuss in detail in today’s show.

In addition to his role at Uber, Fred advises a number of start-up and scale up businesses, including ourselves here at JBM, where he provides invaluable advice to myself and the team as part of our advisory board.

“When I decided to go to Uber and I was telling my dad about it, he asked “why do you want to go work for a mini cab company?””

Fred Jones

Tune in to discover

30 second CV [02:56]

Progression in consulting [04:47]

Transitioning into Tech [07:46]

Joining an early-stage startup [12:50]

Advice for consultants transitioning into tech [13:50]

Building a feedback culture [18:27]

Uber's approach to hiring [21:56]

What makes a great leader [27:01]

There's no magic formula for work-life-balance [31:39]

Advising smaller businesses [34:47]

Listen on

Helpful links

➡️ If you want to find out more about Fred you can check out his LinkedIn profile here – https://www.linkedin.com/in/fred-jones-2b25875/

➡️ If you want to find out more about Uber you can check out their website – https://www.uber.com

We’re always keen to get feedback so if you have any thoughts once you’ve listened to this interview just drop me an email at ku.oc.cmbj@semaj

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