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The first no
The CEO had spent 13 years at Expedia, working with Barry Diller, and he loved where he was. Uber was in the news constantly and looked chaotic and difficult, so when the call came out of the blue, his answer was a flat no. He assumed that was the end of it.
The Sun Valley drink
Then, at the Allen and Company conference in Sun Valley, he was having a drink with Ek and his wife when Ek asked whether a headhunter had called. Ek had recommended him for the job. He answered that he was happy at Expedia, and Ek's reply was a question: since when is life about happiness? Ek's point was that life is about impact, and Uber was an important company that was in trouble.
The parking lot call
Uber had over 10 million couriers and drivers on its platform, and the Expedia CEO wanted to work somewhere that was changing how people live. He and his wife talked it over across a couple of beers that night. The next morning, standing in the parking lot, he called the headhunter back and asked to hear more.
Why do headhunters call people who are happy?
Executive search firms are usually paid by the company doing the hiring, not by the candidate. Their best prospects tend to be people already succeeding in a senior job, because a track record is the strongest evidence of how someone will perform elsewhere. The industry calls these people passive candidates, since they are not looking. A first call to one of them often ends in a no, and the follow-up conversations are where the work happens.
Why do executives gather in Sun Valley each summer?
The Allen and Company Sun Valley Conference has been held every July since 1983 in the Idaho resort town. It is invitation-only, and its guests come from media, technology, and finance. Much of the schedule is unstructured, with long stretches for walks, meals, and sport, so conversations happen in small groups. Allen and Company is a New York investment bank founded in 1922.
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