On todays vlog I sat down with Jarrod Webb from UberEats. Jarrod is part of the team from Uber that resides in our Cremorne location.
As you’d come to expect in a collaborative environment residing under the same roof has you constantly connecting with some incredible talent. A few vlogs back I said “I don’t have a business card because I had a super computer in my pocket (my iPhone) and could instantly connect with people I meet on LinkedIn or Twitter“.
Jarrod approached me with an app a few days after that vlog and showed me what he worked on over the weekend. His app is called Blinq and its INCREDIBLE.
Check out the vlog below 🙂
Transcript:
Tobi Skovron: Hey guys. 43 degrees outside today but not in here. It’s a perfect 23, 24. So, I’ve been talking this one up all week. This is Jared Webb. Jared’s from Uber.
Jared Webb: Yeah.
Tobi Skovron: Jared sits upstairs on our fourth floor. He’d been in and out of the building, because this is, the teams rotate from Uber Eat and Uber Ride. They rotate in and out every month. So you were here month one or two?
Jared Webb: Yeah, I think month one. We sat up there.
Tobi Skovron: And then, just joined again, now back on a team?
Jared Webb: Yeah, yeah.
Tobi Skovron: So, what do you do at Uber?
Jared Webb: So, I’m on Uber Eats and basically, I manage a team for kind of looking out for kind of the restaurant engagement side of things.
Tobi Skovron: Yeah.
Jared Webb: So, what we do is we kind of deal with the restaurant side of the app right.
Tobi Skovron: Yeah.
Jared Webb: And so, it’s pretty much all the engagement and how we can make it a good platform for restaurants. And how we can do the account management side of things. So, with the product and the app itself and yeah, it’s good fun.
Tobi Skovron: I gotta tell you today was an Uber Eats day for us here. It’s just too hot to go outside. But, I say that loosely because most days, other than these days-
Jared Webb: Yeah, yeah. I mean it’s pretty crazy like, I think we’re seeing a lot of offices that are [inaudible 00:01:16].
Tobi Skovron: I love the reorder button. So I order something once, and then I reorder. I just go to the app, reorder, and it just fires out.
Jared Webb: It’s awesome, right?
Tobi Skovron: Love it. So the reason why I brought Jared on the vlog is he’s a young entrepreneur, he’s working with some of the best at Uber, and actually people are blown away by Uber and how they’ve become so successful. Yeah, the tech is cool and all the rest of it, but something that I’ve started to recognise as I meet more people, is the talent, and the people in house that are making that whole experience flawless, seamless, and world class. So the original reason why I wanted Jared to come on was just to really talk about behind the scenes of Uber and all the rest of it, but he watches the vlogs and he came up to me-
Jared Webb: The vlogs, yeah.
Tobi Skovron: He came up to me last week and said, what did you say? He was like, “Oh, I saw on the vlog one day that you don’t like business cards. So what do you think about this?” And he pulls out his phone, and literally over the course of a weekend?
Jared Webb: Yeah, yeah.
Tobi Skovron: He’s made a business card app that is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before myself. Do you want to just give us a little bit more on that?
Jared Webb: Yeah, yeah. Basically I think that a lot of people don’t like business cards, right? So since so many people have this hatred of them, and it’s just because it just takes a physical space in your pocket, and I haven’t seen many apps that have actually been able to actually work being a digital business card, because they require both people to have the app, or it’s just complicated. So I utilized iOS 11 software, which basically has a QR code scanner within the camera.
Tobi Skovron: Good job. I don’t know if you guys knew that, but we actually have a QR … like you no longer have to download the QR app. If you just open your camera and point it at a QR code, you’ll get instant notification of whatever that’s …
Jared Webb: Yeah, and so basically the whole app works by not even opening the launch screen, right? So what you do is you swipe left to go to your widgets, and then there’s a QR code, which has got details, and then the other person swipes right to go to their camera, and they just hover the camera over it and then they’ve got your details now. And on the link in the actual contact card, contains the link to download the app itself. So kind of use it like a Hotmail desk growth strategy as well, so it’s cool.
Tobi Skovron: This is a side hustle. This guy’s full time Uber Eats. And if you’ve experienced Uber Eats, Jared plays a role in all of that experience, and just on the side, and just off the vlog that he watched with me talking about how I think business cards are redundant. I personally don’t have a business card. He’s created this, I feel like it’s … and for those of you who se Apple Pay, or any other paying method, I feel like it’s Apple Pay for business cards. So I’m hovering over your phone, or your QR code on your screen, and bloop, just like that I’ve got all my details that I’ve created on my card are showing up on his device, or vice verse. And it’s instant, and it’s quick, and it’s pretty magical.
Jared Webb: Yeah.
Tobi Skovron: So right now it’s just a side hustle, right?
Jared Webb: Yeah, it’s just a side hustle, but I think it’s getting a fair bit of traction. I’ve only shown it to a few people, and I think it’s got several hundred users now, and this is in the course of two weeks, or three weeks or something. So I don’t know, it’s pretty fun. But yeah, it’s just like a cool little thing.
Tobi Skovron: Most chill guy I know, honestly. “Yeah, it’s just no big deal. Just 700 people have downloaded it in the past two weeks.” You know, there’s some people who have put their entire life savings into building apps, and going to market, and spending hundreds and thousands of dollars to get up and out, that still don’t even have 700 users.
Jared Webb: Yeah, I mean you just learn to make an app, do it. Simple.
Tobi Skovron: Just get it done. So, he’s being very modest. I brought him on because I’m blown away by his talent, by his hustle, the fact that he’s working at a true global business that has incredible value, and then on the weekends he kind of, “Hey, I heard you don’t like business cards? What do you think about this?” And I’m blown away by how good it is. I think that there could be a lot of features that could be build into what is a very simple concept or need.
Jared Webb: Yeah.
Tobi Skovron: So I’m going to link, Link is the name of the app, I’m going to link all the details so you guys can just go there. Just trust me with everything that I have, every ounce of credibility that I have with you guys, please, please, please just download it and have a go. Just have a look. It doesn’t cost you anything, it’s free, right?
Jared Webb: No, it’s free, it’s free.
Tobi Skovron: So there’s no money, there’s no gain here financially, but we’d love your feedback, we’d love your input, we’d love you to share it, because I think it’s pretty cool, and I think it’s got tremendous legs, and it’s created by this guy, in his part-time.
Jared Webb: Yeah, it’s cool.
Tobi Skovron: So mate, congratulations.
Jared Webb: Thank you very much. Yeah, cheers.
Tobi Skovron: I love having him around. He’s a good guy, brings a lot of energy, and just the way you think about things is truly inspirational. So keep doing what you’re doing.
Jared Webb: He’s being too nice.
Tobi Skovron: No, no, no. Guys, there’s no BS here, it’s all real. Otherwise, I couldn’t be as authentic as I want to be. Keep up the hustle, man.
Jared Webb: Awesome.
Tobi Skovron: Keep inspiring people, and thank you for an awesome experience on the Uber front as well.
Jared Webb: Yeah, yeah, thanks man, all good.
Tobi Skovron: Alright. So next week we have a couple of really cool people coming in. Josh is back with This Week In Startups, but I just realized that I’m away on Wednesday, so I might try and hustle that in on Tuesday instead. But thanks again for watching the vlog. Jared, Tobi, see you next week.
Jared Webb: See ya.
