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Emil Michael: How I Negotiated the $4B Uber-China Deal, Why DoorDash Caught Up to Uber | 20VC #941

Emil Michael is the Former Chief Business Officer at Uber and is commonly referred to as Travis Kalanick’s right-hand man. At Uber, Emil was instrumental in raising nearly $15BN from some of the largest investors in the world, making Uber the most valuable private tech company ever. Emil was also core to Uber’s China strategy and led deals with Didi and Baidu. Before Uber, Emil spent 9 years at TellMe Networks where he was central to Microsoft raising their acquisition price from $300M to $800M. Emil is also an advisor to some of the greats including Raf @ GoPuff, Zach @ Codecademy, Jared @ Fundera and many more. -------------------------------------- Timestamps: 0:00 Who is Emil Michael? 3:13 Bill Campbell's Mentorship 4:40 Lessons from Tellme 7:53 Negotiating Microsoft's Acquisition of Tellme 12:40 Founders vs. Markets 14:12 Framework for Dealmaking 16:30 How to negotiate with someone who is highly emotional 19:00 Biggest mistakes in deal making 20:33 DiDi's Acquisition of Uber-China 26:53 How Uber got funding from Saudi Arabia 28:43 Worst deal ever done 30:21 M&A Analysis in the Downturn 32:13 Founder Advice for the Downturn 37:46 Pay-to-Play Never Goes Well 39:21 Travis and Emil's Downfall from Uber 45:50 Emil's Honest Opinion on Uber's New CEO Dara Khosrowshahi 48:59 Uber's $30BN Mistake in Food Delivery 51:50 Emil's Return to being an Operator 53:05 Misalignments between Founders & Investors 55:13 Emil's Favorite Board Member 56:53 Is the explosion of capital into venture a good thing? 58:51 Which VC brands are winning and losing? 1:04:14 How did becoming a father change your life as an investor and operator? 1:05:37 Older Founders vs. Younger Founders 1:07:32 What do you want your legacy to be? 1:09:37 Emil's Favourite Book 1:10:17 When will Emil come back? 1:11:06 Could Emil be Twitter's next CEO? 1:11:55 Emil's Favourite Investment Advice 1:15:15 The End of SPACs 1:17:29 What makes Shakil Khan so special? 1:18:47 Next 5 years for Emil -------------------------------------- In Todays Episode with Emil Michael: 1.) From Politics to Travis’s right-hand man at Uber: How did Emil make his way into the world of startups with TellMe networks? Harvard, Stanford, Goldman, Politics, which career shaped Emil the most? When Emil looks at his cohort of Ali and Hadi Partovi, Alfred Lin, and many others, what did they have that Emil believes is core to their success today? 2.) Negotiations 101: A Masterclass: What is Emil’s framework for dealmaking? How has it changed over time? What are the single most important elements to remember when making deals? What are the biggest mistakes people make when negotiating? What is the right way to use leverage in negotiations? How can one handle an opponent that is emotional or irrational when negotiating? How did Emil make Steve Ballmer @ Microsoft increase his offer for TellMe from $300M to $800M? What is the single deal that Emil made that he regrets the most? 3.) Uber: The Journey to the Most Valuable Private Company: Why were Emil and Travis removed from Uber? Does Emil think it was fair? Is it true that Travis lost the support of the team? How did his removal take place? How did the Uber China deal go down with Didi? What got DiDi over the line on the deal? How did Emil raise $3BN from Saudi in just 60 days with Travis needing to attend only one meeting? 4.) Uber: The Review: How does Emil assess the management and performance of Uber CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi? If Travis and Emil were still in charge, what would Emil have done differently? Why does Emil think Dara and Uber have made a $30BN mistake in food delivery? Why does Emil think Postmates, Careem, and others have been the worst acquisitions in tech? 5.) The Venture Landscape: Emil entered the world of VC with Coatue, why did he decide that VC was not for him? How does Emil analyze the VC landscape today? Who are risers? Who are fallers? What are the single biggest points of misalignment between founder and VC? What are the core improvements that Emil would like to see made to the VC world? -------------------------------------- Subscribe to the Podcast: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/emil-michael/ Follow Harry Stebbings on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow Kyle Harrison on Twitter: https://twitter.com/emilmichael Follow 20VC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20vc_reels Follow 20VC on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@20vc_tok -------------------------------------- #EmilMichael #Uber #20VC #HarryStebbings

Harry StebbingshostEmil Michaelguest
Oct 24, 20221h 19mWatch on YouTube ↗

At a glance

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Inside Uber’s Biggest Deals: Emil Michael Reveals High-Stakes Negotiation Playbook

  1. Emil Michael, former Chief Business Officer at Uber, walks through his path from early internet startups to orchestrating some of tech’s most complex deals, including Uber’s $7B China merger and a $3.5B raise from Saudi Arabia’s PIF.
  2. He distills his negotiation framework: extreme preparation, information asymmetry, emotional control, and building deep personal trust with counterparts, illustrated through Microsoft’s $800M acquisition of Tellme and the Didi deal.
  3. Michael critiques today’s fundraising and M&A environment, explains how founders should navigate down rounds and structured deals, and offers blunt views on Uber’s post-Travis trajectory and on major VC firms’ strengths and weaknesses.
  4. He closes on legacy, fatherhood, and why he’s searching for one more mission-driven operating role rather than a career in venture capital.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Deep preparation beats textbook negotiation frameworks.

Michael dismisses standard BATNA-centric playbooks and instead over-prepares on the person and organization across the table—how they get promoted, fired, their internal politics—so he can anchor deals in human reality, not abstract models.

Information asymmetry and emotional regulation create leverage.

He aims to collect far more information than he gives away and acts as a “shock absorber” for other people’s emotions, never reacting in kind; the less emotional side generally makes fewer mistakes and quietly accumulates power in a negotiation.

Trust and consistency are decisive in complex, adversarial deals.

In the Uber–Didi merger, he says the key was building a personal relationship with Didi’s Jean Liu—debriefing daily, keeping promises clause-by-clause, and creating a sense that partnering with him meant partnering reliably with Uber’s leadership.

In downturns, founders must prioritize runway and reliability over hypergrowth.

He advises trading 80%+ growth for 20–30% if it meaningfully reduces burn, slimming headcount to “fighting weight,” and—crucially—becoming the rare company that actually hits its numbers so investors choose you when capital comes off the sidelines.

Structured rounds and down rounds are coming; cosmetics won’t save cap tables.

He predicts a progression from “JOMO” to structured deals (higher liquidation preferences, investor protections), then true down rounds and recaps, warning that structured rounds can poison future financings as each new investor demands equal protection.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

“The number one thing in negotiations is outwork whoever you're negotiating with.”

— Emil Michael

“The less information you give and the more you get, the better.”

— Emil Michael

“If you encircle your enemy, they fight harder. Always leave them an exit path.”

— Emil Michael (on applying The Art of War to negotiations)

“Last year was FOMO. This year is JOMO — joy of missing out.”

— Emil Michael

“By all objective measures, it hasn’t succeeded from a financial standpoint… it’s an F.”

— Emil Michael (on Uber’s performance under Dara Khosrowshahi)

Emil Michael’s early career, mentorship by Bill Campbell, and Tellme Networks journeyHigh-stakes deal-making: Microsoft/Tellme, Uber–Didi China merger, and Saudi PIF fundraisingNegotiation philosophy: preparation, leverage, handling emotion, and relationship-buildingFundraising and M&A in down markets: FOMO to JOMO, structured and down roundsUber’s leadership transition, Benchmark conflict, and critique of Dara’s UberVenture capital landscape: alignment, board dynamics, and which firms are rising or fadingPersonal evolution: fatherhood, legacy, and preference for operating over investing

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