Scaling a business

What does it take to successfully scale a business? How can you create a world-class marketing plan? What does it take to sell a business to Google for more than a billion dollars? Uri Levine can answer all of those questions. You may not know who he is, but you probably recognize something he created. He co-founded Waze, the world’s largest traffic and navigation app. More than 250 million drivers worldwide use it, and the company was acquired by Google in 2013 for $1.1B.

Since then, Uri has founded several other companies, like FeeX, a startup that reveals hidden fees you might not be aware of from your bank, and Engie, an app that can diagnose car problems so you can arrive prepared at the mechanic. He’s also creating innovative solutions to major problems in the US, like the cost of healthcare and public transportation. Don’t worry, he’s still obsessed with solving the traffic problem.

Uri’s mission in business is nothing short of brilliant: to disrupt inefficient markets and to solve BIG problems that save consumers time and money, while also empowering them with information. In other words, he’s creating real products for real people, that solve real – and big – problems.

In this episode, Uri shares some of his key learnings from the Waze startup journey, from starting small to scaling a business. You’ll hear the processes that he applies when he starts up or advises any company – like figuring out product-market fit, whether the problem he’s trying to solve is a problem in the eyes of consumers and his strategy behind hiring a winning founding team. He also talks about something that is difficult for every business owner – when it’s time to let people go. He’ll remind you that, although it is tough, you’re doing them a favor as well, freeing them up to find a position that is a better fit.

Uri will share one of the most important lessons for how to make a successful business: Perfect is the enemy of good. This is something Tony often says as well: “Perfection is the lowest standard in the world. Because what you really have is a standard you can never achieve.” And as Uri shares in the podcast, while you’re out there working toward perfection, your competition is coming up with something just good enough to win the market. He says, “If you spend too much time trying to be perfect, you will lose the market to someone that is good enough.”

You’re also going to hear how Uri allocates his time, as a founder and serial entrepreneur, in each phase of the startup process, in order to properly support his team, while also making best use of his own time. Remember, everyone has the same amount of hours in the day – but not everyone builds successful billion-dollar businesses. One of the biggest keys to scaling a business is time management, and Uri will share his own personal .