It’s been almost seven years, and I still get asked this.
Maybe because everything after Uber worked out so well.
It’s a great question the kind that makes you pause, take a breath, and really think. Because leaving at your peak isn’t the obvious move.
Uber was a rocket ship. I was one of the first in MENA, launching city after city, moving millions of people, and onboarding hundreds of thousands of drivers. It was fast, chaotic, and relentless. Everything was on fire, all the time.
There was a point where I could land in a city, turn on Uber, and within hours, I’d be in a car with a driver who had no idea I worked at Uber, telling me how I should use Uber more. That’s when I knew we had won.
Most people left after a year or two — I stayed for nearly five years (basically an eternity in Uber time). I saw the highs, the lows, and everything in between.
So why leave?
Because after five years of hypergrowth, I had seen every kind of problem, solved them at scale, and built something massive. I had pressed every button. It was time to press reset and build again.
Sometimes the best decision you can make is to press reset.
Uber was one of the best experiences of my life. But growth isn’t about holding on to the past — it’s about building what’s next. And that’s exactly what I did.