Uri Levine: Tech Visionary Revolutionizing Transportation

An Introduction to Uri Levine

Uri Levine isn’t your standard entrepreneur — he's a disruptor. His goal? Improve underperforming services in inefficient markets. As the founder of Waze, the groundbreaking navigation app, he successfully transformed driving by making real-time traffic and road information collaborative among users.

In 2013, Waze was acquired by Google for $1.1 billion, but Uri didn't stop there. A passionate serial entrepreneur, he has since founded, invested, and served as chairman for several startups, like Pontera (previously FeeX), FairFly, Refundit, Seetree, and Fibo.

6 Milestones in Uri’s Tech Career

Uri Levine is a passionate entrepreneur and disruptor who's made a career out of challenging the status quo. From the success of Waze to his consistent endeavors in the startup realm, Levine's impact on the business world is undeniable.

1. Uri founded Waze in 2007, and it quickly became the world's largest traffic and navigation app. It is now used by over 750 million drivers worldwide.
2. After Levine left Waze in 2013, he invested in Moovit, or "the Waze of public transportation." In 2020, Moovit was acquired by Intel for a mind boggling $1 billion.
3. In 2023, Uri’s book, "Fall In Love with the Problem – Not the Solution, a Handbook for Entrepreneurs," was published. In it, he sheds light on the strategies that have made him an entrepreneurial success.
4. Uri's academic workshop, "How to Build a Startup," targets young entrepreneurs — both undergraduate and graduate-level business students interested in business development. 
5. Levine is known for his world-class public speaking. He is passionate about sharing his insights on entrepreneurship and disruption.
6. Uri’s expertise and commitment to the global tech ecosystem have led to numerous companies bringing him on as an investor and board member. These companies include Moovit, HERE, Infosys, and SeeTree.

Key Takeaways from Uri’s Journey

• Embrace your passion: Whether through Waze, his other startups, or his public speaking, Uri’s focus is always on making the user’s life easier.
• Disrupt inefficient markets: In all his endeavors, Uri shows a commitment to challenging and reshaping inefficient markets. He has a knack for saving consumers time and money by disrupting the traditional approach.
• Failure is just as important as success: Remember this: Triumphs should be celebrated, but setbacks are just as useful, and there’s often more to learn from them.
• Prioritize the problem AND the solution: Uri's philosophy? Love the problem first. This approach has resulted in genuinely transformative solutions for users.
• Continue learning and innovating: In Uri’s class, students uncover the power of continuous learning — a central aspect of all his endeavors.

3 Highlights from Uri's Augment Class

1. On Focusing on the Problem: “If you can say ‘I'm solving this problem for these types of users,’ you’re actually in a very good starting point, because you are focusing on the problem. You know your value proposition for the users, and you essentially have a north star that is saying, ‘this is the problem I'm solving, this is the value proposition to the users, and these are the users.’”
2. On Failing Fast: “So the concept is failing fast, which basically means that you need to launch way faster than you think. Most of the people that I spoke with are telling me: our product is not ready. You need to launch way before it's ready in order to get the feedback from the users, and that will help you to become more successful and move faster. At the end of the day, this concept of failing faster, I want you to think of the following. The biggest enemy of good enough is perfect. You don't need to be perfect in order to win the market. You need to be good enough. Now, you get there by launching way faster than anyone else.”
3. On Gathering Customer Feedback: “So how do you collect feedback from the users? You actually speak to them. At the beginning, you are only going to have very few users. You speak with them and you ask them “why?” Anything that they did not do as you expected them to do. And this is how you are actually making the progress and improving your product — when they tell you what didn't work for them. And then you fix that and you do that again with another iteration and another iteration and another iteration.”