Joe Rhew

Head of Ops for Seed - Series A startups / Ex-YC cofounder, ex-Uber

I help early stage startup founders track and refine product-market fit, optimize operations, and build a repeatable growth playbook.

Over the course of my career, I have worked at hyper-growth scale-ups like Uber and Uber Eats, as well as scrappy seed-stage startups including YC-backed Tyltgo. Through these experience, I have realized that I thrive in early stage startups with ambiguous problems and growing pains, usually between Seed and Series B stages.

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As a fractional Head of Ops, I …

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Work

Uber Eats Launch in Canada
Leading Uber's launch of 30 markets at once in Canada

The Situation: As part of our commitment to restaurant partners to provide them with the largest possible customer base in Canada, Uber Eats decided to launch in 30 new cities across the country.

The Problem: A launch of this scale had never been executed before in Uber Eats’ history. The complexity of acquiring and balancing the 3 sides of the marketplace - restaurants, couriers, and eaters - made the project all the more challenging.

What I did: I led a cross-functional team of 15 members over a 3-month sprint. To manage the complexity of standing up a 3-sided marketplace from scratch, I built a projection model based off of historicals for each of the 30 cities, which laid out specific targets for the number of restaurants, couriers, and eaters. We ran on a tight weekly cadence of meeting and execution; and put out fires where necessary - for example, during the week leading up to the launch, the entire team was pulled into calling couriers to get them onboarded and activated.

Results: The launch was a big success on every metric. We significantly overachieved on our key metrics, which included the number of deliveries, % of successful deliveries, and cost per delivery. We increased the national population coverage by 10 percentage points in one day.

Skill sets: Launch & expansion, cross-functional project management, stakeholder management, forecasting & modeling

Industry tags: Marketplace, Logistics, FoodTech
https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/uber-eats-food-delivery-platform-launches-in-30-new-canadian-cities-691526051.html

Experience

Joe Rhew
Fractional Head of Operations
Sep 2021 - Present
I partner with early stage startup founders to bring clarity to their strategy and improve their operations. I help companies prioritize what’s truly important by leveraging data, then help implement a culture of quick iterations and learnings through no code. I like to get my hands dirty and execute, but also act as a strategic thought partner to the founders. Clients include: Karrot (Daangn Market, Series D, backed by DST), Groove (Seed, backed by Resolute)
- Groove (seed, backed by Resolute): Led product-market fit audit from survey setup to data analysis. Built out business intelligence and analytics using SQL and Data Studio
- Karrot (Series D, backed by DST Global): Led growth strategy and ops. Set up growth strategy and KPIs. Revamped customer support ops. Streamlined paid marketing workflow
Integromat
Certified Partner
Aug 2021 - Present
Integromat is a free tool to connect apps and automate workflows using a beautiful, no-code, visual builder.
- Use Make (fka Integromat) extensively in day-to-day operations to automate and streamline manual processes
Tyltgo (YC S20)
Co-Founder & COO
Aug 2020 - Jun 2021
White-label, same-day delivery service for local merchants across Ontario
- 3x’ed gross bookings in 6 months by overhauling operations to be standardized and scalable and aligning the team on a clear and focused growth strategy
- Established foundation for stable and reliable operational rhythm by identifying and executing key initiatives including 1) establishing a defined bookkeeping and accounting process; 2) working with engineering to create an internal SQL database for ops team members to query; 3) building an operational projection model and setting KPIs; 4) creating a relay supply chain model using self-storage centres as micro fulfillment hubs; 5) designing and creating company website; 6) implementing an Applicant Tracking System for scalable hiring; 7) standardizing pricing and service agreement across all merchant partners; and 8) setting up scalable support ops on Zendesk
- Actively participated in fundraising and helped the company raise a $2M seed round from investors incl. YC
Uber Eats
Head of Marketplace Operations, Canada
May 2019 - Apr 2020
- Lead a team of 4 operations managers to perform continuous marketplace management of over 100+ municipalities across Canada with focus on growth, reliability, and efficiency
- Launched a series of experiments, features, and processes to consistently exceed targets on growth and costs - increased year-over-year deliveries by x% while reducing courier costs by y%
- Provided managerial oversight to launch walkers as a delivery mode in Canada, which accounted for c. x% of deliveries in downtown Toronto within y months of launch
Uber Eats
Business Operations, Canada
Jun 2018 - Jun 2019
- Managed a cross-functional launch team for 3 months in leading the largest single-day launch in the history of Uber Eats across 30 cities in Canada, which increased national population coverage by c. x percentage points
- Built out Reporting & Performance Management function using SQL and GSheet, providing transparency and enabling accountability on organization’s OKRs for key stakeholders
- Conducted a technical analysis and modeling on x million+ historical transactions to determine the optimal pricing structure and project-managed the pilot of service fees in Canada
Uber
Rides Country Lead, Korea
May 2016 - Jun 2018
- Collaborated closely with the product team to launch a new carpool product, uberSHARE, the first P2P product since uberX the country's banning of uberX in March 2015
- Launched UberTRIP, an hourly rental product, to target tourists and business travelers and increased weekly city gross bookings by x% without incurring any additional costs
- Successfully overhauled the driver partner incentive program, saving costs equal to c. x% of weekly gross bookings on average with negligible impact on churn and engagement
Startups
Co-Founder / Business Lead
Sep 2012 - May 2016
1. One Hive: e-commerce app for international customers interested in purchasing Korean fashion items 2. Foodle: mobile social networking platform with algorithmic recommendations for food enthusiasts
- Supported UX and UI design of a mobile e-commerce service to market and sell Korean fashion items to international customers
- As business lead, gained 10K+ users and generated revenue within the first 6 months of launching
Morgan Stanley
Investment Banking Analyst
Oct 2010 - Sep 2012
- Selected transaction experiences include SK hynix’s US$ 248MM cross-border acquisition of Link_A_Media Devices and MBK Partners’ KRW 1.2Tn (c. US$ 1.0Bn) acquisition of a 30.9% equity stake in Woongjin Coway
- Built detailed financial valuation Excel models, based on assumptions and hypotheses derived from financial, operational, and economic data, to test feasibility and profitability of envisaged transactions
- Advised large Korean and multinational corporate clients on cross-border M&A transactions and other business development initiatives through providing financial and strategic analyses