High-growth startups: Uber and CloudKitchens with Charles-Axel Dein

In this episode of the Pragmatic Engineer Podcast, Gergely Orosz interviews Charles-Axel Dein, an early engineer at Uber and current employee at CloudKitchens, about thriving in fast-growing startups. Charles shares his experiences at Uber during its hyper-growth phase, including the hectic hiring process, managing incidents, and the importance of automation. The conversation covers strategies for hiring efficiently, maintaining release velocity, and personal productivity tips for handling overload. Charles emphasizes the value of extreme ownership, continuous learning, and building strong relationships with recruiters and team members. They also discuss the impact of AI on software engineering, the importance of code review, and the need for engineers to balance technical expertise with project and product management skills.