#23 - Race Day with U.S. SailGP Team & Ryan McKillen: From Being Early Uber to Building F1 on the Water | The Early Podcast

What do you do after building one of the most iconic companies of our generation?If you’re Ryan McKillen, one of Uber's EARLY employees, you buy the U.S. SailGP Team and dive headfirst into the high-tech, high-stakes world of professional sailboat racing.In this episode of The Early Podcast, we go behind the scenes of US SailGP — the Formula 1 of the ocean — with Ryan and team driver Taylor Canfield.We cover:🚀 Why SailGP is F1 on water🌎 How Ryan helped build a global race team📊 30,000 data points per second per boat🧠 Tactical mastery, physical endurance & wild stories from the water💥 And yes — race day is still less intense than Travis KalanickRyan and Taylor take us from rookie sailing lessons to racing at 60+ mph, with helicopters, AR graphics, and Olympic-level strategy — all while building a business around it.Subscribe for more stories from the earliest builders behind iconic startups.#startups #sailing #SailGP #Uber #sportsbusiness #earlyemployees #F1⸻00:00 From Uber to SailGP – Ryan’s Journey01:12 Redefining Success After a Unicorn02:31 First Sailing Lesson → Near Disaster04:55 Obsession Turns Into Team Ownership05:35 What Is SailGP? F1 on Water Explained07:05 60 MPH Boats, Foils, and Flight09:21 30,000 Data Points Per Second11:14 Filming Races with Helicopters & AR13:20 Turning the Team into a Real Business14:11 Race Day vs. Travis Kalanick15:40 Taylor Canfield’s Origin Story18:45 World Championships & the America’s Cup Dream22:00 Driving an F50 for the First Time24:42 Race Day: Prep, Strategy & Execution27:05 How the Races Actually Work29:37 Wind, Intuition, and Real-Time Decisions31:01 Safety Protocols & Crazy Stories34:27 F1 Meets Ocean: Why This Sport Wins36:00 Athleticism + Trigonometry at 60mph⸻🎙️ ABOUT THE SHOW:The Early Podcast is where host Max Crowley, Uber’s #25 employee, sits down with the earliest builders behind today’s most iconic companies. No fluff, just the raw stories of what it’s like in the trenches when your startup could still fail tomorrow.✅ Subscribe for more untold startup stories every week✅ Like, comment & share if you know someone interested!✅ Listen on Spotify, Apple, or anywhere you get your podcasts⸻Let’s go. 💥🎧 Listen to the full episode:🔹 Spotify: https://earlypod.com/spotify🔹 Apple Podcasts: https://earlypod.com/apple🚀 New episodes drop every Tuesday. Let’s build this together.👉 Like, subscribe, and drop a comment — I want to hear from you!!📩 Thoughts or guest ideas? Email me: [email protected]📱 Follow for daily updates:• 🐦 X (Twitter): https://earlypod.com/x• ✨ TikTok: https://www.earlypod/tt• 📸 Instagram: https://www.earlypod/ig• 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.earlypod/li• 📩 Newsletter: https://earlypod.com/subscribe