Episode #34 - From the Bottom of a Bottle - Early Uber Employee & UNICORN Founder Phil Mikhaylov | The Early Podcast

From the Bottom of a Bottle 🍷 with Phil. Rare whiskey. Uber war stories. Immigrant hustle.In this episode of The Early Podcast, I sit down with Phil Mikhaylov, early Uber operator and founder of Unicorn, the fastest-growing marketplace for rare spirits and wine.We talk about growing up as a Soviet-era immigrant, grinding through Uber’s wild early days (from slogging Lyft drivers to launching Uber in India), and how a lifelong obsession with bottles, time, and craft turned into a $150M+ business.This is a conversation about hustle, execution, ownership, and building something that lasts — one story at a time.🎧 Birth-year bottles🚗 Uber chaos🦄 Building Unicorn, the biggest wine and spirits biz anywhere: https://www.unicornauctions.com/🔥 Turning “no” into “YES”#TheEarlyPodcast#StartupStories#FounderJourney#Entrepreneurship#EarlyStage#EarlyPod--🎙️ 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 raw stories from the trench years when your startup could still fail tomorrow.✅ Subscribe for more untold startup stories every week✅ Like, comment & share if you know someone who’d love this✅ 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://earlypod.com/tt• 📸 Instagram: https://earlypod.com/ig• 💼 LinkedIn: https://earlypod.com/li• 📩 Newsletter: https://earlypod.com/subscribe