Podimo stays with Juan Galliardo, the one who drove Uber’s worst years

It was already known that Uber had lost its visible head in Spain. Yesterday, surprisingly, it was announced that Juan Galliardo – director of Uber Spain for 4 years – had left his post. It will be over the next few days, according to Targetand check. Now we know the new fate of the manager who led one of the most controversial companies in the mobility industry for nearly five years. Podimo, the Danish podcast company, has managed to steal from a major North American company.

From 1 March, Juan Galliardo will take over as Regional Director for Spain. The goal of the director in the podcast platform will be to increase the presence and growth of the platform in the country. A mission that began in June 2020 as it descends into the country with sustainable growth. With its Netflix podcast model, Podimo has won over content creators with its pay-per-listen offer: especially for exclusive content. It was the Danish platform’s way of outsmarting its competitors.

Because Podimo started succeeding in podcasts when Spotify started realizing that it was a sector in which it had to reign. For some time now, the Swedish company has pursued an aggressive strategy to beat all aspects of sound and get ahead of its major competitors. In this case, in addition to Podimo, and Apple.

Juan Galliardo, with the taxi controversy behind his back

Galliardo may not be as well known in the audio world, but it’s a popular – and slightly beloved – name in the mobility world. Especially for the taxi sector. Prior to Uber, Galliardo was one of the founders of Noysi, The startup that aims to be the Spanish version of Slack.

During the guidance of Galliardo, formerly part of a multinational in Spain in 2014, the manager dealt with the most complex years of fighting between taxis and the VTC. Those were years of strikes and demonstrations, approaches and meetings with politicians of all stripes and great tensions in the mobility sector. During Galliardo’s directions, Uber has gone from 0 to 100 in this sector, also with regard to tensions. In fact, he managed to standardize the taxi under his own request.

In other words, Juan Galliardo is leaving Uber Spain at a time when the company – despite the ravages of the pandemic – has reached a peak. One may not be much in a few months. Spain is preparing to receive a long list of competitors betting in the national market. Bolt, who has been in the sector for months, would be one of them. But not the only one. ALSA or Gett also aims to compete in the limited business of national ITCs.