Here’s How Uber’s Co-Founder Is Going to Take on Amazon and eBay

Garrett Camp made a fortune helping people navigate the digital world, then a far larger fortune helping them ­navigate the physical one. The Canadian-born Camp co-founded StumbleUpon, the early online links hub, in 2002, sold it to eBay for $75 million in 2007, and bought it back for 40 percent less in 2009. That same year, it occurred to him that many taxi drivers tooling around in search of their next fares had smartphones in their pockets and could be easily summoned by an app that made use of GPS data. The idea became Uber, and co-founder Camp is now worth an estimated $5.3 billion. As Uber’s ­chairman, he doesn’t have an operational role at the company, so he had enough time last year to found the tech industry incubator Expa, spread lavishly across a top floor of a ­downtown San Francisco office tower.

Now Camp is ready to introduce what he calls his next big idea: Operator, a company that aims to synthesize navigation of the digital and physical worlds. Its app uses a combination of algorithms and human assistants to connect consumers with retail workers who can help them shop. For example, if a ­potential customer wants to replace a ­particular pair of shoes, she can snap a photo of the old ones and upload it to the app, which routes the request to a relevant store that’s also using the app. There, a salesperson can respond with info, prices, or photos of merchandise. The customer can then buy her replacement shoes through the app and arrange delivery, Camp says. “Our goal is to help people find the right product within the right store and to do it interactively,” he says. “It’s like Siri, but with a person on the other end.”