Amazing the internet can empower an individual blog post to force the previously most formidable startup's CEO to resign.
Fear this inter connected world. Fear the power of language.
Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.
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Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.
#22Wow, makes me want to skim over the original Susan Fowler thread to see if anyone predicted this happening [0]. Her allegations of course weren't the only problem Uber faced but it sure seemed to cause other previously overlooked issues and complaints to gain real resonance. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13682022
No, but quite a few posts mentioned Travis being part of the problem and promoting that sort of culture.
Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.
#23Hope everyone's paying attention to the identity of these investors behind this horrid behavior. Travis is not without his flaws but he created an awful lot of value for them. They pressure him into taking a sabbatical, then two days in they pull this cowardly act of firing him remotely. Not only was it a cowardly act, but it was the wrong thing to do for the business. It will lead to an epic destruction of value. Wo…
I don't (yet) have an opinion on this, but it's important to note the other side of the coin...
> Hope everyone's paying attention to the identity of these investors behind this horrid behavior. Travis is not without his flaws but he created an awful lot of value for them.
He's been very well compensated for the value he's created. You don't keep a job because of what you've done in the past, you keep a job based on what you can do in the future.
Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.
#24Susan Fowler is the giant killer of this century. Salutation!
Honestly when it comes to these "most powerful woman in tech" awards, she wins by a landslide.
Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.
#25.
Yes I've done several. Great overall experience but not to be taken casually.
Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.
#26Did Susan Fowler's article start this fire? If so, it's an incredible and inspiring story every victim of harrassment should follow. Thanks Susan.
The Uber movie. ^^
Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.
#27.
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Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.
#28If Uber ends up going down in flames, unable to recover from the scandals and lawsuits, and Lyft prevails, it will be the most incredible change of fate in the business world this century or perhaps longer. The future of automobiles and transportation is still being swirled about, and it feels like Uber's downfall has blown the game WIDE open, ready for anyone (maybe Uber, maybe Lyft, maybe Tesla, Google, Apple, an a…
Uber was already likely to lose. It was way behind in autonomous vehicle tech.
Also, it wasn't even close to profitable.
Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.
#29This proves that speaking out makes a difference. Edit: HN discussion of Susan J. Fowler's original blog post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13682022
It clearly makes a difference as to who is CEO -- on several occasions a succession of bad news stories has effectively removed a tech CEO (Mozilla, GitHub, Uber, ...)
Questions I'd be interested in your thoughts on:
- does it actually change corporate behaviour?
- is it a good thing that press (which it seems is sometimes influenceable) can effectively hire and fire by continued pressure?
(And please note that's not whether this case was wrong, but whether it opens the possibility of intentionally targeted public campaigns to remove someone from a company sponsored by unstated private reasons. And those are genuine, not rhetorical, questions.)
Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.
#30lol what the fuck is going on with this company? Unbelievable amount of drama, I don't know how any employees can do any work at this point.