Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 1001 posts

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#81

Post by kevinburke »

blazespin wrote: post #14
kevinburke wrote: post #3

According to the article 5 different VC firms representing 40% of the voting shares asked him to resign today. Kalanick still controls the majority of voting shares and a board seat. Most of Kalanick's trouble started with Susan Fowler speaking out. Please believe women when they report harassment in the workplace. Many of their reports may not be as clear cut as Mrs. Fowler's.

Please investigate, not necessarily believe. Innocent til proven guilty still has some place in this world.. That being said, kudos to anyone courageous enough to speak the truth even at the risk of vilification.

Innocent until proven guilty is a great standard for criminal trials but probably not for the workplace, where people who report harassment are usually taking an incredible career risk by doing so.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#84

Post by Mandatum »

blazespin wrote: post #14
kevinburke wrote: post #3

According to the article 5 different VC firms representing 40% of the voting shares asked him to resign today. Kalanick still controls the majority of voting shares and a board seat. Most of Kalanick's trouble started with Susan Fowler speaking out. Please believe women when they report harassment in the workplace. Many of their reports may not be as clear cut as Mrs. Fowler's.

Please investigate, not necessarily believe. Innocent til proven guilty still has some place in this world.. That being said, kudos to anyone courageous enough to speak the truth even at the risk of vilification.

Trust, but verify

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#85

Post by smt88 »

Animats wrote: post #41

This may kill Uber. Kalanick is a jerk, but he created that insane valuation. Uber has less than a year of runway left at their current burn rate. Unless they can find a bigger sucker than the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia,[1] they're going broke in 2018. (That "undisclosed amount" in 2017 isn't a significant investment on Uber's scale.) IPO? No way. They'd have to publish audited numbers. What's leaked out i…

So Travis created an insane valuation but the business isn't viable? That sounds like bad management to me. They may do much better without him.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#86

Post by temp20160423 »

khazhoux wrote: post #32

As the adage goes, sometimes the startup CEO for the first $70 billion, is not the same as for the next $70 billion.

Do you have an example for such a startup in recent history where the founder left within the first few years and the startup succeeded with a new founder? I don't think we can really value Uber at $70B; that's the headline number for investors getting preferred shares. My main point is that Uber's position is not nearly as strong as the $70B implies; this number exists because Travis was super aggressive at growing revenue, so investors must have had expectations of the company continuing its insane growth trajectory. I don't believe Uber has that strong a moat today, and the leaked numbers imply losses left and right.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#88

Post by kbart »

slice_of_life wrote: post #38

Pushing a founder out is often a bad idea. This might very well be the beginning of Uber's demise. This won't be good for the company. All CEOs make mistakes even great ones like Gates with antitrust or Zuck calling users dumb-fucks. They weren't kicked out, they instead were allowed to come into their own. There's a distinct fire that a founder has for the company they founded. You can't hire that. Without this fire…

I don't think Uber can go much lower, negativity around it was simply overwhelming. Desperate times require desperate measurements - kicking CEO is like saying: "ok, we did some wrong things - sorry, but we will try to change for a better".

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#89

Post by smt88 »

cryptophreak wrote: post #70
flyosity wrote: post #5

If 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…

Do we have any data to suggest that Uber is materially weakened? Do the negative headlines and social media posts necessarily translate into significant changes in consumer behavior?

There are articles showing them losing share to Lyft.

Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.

#90

Post by santoshalper »

forgottenacc57 wrote: post #63

He should've stayed. I don't recall bill gates being a good guy. Being a good guy as requirement for being CEO is a 21st century thing.

Without support of his major investors, Uber would struggle to raise additional capital and would probably go bankrupt in 2018-2019 with their burn rate. They asked him to leave, but not nicely.
Post reply on HN