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

nytimes.com

161–170 of 1001 posts

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

#161
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…

If Uber dies and Lyft becomes the new market leader, who is the new underdog?

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

#163
post #15

Did Susan Fowler's article start this fire? If so, it's an incredible and inspiring story every victim of harrassment should follow. Thanks Susan.

I don't agree it's quite that uplifiting. The culture had to be absolutely horrible, all the way up to the top, for Fowler's story to have an impact. Uber was already gearing up their lawyers against her, and if their culture hadn't been so pervasive, and if there weren't a series of other contraversies at the same time, things might have ended poorly for her.

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

#164
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…

I'm curious how much Kalanick has already taken off the table. That may be a motivating factor in his decision. If he has already pocketed hundreds of millions, he may understand that this could well be the death of the company, but just isn't motivated enough to fight these investors and is willing to let them burn the company to the ground. I wouldn't go as far as to say he doesn't care anymore, but being forced out of your job and the potential evaporation of billions in paper wealth isn't such a catastrophe if you already have enough money for several lifetimes in the bank.

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

#165
post #62
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Firing founders was tried in the nineties and it always resulted in failure. Guess the Uber VC's need to painfully relearn that lesson? If Travis had been smart enough to create two classes of stock like Mark Zuckerberg and the Google founders he'd be calling the shots, instead he's out of a job.

Travis was calling the shots. That's why he's getting blamed for the alleged toxic culture (which includes not just sexism, but mistreatment/underpayment of drivers, among other things).

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

#166
post #62
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Firing founders was tried in the nineties and it always resulted in failure. Guess the Uber VC's need to painfully relearn that lesson? If Travis had been smart enough to create two classes of stock like Mark Zuckerberg and the Google founders he'd be calling the shots, instead he's out of a job.

Travis does control the majority of voting shares, no one can force him to step down....on paper. The real world is a bit more complicated than that.

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

#167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The buck stops with the CEO, and it's clear that in the very least, he condoned the asshole culture.

Is it? Were steps not taken to remove the harassers, once the incidents came to light? How can the CEO watch over every social interaction?

https://www.recode.net/2017/6/7/15754316/uber-executive-indi...

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

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

can't they just cut their burn rate? I mean it's not like they own a fleet of cars they need to make car payments on and fill with gas to keep operating.... in theory there's no minimum spend to keep operating, is there? if (hypotehtically) they cut spend to approx. nil, and 95% of their drivers left, then 5% of their drivers would remain and they would be profitable... where does the "killing" of Uber occur? Yahoo f…

> and 95% of their drivers left, then 5% of their drivers would remain and they would be profitable... where does the "killing" of Uber occur? People will stop using Uber if the wait times get really long, which they will if most of the drivers leave.

If 95% of their customers left, then 5% of their customers would remain and... Well, if they shut off 95% of their servers... Are we profitable yet?

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

#169
post #62
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Firing founders was tried in the nineties and it always resulted in failure. Guess the Uber VC's need to painfully relearn that lesson? If Travis had been smart enough to create two classes of stock like Mark Zuckerberg and the Google founders he'd be calling the shots, instead he's out of a job.

Lots of other comments here suggest he had majority and could have stayed.

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

#170
Is there an available API/service that does the trip tracking part of Uber? Of any technical challenge that would present a bunch of clones popping up, I can see that being one of them. The rest is just generating an invoice and accepting a credit card payment. Obviously, not to scale, but for small-medium-sized locales, it could suffice.
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