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

nytimes.com

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

#351

Post by Steko »

hkmurakami wrote: post #99
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…

For an embattled company like this in a fiercely competitive industry, you need committed leadership and not a rotating cast of hired guns looking to make a quick buck. Kalanick has serious issues but he's demonstrated unquestionably forceful (and polarizing) leadership that mere "managers" will never be able to replace. I've been bullish on Uber despite all their mistakes and internal issues because at the end of th…

> Now I am a bear on Uber.

I'm headed in the opposite direction and reinstalling the Uber app tonight. This is a very convincing capstone to a 180 degree course correction away from everything I disliked about Uber. I also hope Travis can learn and come back and lead the company again in the future.

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

#352

Post by naskwo »

A few weeks ago, I posted on HN about my experience in Hamburg (no Uber in Germany. The local taxi authority has its own app which works equally well, if not better).

Last weekend, I was in Budapest. There is no Uber in Hungary (anymore), but the main taxi company (Fötaxi) has its own app which works brilliantly.

I honestly see no "moat" around Uber in markets where (large) taxi dispatchers have the insight to build a ride-hailing app.

It's only a matter of time before we are back to square 1, or rather, square 2.0:

* licensed, regulated taxis, either independent or through dispatcher * all connected to an (api-)interconnected ecosystem of ride hailing apps * payment to driver directly (cash or card), tipping discretionary * receipts emailed to rider afterwards, with annotated map and start- and end time

This will weed out dishonest drivers, and will benefit honest drivers.

Uber's only differentiator in well-organised urban markets is its app.

The turning point for Uber's decline will be when NY and London mirror Uber's functionality in their own apps, with the benefit (in London) of cabs being allowed to use the cab lanes (or, in Amsterdam, the bus lanes).

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

#353

Post by naskwo »

naskwo wrote: post #352

A few weeks ago, I posted on HN about my experience in Hamburg (no Uber in Germany. The local taxi authority has its own app which works equally well, if not better). Last weekend, I was in Budapest. There is no Uber in Hungary (anymore), but the main taxi company (Fötaxi) has its own app which works brilliantly. I honestly see no "moat" around Uber in markets where (large) taxi dispatchers have the insight to build…

[edit] replace "turning point" with "catalyst"

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

#354

Post by beagle3 »

slice_of_life wrote: post #136
smt88 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any founder? Or just founders who drag their company's name and culture into a swamp of immoral behavior?

Most founders. I don't think it had come to that yet. The good he has done immensely outweighs any wrongdoings. There was a degree of penance on his part and it should count for something. Travis has had to make a lot of hard decisions to get Uber where it is. These decisions have at times cost him goodwill of the public but I think they are (were) worth it for the long term.

Weighing the good vs the bad is something you can only do after a while. It's possible that Uber, which has yet to turn a profit, will effectively go away in a couple of years -- in which case, Kalanick will have spent billions of investors money with nothing to show for it.

> Travis has had to make a lot of hard decisions to get Uber where it is. These decisions have at times cost him goodwill of the public but I think they are (were) worth it for the long term.

For sure. But it will take a few years to know if that's actually a good place; at present, it doesn't look that way (but it's too early to tell for sure either way).

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

#355

Post by nikcub »

Animats wrote: post #107
epistasis wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Uber has less than a year of runway left at their current burn rate. If true, this seems far more likely to be a cause of Uber's death than Kalanick resigning. That, and the valuation being as insane as it is, which is also Kalanick's fault, which as you point out, makes it hard to find greater and greater suckers. Perhaps they'll be better off all around without Kalanick, assuming they can get the business side on…

Uber bought market share by subsidizing rides. That can't go on forever. Or much longer, without more capital. They're already borrowing heavily, having run out of equity sources. The business model hype is supposed to be that they push taxis out of business, then raise rates. Or self-driving cars will somehow save them. Both are unlikely. [1] http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/growth-vs-profits...

It is working about as well as the Saudi plan to tank oil prices to push indy frackers out of business.

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

#356

Post by michalu »

In the letter, in addition to Mr. Kalanick’s immediate resignation, the five shareholders asked for improved oversight of the company’s board by filling two of three empty board seats with “truly independent directors.”

This seems like a narrative to cover their attempt to get more power in the company... Clearly Kalanick has appointed directors on board that are on his side, which is exactly what he should do and the point of shareholder's appointing directors... Of course, investors want their people

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

#357

Post by adamnemecek »

naskwo wrote: post #352

A few weeks ago, I posted on HN about my experience in Hamburg (no Uber in Germany. The local taxi authority has its own app which works equally well, if not better). Last weekend, I was in Budapest. There is no Uber in Hungary (anymore), but the main taxi company (Fötaxi) has its own app which works brilliantly. I honestly see no "moat" around Uber in markets where (large) taxi dispatchers have the insight to build…

Ubers other differentiator is the fact that I can go to just about any city in the world and use it. I guess I could research and install fotaxi but as a 21th century consumer, I'm extremely lazy.

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

#358

Post by Bakary »

rtx wrote: post #338

This shows how important virtue signalling is today's America. We have well loved CEO's of billion dollar companies using actual slave Labour. No one write a about them. But here we have journalists like Sarah Lacy going on a crusade against him. Though she always forgot to mention that she has taken funding from VC supporting Uber's rival.

There is a limited amount of attention that can be given to issues, it therefore makes sense that many unsavory individuals will slip through the cracks and never get in trouble.

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

#359

Post by danpalmer »

curiousDog wrote: post #95
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…

I think Amazon has a shot at taking over Uber or even entering this space. They already have a great logistics pipeline built out.

This is a really interesting point. Uber didn't get its valuation by aiming to be the world biggest taxi company, they got it by aiming to be the infrastructure fabric that underpins everything.

Amazon have started from a very different place, but apart from the user accessible vehicles they are nearly at the same point, with their recent efforts in Prime, groceries, etc.

I wonder whether Amazon will open up that infrastructure further to other companies. Arguably "fulfilled by Amazon" is already starting to do that.

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

#360

Post by isatty »

em3rgent0rdr wrote: post #60
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…

Lyft? That is just another corporate-controlled centralized system. I'd much prefer something along the lines of http://libretaxi.org/

    > No Credit Cards
    > Negotiating the price with a driver
No thanks!
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