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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.

#421

Post by Applejinx »

matt4077 wrote: post #393
snowwrestler wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is right on. It's a crucial moment for Uber and that is no time to hand leadership off to a big committee. I'm seeing a bunch of references in these comments to when Steve Jobs was fired from Apple.[1] A more relevant reference might be when Jobs stepped down to treat his cancer. He named one interim CEO--Tim Cook--and fully empowered him to run Apple. If it was Travis's idea to leave a 10-person committ…

Kalanick is no Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs was an asshole at times, but that behaviour was always about driving people hard to create what he considered a perfect product. Kalanick's brohaviour has nothing to do with economic success. You absolutely do not need to harass people sexually to be successful, and that idea must die, fast. In fact: If you promote such a culture, you're giving up the opportunities that employees…

I'd correct you, slightly: Kalanick's brohaviour (as you put it) has quite a lot to do with stock market success because aggressive, amoral, bro-like investors collectively act like economic success is a matter of showing personality traits like their own.

So, if economic success ONLY depends on eliciting investment from these people, then you need to be dominant and brutal in every perceivable way, including sexual harassment, to signal that you're successful. This is far from new.

If success also involves building a functioning company, you've got to look beyond investor bros as a metric, and this is where Uber hasn't shown quality.

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

#423

Post by hueving »

JabrZer0 wrote: post #222
laluser wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon already has Flex. Source: I'm a software engineer in that team. Uber is way too expensive at this point.

There's no doubt that Amazon has much more established delivery logistics than Uber at this point, but I wonder if the real value would come from another angle: Uber has been pushing hard on self-driving cars (I mean, in the long term, it strikes me as their only viable business model, so it makes sense). By my best estimates, salary for delivery drivers for Amazon packages run somewhere between $6B and $10B per year…

Wasn't a bunch of Uber's self-driver 'expertise' just stolen IP from Google?

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

#424

Post by elmar »

ThrustVectoring wrote: post #249
chrissnell wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's insanity. Why would existing investors refuse to play ball? They're basically locked into it. Uber's massive valuation is built on its potential and to anything they do that hurts Uber's access to capital hurts them. I think they made a huge mistake in pushing Kalanick out, but I'm an outsider. There is surely something dark at play here, that we don't know about.

Liquidation preferences, senior equity, and debt-like terms, perhaps? If Uber is valuable enough in liquidation, it'd be a great opportunity to zero out the common stockholders and go home with a pile of cash.

you are absolutely right depending on liquidation preferences terms cascade it could be a great deal to force an IPO or another type of exit for later investors.

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

#425

Post by linkregister »

Applejinx wrote: post #385
cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it pretty much sold by itself -- similar to how Zuckerberg created Facebook, which sold by itself. Haha don't know where to start. Facebook could have gone to shit in so many ways just like all the predecessors like Myspace and Friendster, but they made all the right decisions and won. Same goes for Uber.

No no, you've got it a little bit backwards. Right now, the biggest profits for capital are in being bearish about Uber and shorting Uber. This is in the nature of amoral capitalist investment: all the right decisions are 'supporting and enabling Uber' right up to the point where the bubble of valuation pops and then the only right decisions are 'bailing and running away from Uber'. Kalanick's right decisions are now…

Wouldn't investors be able to look at ownership information to see if Travis's shares decreased? I doubt all of the investors would take him at face value, especially the ones who publicly criticized him.

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

#426

Post by hueving »

venture_lol wrote: post #232
blazespin wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

General observations from experience: A well-run company will have proper procedures, processes in place to deal with work place issues. Management and all staff will also be required to take training on a continuous basis. Professionally managed organizations don't walk around "believing" this or that or spouting off "innocent until proven guilty" and such :)

>Management and all staff will also be required to take training on a continuous basis.

This is miserable. Unless the definition of sexual harassment changes every 6 months, you should not be forcing employees to retake these training sessions.

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

#427

Post by martinald »

adamnemecek wrote: post #357
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.

I don't know how big that really is. While there are a few business people/tourists that travel a lot, a lot of execs are likely to either take a taxi straight from the airport taxi queue, as it's quite a lot of hassle to use uber at a lot of airports.

The small journeys around town aren't as likely to be as valuable, it's usually the longer airport fares which will make up the majority of taxi spending for people away.

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

#428

Post by smoyer »

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…

I agree ... but I wonder if the only reason Uber has grown is the way that it's bullied its drivers and the communities it "serves". I'd say that his personality and drive has caused both the companies successes and its problems. I wish there was a convenient way to short Uber via my discount broker.

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

#429

Post by hyperdunc »

kevinburke wrote: post #93
camelite wrote: post #83

Should we believe men too when they're victimised by women, or is this a one way deal? What if it's a man and a woman accusing each other, or two men or two women. What if the dude is a historically oppressed minority?

Most people that report harassment are taking a big career risk (and if they go public like Mrs. Fowler did, inviting abuse from Internet mobs) by doing so, so yes, I'm going to default to believing people that report harassment unless I can find credible evidence it didn't happen.

The trust of people like yourself is definitely going to be abused by people who want to smear others.

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

#430

Post by hueving »

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…

Paying the driver directly still sucks. In the US you constantly deal with the "I don't take cards" bullshit and lack of simple feedback for when they take you on a scenic tour.

I would be fine with taxis if I didn't have to interact with the driver at all when it came to payment and could provide feedback right in the app.

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