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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.

#441

Post by [deleted] »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #435
Retric wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easy to grow when you sell dollars for 70c each. But, when you suddenly need to sell them for 1.01+$ nobody wants to buy. Uber's problem is taxi companies have lower overhead because among other thing their drivers sometimes get hailed by people at street level. Which means their either taxi prices are lower and people stop using Uber or they pay drivers more and drivers mostly stop working for Uber.

Uber is profitable in certain cities, e.g. New York City [1]. They could turn cash-flow positive if they just gave up useless market share. [1] http://www.businessinsider.com/ubers-revenue-profit-and-loss...

[deleted]

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

#444

Post by evgen »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #435
Retric wrote: post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easy to grow when you sell dollars for 70c each. But, when you suddenly need to sell them for 1.01+$ nobody wants to buy. Uber's problem is taxi companies have lower overhead because among other thing their drivers sometimes get hailed by people at street level. Which means their either taxi prices are lower and people stop using Uber or they pay drivers more and drivers mostly stop working for Uber.

Uber is profitable in certain cities, e.g. New York City [1]. They could turn cash-flow positive if they just gave up useless market share. [1] http://www.businessinsider.com/ubers-revenue-profit-and-loss...

Their valuation is based upon the assumption that they can maintain market share and raise profitability in those other markets. We all know this isn't going to happen though, so eventually someone is going to eat the valuation hit but the game of musical chairs to decide that question is still being played.

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

#445

Post by qb45 »

matt4077 wrote: post #383
forgottenacc57 wrote: post #87

Finally John Scully will steer the ship in the right direction. Wait, what?

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.

It wasn't Kalanick's who did it but his employees. And guess what, Apple had a fair number of stories about toxic work culture and sexual harassment too.

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

#446

Post by curun1r »

kevinburke wrote: post #81
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.

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.

Preponderance of the evidence is the standard that companies should be following because that is the standard that will be followed in any civil suit that follows the company's resolution of the issue, either from the accused or the accuser.

Innocent until proven guilty is the standard for depriving someone of their freedom, not their job. If the harassment rises to the level of sexual assault, it's the standard the prosecutor will use. Otherwise, it's irrelevant in the context of sexual harassment.

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

#447

Post by JumpCrisscross »

nradov wrote: post #294
Animats wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the existing investors refused to play ball, they could kill the next round, which really would kill Uber. If there's a next round, it will probably involve a big haircut for the early-stage investors.

I think you mean a big haircut for the later stage investors. Even if Uber has a down round, the earliest investors will probably still have positive returns (at least on paper).

> Even if Uber has a down round, the earliest investors will probably still have positive returns

No, they could be crammed out by later investors' liquidation preferences. Depends on how down the down is.

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

#448

Post by evgen »

matt4077 wrote: post #374
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.

"Virtue Signaling" is the most asinine, mean-spirited concept invented since about the middle ages. Its only ever used as a blanket dismissal of others' opinions, even going so far as to blatantly use the moral strength of an argument as a weapon against that argument.

'Virtue signaling' is a term that is most often used by people who have a hard time understanding the concept of actual virtuous behavior. For those with sociopathic tendencies everything is a signal or feigned behavior that is used to achieve a specific end, so it is not hard to see why they would assume such behavior and intentions in others.

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

#449

Post by nf05papsjfVbc »

hueving wrote: post #426
venture_lol wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Often they are a means of having something to which they can point and say "we were doing our very best to create a safe environment". It's more of "ammo in case of lawsuit" than actual useful training. It may also be to just follow regulations in some places where they ought to have at least X hours/minutes of training on compliance related matters per year/month etc.

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

#450

Post by solipsism »

peferron wrote: post #434
matt4077 wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kalanick is no Steve Jobs, Kalanick is a bro on an ego trip who stumbled upon a business. But harassing women, and all his other flaws, are not what created uber. Steve Jobs' flaws actually served Apple. The worst he's been accused of is driving people hard to achieve the perfection he sought.

> The worst [Steve Jobs] has been accused of is driving people hard to achieve the perfection he sought. And colluding with other tech companies to fix his employees' wages.

And belittling people and treating them down emotionally.
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