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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.

#501

Post by rtx »

kelnos wrote: post #325
maaaats wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber needs the network effect. Lower usage means fewer uber drivers, which means it's harder for me to get a lift, which makes me use something else. So a relatively small dip can cause a collapse un usage.

Raising prices could include raising (by not as much) payouts to drivers, which could make them more attractive to drive than Lyft. Then again, if too many customers leave, then you have a surplus of drivers who get frustrated because they can't get fares. But perhaps there's a balancing point somewhere in the middle. And many/most Uber drivers also drive for Lyft. There's no harm in leaving both apps on and grabbing…

As a customer I can tell you Uber is underpriced by at least by 50% in my city.

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

#502

Post by msh »

ckastner wrote: post #184
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…

> Kalanick is a jerk, but he created that insane valuation. I don't think Kalanick had much to do with it. He created the product, but it pretty much sold by itself -- similar to how Zuckerberg created Facebook, which sold by itself. I'm very optimistic about this change. To me, Kalanick, and the culture he bread, were toxic to Uber. I'm reminded of how Microsoft's share price jumped by 12% the day Steve Ballmer's re…

I think its wrong that facebook sold by itself, in the beginning there was lots of competitors and I dont think it was by chance facebook won.

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

#503

Post by rtx »

marcell wrote: post #293
necubi wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow -- I'm amazed to hear this sentiment. I'm personally proud that one of our VCs was involved. Travis helped build an incredible company, but his disregard for the law, for his employees' well-being, for basic decency threaten to tear all of that down. Just in the past six months: * Susan Fowler's blog post exposed a terribly broken HR system and a culture of sexual harassment that reached the very top. This has hu…

I don't think these examples are all that damning, aside from the Susan Fowler and HR failure: - Waymo: the judge has not ruled yet, and there is no evidence revealed to the public which implicates Uber. There is lots of evidence implicating Levadowski. - Greyball: I can see investors forgiving this as a necessary play to fuel growth. - Cursing the driver: a private conversation, neither here nor there. That said, th…

Only if Travis could have said the right things.

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

#504

Post by jaypaulynice »

matt4077 wrote: post #375
jaypaulynice wrote: post #128

Wow...Travis Kalanick has his flaws, but come on, he will come back bigger just like Steve Jobs. That hurts! A company like Uber needs an aggressive CEO, not a pushover CEO...this is one reason why investors kill companies. I see this happen so many times, a company takes too much investment, the CEO is replaced, then the company dies within a year...

None of Kalanick's kinks is helpful to Uber. Don't promote this idea that it's good business to sexually harass you employees.

What?! How am I promoting what you just said?

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

#505

Post by consultSKI »

People make a difference. Uber has a lot of execution left to master and without Kalanick and the other key players that have left the company, the odds are now definitely not in its favor. And yes, the self-driving car play was a brilliant fund raising play (leveraging the news of the amazing advances by Tesla) but a terrible waste of limited resources. It is acceptable to outsource such projects. Or to make strategic alliances. Business is most often a series of trade-offs. Startups more so.

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

#506

Post by rtx »

solipsism wrote: post #450
peferron wrote: post #434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Abandoning his daughter.

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

#507

Post by csomar »

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…

You can't really short/long the stock before it goes public. I'm not sure if there is a derivatives market that speculates on pre-ipoed companies.

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

#508

Post by berberous »

bogomipz wrote: post #500
berberous wrote: post #493

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This would never have happened.

How do you know that?

Have you ever seen a Board sue a CEO in a similar situation?

I also don't think the examples he cited are violations of those duties.

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

#510

Post by a3n »

pshin45 wrote: post #241

Travis Kalanick's words to that Uber driver back in Feb 2017 are very ironic now in retrospect: "Some people don't like to take responsibility for their own shit. They blame everything in their life on somebody else."

That kind of thing is often said by people who are merely lucky enough not to have fucked up so far, or to not have been fucked over. Individual success is not a proof.
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