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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.

#961

Post by PhasmaFelis »

freyir wrote: post #168
PhasmaFelis wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

Just making a profit isn't enough; they need to make a big profit. Kalanick could probably turn a profit if he fired the whole company and drove a cab himself, but that's not gonna placate the investors who sunk hundreds of millions into it.

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

#963

Post by [deleted] »

mcguire wrote: post #883
wgyn wrote: post #840

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually such a calculation is possible (of consumer surplus), though perhaps some would argue against one or another part of the methodology. See: http://freakonomics.com/podcast/uber-economists-dream/ or http://www.nber.org/papers/w22627 . > So we found that in 2015, if you extrapolate to the whole U.S., we found that the overall consumer surplus added up to almost $7 billion. So people spent about $4 billion on Ub…

Tl;dr: Uber needs to raise its prices.

[deleted]

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

#964

Post by s73ver »

pishpash wrote: post #312
slice_of_life wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It comes down to conviction and courage to follow through. I find it curious that just when he's out, one of the things that he'd fought against for so long has been done i.e. tipping. The reason it's courage involved in such a situation is because, against all external pressure, he maintained that he thought it would create friction. I can see that and some people may disagree - and those people can use Lyft, but at…

Completely agree. Uber (as a product) will turn into Lyft, rather than what should be the other way around on the merits. Uber is clearly a superior product. That is orthogonal to its quality as a company. I'm not convinced that having a good company culture requires the product to be shittier.

How is Uber a superior product? They're both the same.

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

#965

Post by s73ver »

rmason wrote: post #12

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. They pressure him into taking a sabbatical, then two days in they pull this cowardly act of firing him remotely. Not only was it a cowardly act, but it was the wrong thing to do for the business. It will lead to an epic destruction of value. Wo…

I am paying attention, and I'm just upset this didn't happen sooner. Travis needed to go a long, long time ago.

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

#966

Post by s73ver »

rmason wrote: post #62
robzyb wrote: 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.

Or, maybe if he had treated Uber as a place of business, instead of a frathouse, and Susan Fowler's blog post was never needed to be written.

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

#967

Post by s73ver »

victorhooi wrote: post #607
jmspring wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Travis himself has exhibited poor public behavior that was recorded by an Uber driver. That in itself reflects upon the company. Yes his assertiveness and drive got them where they are, but sometimes companies do need to grow up. Jobs was a consistent asshole expecting perfection. That is way different than emboldening a climate of harassment, degradation, etc. that took place under his watch. Having recent external…

You assert that: > Travis himself has exhibited poor public behavior that was recorded by an Uber driver Do you have any evidence of this, or is this hearsay? If you're referring to the video I suspect you might be - have you actually watched it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejZL5Flwmjc All I see if a bitter, vindictive man try to ambush the CEO of Uber on a night out - who then actually sits down and tries to exp…

And I see the opposite. I see a CEO being confronted by one of the people who actually makes his company work, and the CEO telling him to go get fucked.

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

#968

Post by s73ver »

jameskegel wrote: post #122
kbart wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think Uber can go much lower, negativity around it was simply overwhelming. Desperate times require desperate measurements - kicking CEO is like saying: "ok, we did some wrong things - sorry, but we will try to change for a better".

No they effectively euthanized a pet for making a mess on the rug- after they had already scolded it and put it outside.

No. A pet making a mess on the rug is an accident. What happened at Uber was deliberate.

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

#969

Post by jordache »

davidf18 wrote: post #954
jordache wrote: post #874

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Uber was dramatically improving customer value while providing innovations that reduced greenhouse gas. Reducing greenhouse? Relative to what? This is all one needs to read http://nyc.streetsblog.org/2017/02/27/its-settled-uber-is-ma...

"Most of the upsurge is occurring outside the city’s Central Business District (Manhattan below 60th Street), Schaller reports." Also, the overall increase was 3 to 4% according to the report. In NYC we keep hearing how subway ridership has been increasing every year. At any rate, a decrease of 10 million trips per year out of 1.7 billion is hardly significant. Also, this simply states that perhaps we should be regul…

why change the equation that drastically? self driving is right around the corner.. the drivers should find something else to do.

The uber/lyft traffic increase issue is throughout the world.. not just in a specific part of NYC.

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

#970

Post by WalterBright »

davidf18 wrote: post #701

Much of the resistance to Uber (such as laws that were broken, protests) were from entrenched interests. At least where I live in NYC, Uber was dramatically improving customer value while providing innovations that reduced greenhouse gas. It provided completion for the entrenched Yellow Cab monopoly with its very high rates. Sometimes Uber would have higher rates but then you could take a Yellow Cab instead. The Yell…

I read that Uber/Lyft usage corresponds with lower drunk driving fatalities. This sounds like a more effective and humane method than the ever-more-draconian penalties imposed on drunk drivers.
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