Live data from Hacker News

How Uber Backers Orchestrated Kalanick’s Ouster as CEO

wsj.com

41–50 of 164 posts

Re: How Uber Backers Orchestrated Kalanick’s Ouster as CEO

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's a really powerful quote from John Sculley. /s/John Sculley/Steve Jobs/

Not sure why you're being downvoted - it's from Jobs' famous Stanford commencement speech. http://news.stanford.edu/2005/06/14/jobs-061505/

Perhaps the original reply was (in a subtle way) pointing out that Sculley might not be as pragmatic about his own firing from Apple?

Re: How Uber Backers Orchestrated Kalanick’s Ouster as CEO

#42

Perhaps with a sustained PR onslaught that will now magically disappear even if nothing material changes at the company?

Well he did say there was no way in hell Uber would IPO. What's a poor billionaire to do when faced with an obstinate CEO messin' with their payday?

PS the rest of the Uber story is IPO in 5..4..3..

Re: How Uber Backers Orchestrated Kalanick’s Ouster as CEO

#43
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FYI, the WSJ recently launched a partnership with my startup, which gives our users free access to unlimited WSJ content. Our app and Chrome extension are free also. www.ReadAcrossTheAisle.com

This is great news, I was just thinking that I was annoyed at their paywall... What's the catch?

There is literally no catch. I just launched this as an offshoot from my main startup, and I have no plans for direct monetizing of Read Across The Aisle. The only way that I benefit is that this app raises awareness for my other startup.

See my response to a sister comment for more details!

Re: How Uber Backers Orchestrated Kalanick’s Ouster as CEO

#44

While I do agree that the culture at Uber was toxic and ultimately Travis was to blame for that, on a human level I do feel for the guy. At the end of the day, he just lost his mother and now also his life's work for the foreseeable future. And damn that must suck.

I have sympathy for the guy on a personal basis. It sucks to lose a parent. I have none for the guy as a businessman. I wouldn't be terribly sad if Uber failed.

Re: How Uber Backers Orchestrated Kalanick’s Ouster as CEO

#45
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FYI, the WSJ recently launched a partnership with my startup, which gives our users free access to unlimited WSJ content. Our app and Chrome extension are free also. www.ReadAcrossTheAisle.com

It appears the extension would like to read and change the data on any website I visit. I assume users are the product here, so this appears somewhat sketchy since I'm not sure what personal data of mine is being sold.

Perfectly reasonable response, but we are actually not doing anything with individual user data, and we have no plans to do so. We don't even have any plans to do anything with aggregate user data, though we might eventually do that.

The reason that permissions are needed is that the extension monitors how long you read on each website. But that data never leaves your computer — it's just used to compute the stats we show you in your dashboard.

Read Across The Aisle is related to my main startup, BeeLine Reader, and it was just something we did for fun, and to help with polarization of news consumption.

Re: How Uber Backers Orchestrated Kalanick’s Ouster as CEO

#47
post #3

Non-paywall version?

You can add this as a bookmark to circumvent the paywall (remove the parentheses in https though, works with WSJ/NYT/etc.):

  window.location.href='http(s)://m.facebook.com/l.php?u='+encodeURIComponent(window.location.href);

Re: How Uber Backers Orchestrated Kalanick’s Ouster as CEO

#48

While I do agree that the culture at Uber was toxic and ultimately Travis was to blame for that, on a human level I do feel for the guy. At the end of the day, he just lost his mother and now also his life's work for the foreseeable future. And damn that must suck.

He didnt feel an iota of moral responsibility for the rape victim in India whose medical records were obtained by an uber exec and were shown to Travis. I find it hard to have sympathy for someone who couldnt do the same for another human being.

Re: How Uber Backers Orchestrated Kalanick’s Ouster as CEO

#49
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure why you're being downvoted - it's from Jobs' famous Stanford commencement speech. http://news.stanford.edu/2005/06/14/jobs-061505/

Perhaps the original reply was (in a subtle way) pointing out that Sculley might not be as pragmatic about his own firing from Apple?

It could be sarcasm likening Kalanick to Sculley.

Re: How Uber Backers Orchestrated Kalanick’s Ouster as CEO

#50
post #34

The backers: > By Monday of last week, Benchmark had found four additional investors to sign the letter, including First Round Capital; Lowercase Capital; Menlo Ventures and Fidelity Investments, according to people familiar with the matter. Benchmark’s Mr. Gurley attempted to get other board members to sign, but at least one refused out of reluctance over being represented by Mr. Gurley, according to one person with…

First Round Capital signing this is amazing to me - especially since it doesn't look like it required them too to make this happen. Sort of expected the others too but not them.
Post reply on HN