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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.

#101

Post by santoshalper »

em3rgent0rdr wrote: post #60
flyosity wrote: post #5

If Uber ends up going down in flames, unable to recover from the scandals and lawsuits, and Lyft prevails, it will be the most incredible change of fate in the business world this century or perhaps longer. The future of automobiles and transportation is still being swirled about, and it feels like Uber's downfall has blown the game WIDE open, ready for anyone (maybe Uber, maybe Lyft, maybe Tesla, Google, Apple, an a…

Lyft? That is just another corporate-controlled centralized system. I'd much prefer something along the lines of http://libretaxi.org/

Libretaxi sucks. I don't want to negotiate with the driver and I don't want to pay cash. In typical fashion, open source/FS people fail to understand what makes a product popular when they try to clone it.

Nobody gives a fuck about "Libre", I just want to get a fucking ride.

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

#103

Post by smt88 »

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?

We should also believe men, but that isn't a historical problem the way it is for women.

As an exercise, ask a few men and women you know if they've ever been harassed or attacked at work. If they didn't report it, ask them why.

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

#106

Post by danso »

grandalf wrote: post #55
danso wrote: post #11

Wow, makes me want to skim over the original Susan Fowler thread to see if anyone predicted this happening [0]. Her allegations of course weren't the only problem Uber faced but it sure seemed to cause other previously overlooked issues and complaints to gain real resonance. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13682022

I called for it in the Susan Fowler thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13747414#13749264 I do wish it hadn't happened, though, I would have preferred if the company could have healed with him still managing to stay in control.

I wonder how things would have gone had Kalanick's family hadn't suffered that horrible tragedy a few weeks ago. That is, whether he would have had the energy/stubbornness to stay as CEO if he wasn't dealing with personal challenges at the same time as professional ones.

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

#107

Post by Animats »

epistasis wrote: post #78
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…

> Uber has less than a year of runway left at their current burn rate. If true, this seems far more likely to be a cause of Uber's death than Kalanick resigning. That, and the valuation being as insane as it is, which is also Kalanick's fault, which as you point out, makes it hard to find greater and greater suckers. Perhaps they'll be better off all around without Kalanick, assuming they can get the business side on…

Uber bought market share by subsidizing rides. That can't go on forever. Or much longer, without more capital. They're already borrowing heavily, having run out of equity sources. The business model hype is supposed to be that they push taxis out of business, then raise rates. Or self-driving cars will somehow save them. Both are unlikely.

[1] http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/growth-vs-profits...

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

#109

Post by smt88 »

devoply wrote: post #56
joshuamorton wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Believe. Do not take action against individuals without investigation, but at organization levels, take measures as though the complaints are true.

> Believe That's sounds like giving accusers too much power, especially if it leads to firing. It's not as if people don't lie.

Accusers are unlikely to abuse this power in the workplace because it harms them, too. It's embarassing, stigmatizing, and often leads to conflicts with the friends of the aggressor.

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

#110

Post by forgottenacc57 »

temp20160423 wrote: post #86
khazhoux wrote: post #32

As the adage goes, sometimes the startup CEO for the first $70 billion, is not the same as for the next $70 billion.

Do you have an example for such a startup in recent history where the founder left within the first few years and the startup succeeded with a new founder? I don't think we can really value Uber at $70B; that's the headline number for investors getting preferred shares. My main point is that Uber's position is not nearly as strong as the $70B implies; this number exists because Travis was super aggressive at growing…

You seem to have missed the irony.
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