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."
Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.
241–250 of 1001 posts
Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.
#242Somebody in Lyft must be opening a champaigne right now.
Because they won't get any more free advertising from Kalanick whoopsies? Must be someone in the public relations department, because that will now have to get a much more generous budget.
Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.
#243This 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…
Not every round has to be an up round. They could decrease their valuation significantly and still survive. Surely there's plenty of value left in Uber.
Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.
#244Is there an available API/service that does the trip tracking part of Uber? Of any technical challenge that would present a bunch of clones popping up, I can see that being one of them. The rest is just generating an invoice and accepting a credit card payment. Obviously, not to scale, but for small-medium-sized locales, it could suffice.
There already are lots of Uber clones. You can buy Uber-clone code to start your own. The hard part of cloning Uber as a company is building both sides of the market. It's almost impossible to do without a clever strategy and tons of cash.
That's simply not true. Places where Uber and Lyft aren't allowed have a thriving alternative ride-sharing economy. In Austin, there are 3 different Uber-clone apps that do a fine job: Ride Austin, Fasten, and Fare.
Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.
#245Hope 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…
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…
Agreed. Whether or not your listed events are the exact same set of reasons for his ousting, it's a good thing for our industry that his brand of unethical leadership is being shown the exit. As if TK is the only leader than can deliver the same type of value. Good riddance! Lyft just got their opportunity, hopefully they learn from Uber's mistakes.
Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.
#246Earlier quoted context omitted.
But does winning have to come at the cost of basic human dignity and law?
Of course not, but there isn't another option for Uber. Second place isn't good enough, not with their burn rate. You need Ghengis Khan if you want to slaughter and conquer.
Making decisions at the cost of their employees' well-being didn't keep them in first place. Having a toxic work environment for women didn't put them in first place.
Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.
#247Crowdsourced shaming works.
Sorry HN, but lmfao.
Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.
#248Pushing a founder out is often a bad idea. This might very well be the beginning of Uber's demise. This won't be good for the company. All CEOs make mistakes even great ones like Gates with antitrust or Zuck calling users dumb-fucks. They weren't kicked out, they instead were allowed to come into their own. There's a distinct fire that a founder has for the company they founded. You can't hire that. Without this fire…
I pretty much can't stumble upon an article about Uber that's not about controversy. I know that kind of news sells better. But in my perception now Uber had the pendulum swung far off center. I've been shocked by their (reported) ethics, to the point of not purchasing their services. I know that consequence is not taken by a majority of people, but I do sense a more than average disgust for Uber's ethics. If you'd a…
Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.
#249Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're right, but I think that's exactly how/why Uber's investors were able to convince Kalanick to step down. Uber may or may not take over the world at some point, but Uber needs another round of investment in the next 18 months just to survive. If the existing investors refused to play ball, they could kill the next round, which really would kill Uber. And here's another important moral of this story for founders:…
That's insanity. Why would existing investors refuse to play ball? They're basically locked into it. Uber's massive valuation is built on its potential and to anything they do that hurts Uber's access to capital hurts them. I think they made a huge mistake in pushing Kalanick out, but I'm an outsider. There is surely something dark at play here, that we don't know about.
Liquidation preferences, senior equity, and debt-like terms, perhaps? If Uber is valuable enough in liquidation, it'd be a great opportunity to zero out the common stockholders and go home with a pile of cash.
Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.
#250Earlier quoted context omitted.
Good chance of it being Arianna Huffington.
What? Why? I looked her up on Wikipedia - she's an author and a political commentator?
I'm not OP, but Arianna Huffington is on the board of Uber, helping lead the investigation behind the sexual harassment report. NYTimes also has this (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/19/technology/arianna-huffin...):
> In recent months, Ms. Huffington has become the public voice of Uber’s board as the company has tried to overcome scandals over its workplace culture. She has forged a friendship with Mr. Kalanick. And behind the scenes, she has been a driving force in recruiting an Uber board member and executives.