So your business depends on me not uninstalling your app by a single click of a button, while you don't even offer anything unique?
And you have crazy valuation which is threatened by your company's culture?
Ah, the modern times!
Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.
641–650 of 1001 posts
Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.
#642Earlier quoted context omitted.
Uber's valuation is still based on its growth. Therefore, it still needs to be a startup to justify this valuation and burn. I'd argue that a "mature CEO" is not a fit for Uber which needs to keep growing or die.
Uber's valuation is based on a formula that looks something like (raw brand value in an autonomous car world) - (burn rate)^(number of years until autonomous cars are widespread). The valuation can be quite high if you assume that the value in the exponent is low. But I personally think that the "autonomous vehicle revolution" is not going to pay off as well for Uber as they had hoped. It's becoming more clear that t…
I don't think Uber's valuation is based on autonomous cars. That would be a really stupid bet for investors.
Autonomous cars are a side bet. A few hundred millions in R&D that would also attract good talent and nice PR for Uber.
But I don't think investors were stupid enough to invest billions into Uber based on that bet. Specially considering the fact that anyone who gets that technology first can make it big and Google had a few years of head start.
Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.
#643Earlier quoted context omitted.
Paying the driver directly still sucks. In the US you constantly deal with the "I don't take cards" bullshit and lack of simple feedback for when they take you on a scenic tour. I would be fine with taxis if I didn't have to interact with the driver at all when it came to payment and could provide feedback right in the app.
>In the US you constantly deal with the "I don't take cards" bullshit Sounds like a free ride, to me. In my city cabs have to accept credit cards by law . This means if the machine is broken, the cab is unfit for service. If a driver refuses to take a credit card, you don't have to pay them . If they're rude about it, you can call 911, there's a whole division of the PD dedicated to dealing with cabs. The threat of h…
Personally I prefer a simple feedback system that kicks out bad drivers to confrontation and a need to call 911. Not to mention that there's quite a gap between good service and service that complied with the law. If a driver is rude, swears at me, drives dangerously, what can I do about that? Spend part of my day calling a hackney division that probably doesn't care?
A rating system is actually superior to getting the government involved.
Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.
#644A few weeks ago, I posted on HN about my experience in Hamburg (no Uber in Germany. The local taxi authority has its own app which works equally well, if not better). Last weekend, I was in Budapest. There is no Uber in Hungary (anymore), but the main taxi company (Fötaxi) has its own app which works brilliantly. I honestly see no "moat" around Uber in markets where (large) taxi dispatchers have the insight to build…
I don't use a taxi app in Budapest -- the good old phone dispatchers still work just fine and I almost never wait more than 10 minutes for a cab -- but in Berlin I use the "MyTaxi" app all the time[0]. The thing I find interesting is that MyTaxi is loosely coupled with the drivers. There is no obligation to pick up MyTaxi fares, you can go about your business as a cabbie and take MyTaxi fares when business is slow. S…
I had the same in Madrid. Tried to get a taxi for 15 minutes. After that time I had already walked to the next taxi rank and got in the first taxi there. Mytaxi always showed cabs close by but wasn't successful. Wasn't even a busy day, the taxi rank was more than full.
As much as I don't like uber, surge pricing can be a really helpful feature that I would like to have with cabs as well.
Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.
#645I am really disappointed that another article discusses a power struggle without mentioning the power struggle. Something like this is nearly always a power struggle. That the accusations may be valid is just showing that the people attaining power have a higher chance in this situation. It doesn't change the fact that it is a power struggle. So who are the people taking over? For an news paper that shouldn't be hard…
it doesn't mention the power struggle because this article is PART of the power struggle. The journalist who wrote the article is basing the story based on the people who they have interviewed (who are the ones who are struggling for power) as well as the continuing narrative surrounding Uber (which is the story the people struggling for power are trying to create) you should read this very interesting (but simplifie…
Thanks, I'll check it out.
Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.
#646Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's easy to grow when you sell dollars for 70c each. But, when you suddenly need to sell them for 1.01+$ nobody wants to buy. Uber's problem is taxi companies have lower overhead because among other thing their drivers sometimes get hailed by people at street level. Which means their either taxi prices are lower and people stop using Uber or they pay drivers more and drivers mostly stop working for Uber.
I travel a lot for work. Uber works in a lot of places where mass transit sucks and taxi service is nonexistent. Even if they cost more I have no idea how I'm going to get around when I travel. The other options are so disgusting I'm not going back to that. I would use them even if prices went up 30%.
To be profitable the prices would need to go up for more than 30% on average, because 30% only get's them to break even if you assume zero changes in ridership.
There are a few costs like background checks that may go down when they stop expanding, but fewer than you might think.
Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.
#647Earlier quoted context omitted.
If Camp, Graves, Gurley, Wei, al-Rumayyan, and Huffington all wanted Travis gone, explain the mechanism he can stop that for me please.
He owns more than 50% of the voting stock. Boards don't operate on one-man-one-vote, they operate on one-share-one-vote. If he had really wanted to stay no matter the consequences, he could simply have voted against his own firing.
> Boards don't operate on one-man-one-vote...
Of course they do.
_delirium already said it, but it bears repeating since so many are confused.
Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.
#648Earlier quoted context omitted.
I dunno, my guess is that he was too set in his ways to make the leap from "CEO of a growth startup" to "CEO of a mature company". If you look at founder/CEOs who have made that leap, they all tend to be very young (Jobs, Gates, Zuck, etc) and had very strong teams behind them. Someone like Kalanick - who has run multiple startups to various exits - has been running startups all his professional life. His management…
Uber isn't a mature company. They're not profitable and are burning cash like crazy. More like "CEO of a growth startup" to "fixer who can pull an over-valued startup out of a nose dive." That's a much tougher leap.
So Uber is walking down the Twitter path you think?
Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.
#649The fact that Uber brought in tipping the day it got rid of Kalanick makes me believe it is a money issue. Basically Uber raised prices by 10-20% to match Lyft.
Re: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O.
#650Hope 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…
> Travis is not without his flaws but he created an awful lot of value for them.
Valuation != value