Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Fall of Travis Kalanick

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 159 posts

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#71

Post by untog »

uberemployee wrote: post #17
spaceflunky wrote: post #6

What's it like to show up to work at Uber? Do people just sit there miserably while they constantly remind themselves that a "big payday" is on the way like some kind of perverse mantra? What if the pay day never comes? How will it look when your resume says you stayed at Uber well after everything has been revealed?

Anyone who is miserable has already left in 2017. Many long time employees are waiting for SoftBank deal to close before leaving which makes sense. They deserve to be enriched for their hard work. But they are only a couple of hundred employees at most. We have 15,000+ employees and 3,000 engineers. I’m extremely proud of the work I’ve done at Uber. I have no worries about finding my next job. I have a laundry list o…

> That’s basically like excluding people because of the city they grew up in, the school they went to, or the football teams that they support.

Obviously it isn't. You don't choose the city you grow up in, and you have a limited choice over the school you go to. Football team is perhaps the closest in your list - if you support a team that has repeatedly cheated to win games then perhaps it's not unreasonable to judge a person based on their loyalty to that team.

To be clear, I'm not actually that convinced in the argument to not hire Uber employees based on their employment record. But we should at least represent the argument correctly.

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#72

Post by raiyu »

adventured wrote: post #66
tootie wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3000 engineers seems like a ludicrous number for a taxi company. I'd expect the new CEO to start shrinking to focus on core business.

Uber is marching toward $10 billion in annual sales. That's the size of Salesforce.com, which has 25,000 full-time employees. 3,000 engineers is not particularly out of line. It's certainly not ludicrous. It's a very large, global business, that is likely to get a lot bigger yet.

Yes but I believe that figure is revenue before paying their drivers, so it would be 30% of that, or $3B.

Still nothing to scoff at.

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#73

Post by raiyu »

adventured wrote: post #65
platz wrote: post #40

"Silicon Valley innovation now is directly aimed at oppressing the underclass, and everybody knows it and can see it. They hate Uber. People hate Uber. It means the death of the era of good feelings that came with this constant Moore's Law style innovation. And that was an unforced error, by Silicon Valley. It was in their DNA. They didn't have to give Travis Kalanick, a guy they despised and never trusted, for good…

Uber massively empowered the underclass by destroying the taxi cartels. Lyft exists because of Uber. Even if one argues that Uber deserves to be punished for its various sins, the revolution they helped spark will improve transportation over time. Just demolishing the medallion racket alone is a vast improvement for the underclass, of which pretty much all taxi drivers belonged. Pre-Uber, Taxi drivers were more like…

Not sure why this comment was voted down, it's actually quite true, as I was a NYC resident for 25 years and my dad drove a cab there as well.

Uber the company may have been egregious in many ways, but along with Lyft and the iPhone and their interpretation of the TLC laws they were able to bring competition to a much needed market and displace the old monopoly that taxi owners had. Which by the way, were much worse on their employees than Uber ever was.

It's also important to note that the experience of using Uber/Lyft is much better than a taxi: 1. You can get back lost items 2. You have some idea that the driver picking you up is professional 3. You have recourse against a bad ride 4. Likewise, it's a two way street, as a rider the driver now also knows that you are going to act appropriately 5. Convenience of being picked up where you are 6. Convenience of not having to explain how to get a to place that isn't often frequented by taxis 7. Convenience of never having to take your wallet out 8. Overall better quality cars, both in terms of comfort and safety since they are newer and more well maintained

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#74

Post by inkaudio »

adventured wrote: post #65
platz wrote: post #40

"Silicon Valley innovation now is directly aimed at oppressing the underclass, and everybody knows it and can see it. They hate Uber. People hate Uber. It means the death of the era of good feelings that came with this constant Moore's Law style innovation. And that was an unforced error, by Silicon Valley. It was in their DNA. They didn't have to give Travis Kalanick, a guy they despised and never trusted, for good…

Uber massively empowered the underclass by destroying the taxi cartels. Lyft exists because of Uber. Even if one argues that Uber deserves to be punished for its various sins, the revolution they helped spark will improve transportation over time. Just demolishing the medallion racket alone is a vast improvement for the underclass, of which pretty much all taxi drivers belonged. Pre-Uber, Taxi drivers were more like…

Stop repeating this, it is wrong. Uber copied Lyft, Uber was initially another high end black car/limo service, the whole history was documented on TechCrunch articles, here is one to start: https://techcrunch.com/2012/05/22/zimrides-lyft-is-going-to-...

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#75

Post by scabarott »

adventured wrote: post #65
platz wrote: post #40

"Silicon Valley innovation now is directly aimed at oppressing the underclass, and everybody knows it and can see it. They hate Uber. People hate Uber. It means the death of the era of good feelings that came with this constant Moore's Law style innovation. And that was an unforced error, by Silicon Valley. It was in their DNA. They didn't have to give Travis Kalanick, a guy they despised and never trusted, for good…

Uber massively empowered the underclass by destroying the taxi cartels. Lyft exists because of Uber. Even if one argues that Uber deserves to be punished for its various sins, the revolution they helped spark will improve transportation over time. Just demolishing the medallion racket alone is a vast improvement for the underclass, of which pretty much all taxi drivers belonged. Pre-Uber, Taxi drivers were more like…

Huh? Part of your comments is wrong. Lyft existed before Uber as zimrides. Not only that Lyft and another competitor Sidecar pioneered ride sharing - Uber started out as a black car service and borrowed it's current business model from those two. Even more, Lyft was the first to take on city regulators, when Uber was still a black car service and Uber initially opposed the move to make ride sharing legal and only jumped on the bandwagon when it looked like Lyft was going to succeed and eat Uber for lunch. It's actually the other way around- Uber exists because of Lyft (source of all this - the Upstarts by Brad Stone which I'm currently reading). But everything else you said I agree with: Taxis were just plain awful.

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#76

Post by tzakrajs »

mieseratte wrote: post #44
matte_black wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't companies usually hand out t-shirt swag with their company names on it? Most of the time that I see someone with a company logo on their shirt I do not readily assume they work at that company.

I would never assume someone walking around with a North Face t-shirt works for North Face but tech companies are obscure, especially outside of the big tech cities. If I see someone wearing a t-shirt for a tech company in my city, they more likely than not work for that company. If I saw someone with an Uber shirt I would assume they work for them, and probably as corporate. I can't say I've ever seen a driver weari…

I did this to a man at a San Jose dog park that was wearing a Netflix shirt. It turns out he just got it from the local Goodwill and had no connection to Netflix.

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#77

Post by DenisM »

Anderkent wrote: post #52
platz wrote: post #40

"Silicon Valley innovation now is directly aimed at oppressing the underclass, and everybody knows it and can see it. They hate Uber. People hate Uber. It means the death of the era of good feelings that came with this constant Moore's Law style innovation. And that was an unforced error, by Silicon Valley. It was in their DNA. They didn't have to give Travis Kalanick, a guy they despised and never trusted, for good…

How does Uber 'oppress the underclass'? Puhlease.

Commoditizing labor is very disruptive and stuff, yet it drives down the price to commodity levels - right above subsistence. The entire gig economy is like this. And not just them either.

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#78

Post by megaman22 »

mieseratte wrote: post #44
matte_black wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't companies usually hand out t-shirt swag with their company names on it? Most of the time that I see someone with a company logo on their shirt I do not readily assume they work at that company.

I would never assume someone walking around with a North Face t-shirt works for North Face but tech companies are obscure, especially outside of the big tech cities. If I see someone wearing a t-shirt for a tech company in my city, they more likely than not work for that company. If I saw someone with an Uber shirt I would assume they work for them, and probably as corporate. I can't say I've ever seen a driver weari…

Almost all of my t-shirts, and a good chunk of my polos are random swag from various conferences or trainings, and all of the baseball caps I wear on a regular basis are (Red Hat used to give out really nice ones).

I couldn't really give a shit what I look like most of the time, however, so your mileage may vary. But I don't have to buy t-shirts...

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#79

Post by fpoijasw »

harryh wrote: post #64
misun78 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Peacetime doesn’t necessarily mean not being competitive. Uber is at a stage where it doesn’t need to bend the rules anymore. Read up on how Dara handled the Brazil legislation for example. Rather than fighting any regulation as TK may have, he effectively worked with the government to legalize and legitimize Uber. I expect him to do the same in London.

Your definition of peacetime/wartime does not conform to industry norms. Peacetime in business means those times when a company has a large advantage vs. the competition in its core market, and its market is growing. In times of peace, the company can focus on expanding the market and reinforcing the company’s strengths. In wartime, a company is fending off an imminent existential threat. Such a threat can come from…

Actually I agree with them here, it's much more peaceful now than before. When we were trying to break into China and facing against Didi that really seemed like we were at war. Like we would start a growth campaign and merely hours after we launch, Didi would launch the exact same campaign. Even after the merger I'm not sure if this is true but we found 16 employees who were on both Ubers and Didi's payroll.

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#80

Post by DenisM »

harryh wrote: post #64
misun78 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Peacetime doesn’t necessarily mean not being competitive. Uber is at a stage where it doesn’t need to bend the rules anymore. Read up on how Dara handled the Brazil legislation for example. Rather than fighting any regulation as TK may have, he effectively worked with the government to legalize and legitimize Uber. I expect him to do the same in London.

Your definition of peacetime/wartime does not conform to industry norms. Peacetime in business means those times when a company has a large advantage vs. the competition in its core market, and its market is growing. In times of peace, the company can focus on expanding the market and reinforcing the company’s strengths. In wartime, a company is fending off an imminent existential threat. Such a threat can come from…

S/he was probably referring to the concept of "wartime consigliere" popularized by The Godfather.
Post reply on HN