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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.

#841

Post by gcburn2 »

soneca wrote: post #774
davidf18 wrote: post #773

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber is the largest player by far, so they are an easy target for frustrations and for incumbents. "Uber" is almost a generic term for a iPhone hailable vehicle. Generally, there is market competition for drivers. For example, Lyft for those drivers who are unhappy with Uber. You have stated that in your city, São Paulo, there are 3 good companies. If one company mistreats drivers, they would go to a competing firm a…

That's why I trust capitalism. Its dynamics allowed Uber to create a market, but also keep it in check for bad practices.

You're catching a lot of flak for this, but as long as there is diverse competition, you're right. I used to bounce back and forth between Uber and Lyft based purely on price, but now I almost exclusively use Lyft because I'm not a fan of some of Uber's practices.

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

#842

Post by hoorayimhelping »

davidf18 wrote: post #701

Much of the resistance to Uber (such as laws that were broken, protests) were from entrenched interests. At least where I live in NYC, Uber was dramatically improving customer value while providing innovations that reduced greenhouse gas. It provided completion for the entrenched Yellow Cab monopoly with its very high rates. Sometimes Uber would have higher rates but then you could take a Yellow Cab instead. The Yell…

I'm with you 100% on the point, but I'm pretty sure the outer borough green taxis started showing up before Uber did.

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

#843

Post by mholmes680 »

sverhagen wrote: post #114
slice_of_life wrote: post #38

Pushing 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…

Sheryl Sandberg.

edit: nevermind, Kara says no. https://twitter.com/karaswisher?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwc...

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

#844

Post by drewrv »

davidf18 wrote: post #806
driverdan wrote: post #786

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I downvoted you because this has nothing to do with the article. Whether or not Uber is a good thing is not relevant to Kalanick stepping down or the rotten culture he cultivated.

Uber under TK was criticized for breaking laws, but those laws were in place to protect incumbents from market entry. In NYC, were AirBnB does break NYC and NY State laws, Uber does not. It follows the rules of the NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission. Except for the Mayor that tried to restrict Uber/Lyft for political reasons to help the incumbents, we New Yorkers welcome Uber/Lyft.

That was only one of the many things they were criticized for.

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

#845

Post by Animats »

bhouston wrote: post #396
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…

> Notice that leveraged loan in 2016.[2] Traditional firms will generally prefer debt to equity as you will generally get a better shareholder return on debt. VC backed firms do not usually raise debt -- even if it is preferred -- because they are viewed as too risky by banks. When VC-backed firms raise debt it is because they are transitioning out of high risk to the stability of a established and predictable firm.…

That only applies if the company is profitable. For a money-loser like Uber, taxes are not an issue.

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

#846

Post by pfarnsworth »

snowwrestler wrote: post #728
gregorymichael wrote: post #717

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The previous market making mechanism for this industry was for a buyer to stand on a street corner, hold their hand up, and hope that a vendor who sold that service drove by. That's insane.

You could call for a cab, which worked fine. The app-based experience is undoubtedly better though.

You must not live in SF. In SF you would call a cab, and then hope that the cab would come. After 30 mins you would call again asking where the cab was, and they would send another cab. After another 30 mins you gave up and drove.

Same goes for trying to hail a cab from the streets. Empty cabs would drive past you because they wanted to only drive passengers to the airport. I'm glad they are all going out of business.

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

#848

Post by dang »

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?

Would you please not take HN threads on ideological tangents and into flamewars? We're trying to avoid those things here. You also crossed repeatedly into incivility in your comments, which is not cool. We ban accounts that do these things repeatedly, so please don't.

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14600895 and marked it off-topic.

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

#849

Post by [deleted] »

necubi wrote: post #116
rmason wrote: post #12

Hope 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…

[deleted]

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

#850

Post by omarchowdhury »

rahimnathwani wrote: post #623
omarchowdhury wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The asset doesn't lose value by virtue of being marked down." It does in public markets. See sell offs, corrections.

"It does in public markets." 'The asset' in my statement obviously refers to shares in Uber. Those aren't 'in public markets'. Moreover, even if I were talking about assets in general, including those traded in public markets, my statement is still true. If company A buys shares in company B, and company B's share price subsequently goes down in value, then company A may mark down their own holding (i.e. reduce the v…

My point is that a given reduction in value can cause more reduction in value.
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