10 ms·

What Makes Uber Run

91 points by doppp 11y ago

PhasmaFelis 11y ago
> [Travis Kalanick] wore a cowboy hat and referred to himself as the Wolf, after the cold-blooded, coolly rational fixer played by Harvey Keitel in Pulp Fiction. It's generally a bad sign when you meet an actual human being who refers to himself as "The Wolf."
- amelius 11y ago
  It may happen when you eat your own dogfood long enough.
- bryanrasmussen 11y ago
  especially when it's a 'cooly rational fixer' who does such smart things as discussing murder over a portable phone, speeding to the site of a crime he needs to help cleanup, and leading the two idiot assassins involved in the crime to his dumping place for bodies and introducing them to the future owner of the site.
  - dylanjermiah 11y ago
    Thankfully he wasn't being literal.
- hoodedmongoose 11y ago
  Hopefully he's not also thinking of this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sea-Wolf#Wolf_Larsen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sea-Wolf#Wolf_Larsen (great book btw)
- kdamken 11y ago
  Yeah that part was particularly cringeworthy.
tomjacobs 11y ago
yay they mentioned my name in the article
gozo 11y ago
I guess this isn't the intended message, but whenever I read an article like this I'm happy to be nowhere near SV. I can see myself waking up after ten years realizing how I wasted my life on pretending that crude forms of desktop publishing and business intelligence is somehow the bleeding edge of technology.
- onion2k 11y ago
  Startups aren't about "bleeding edge tech" though. Startups take ideas and technology and build innovative products that solve real problems. What those products are built on can be anything - it doesn't matter whether the tech was invented 5 minutes ago or 5 decades ago, if it solves the problem better than any current solution then that's a good thing, and that's what the startup should use. I would much rather work on something with desktop publishing and business intelligence for 10 years and look back knowing I helped people solve an actual problem they had than look back knowing I worked on the shiniest new toy before anyone else.
  - marincounty 11y ago
    And then there's tech like getting rid of all the toll takers on the GG bridge. I honestly haven't crossed to bridge since the complete conversion. Partly, because I never found San Franciso that romantic, don't work in the city anymore, and part, because I don't want to wait for a bill in the mail. Hay--GG bridge district members. I have a feeling you are missing out of a lot of toll form casual bridge users? Some of us would pay your tolls with our spare physical currency, and spend the day in that city--buying stuff? yes--it's off topic, and I don't think a traditional startup had anything to do with the the elimination of toll takers. I just hope technology solves real problems, and isn't used to make the rich richer, or only provides good tech jobs in good unusual economic boom times? I know right now I could live without 75% of this new technology. Kind of a weird confession--huh? And no--I'm not a Luddite? Well, I hope I'm not? I know, I do miss hanging out in Book stores? Starbucks doesn't cut it? And, I haven't been to a movie theater in years? And I honestly don't like meeting people over the Internet? I do like the immediacy of this tool though?
  - deleted 11y ago
sas1ni69 11y ago
Missed an opportunity for a good pun. "What drives Uber."
- vicbrooker 11y ago
  And did so in favour of a forced one - I think the title is meant to reference the whole track runner thing.
sinzone 11y ago
I was part of the jampad era and slept there several nights and even tho the article mentioned good facts I think I will have to write some more interesting ones on a blog post. He also helped our startup many times and we closed our angel round at his house. Travis deserves all the success.
digital-rubber 11y ago
Afaik über is only a newspaper article content company, never seen an uber cab. Only news articles about how much money uber is suppose to be worth. It's a glorified spreadsheet..
andor 11y ago
...venture capital?
- tonyjstark 11y ago
  and ignoring local laws?
  - puranjay 11y ago
    When local laws are outdated and don't serve the interests of the population, do they really deserve to be followed? People have voted with their wallets - they'd rather take an Uber than an outdated taxi with bad customer service.
    - Frondo 11y ago
      When local laws are outdated, then it is time to have a discussion in the political arena about those laws. Uber isn't doing anything like civil disobedience here, they're just making a new quick buck violating employment laws. Aaand, in cases like this, it's always useful to ask: the laws we're breaking, who are they intended to benefit or protect? People without a lot of economic or political power to begin with? Yeah, maybe we should leave those laws alone--by definition, the people we're hurting are the ones least able to do anything about it anyway.
      - dylanjermiah 11y ago
        >Uber isn't doing anything like civil disobedience here, they're just making a new quick buck violating employment laws. False. Uber is losing hundreds of millions of dollars. >Aaand, in cases like this, it's always useful to ask: the laws we're breaking, who are they intended to benefit or protect? People without a lot of economic or political power to begin with? Yeah, maybe we should leave those laws alone--by definition, the people we're hurting are the ones least able to do anything about it anyway. Intentions are irrelevant. It's end results that matter. People vote with their wallets. There is only one reason why Uber has created $51bn of market value, many people find it superior to the alternatives they have at their disposal. Uber _helps_ those with low economic or political power, more transportation options at a cheaper price.
mariusmg 11y ago
What a useless, devoid of content, self wanking article. I guess the Uber CEO write at least half of it.
SandB0x 11y ago
> Although Kalanick had been a startup guy since high school, he was a grinder, not a mogul. He had made enough on his last one, RedSwoosh, to buy a house and do a bit of angel investing. Oh no big deal, only enough to have complete financial security at the age of 30.
- chinathrow 11y ago
  Did you read the article? He nearly didn't manage to grow RedSwoosh and then sell it. No defense for him or Uber - I'm not a customer and have no plans to be one.
  - SandB0x 11y ago
    I did read the article. I find it incredible how it pays absolutely no attention to the fact that he became a millionaire through RedSwoosh and how this allowed him to invest in your startup and "show up at your office one or two days a week" if he felt like it. My issue isn't with him specifically, more the sense of entitlement of the industry and the press. > Kalanick came away from the experience with a profound sense of relief and also a bit of a problem with authority ...and a huge amount of money. For most people in the developed world, buying a home and having enough money left over to even think about angel investing (or other expensive pastimes) at a young age is an absolute dream. Many people see personal wealth as a pre-requisite for being able to found a startup. A little more focus on this side of a founder's story would be welcome.
    - dylanjermiah 11y ago
      I love how you start to story in the middle, as if he were rich since birth. How do you think he earned his first(keyword) millions in the first place? Not through inheritance.
    - mahyarm 11y ago
      His first startup didn't really get anywhere, he was living at his parents house for the most of it. He dropped out of university for it. His second startup got somewhere. His third one became Uber. Still for the first decade for his working life, he was less wealthy than the typical software engineer. He had the advantage of having his parents house to live at and a middle class upbringing, but millions of kids have that in the USA today. Also a 3 bedroom house was probably way more affordable when he purchased it. In the SFBA the unaffordability really only started several years ago, not counting the general real estate bubble.
steffandroid 11y ago
> Uber—the first company since Google with a service so popular that its name is in regular use as both a noun and a verb Skype?
- amorphid 11y ago
  Google?
- netcan 11y ago
  I think "tweet" should count. People say "Facebook me" too. I hear both more regularly than "uber," in fact I can't remember a anyone using it as a verb but that's just because an uber is something you get rather than do. I don't taxi over to your house either.
  - icebraining 11y ago
    I don't taxi over to your house either. Well, not unless their house is at the end of a runway :)
  - aianus 11y ago
    I've heard 'taxiing over' many times as well as 'ubering'.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- larrydag 11y ago
  Instagram, Snapchat, Facetime, Tinder, WhatsApp
- jacalata 11y ago
  Facebook? Come on, people!
- arbuge 11y ago
  Never heard Uber in use as a verb before. Skype, a few times.
theworstshill 11y ago
The article implies that its the people, and thats partway true. For customers - its mostly a review system. Uber destroyed its competition with 2 simple use cases - the ability to rate your driver, and for the driver - the ability to rate their passenger.
- toomuchtodo 11y ago
  > Uber destroyed its competition with 2 simple use cases - the ability to rate your driver, and for the driver - the ability to rate their passenger. If that's all their moat is, they don't have much of a moat.

91 points by doppp 11y ago

> [Travis Kalanick] wore a cowboy hat and referred to himself as the Wolf, after the cold-blooded, coolly rational fixer played by Harvey Keitel in Pulp Fiction. It's generally a bad sign when you meet an actual human being who refers to himself as "The Wolf."

amelius 11y ago
It may happen when you eat your own dogfood long enough.
bryanrasmussen 11y ago
especially when it's a 'cooly rational fixer' who does such smart things as discussing murder over a portable phone, speeding to the site of a crime he needs to help cleanup, and leading the two idiot assassins involved in the crime to his dumping place for bodies and introducing them to the future owner of the site.
- dylanjermiah 11y ago
  Thankfully he wasn't being literal.
hoodedmongoose 11y ago
Hopefully he's not also thinking of this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sea-Wolf#Wolf_Larsen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sea-Wolf#Wolf_Larsen (great book btw)
kdamken 11y ago
Yeah that part was particularly cringeworthy.

tomjacobs 11y ago

yay they mentioned my name in the article

gozo 11y ago

I guess this isn't the intended message, but whenever I read an article like this I'm happy to be nowhere near SV. I can see myself waking up after ten years realizing how I wasted my life on pretending that crude forms of desktop publishing and business intelligence is somehow the bleeding edge of technology.

onion2k 11y ago
Startups aren't about "bleeding edge tech" though. Startups take ideas and technology and build innovative products that solve real problems. What those products are built on can be anything - it doesn't matter whether the tech was invented 5 minutes ago or 5 decades ago, if it solves the problem better than any current solution then that's a good thing, and that's what the startup should use. I would much rather work on something with desktop publishing and business intelligence for 10 years and look back knowing I helped people solve an actual problem they had than look back knowing I worked on the shiniest new toy before anyone else.
- marincounty 11y ago
  And then there's tech like getting rid of all the toll takers on the GG bridge. I honestly haven't crossed to bridge since the complete conversion. Partly, because I never found San Franciso that romantic, don't work in the city anymore, and part, because I don't want to wait for a bill in the mail. Hay--GG bridge district members. I have a feeling you are missing out of a lot of toll form casual bridge users? Some of us would pay your tolls with our spare physical currency, and spend the day in that city--buying stuff? yes--it's off topic, and I don't think a traditional startup had anything to do with the the elimination of toll takers. I just hope technology solves real problems, and isn't used to make the rich richer, or only provides good tech jobs in good unusual economic boom times? I know right now I could live without 75% of this new technology. Kind of a weird confession--huh? And no--I'm not a Luddite? Well, I hope I'm not? I know, I do miss hanging out in Book stores? Starbucks doesn't cut it? And, I haven't been to a movie theater in years? And I honestly don't like meeting people over the Internet? I do like the immediacy of this tool though?
- deleted 11y ago

sas1ni69 11y ago

Missed an opportunity for a good pun. "What drives Uber."

vicbrooker 11y ago
And did so in favour of a forced one - I think the title is meant to reference the whole track runner thing.

sinzone 11y ago

I was part of the jampad era and slept there several nights and even tho the article mentioned good facts I think I will have to write some more interesting ones on a blog post. He also helped our startup many times and we closed our angel round at his house. Travis deserves all the success.

digital-rubber 11y ago

Afaik über is only a newspaper article content company, never seen an uber cab. Only news articles about how much money uber is suppose to be worth. It's a glorified spreadsheet..

andor 11y ago

...venture capital?

tonyjstark 11y ago
and ignoring local laws?
- puranjay 11y ago
  When local laws are outdated and don't serve the interests of the population, do they really deserve to be followed? People have voted with their wallets - they'd rather take an Uber than an outdated taxi with bad customer service.
  - Frondo 11y ago
    When local laws are outdated, then it is time to have a discussion in the political arena about those laws. Uber isn't doing anything like civil disobedience here, they're just making a new quick buck violating employment laws. Aaand, in cases like this, it's always useful to ask: the laws we're breaking, who are they intended to benefit or protect? People without a lot of economic or political power to begin with? Yeah, maybe we should leave those laws alone--by definition, the people we're hurting are the ones least able to do anything about it anyway.
    - dylanjermiah 11y ago
      >Uber isn't doing anything like civil disobedience here, they're just making a new quick buck violating employment laws. False. Uber is losing hundreds of millions of dollars. >Aaand, in cases like this, it's always useful to ask: the laws we're breaking, who are they intended to benefit or protect? People without a lot of economic or political power to begin with? Yeah, maybe we should leave those laws alone--by definition, the people we're hurting are the ones least able to do anything about it anyway. Intentions are irrelevant. It's end results that matter. People vote with their wallets. There is only one reason why Uber has created $51bn of market value, many people find it superior to the alternatives they have at their disposal. Uber _helps_ those with low economic or political power, more transportation options at a cheaper price.

mariusmg 11y ago

What a useless, devoid of content, self wanking article. I guess the Uber CEO write at least half of it.

SandB0x 11y ago

> Although Kalanick had been a startup guy since high school, he was a grinder, not a mogul. He had made enough on his last one, RedSwoosh, to buy a house and do a bit of angel investing. Oh no big deal, only enough to have complete financial security at the age of 30.

chinathrow 11y ago
Did you read the article? He nearly didn't manage to grow RedSwoosh and then sell it. No defense for him or Uber - I'm not a customer and have no plans to be one.
- SandB0x 11y ago
  I did read the article. I find it incredible how it pays absolutely no attention to the fact that he became a millionaire through RedSwoosh and how this allowed him to invest in your startup and "show up at your office one or two days a week" if he felt like it. My issue isn't with him specifically, more the sense of entitlement of the industry and the press. > Kalanick came away from the experience with a profound sense of relief and also a bit of a problem with authority ...and a huge amount of money. For most people in the developed world, buying a home and having enough money left over to even think about angel investing (or other expensive pastimes) at a young age is an absolute dream. Many people see personal wealth as a pre-requisite for being able to found a startup. A little more focus on this side of a founder's story would be welcome.
  - dylanjermiah 11y ago
    I love how you start to story in the middle, as if he were rich since birth. How do you think he earned his first(keyword) millions in the first place? Not through inheritance.
  - mahyarm 11y ago
    His first startup didn't really get anywhere, he was living at his parents house for the most of it. He dropped out of university for it. His second startup got somewhere. His third one became Uber. Still for the first decade for his working life, he was less wealthy than the typical software engineer. He had the advantage of having his parents house to live at and a middle class upbringing, but millions of kids have that in the USA today. Also a 3 bedroom house was probably way more affordable when he purchased it. In the SFBA the unaffordability really only started several years ago, not counting the general real estate bubble.

steffandroid 11y ago

> Uber—the first company since Google with a service so popular that its name is in regular use as both a noun and a verb Skype?

amorphid 11y ago
Google?
netcan 11y ago
I think "tweet" should count. People say "Facebook me" too. I hear both more regularly than "uber," in fact I can't remember a anyone using it as a verb but that's just because an uber is something you get rather than do. I don't taxi over to your house either.
- icebraining 11y ago
  I don't taxi over to your house either. Well, not unless their house is at the end of a runway :)
- aianus 11y ago
  I've heard 'taxiing over' many times as well as 'ubering'.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
larrydag 11y ago
Instagram, Snapchat, Facetime, Tinder, WhatsApp
jacalata 11y ago
Facebook? Come on, people!
arbuge 11y ago
Never heard Uber in use as a verb before. Skype, a few times.

theworstshill 11y ago

The article implies that its the people, and thats partway true. For customers - its mostly a review system. Uber destroyed its competition with 2 simple use cases - the ability to rate your driver, and for the driver - the ability to rate their passenger.

toomuchtodo 11y ago
> Uber destroyed its competition with 2 simple use cases - the ability to rate your driver, and for the driver - the ability to rate their passenger. If that's all their moat is, they don't have much of a moat.