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Uber CEO Kalanick likely to take leave

223 points by pdelbarba 9y ago

nugget 9y ago
If my mom had just died in an accident and there was a friend in place who I trusted to take over and mind the store while I went and rebooted my soul for a few months, I'd probably take leave too. Seems like it's likely a net positive for Uber in the long run.
- ASinclair 9y ago
  > a friend in place who I trusted to take over and mind the store Who is that in this case? His "closest deputy" and SVP is out now too.
  - perceptor 9y ago
    Exactly. No love or hate for Kalanick, but this is a couldn't-come-at-a-worse-time coup from his perspective.
    - jasonmp85 9y ago
      This isn't a coup, it's just deserts. One might expect such a paranoid person to have better protections in place against this inevitability.
    - bastawhiz 9y ago
      > couldn't-come-at-a-worse-time It's been a couldn't-come-at-a-worse-time few months. I think everyone would agree that had the accident happened any time between February and now, it would have been a couldn't-come-at-a-worse-time scenario.
  - nugget 9y ago
    My bet would be that Garrett Camp takes over as interim CEO with the plan to step aside once Travis returns.
xbeta 9y ago
For someone who recently lost a mother and still have a badly injured father. This is totally understandable regardless whether he is a CEO of Uber. For a regular employee, he could request for a sabbatical. But as a CEO, that's difficult given there is no CFO, CMO, COO existed.
- MikeTheGreat 9y ago
  What do you mean by 'sabbatical'? What is this, and how do regular, salaried employees get this?
  - nerfhammer 9y ago
    It's not unusual for BigCos to have a leave of absence policy for regular employees.
  - EpicEng 9y ago
    I've seen "regular, salaried employees" take sabbaticals for personal reasons more than once. Beyond that, comparing a CEO to a typical employee is ridiculous. You may not like it, but yes, they're viewed as more important by the board and a CEO is more important 99.9% of the time. Devs don't make life or death business decisions and set the cultural tone for the entire company.
  - bastawhiz 9y ago
    Most companies in SV tend to have, in addition to paid maternal/paternal leave, the option to take unpaid leave. I have many friends and colleagues who have taken advantage of this for a variety of reasons. It's really not that uncommon.
    - smileysteve 9y ago
      It's implicit that as long as your company is hiring your position you can take unpaid leave; the outlier is paid sabbatical.
      - 9y ago
yladiz 9y ago
I'm in no way a fan of Uber, and I have a hard stance on not taking it anymore due to the company's actions in the past, but I really wish his possible leave of absence wasn't spun as a result of the investigation done by Holder, at least not majorly. I would imagine him taking a leave of absence may be much more due to his parents boating accident where his mother died and his father was seriously injured, and while the investigation may play a role in his stress, from my understanding the board is in support of Travis and he has major voting rights in the company anyway, so he can't just be forced to leave.
- redm 9y ago
  Considering how he got burned by at RedSwoosh by VC's pulling out early and by investors at Scour, it's no surprise that he would have taken special care to ensure he retained control. I would be surprised if he could be easily outed.
  - bsder 9y ago
    Interesting. Didn't know this history. Got some links? I still think Kalanick is a jerk, but that kind of history would explain at least some of it.
    - jdorfman 9y ago
      Brad Stone covers it in great detail in "The Upstarts". Great read.
    - sbuccini 9y ago
      I would really recommend watching this talk[1] TK gave at Failcon back in 2011. It's a great insight into Travis's background and the mindset that he imbued into Uber in the early days. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QrX5jsiico https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QrX5jsiico
    - drspacemonkey 9y ago
      The Dollop (a history comedy podcast) recently did an episode on Uber and Kalanick. http://thedollop.libsyn.com/271-uber http://thedollop.libsyn.com/271-uber
zajd 9y ago
> I really wish his possible leave of absence wasn't spun as a result of the investigation done by Holder Why not? > I would imagine him taking a leave of absence may be much more due to his parents boating accident where his mother died and his father was seriously injured Based on what?
- yladiz 9y ago
  Based on the fact he's a fucking human being.
  - AdamJacobMuller 9y ago
    In the process of hating someone (and there is a lot to dislike about Kalanick) people commonly and unfortunately loose sight of that fact. You can hate how someone runs their business (which I do, somewhat) and still have compassion for a loss like what he went through, which I had not heard of until today and which sounds quite heartbreaking.
    - yladiz 9y ago
      I think because a lot of people don't know Travis personally (including myself) it's easier to not empathize with what's happened, especially if you've never felt the same loss, because he's essentially reduced to this ephemeral figure rather than an alive person. I don't know if I could be friends with Travis based on the news I've read, and I wouldn't choose to work for his company, but I still feel for him on a base level.
      - bearcobra 9y ago
        I think you can still empathize with Travis, but have doubts about how much his leave is related to the loss of his mother. It appears that the Holder investigation recommended the departure of Emil Michael. A number of other executives have also left recently. Based on all available evidence there is something happening with Uber's leadership and the board is trying to address it. Travis very well may not be in a position to do that due to his grief, but the (potential) timing of his leave coinciding with the release of the investigation's findings seems to indicate that is the primary cause.
throwawayhf 9y ago
Can someone please check his father's medical records to make sure he's really injured and not just providing a convenient cover story for Travis to hide during a tough time?
- 27182818284 9y ago
  Well, the papers confirmed already his mother died in the same accident so... even if it was just that and his father was totally fine it'd be understandable. It is pretty paranoid to think that he faked his mother's death and his father's injuries to take a leave of absence to dodge Uber drama.
  - throwawayhf 9y ago
    Yeah, but this is basically the attitude that led Uber to steal a rape victim's medical report with Travis's blessing, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ In reality I hope his father gets better but Travis loses fucking everything. Nice to see the SV double-standard where I get downvoted and he gets billions of dollars.
  - jasonmp85 9y ago
    I don't understand why the above comment was flagged. A woman was raped by an Uber driver in India. Eric Alexander brought the records to Kalanick, who rather than fire him for obtaining illicit medical documents related to an ongoing criminal investigation instead questioned the details in the report and postulated that the whole thing might have been fabricated by a competitor. That's what the OP was talking about.
    - shkkmo 9y ago
      I'm guessing that even those who realized it was a snide and sarcastic reference to the event you mention, didn't think that sort of discourse fit for HN.
- dang 9y ago
  We've banned this account for trolling. Please don't create accounts to break the HN guidelines with. We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14539226 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14539226 and marked it off-topic.
ProfessorLayton 9y ago
I'm curious to see what'll happen to Uber's governance structure when they finally burn through their cash hoard. At their current burn rate, they'll have completely exhausted their cash hoard within 10 quarters [1]. Due to TK and his buddy's supervoting shares, he may be able to withstand his oust, but only while there's still money in the bank. I can't see them being able to raise money on founder-friendly terms again after all this turmoil. Indeed this may be the only way to remove TK's grip on the company, or even altogether. [1] https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/31/ubers-head-of-finance-is-out/ https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/31/ubers-head-of-finance-is-o...
- jacquesm 9y ago
  > I can't see them being able to raise money on founder-friendly terms again after all this turmoil. Indeed this may be the only way to remove TK's grip on the company, or even altogether. Uber has something working for them though: sunk cost. Even if normally they would not be able to raise money on founder friendly terms - or maybe not even at all - in this case they just might because the investors would not want to write off their huge investment to date. If the alternative is to let the ship go down they will fund it some more.
- ProAm 9y ago
  If Uber fails to be profitable and autonomous doesnt take off for them they can easily license their software to other companies of all sorts and make a nice chunk of change. Just providing it to cab services alone will make them a lot of money. It'd be considered a unicorn pivot....
WisNorCan 9y ago
Assuming this is actually true, this tweet [0] captures the unusual state of Uber right now "Uber no longer has a COO, CBO, CFO, CMO or SVP of Eng and may temporarily not have a CEO. From autonomous cars...to autonomous company." And there have also been reports about the CTO being asked to leave [1]. [0] https://twitter.com/hemal/status/874300172330647552 https://twitter.com/hemal/status/874300172330647552 [1] https://www.recode.net/2017/5/16/15616024/uber-sexual-harassment-work-hostility-investigation-executive-turnover https://www.recode.net/2017/5/16/15616024/uber-sexual-harass...
- Cacti 9y ago
  I struggle to think of a reason why they (or anyone else for that matter) even need a CBO or CMO.
  - georgespencer 9y ago
    I'd speculate that most businesses would benefit from a good CMO. From [at times painful] experience: CMO should be a surrogate-founder level position for a quant marketer who is aware that they are not a qual marketer. Ultimately the challenge of optimising the deployment of a marketing budget in excess of $5m USD is difficult for a CEO who is operationally involved in any other area of the business, but pre-profit is an incredibly metric driven task. A good quant marketer will be able to handle numbers in a way that a brand marketer will not, but will be open to listening to arguments for qualitative marketing. The trouble is that marketing as a discipline is full of quals pretending to be quants, and most of them are bad. Whenever I have dinner with friends who run venture-backed startups I ask how happy they are with their CMO, and there's a general acceptance that CMOs have a two year lifespan. (I should add that I'm certain it's incredibly unforgiving being CMO in a startup where product/market and the unit economics are probably not proved. Simple things like calculating churn or LTV are made impossible. Tough gig.)
- rockarage 9y ago
  Good for Uber, because their leadership was overrated, Uber could be better offer with new leadership Here's why: 1.) Uber defeated much of their competition by burning cash in monetizing schemes that are shady and unsustainable. https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/31/uberpool-sf-buzzfeed-documents-burn-rate/ https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/31/uberpool-sf-buzzfeed-docum... https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/uber-true-cost-uh-oh https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/uber-true-cost-uh... https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/23/business/economy/uber-drivers-tax.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/23/business/economy/uber-dri... https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2017/01/19/ftc-says-uber-misled-drivers-company-to-pay-20m-settlement/#65ceefa31c78 https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2017/01/19/ftc-says... 2.)Their other competitive advantage is branding, but that is not a moat-like advantage, if Uber was to disappear tomorrow, there are competitors who will quickly takeover & grow, this happened when Uber left Austin. 3.) They were complacent with sexual harassment & discrimination in the company. A business/startup should never allow harassment to be a thing, this is failure at leadership 101.
Allower 9y ago
Why do people care?
redm 9y ago
In general, I'm glad Uber is getting their comeuppance, with all the shady things they've done, they are overdue. On a personal note, having worked for a period with Travis at RedSwoosh, I think he's getting the raw end of this deal. He's a really great entrepreneur and a nice enough guy. He pushes hard but and plays to win; as the CEO, he's getting an inordinate amount of fallout from these issues. I would say he's not the root cause of the issues but he is the root cause of Uber's success. Uber will not be the same without him.
- lovich 9y ago
  He may be getting an inordinate amount of fallout from these issues, but hes also getting an inordinate amount of the benefit in terms of pay and equity. You can't get the benefits and complain about the responsibilities
- __jal 9y ago
  Good guys(TM) have done a lot of damage. I've been through this; I had a friend whom I still like a great deal as a person, but who did a ton of damage in a different type of situation. It is hard to sort out. But the fact remains, total assholes are capable of being ethical and moral, and the nicest person in the world can be a horrorshow. Coming off as nice doesn't tell us anything about character, even though we are wired to feel otherwise. He is the CEO, who has been caught red-handed being various flavors of deceptive, assholish, unconcerned with the externalities caused by his actions, not to mention several deeply unethical acts across years of time. That's before we get to the actions of his minions. I have trouble understanding how you can credit him with success (which naturally means he "earned" his billions) while claiming he should be shielded from the fallout of his own and his reports' actions.
- fosk 9y ago
  I wouldn't be in SF running my company if Travis didn't decide to host this poor broke immigrant (me) at his house in 2009 (the JamPad) without asking anything in return. And like me, many others. He is a nice guy, he helps people, and he has strong passion in hating the failure. Is Uber too aggressive? Maybe yes - but you need to be aggressive to fight regulations, governments, taxi cartels and the like all over the world.
naturalgradient 9y ago
Regardless of what specific reasons he has or hasn't for accepting this move, this is fascinating from an organisational perspective. With a significant part of senior leadership replaced, what will happen to Uber's work place culture? As in, can culture in such a large organisation be changed top down? Are there any examples where an organisation has changed on a short time scale? I am thinking of the Ballmer/Nadella transition but in my (outsider) perception it took years for Microsoft to be viewed differently as a company. There is also an aspect of bringing in an outsider versus letting an insider take over.
- nostrademons 9y ago
  Culture always changes when the CEO is replaced. The culture of Google changed noticeably when Eric Schmidt stepped aside for Larry Page, and I've heard it's changed again now that Sundar is CEO (ironically, it seems closer to the Schmidt era now, but without the perks & engineering freedom). The culture of YCombinator changed when Paul Graham stepped aside for Sam Altman. It does take a couple years to take hold though. I remember that when Larry took over Google in 2011, it was largely business as usual at first, but there was a noticeable shift by the time I left in 2014.
  - amyjess 9y ago
    Can you go into detail about how the culture changed? I'm curious.
    - nostrademons 9y ago
      From Eric -> Larry: - "More wood behind fewer arrows". This was actually a Steve Jobs principle that Larry adopted: kill off all your insignificant products to focus on just a few key areas. - More willingness to take on moonshots; less tolerance for projects that might be good for a small segment of the userbase, but don't appreciably move the needle. - Seemingly less collegial atmosphere. Eric tolerated a lot of "You'll do your thing, I'll do mine, and it's okay if Google has half a dozen products that all do slight variations of each other." Larry insisted on more product discipline, but that often meant more of a scarcity mentality among execs, which led to more turf wars and infighting. - More top-down culture. Eric had few opinions on what Google should be doing, he just wanted to make sure we were doing it well. Larry had very definite opinions on what Google should be doing, and if you didn't share them, go start your own company. - More chaotic management style. I got the sense that Larry didn't actually know what was going on with the company, on an individual-contributor level, and so when he made decisions, they often made no sense to the rest of the company. Eric didn't know what was going on with the company either, but he was okay with that, as long as the money kept coming in and we didn't do anything illegal, so he made fewer decisions that weren't a direct reaction to an issue that was brought to him. From Larry -> Sundar. Keep in mind that I left before Sundar became CEO, so this is all second-hand: - Hierarchy and top-down culture has persisted. - Collegiality seems to have returned. Just my perception, but Google seems a nicer place to work now than when G+ was seemingly taking over the company in 2012. - Sundar is generally more informed and, well, sane, as perceived by the employees. - Sundar is a caretaker: the core areas of Google are explicitly designed not to require massive company-changing innovation, instead relying on incremental improvement to existing products that can be driven by middle-management, and all the innovation is shunted off to the rest of Alphabet where Larry & Sergey have a more direct role in shepherding it. I think all 3 CEOs were strong in their own way, but the CEO transition made me appreciate how oftentimes a leader's biggest strengths are often also their biggest weaknesses. Larry is insane, for instance; IMHO he's insane in a good way, because we outright wouldn't have Google otherwise, but that same oddness of perception made him a maddening CEO to work under. Similarly, Eric was a great peacemaker and good at quickly making decisions that pleased as many people as possible, but that same ability to compromise made him a poor innovator and unlikely to have the moral courage to bet the company on crazy ideas. It also convinced me that Paul Graham's thesis, that big companies are constitutionally incapable of innovating, was correct. The reason is precisely that duality above; in order to innovate, you need someone whose personality is insane, but who then has to directly butt up against reality, and experience that resistance first-hand. It doesn't work for someone insane to direct lots of not-insane employees who get paid to build the product, because the type of creative insights that come from facing contradiction directly can't survive outside of a single mind. The innovator has to do the work directly.
kafkaesq 9y ago
Chief Executive Travis Kalanick is likely to take a leave of absence from the troubled ride-hailing company, but no final decision has yet been made, according to a source familiar with the outcome of a Sunday board meeting. Where "is likely to take a leave of absence", in this context, is shorthand for "has grudgingly agreed to resign as soon as we can find a replacement -- which, believe us, we intend to do as soon as humanly possible. But we'll in the interim call it 'taking leave' to soften the overall business impact -- and of course to at least attempt to staunch the exodus of the best and brightest of our employees, no doubt already in progress."
- smacktoward 9y ago
  And to let whoever hands him the inevitable plush consolation gig as a advisor/VC/"entrepreneur-in-residence"/whatever do so with the minimum possible amount of embarrassment.
overcast 9y ago
It's been an incredible journey!
- dang 9y ago
  Would you please not post unsubstantive comments here? We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14539532 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14539532 and marked it off-topic.
rtx 9y ago
How to lose $70 billion.
niuzeta 9y ago
I'm no fan of Uber(Interesting how many of comments either start off with this sentiment or include it at some point of time), but as a human being, I can't help but feel sympathy for Kalanick for his situation. Looking at some comments that treat this as a comeuppance of a sort is disturbing[1]. We really shouldn't use anthropomorphization of a company to justify inhumanity in us. [1] and I'm seeing those comments being flagged. Very good.
- rXoX 9y ago
  > We really shouldn't use anthropomorphization of a company to justify inhumanity in us And yet... what is the purpose of branding, but to 'humanize' a service or product produced group of people who are gathered for the purpose of profit?
- dang 9y ago
  That's right. The difference between picking up any stick and stone to hurl at the object of one's anger, versus pausing to consider what's right, is a test of intellectual honesty. This comes from a level that has nothing to do with Uber or whatever the surface topic is. We all have both levels inside us, so it's good to remind each other which should be operational in this community. It is also a good test for the kind of commenting we want on HN—we want reflective comments, not reflexive ones—so yes, such comments should be flagged.
- redditmigrant 9y ago
  I feel bad for Travis' loss on a personal level. But clearly he didnt feel bad enough when someone got raped. https://www.buzzfeed.com/pranavdixit/the-victim-in-ubers-india-rape-case-is-considering-legal?utm_term=.ca7g5APQD#.ooLg6ORl1 https://www.buzzfeed.com/pranavdixit/the-victim-in-ubers-ind...
baq 9y ago
“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.”
amyjess 9y ago
Previous discussions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14538875 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14538875 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14533593 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14533593
flinty 9y ago
Its sad how very few if any news orgs will mention his recent loss of his mother and serious injuries to his father in a boat accident as a potential cause for taking a leave of absence.
- abawany 9y ago
  I became aware of that tragedy since NYT sent me a news alert about it on a Sunday morning. I recall follow-up NYT articles where this was mentioned as a potential cause as well. However, most other news sources that I have read have not mentioned this aspect.
- Myrmornis 9y ago
  Strongly agree. The (mostly liberal) media coverage of Uber is disgusting and pathetic.
mabbo 9y ago
He might be a good guy, but he's running a company like a sociopath and breeding a toxic environment. A company's culture and reputation are a reflection of the person or people at the top. He either needs to legitimately fix the problems or stand aside and let a better leader do it. Edit: For the record, I'd much prefer to see him do the former than the latter.
- tptacek 9y ago
  Do you say he's running Uber like a sociopath from personal experience, or are you working from the same thirdhand sources that all the rest of us are? If the latter, maybe there's a better, less strident way to make this point, if it needs to be made.
  - r00fus 9y ago
    Why does it take "personal experience" to make this call? The facts speak for themselves.
    - tptacek 9y ago
      No. You might say the facts speak clearly that Uber was mismanaged or even toxic --- I would lean towards agreeing with you, though my epistemic certitude is no doubt lower than yours. LOTS of people disagree with us. So it's a stretch to say the assertion is self-evident. But unless you know something we don't, you are nowhere close to calling Kalanick "sociopathic". Hence the question. We should all try to be more careful about how we talk about people.
  - mabbo 9y ago
    I mean from what we see generally of the company. Uber has a killer product that solves many problems, yet they seem bent on doing things in ways I find unethical. The programs to hide from government officials; sending recruiters on Lyft trips to try to steal them; wasting Lyft drivers' time/money by sending false requests (accused on both sides, but nonetheless); pretty damning evidence of corporate espionage in regards to the Waymo lawsuit (still to be decided but it's not going well for them); yelling at the Uber driver in that youtube video. To be clear, the general meaning I'm using of sociopathy is the one of impaired empathy for others and lack of remorse, overinflated ego, etc. If this is what the man at the top is deciding is the right way to do business, that sets the tone for the company.
trhway 9y ago
giving a bunch of people departing - involuntarily or supposedly not - right now, what happens with their options, ie. do they get a [sweet] deal on it (one can see how loosing potential multiple [tens/hundreds] millions may possibly put them into litigious and/or talking mode otherwise)? If i remember Uber didn't allow for secondary market transactions, and given the valuation i don't think anybody would be able to afford (or believe in Uber's current valuation strong enough) to pay that size of AMT on their own. On the other side, giving deal to the ones who is supposedly being punished for bad behavior - that wouldn't send a good signal either.
blacksqr 9y ago
In all this brouhaha, will Uber ever bother either to confirm or disprove Susan Fowler's original anecdotes? Validating her word and her integrity would go a long way toward showing Uber is serious about reform. Otherwise, it seems like they are simply taking another very roundabout path to silencing a woman.
- ivraatiems 9y ago
  I wouldn't hold your breath. These problems don't start or end with Fowler (though her story is one of the best examples of them), and per her remarks just today, she has no reason to expect them to genuinely change or to apologize.[1] [1] https://twitter.com/susanthesquark/status/874684029949235200 https://twitter.com/susanthesquark/status/874684029949235200
futun 9y ago
Uber is a ponzi scheme.
williamle8300 9y ago
Note the article: Kalanick has "super voting powers." The board didn't put him on an involuntary vacation. He put himself on a vacation to avoid the fallout from the leaked email[1] 1. https://www.recode.net/2017/6/8/15765514/2013-miami-letter-uber-ceo-kalanick-employees-sex-rules-company-celebration https://www.recode.net/2017/6/8/15765514/2013-miami-letter-u...
- ElEmEnOhP 9y ago
  That e-mail seems reasonable to me. I'm going to guess it has more to do with a death in the family than telling people not to vomit and to not get sexually involved with someone in their chain of command.
Ihateyouallhn 9y ago
Why are you such a cunt!
mifreewil 9y ago
This is why you don't wait to go public.
jimjimjim 9y ago
Terrible company. but the money people will have too much invested to just let it die. So this will probably happen: Clear the decks Put someone boring in charge Lie low for a while + submarine mode Resurface Announce some new interesting thing Charm offensive Carry on. I say the taint is still there, drive the stake in and add holy water.
Myrmornis 9y ago
Without claiming expertise regarding the company, I disagree fairly strongly with the attitudes commonly expressed towards Uber in the media (I read the Guardian and NYT mostly), on Hacker News, and elsewhere in the mostly liberal sources I am exposed to. Here are my reasons: 1. The Susan Fowler workplace sexual harassment claims were horrific and sounded true. So it does sound like there are some complete dicks working there. If the CEO was party to this stuff then I'm wrong, but I assume he wasn't. 2. The hatred for the CEO is surely exaggerated. The video of him in the cab with a customer was fine, it was a good robust conversation -- towards the end both parties became annoyed. Perfectly normal behavior. He sounds nice enough to me from the words of his that I've read. Obviously you don't take CEOs that seriously; they're entire job is to place inane positive spin on their company every day that they wake up. 3. The Guardian and NYT so obviously have the knives out for the company that it's become laughable reading their coverage. 4. His mum just died in a tragic accident and people are not even mentioning that in stories about him taking time off. 5. It's become common for people to say stuff like "they're not contributing anything novel", and otherwise completely underestimate the wonderful transformation that they have effected in personal travel and efficient usage of cars. 6. Young American liberals have become so annoying about political correctness causes such as workplace sexual politics that I have really come to hate that aspect of working in America and I am inclined to support Uber just to annoy them (being honest here, I didn't claim my post would be appreciated). 7. The sight of Bernie Sanders-supporting liberals earnestly trying to improve the world by choosing one silicon valley start-up over another would be funny, if the failures of the left weren't so depressing at this time when we need a grown-up left more than ever.
- DonHopkins 9y ago
  "6. Young American liberals have become so annoying about political correctness causes such as workplace sexual politics that I have really come to hate that aspect of working in America and I am inclined to support Uber just to annoy them (being honest here, I didn't claim my post would be appreciated)." I've frequently observed people taking untenable positions that they know are wrong, they don't actually believe in, and they can't justify or defend, just to be a dick, in order to punish somebody who hurt their feelings but was right. But you're the first person I've ever seen actually come out and admit that is what they do. Kudos on your honesty, if for nothing else. There are a whole lot of people who behave like you but don't admit it. It's not an original, ethical, constructive or intelligent behavior, but you're just the first person I've seen openly admit that's how they operate. You'll tolerate sexual harassment, but only because somebody who was against it annoyed you, and you wanted to annoy them back. Was it more annoying for you to experience someone who is annoyingly intolerant of sexual harassment, than it is annoying to actually be sexually harassed? The Paradox of Annoyance sound like the evil corollary to the Paradox of Tolerance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance
losteverything 9y ago
Imo there has not been enough time for a thorough report (since Feb). Investigations of an entire company take a long time, especially if sexual harassment is investigated. I wonder how deep into the organization the investigators solicited input? Did Joanne and Joe Schmo get interviewed? How about any customers or contracted employees? But- uber hired the advice, a point I need to remember
adventured 9y ago
Reading this thread, and the hundred other threads on HN about Uber over the years, I can hardly believe how many people don't understand basic business concepts that are preventing other companies from easily taking Uber's crown. If it can be done as easily as so many in this thread are claiming, then why aren't you a billionaire? (oh I know, you just don't want to be) It's a repetition of the same things I read on HN when it became obvious that Facebook was going to be a social monopoly. Fantasy: it's easy to clone Facebook, it's really not even that complex, someone should build an open competitor that the public will reject in every way and never want to use. The same was frequently said about Twitter as well, countless clones were attempted, zero succeeded. And it's dramatically harder to successfully replicate & compete with Uber than Twitter. There are in fact numerous switching costs and extreme barriers to entry, that prevent competitors from just rising up and taking Uber's position as king. Otherwise there would be a dozen Ubers in the US, all vying to be multi-billion dollar companies, making their founders billionaires, and yielding huge returns for VCs.

223 points by pdelbarba 9y ago

If my mom had just died in an accident and there was a friend in place who I trusted to take over and mind the store while I went and rebooted my soul for a few months, I'd probably take leave too. Seems like it's likely a net positive for Uber in the long run.

ASinclair 9y ago
> a friend in place who I trusted to take over and mind the store Who is that in this case? His "closest deputy" and SVP is out now too.
- perceptor 9y ago
  Exactly. No love or hate for Kalanick, but this is a couldn't-come-at-a-worse-time coup from his perspective.
  - jasonmp85 9y ago
    This isn't a coup, it's just deserts. One might expect such a paranoid person to have better protections in place against this inevitability.
  - bastawhiz 9y ago
    > couldn't-come-at-a-worse-time It's been a couldn't-come-at-a-worse-time few months. I think everyone would agree that had the accident happened any time between February and now, it would have been a couldn't-come-at-a-worse-time scenario.
- nugget 9y ago
  My bet would be that Garrett Camp takes over as interim CEO with the plan to step aside once Travis returns.

xbeta 9y ago

For someone who recently lost a mother and still have a badly injured father. This is totally understandable regardless whether he is a CEO of Uber. For a regular employee, he could request for a sabbatical. But as a CEO, that's difficult given there is no CFO, CMO, COO existed.

MikeTheGreat 9y ago
What do you mean by 'sabbatical'? What is this, and how do regular, salaried employees get this?
- nerfhammer 9y ago
  It's not unusual for BigCos to have a leave of absence policy for regular employees.
- EpicEng 9y ago
  I've seen "regular, salaried employees" take sabbaticals for personal reasons more than once. Beyond that, comparing a CEO to a typical employee is ridiculous. You may not like it, but yes, they're viewed as more important by the board and a CEO is more important 99.9% of the time. Devs don't make life or death business decisions and set the cultural tone for the entire company.
- bastawhiz 9y ago
  Most companies in SV tend to have, in addition to paid maternal/paternal leave, the option to take unpaid leave. I have many friends and colleagues who have taken advantage of this for a variety of reasons. It's really not that uncommon.
  - smileysteve 9y ago
    It's implicit that as long as your company is hiring your position you can take unpaid leave; the outlier is paid sabbatical.
    - 9y ago

yladiz 9y ago

I'm in no way a fan of Uber, and I have a hard stance on not taking it anymore due to the company's actions in the past, but I really wish his possible leave of absence wasn't spun as a result of the investigation done by Holder, at least not majorly. I would imagine him taking a leave of absence may be much more due to his parents boating accident where his mother died and his father was seriously injured, and while the investigation may play a role in his stress, from my understanding the board is in support of Travis and he has major voting rights in the company anyway, so he can't just be forced to leave.

redm 9y ago
Considering how he got burned by at RedSwoosh by VC's pulling out early and by investors at Scour, it's no surprise that he would have taken special care to ensure he retained control. I would be surprised if he could be easily outed.
- bsder 9y ago
  Interesting. Didn't know this history. Got some links? I still think Kalanick is a jerk, but that kind of history would explain at least some of it.
  - jdorfman 9y ago
    Brad Stone covers it in great detail in "The Upstarts". Great read.
  - sbuccini 9y ago
    I would really recommend watching this talk[1] TK gave at Failcon back in 2011. It's a great insight into Travis's background and the mindset that he imbued into Uber in the early days. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QrX5jsiico https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QrX5jsiico
  - drspacemonkey 9y ago
    The Dollop (a history comedy podcast) recently did an episode on Uber and Kalanick. http://thedollop.libsyn.com/271-uber http://thedollop.libsyn.com/271-uber

zajd 9y ago

> I really wish his possible leave of absence wasn't spun as a result of the investigation done by Holder Why not? > I would imagine him taking a leave of absence may be much more due to his parents boating accident where his mother died and his father was seriously injured Based on what?

yladiz 9y ago
Based on the fact he's a fucking human being.
- AdamJacobMuller 9y ago
  In the process of hating someone (and there is a lot to dislike about Kalanick) people commonly and unfortunately loose sight of that fact. You can hate how someone runs their business (which I do, somewhat) and still have compassion for a loss like what he went through, which I had not heard of until today and which sounds quite heartbreaking.
  - yladiz 9y ago
    I think because a lot of people don't know Travis personally (including myself) it's easier to not empathize with what's happened, especially if you've never felt the same loss, because he's essentially reduced to this ephemeral figure rather than an alive person. I don't know if I could be friends with Travis based on the news I've read, and I wouldn't choose to work for his company, but I still feel for him on a base level.
    - bearcobra 9y ago
      I think you can still empathize with Travis, but have doubts about how much his leave is related to the loss of his mother. It appears that the Holder investigation recommended the departure of Emil Michael. A number of other executives have also left recently. Based on all available evidence there is something happening with Uber's leadership and the board is trying to address it. Travis very well may not be in a position to do that due to his grief, but the (potential) timing of his leave coinciding with the release of the investigation's findings seems to indicate that is the primary cause.

throwawayhf 9y ago

Can someone please check his father's medical records to make sure he's really injured and not just providing a convenient cover story for Travis to hide during a tough time?

27182818284 9y ago
Well, the papers confirmed already his mother died in the same accident so... even if it was just that and his father was totally fine it'd be understandable. It is pretty paranoid to think that he faked his mother's death and his father's injuries to take a leave of absence to dodge Uber drama.
- throwawayhf 9y ago
  Yeah, but this is basically the attitude that led Uber to steal a rape victim's medical report with Travis's blessing, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ In reality I hope his father gets better but Travis loses fucking everything. Nice to see the SV double-standard where I get downvoted and he gets billions of dollars.
- jasonmp85 9y ago
  I don't understand why the above comment was flagged. A woman was raped by an Uber driver in India. Eric Alexander brought the records to Kalanick, who rather than fire him for obtaining illicit medical documents related to an ongoing criminal investigation instead questioned the details in the report and postulated that the whole thing might have been fabricated by a competitor. That's what the OP was talking about.
  - shkkmo 9y ago
    I'm guessing that even those who realized it was a snide and sarcastic reference to the event you mention, didn't think that sort of discourse fit for HN.
dang 9y ago
We've banned this account for trolling. Please don't create accounts to break the HN guidelines with. We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14539226 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14539226 and marked it off-topic.

ProfessorLayton 9y ago

I'm curious to see what'll happen to Uber's governance structure when they finally burn through their cash hoard. At their current burn rate, they'll have completely exhausted their cash hoard within 10 quarters [1]. Due to TK and his buddy's supervoting shares, he may be able to withstand his oust, but only while there's still money in the bank. I can't see them being able to raise money on founder-friendly terms again after all this turmoil. Indeed this may be the only way to remove TK's grip on the company, or even altogether. [1] https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/31/ubers-head-of-finance-is-out/ https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/31/ubers-head-of-finance-is-o...

jacquesm 9y ago
> I can't see them being able to raise money on founder-friendly terms again after all this turmoil. Indeed this may be the only way to remove TK's grip on the company, or even altogether. Uber has something working for them though: sunk cost. Even if normally they would not be able to raise money on founder friendly terms - or maybe not even at all - in this case they just might because the investors would not want to write off their huge investment to date. If the alternative is to let the ship go down they will fund it some more.
ProAm 9y ago
If Uber fails to be profitable and autonomous doesnt take off for them they can easily license their software to other companies of all sorts and make a nice chunk of change. Just providing it to cab services alone will make them a lot of money. It'd be considered a unicorn pivot....

WisNorCan 9y ago

Assuming this is actually true, this tweet [0] captures the unusual state of Uber right now "Uber no longer has a COO, CBO, CFO, CMO or SVP of Eng and may temporarily not have a CEO. From autonomous cars...to autonomous company." And there have also been reports about the CTO being asked to leave [1]. [0] https://twitter.com/hemal/status/874300172330647552 https://twitter.com/hemal/status/874300172330647552 [1] https://www.recode.net/2017/5/16/15616024/uber-sexual-harassment-work-hostility-investigation-executive-turnover https://www.recode.net/2017/5/16/15616024/uber-sexual-harass...

Cacti 9y ago
I struggle to think of a reason why they (or anyone else for that matter) even need a CBO or CMO.
- georgespencer 9y ago
  I'd speculate that most businesses would benefit from a good CMO. From [at times painful] experience: CMO should be a surrogate-founder level position for a quant marketer who is aware that they are not a qual marketer. Ultimately the challenge of optimising the deployment of a marketing budget in excess of $5m USD is difficult for a CEO who is operationally involved in any other area of the business, but pre-profit is an incredibly metric driven task. A good quant marketer will be able to handle numbers in a way that a brand marketer will not, but will be open to listening to arguments for qualitative marketing. The trouble is that marketing as a discipline is full of quals pretending to be quants, and most of them are bad. Whenever I have dinner with friends who run venture-backed startups I ask how happy they are with their CMO, and there's a general acceptance that CMOs have a two year lifespan. (I should add that I'm certain it's incredibly unforgiving being CMO in a startup where product/market and the unit economics are probably not proved. Simple things like calculating churn or LTV are made impossible. Tough gig.)
rockarage 9y ago
Good for Uber, because their leadership was overrated, Uber could be better offer with new leadership Here's why: 1.) Uber defeated much of their competition by burning cash in monetizing schemes that are shady and unsustainable. https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/31/uberpool-sf-buzzfeed-documents-burn-rate/ https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/31/uberpool-sf-buzzfeed-docum... https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/uber-true-cost-uh-oh https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/uber-true-cost-uh... https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/23/business/economy/uber-drivers-tax.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/23/business/economy/uber-dri... https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2017/01/19/ftc-says-uber-misled-drivers-company-to-pay-20m-settlement/#65ceefa31c78 https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2017/01/19/ftc-says... 2.)Their other competitive advantage is branding, but that is not a moat-like advantage, if Uber was to disappear tomorrow, there are competitors who will quickly takeover & grow, this happened when Uber left Austin. 3.) They were complacent with sexual harassment & discrimination in the company. A business/startup should never allow harassment to be a thing, this is failure at leadership 101.

Allower 9y ago

Why do people care?

redm 9y ago

In general, I'm glad Uber is getting their comeuppance, with all the shady things they've done, they are overdue. On a personal note, having worked for a period with Travis at RedSwoosh, I think he's getting the raw end of this deal. He's a really great entrepreneur and a nice enough guy. He pushes hard but and plays to win; as the CEO, he's getting an inordinate amount of fallout from these issues. I would say he's not the root cause of the issues but he is the root cause of Uber's success. Uber will not be the same without him.

lovich 9y ago
He may be getting an inordinate amount of fallout from these issues, but hes also getting an inordinate amount of the benefit in terms of pay and equity. You can't get the benefits and complain about the responsibilities
__jal 9y ago
Good guys(TM) have done a lot of damage. I've been through this; I had a friend whom I still like a great deal as a person, but who did a ton of damage in a different type of situation. It is hard to sort out. But the fact remains, total assholes are capable of being ethical and moral, and the nicest person in the world can be a horrorshow. Coming off as nice doesn't tell us anything about character, even though we are wired to feel otherwise. He is the CEO, who has been caught red-handed being various flavors of deceptive, assholish, unconcerned with the externalities caused by his actions, not to mention several deeply unethical acts across years of time. That's before we get to the actions of his minions. I have trouble understanding how you can credit him with success (which naturally means he "earned" his billions) while claiming he should be shielded from the fallout of his own and his reports' actions.
fosk 9y ago
I wouldn't be in SF running my company if Travis didn't decide to host this poor broke immigrant (me) at his house in 2009 (the JamPad) without asking anything in return. And like me, many others. He is a nice guy, he helps people, and he has strong passion in hating the failure. Is Uber too aggressive? Maybe yes - but you need to be aggressive to fight regulations, governments, taxi cartels and the like all over the world.

naturalgradient 9y ago

Regardless of what specific reasons he has or hasn't for accepting this move, this is fascinating from an organisational perspective. With a significant part of senior leadership replaced, what will happen to Uber's work place culture? As in, can culture in such a large organisation be changed top down? Are there any examples where an organisation has changed on a short time scale? I am thinking of the Ballmer/Nadella transition but in my (outsider) perception it took years for Microsoft to be viewed differently as a company. There is also an aspect of bringing in an outsider versus letting an insider take over.

nostrademons 9y ago
Culture always changes when the CEO is replaced. The culture of Google changed noticeably when Eric Schmidt stepped aside for Larry Page, and I've heard it's changed again now that Sundar is CEO (ironically, it seems closer to the Schmidt era now, but without the perks & engineering freedom). The culture of YCombinator changed when Paul Graham stepped aside for Sam Altman. It does take a couple years to take hold though. I remember that when Larry took over Google in 2011, it was largely business as usual at first, but there was a noticeable shift by the time I left in 2014.
- amyjess 9y ago
  Can you go into detail about how the culture changed? I'm curious.
  - nostrademons 9y ago
    From Eric -> Larry: - "More wood behind fewer arrows". This was actually a Steve Jobs principle that Larry adopted: kill off all your insignificant products to focus on just a few key areas. - More willingness to take on moonshots; less tolerance for projects that might be good for a small segment of the userbase, but don't appreciably move the needle. - Seemingly less collegial atmosphere. Eric tolerated a lot of "You'll do your thing, I'll do mine, and it's okay if Google has half a dozen products that all do slight variations of each other." Larry insisted on more product discipline, but that often meant more of a scarcity mentality among execs, which led to more turf wars and infighting. - More top-down culture. Eric had few opinions on what Google should be doing, he just wanted to make sure we were doing it well. Larry had very definite opinions on what Google should be doing, and if you didn't share them, go start your own company. - More chaotic management style. I got the sense that Larry didn't actually know what was going on with the company, on an individual-contributor level, and so when he made decisions, they often made no sense to the rest of the company. Eric didn't know what was going on with the company either, but he was okay with that, as long as the money kept coming in and we didn't do anything illegal, so he made fewer decisions that weren't a direct reaction to an issue that was brought to him. From Larry -> Sundar. Keep in mind that I left before Sundar became CEO, so this is all second-hand: - Hierarchy and top-down culture has persisted. - Collegiality seems to have returned. Just my perception, but Google seems a nicer place to work now than when G+ was seemingly taking over the company in 2012. - Sundar is generally more informed and, well, sane, as perceived by the employees. - Sundar is a caretaker: the core areas of Google are explicitly designed not to require massive company-changing innovation, instead relying on incremental improvement to existing products that can be driven by middle-management, and all the innovation is shunted off to the rest of Alphabet where Larry & Sergey have a more direct role in shepherding it. I think all 3 CEOs were strong in their own way, but the CEO transition made me appreciate how oftentimes a leader's biggest strengths are often also their biggest weaknesses. Larry is insane, for instance; IMHO he's insane in a good way, because we outright wouldn't have Google otherwise, but that same oddness of perception made him a maddening CEO to work under. Similarly, Eric was a great peacemaker and good at quickly making decisions that pleased as many people as possible, but that same ability to compromise made him a poor innovator and unlikely to have the moral courage to bet the company on crazy ideas. It also convinced me that Paul Graham's thesis, that big companies are constitutionally incapable of innovating, was correct. The reason is precisely that duality above; in order to innovate, you need someone whose personality is insane, but who then has to directly butt up against reality, and experience that resistance first-hand. It doesn't work for someone insane to direct lots of not-insane employees who get paid to build the product, because the type of creative insights that come from facing contradiction directly can't survive outside of a single mind. The innovator has to do the work directly.

kafkaesq 9y ago

Chief Executive Travis Kalanick is likely to take a leave of absence from the troubled ride-hailing company, but no final decision has yet been made, according to a source familiar with the outcome of a Sunday board meeting. Where "is likely to take a leave of absence", in this context, is shorthand for "has grudgingly agreed to resign as soon as we can find a replacement -- which, believe us, we intend to do as soon as humanly possible. But we'll in the interim call it 'taking leave' to soften the overall business impact -- and of course to at least attempt to staunch the exodus of the best and brightest of our employees, no doubt already in progress."

smacktoward 9y ago
And to let whoever hands him the inevitable plush consolation gig as a advisor/VC/"entrepreneur-in-residence"/whatever do so with the minimum possible amount of embarrassment.

overcast 9y ago

It's been an incredible journey!

dang 9y ago
Would you please not post unsubstantive comments here? We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14539532 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14539532 and marked it off-topic.

rtx 9y ago

How to lose $70 billion.

niuzeta 9y ago

I'm no fan of Uber(Interesting how many of comments either start off with this sentiment or include it at some point of time), but as a human being, I can't help but feel sympathy for Kalanick for his situation. Looking at some comments that treat this as a comeuppance of a sort is disturbing[1]. We really shouldn't use anthropomorphization of a company to justify inhumanity in us. [1] and I'm seeing those comments being flagged. Very good.

rXoX 9y ago
> We really shouldn't use anthropomorphization of a company to justify inhumanity in us And yet... what is the purpose of branding, but to 'humanize' a service or product produced group of people who are gathered for the purpose of profit?
dang 9y ago
That's right. The difference between picking up any stick and stone to hurl at the object of one's anger, versus pausing to consider what's right, is a test of intellectual honesty. This comes from a level that has nothing to do with Uber or whatever the surface topic is. We all have both levels inside us, so it's good to remind each other which should be operational in this community. It is also a good test for the kind of commenting we want on HN—we want reflective comments, not reflexive ones—so yes, such comments should be flagged.
redditmigrant 9y ago
I feel bad for Travis' loss on a personal level. But clearly he didnt feel bad enough when someone got raped. https://www.buzzfeed.com/pranavdixit/the-victim-in-ubers-india-rape-case-is-considering-legal?utm_term=.ca7g5APQD#.ooLg6ORl1 https://www.buzzfeed.com/pranavdixit/the-victim-in-ubers-ind...

baq 9y ago

“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.”

amyjess 9y ago

Previous discussions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14538875 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14538875 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14533593 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14533593

flinty 9y ago

Its sad how very few if any news orgs will mention his recent loss of his mother and serious injuries to his father in a boat accident as a potential cause for taking a leave of absence.

abawany 9y ago
I became aware of that tragedy since NYT sent me a news alert about it on a Sunday morning. I recall follow-up NYT articles where this was mentioned as a potential cause as well. However, most other news sources that I have read have not mentioned this aspect.
Myrmornis 9y ago
Strongly agree. The (mostly liberal) media coverage of Uber is disgusting and pathetic.

mabbo 9y ago

He might be a good guy, but he's running a company like a sociopath and breeding a toxic environment. A company's culture and reputation are a reflection of the person or people at the top. He either needs to legitimately fix the problems or stand aside and let a better leader do it. Edit: For the record, I'd much prefer to see him do the former than the latter.

tptacek 9y ago
Do you say he's running Uber like a sociopath from personal experience, or are you working from the same thirdhand sources that all the rest of us are? If the latter, maybe there's a better, less strident way to make this point, if it needs to be made.
- r00fus 9y ago
  Why does it take "personal experience" to make this call? The facts speak for themselves.
  - tptacek 9y ago
    No. You might say the facts speak clearly that Uber was mismanaged or even toxic --- I would lean towards agreeing with you, though my epistemic certitude is no doubt lower than yours. LOTS of people disagree with us. So it's a stretch to say the assertion is self-evident. But unless you know something we don't, you are nowhere close to calling Kalanick "sociopathic". Hence the question. We should all try to be more careful about how we talk about people.
- mabbo 9y ago
  I mean from what we see generally of the company. Uber has a killer product that solves many problems, yet they seem bent on doing things in ways I find unethical. The programs to hide from government officials; sending recruiters on Lyft trips to try to steal them; wasting Lyft drivers' time/money by sending false requests (accused on both sides, but nonetheless); pretty damning evidence of corporate espionage in regards to the Waymo lawsuit (still to be decided but it's not going well for them); yelling at the Uber driver in that youtube video. To be clear, the general meaning I'm using of sociopathy is the one of impaired empathy for others and lack of remorse, overinflated ego, etc. If this is what the man at the top is deciding is the right way to do business, that sets the tone for the company.

trhway 9y ago

giving a bunch of people departing - involuntarily or supposedly not - right now, what happens with their options, ie. do they get a [sweet] deal on it (one can see how loosing potential multiple [tens/hundreds] millions may possibly put them into litigious and/or talking mode otherwise)? If i remember Uber didn't allow for secondary market transactions, and given the valuation i don't think anybody would be able to afford (or believe in Uber's current valuation strong enough) to pay that size of AMT on their own. On the other side, giving deal to the ones who is supposedly being punished for bad behavior - that wouldn't send a good signal either.

blacksqr 9y ago

In all this brouhaha, will Uber ever bother either to confirm or disprove Susan Fowler's original anecdotes? Validating her word and her integrity would go a long way toward showing Uber is serious about reform. Otherwise, it seems like they are simply taking another very roundabout path to silencing a woman.

ivraatiems 9y ago
I wouldn't hold your breath. These problems don't start or end with Fowler (though her story is one of the best examples of them), and per her remarks just today, she has no reason to expect them to genuinely change or to apologize.[1] [1] https://twitter.com/susanthesquark/status/874684029949235200 https://twitter.com/susanthesquark/status/874684029949235200

futun 9y ago

Uber is a ponzi scheme.

williamle8300 9y ago

Note the article: Kalanick has "super voting powers." The board didn't put him on an involuntary vacation. He put himself on a vacation to avoid the fallout from the leaked email[1] 1. https://www.recode.net/2017/6/8/15765514/2013-miami-letter-uber-ceo-kalanick-employees-sex-rules-company-celebration https://www.recode.net/2017/6/8/15765514/2013-miami-letter-u...

ElEmEnOhP 9y ago
That e-mail seems reasonable to me. I'm going to guess it has more to do with a death in the family than telling people not to vomit and to not get sexually involved with someone in their chain of command.

Ihateyouallhn 9y ago

Why are you such a cunt!

mifreewil 9y ago

This is why you don't wait to go public.

jimjimjim 9y ago

Terrible company. but the money people will have too much invested to just let it die. So this will probably happen: Clear the decks Put someone boring in charge Lie low for a while + submarine mode Resurface Announce some new interesting thing Charm offensive Carry on. I say the taint is still there, drive the stake in and add holy water.

Myrmornis 9y ago

Without claiming expertise regarding the company, I disagree fairly strongly with the attitudes commonly expressed towards Uber in the media (I read the Guardian and NYT mostly), on Hacker News, and elsewhere in the mostly liberal sources I am exposed to. Here are my reasons: 1. The Susan Fowler workplace sexual harassment claims were horrific and sounded true. So it does sound like there are some complete dicks working there. If the CEO was party to this stuff then I'm wrong, but I assume he wasn't. 2. The hatred for the CEO is surely exaggerated. The video of him in the cab with a customer was fine, it was a good robust conversation -- towards the end both parties became annoyed. Perfectly normal behavior. He sounds nice enough to me from the words of his that I've read. Obviously you don't take CEOs that seriously; they're entire job is to place inane positive spin on their company every day that they wake up. 3. The Guardian and NYT so obviously have the knives out for the company that it's become laughable reading their coverage. 4. His mum just died in a tragic accident and people are not even mentioning that in stories about him taking time off. 5. It's become common for people to say stuff like "they're not contributing anything novel", and otherwise completely underestimate the wonderful transformation that they have effected in personal travel and efficient usage of cars. 6. Young American liberals have become so annoying about political correctness causes such as workplace sexual politics that I have really come to hate that aspect of working in America and I am inclined to support Uber just to annoy them (being honest here, I didn't claim my post would be appreciated). 7. The sight of Bernie Sanders-supporting liberals earnestly trying to improve the world by choosing one silicon valley start-up over another would be funny, if the failures of the left weren't so depressing at this time when we need a grown-up left more than ever.

DonHopkins 9y ago
"6. Young American liberals have become so annoying about political correctness causes such as workplace sexual politics that I have really come to hate that aspect of working in America and I am inclined to support Uber just to annoy them (being honest here, I didn't claim my post would be appreciated)." I've frequently observed people taking untenable positions that they know are wrong, they don't actually believe in, and they can't justify or defend, just to be a dick, in order to punish somebody who hurt their feelings but was right. But you're the first person I've ever seen actually come out and admit that is what they do. Kudos on your honesty, if for nothing else. There are a whole lot of people who behave like you but don't admit it. It's not an original, ethical, constructive or intelligent behavior, but you're just the first person I've seen openly admit that's how they operate. You'll tolerate sexual harassment, but only because somebody who was against it annoyed you, and you wanted to annoy them back. Was it more annoying for you to experience someone who is annoyingly intolerant of sexual harassment, than it is annoying to actually be sexually harassed? The Paradox of Annoyance sound like the evil corollary to the Paradox of Tolerance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance

losteverything 9y ago

Imo there has not been enough time for a thorough report (since Feb). Investigations of an entire company take a long time, especially if sexual harassment is investigated. I wonder how deep into the organization the investigators solicited input? Did Joanne and Joe Schmo get interviewed? How about any customers or contracted employees? But- uber hired the advice, a point I need to remember

adventured 9y ago

Reading this thread, and the hundred other threads on HN about Uber over the years, I can hardly believe how many people don't understand basic business concepts that are preventing other companies from easily taking Uber's crown. If it can be done as easily as so many in this thread are claiming, then why aren't you a billionaire? (oh I know, you just don't want to be) It's a repetition of the same things I read on HN when it became obvious that Facebook was going to be a social monopoly. Fantasy: it's easy to clone Facebook, it's really not even that complex, someone should build an open competitor that the public will reject in every way and never want to use. The same was frequently said about Twitter as well, countless clones were attempted, zero succeeded. And it's dramatically harder to successfully replicate & compete with Uber than Twitter. There are in fact numerous switching costs and extreme barriers to entry, that prevent competitors from just rising up and taking Uber's position as king. Otherwise there would be a dozen Ubers in the US, all vying to be multi-billion dollar companies, making their founders billionaires, and yielding huge returns for VCs.