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I'm looking forward to the tell-all about Lyft's PR black ops against Uber.

RSZC 9y ago
I've got a buddy who works for (possibly one of multiple?) Lyft's PR firm, and has worked on that account. You don't need any sort of 'black ops' when your competitor is busy generating their own bad headlines. Instead you just call up your journalist connections every time Uber does something stupid to make sure they saw it.
- sillysaurus3 9y ago
  I don't know. It's very convenient that Lyft is seen as the do-no-wrong Uber alternative. Once the dust settles, it will be interesting to see whether Lyft is as innocent as everyone presumes.
  - woodandsteel 9y ago
    Given how Uber operates, if Lyft is doing anything wrong, I would expect Uber would already be publicizing it, and indeed be trying to make it look a good deal worse than it really is.
fencepost 9y ago
"PR black ops" against Uber would probably consist of "smack down any Lyft people who approach 10% of Uber's public idiocy quotient," plus finding some charities to support, maybe something involving kittens and puppies.
davidgerard 9y ago
Standing back and pointing would do it. "Never interfere with your enemy when he is making a mistake."
throwaway232432 9y ago
Marc Andreessen and A16Z deserve scrutiny here. The most critical outlets are those with one of those two as investors. Pando Daily: Andreessen has 8% ownership https://pando.com/about/ https://pando.com/about/ Buzzfeed: A16Z invested $50m in Buzzfeed https://techcrunch.com/2014/08/10/buzzfeed-raises-50-million-dollars-from-andreessen-horowitz/ https://techcrunch.com/2014/08/10/buzzfeed-raises-50-million... Business Insider: Andreessen participated in the Venture Series, Series B and Series D https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/business-insider#/entity https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/business-insider#/en... More neutral/balanced outlets like Recode and TechCrunch don't have either as investors. Recode for example was the only media company that mentioned the death of Travis' mother as a primary motivation for taking leave of absence. The less balanced sources above barely mentioned that "detail" at the bottom of the articles on that matter. A16Z did Lyft's $60m Series C: https://www.crunchbase.com/funding-round/3b6daa9a-7bb9-d7de-2c91-89f207680e9d https://www.crunchbase.com/funding-round/3b6daa9a-7bb9-d7de-...
- snowwrestler 9y ago
  This is the type of stupid, silly, obvious smokescreen that makes it easy to portray Uber as a cartoon villain.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]

RSZC 9y ago

I've got a buddy who works for (possibly one of multiple?) Lyft's PR firm, and has worked on that account. You don't need any sort of 'black ops' when your competitor is busy generating their own bad headlines. Instead you just call up your journalist connections every time Uber does something stupid to make sure they saw it.

sillysaurus3 9y ago
I don't know. It's very convenient that Lyft is seen as the do-no-wrong Uber alternative. Once the dust settles, it will be interesting to see whether Lyft is as innocent as everyone presumes.
- woodandsteel 9y ago
  Given how Uber operates, if Lyft is doing anything wrong, I would expect Uber would already be publicizing it, and indeed be trying to make it look a good deal worse than it really is.

fencepost 9y ago

"PR black ops" against Uber would probably consist of "smack down any Lyft people who approach 10% of Uber's public idiocy quotient," plus finding some charities to support, maybe something involving kittens and puppies.

davidgerard 9y ago

Standing back and pointing would do it. "Never interfere with your enemy when he is making a mistake."

throwaway232432 9y ago

Marc Andreessen and A16Z deserve scrutiny here. The most critical outlets are those with one of those two as investors. Pando Daily: Andreessen has 8% ownership https://pando.com/about/ https://pando.com/about/ Buzzfeed: A16Z invested $50m in Buzzfeed https://techcrunch.com/2014/08/10/buzzfeed-raises-50-million-dollars-from-andreessen-horowitz/ https://techcrunch.com/2014/08/10/buzzfeed-raises-50-million... Business Insider: Andreessen participated in the Venture Series, Series B and Series D https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/business-insider#/entity https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/business-insider#/en... More neutral/balanced outlets like Recode and TechCrunch don't have either as investors. Recode for example was the only media company that mentioned the death of Travis' mother as a primary motivation for taking leave of absence. The less balanced sources above barely mentioned that "detail" at the bottom of the articles on that matter. A16Z did Lyft's $60m Series C: https://www.crunchbase.com/funding-round/3b6daa9a-7bb9-d7de-2c91-89f207680e9d https://www.crunchbase.com/funding-round/3b6daa9a-7bb9-d7de-...

snowwrestler 9y ago
This is the type of stupid, silly, obvious smokescreen that makes it easy to portray Uber as a cartoon villain.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]