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In today’s politically correct environment, the masses are wont to instantly discredit and discard the entire career of anyone whose personal failings happen to

In today’s politically correct environment, the masses are wont to instantly discredit and discard the entire career of anyone whose personal failings happen to become public. Travis spent a tiny fraction of his time being a jerk. The rest of it was spent creating one of the most impactful companies that the world has ever seen. Give credit where credit is due. ”Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done” - Bryan Stevenson Edit: I should have used the word valuable instead of impactful. I’m leaving it in because the Uber critics responding below have all jumped on my use of the term, and those replies would no longer make sense if I change it. That said, I do believe Uber has been a very impactful company and will continue to be.

davidcbc 9y ago
Personal failings are one thing, but that hasn't been the downfall of Travis Kalanick. His professional failings have been his downfall.
- downandout 9y ago
  I disagree. The video of him talking down to a driver seemed to be the catalyst. Once that came out, everyone that disliked Travis, stood to benefit from his dismissal, or just hated Uber, piled on with story after story. As an executive, he was aggressive and didn’t play nice with competitors or politicians seeking to limit his business and/or put their hands in its pockets. Show me someone that has built a $40+ billion business out of thin air that isn’t constantly pushing the limits like he did. Airbnb was born out of Craigslist spam. Facebook only grew because of a contact spammer that is still in use to this day. In Facebook’s early days, Hotmail temporarily blocked Facebook invite spam and their growth instantly dropped by 90%. Uber used Greyball to avoid giving rides to those in violation of its terms of service, some of whom were undercover law enforcement personnel looking to disrupt its business. These big businesses don’t come to fruition by accident, and the one thing they seem to have in common is that most of them broke the rules to get where they are. It may not be pleasant or politically correct, but it’s a fact of life.
  - jdblair 9y ago
    > Uber used Greyball to avoid giving rides to undercover law enforcement personnel looking looking to destroy their business. Uber used Greyball to evade municipal laws.
    - downandout 9y ago
      Yes, they were denying rides to undercover law enforcement personnel looking to destroy their business.
      - jdblair 9y ago
        Or regulate Uber the same as any other taxi service in their community. Look, I'm a fan of Lyft and Uber. They shook up an ossified taxi industry. But let's not sugarcoat what Uber did - they broke laws and constructed systems to aid breaking those laws.
EliRivers 9y ago
The rest of it was spent creating one of the most impactful companies that the world has ever seen. Are you talking about Uber? More convenient, cheaper taxis? Sure, I like that as much as the next person, but it's hardly one of the most impactful companies in history.
- djohnston 9y ago
  We’ve entered an unquantifiable mish-mash of superlatives but I’d reckon that uber, as a mainstream pioneer of the contemporary sharing economy, has had more of an impact than you’re willing to admit.
  - EliRivers 9y ago
    To compare it with the most impactful companies that the world has ever seen, I compare it to companies that did things like, for example, pioneer electricity distribution across the US (and other countries), or turn antibiotics from an exotic, expensive lab experiment into something that could be economically manufactured in quantity. They had top tier impact. By comparison, Uber is basically invisible.
  - IanCal 9y ago
    Certainly excellent at marketing the idea that selling services to people should be called the "sharing economy".
    - InitialLastName 9y ago
      And that marketing it as "selling services" to someone is a great way to avoid a minimum wage for that service.
room271 9y ago
'The rest of it was spent creating one of the most impactful companies that the world has ever seen.' I don't think Uber is this, even if 'impact' is purely taken as a morally neutral statement. It's just clearly not the case. Train companies, underground, shipping, airlines, have all had a much bigger impact and that's just looking at transport.
- downandout 9y ago
  And yet Uber is worth significantly more than nearly all of the companies in the specific verticals you mention.
  - lettergram 9y ago
    "worth" being valuation based on debt. We don't know their worth because they aren't public.
    - downandout 9y ago
      It’s worth what people are willing to pay for it. In this latest transaction, people are willing to invest billions at a $48 billion valuation. This money isn’t even flowing to the company, but rather to individual shareholders. That means it is currently worth $48 billion.
      - wellboy 9y ago
        That worth is the worth paid by people who don't know all the information, sold by people who didn't give all the information. Uber also wasn't worth $70B in the last round, investors didn't know that sexism was rampant and the culture horrible, which would have surely made them not invest if they had talked to female employees at uber. However, they didn't know that the culture is horrible and not able to grow another 10x under these conditions and conquer the autonomous driving market. They also didn't know that Uber had all these patent problem, but they did. Now, investors have invested at a $48B valuation, but they still overpaid, because they don't know all the information. Maybe they didn't care, because Uber told them, they will definitely be able to bloat up the company to $100, so that SoftBank makes their 2x. Surely they also have liquidation preference. So, they actual valuation of Uber, including all the bad that no one knows, is probably only at $10B. It could also only be $1B, since Uber probably won't compete in the autonomous car market and can only make $50M profit per year after stripping away all its overhead. But most people don't know this.
jekrk92929 9y ago
He built a company with a culture of theft, harassment, graft, hubris... He spent his time building THAT place I just described Besides, ride shares isn’t that novel. The math exists. The market itself already exists! It’s just poorly managed He found rich people to invest in “doing it at scale in the cloud.” I don’t really give credit for outcomes that anyone with a bachelors in math, and web dev skills could come up with conceptually if not scale The trickiest bit is getting money and navigating the administrative shitshow that is our society. But that’s easy when you just bribe ...pay... sycophants to do it He even said himself he has a lot of growing up to do. No need to defend him as simply misunderstood I don’t really give props for his accomplishments. He lived a contemporary life and got handouts from vultures who saw $$$ while looking at Travis
arcticfox 9y ago
'The rest of it was spent creating one of the most impactful companies that the world has ever seen.' I really don't think a marginal improvement on taxis qualifies for that title.
- downandout 9y ago
  The use of Uber and services like it has dramatically changed the lives of some people. Go ask a blind person if Uber has had an impact on their life. Even in the case of normal day-to-day users, I think it’s disingenuous to say that it’s a “marginal improvement on taxis”. Your bias, likely based on your dislike of Travis or the company, is showing through.
joejerryronnie 9y ago
Uber's true innovation was creating a very effective model for monetizing the exploitation of a labor force. They've convinced their drivers (labor) that using their own inventory and capital to generate large amounts of revenue for Uber in exchange for a nominal fee is worth it because "flexibility" and "side hustle".

davidcbc 9y ago

Personal failings are one thing, but that hasn't been the downfall of Travis Kalanick. His professional failings have been his downfall.

downandout 9y ago
I disagree. The video of him talking down to a driver seemed to be the catalyst. Once that came out, everyone that disliked Travis, stood to benefit from his dismissal, or just hated Uber, piled on with story after story. As an executive, he was aggressive and didn’t play nice with competitors or politicians seeking to limit his business and/or put their hands in its pockets. Show me someone that has built a $40+ billion business out of thin air that isn’t constantly pushing the limits like he did. Airbnb was born out of Craigslist spam. Facebook only grew because of a contact spammer that is still in use to this day. In Facebook’s early days, Hotmail temporarily blocked Facebook invite spam and their growth instantly dropped by 90%. Uber used Greyball to avoid giving rides to those in violation of its terms of service, some of whom were undercover law enforcement personnel looking to disrupt its business. These big businesses don’t come to fruition by accident, and the one thing they seem to have in common is that most of them broke the rules to get where they are. It may not be pleasant or politically correct, but it’s a fact of life.
- jdblair 9y ago
  > Uber used Greyball to avoid giving rides to undercover law enforcement personnel looking looking to destroy their business. Uber used Greyball to evade municipal laws.
  - downandout 9y ago
    Yes, they were denying rides to undercover law enforcement personnel looking to destroy their business.
    - jdblair 9y ago
      Or regulate Uber the same as any other taxi service in their community. Look, I'm a fan of Lyft and Uber. They shook up an ossified taxi industry. But let's not sugarcoat what Uber did - they broke laws and constructed systems to aid breaking those laws.

EliRivers 9y ago

The rest of it was spent creating one of the most impactful companies that the world has ever seen. Are you talking about Uber? More convenient, cheaper taxis? Sure, I like that as much as the next person, but it's hardly one of the most impactful companies in history.

djohnston 9y ago
We’ve entered an unquantifiable mish-mash of superlatives but I’d reckon that uber, as a mainstream pioneer of the contemporary sharing economy, has had more of an impact than you’re willing to admit.
- EliRivers 9y ago
  To compare it with the most impactful companies that the world has ever seen, I compare it to companies that did things like, for example, pioneer electricity distribution across the US (and other countries), or turn antibiotics from an exotic, expensive lab experiment into something that could be economically manufactured in quantity. They had top tier impact. By comparison, Uber is basically invisible.
- IanCal 9y ago
  Certainly excellent at marketing the idea that selling services to people should be called the "sharing economy".
  - InitialLastName 9y ago
    And that marketing it as "selling services" to someone is a great way to avoid a minimum wage for that service.

room271 9y ago

'The rest of it was spent creating one of the most impactful companies that the world has ever seen.' I don't think Uber is this, even if 'impact' is purely taken as a morally neutral statement. It's just clearly not the case. Train companies, underground, shipping, airlines, have all had a much bigger impact and that's just looking at transport.

downandout 9y ago
And yet Uber is worth significantly more than nearly all of the companies in the specific verticals you mention.
- lettergram 9y ago
  "worth" being valuation based on debt. We don't know their worth because they aren't public.
  - downandout 9y ago
    It’s worth what people are willing to pay for it. In this latest transaction, people are willing to invest billions at a $48 billion valuation. This money isn’t even flowing to the company, but rather to individual shareholders. That means it is currently worth $48 billion.
    - wellboy 9y ago
      That worth is the worth paid by people who don't know all the information, sold by people who didn't give all the information. Uber also wasn't worth $70B in the last round, investors didn't know that sexism was rampant and the culture horrible, which would have surely made them not invest if they had talked to female employees at uber. However, they didn't know that the culture is horrible and not able to grow another 10x under these conditions and conquer the autonomous driving market. They also didn't know that Uber had all these patent problem, but they did. Now, investors have invested at a $48B valuation, but they still overpaid, because they don't know all the information. Maybe they didn't care, because Uber told them, they will definitely be able to bloat up the company to $100, so that SoftBank makes their 2x. Surely they also have liquidation preference. So, they actual valuation of Uber, including all the bad that no one knows, is probably only at $10B. It could also only be $1B, since Uber probably won't compete in the autonomous car market and can only make $50M profit per year after stripping away all its overhead. But most people don't know this.

jekrk92929 9y ago

He built a company with a culture of theft, harassment, graft, hubris... He spent his time building THAT place I just described Besides, ride shares isn’t that novel. The math exists. The market itself already exists! It’s just poorly managed He found rich people to invest in “doing it at scale in the cloud.” I don’t really give credit for outcomes that anyone with a bachelors in math, and web dev skills could come up with conceptually if not scale The trickiest bit is getting money and navigating the administrative shitshow that is our society. But that’s easy when you just bribe ...pay... sycophants to do it He even said himself he has a lot of growing up to do. No need to defend him as simply misunderstood I don’t really give props for his accomplishments. He lived a contemporary life and got handouts from vultures who saw $$$ while looking at Travis

arcticfox 9y ago

'The rest of it was spent creating one of the most impactful companies that the world has ever seen.' I really don't think a marginal improvement on taxis qualifies for that title.

downandout 9y ago
The use of Uber and services like it has dramatically changed the lives of some people. Go ask a blind person if Uber has had an impact on their life. Even in the case of normal day-to-day users, I think it’s disingenuous to say that it’s a “marginal improvement on taxis”. Your bias, likely based on your dislike of Travis or the company, is showing through.

joejerryronnie 9y ago

Uber's true innovation was creating a very effective model for monetizing the exploitation of a labor force. They've convinced their drivers (labor) that using their own inventory and capital to generate large amounts of revenue for Uber in exchange for a nominal fee is worth it because "flexibility" and "side hustle".