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’Twas the night before Christmas in 2019, when one man sold all his Uber shares. But this was no ordinary man, for he had taken Uber from a localized idea in California to a worldwide phenomenon.
We talk of Travis Kalanick, a CEO whose attitude helped launch Uber into a new level. But, in reality, Kalanick’s time in Uber was driven by an alpha-male philosophy that led to controversies piling one on top of the other.
We’ll tell you all about the scandal, or scandals, that got Kalanick out of Uber in this episode of Forensics.
Kalanick’s origins
Kalanick might be one of the most recognizable faces around Uber, but his origins in the startup world are smaller. They’re always controversial, but smaller. While studying computer engineering at UCLA, he met Michael Todd and Vince Busam.
They had a project called Scour, a peer-to-peer file transfer system to get all your healthy, wholesome content. Kalanick joined them as an employee, but he calls himself a cofounder nowadays. Such an attitude would be his trademark, and it paid off. He was so determined, investors started believing in him.
