
Uber's Original Blog and First Posts - UberEstimate
http://uberexpansion.com/flashback-original-uber-blog/
======
frazras
check out the comments on their Techcrunch article - It would discourage any
young founder. [http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/15/ubercab-closes-uber-
angel-r...](http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/15/ubercab-closes-uber-angel-round/)

As they say, never read the comments.

~~~
nugget
Uber and Airbnb taught me to pay attention to what people do, not what they
say. By November 2010 I was taking Uber(Cab) once a day around SOMA and
absolutey loving it, referring all my friends to it, etc...and yet I still
remember letting the pessimism of the online nay sayer crowd infect my brain
and convince me it wasn't an awesome service. Live and learn. Airbnb was a
little different in that they had a soft pivot from renting out a spare
bed/room to mostly full home rentals (it was just a much easier site to use
than the other options available at the time), but not too different than Uber
in terms of traction once it really hit.

~~~
vacri
I thought you were going to go in the opposite direction with that comment, in
that Uber says that they're all sweetness and light and awesome for the
drivers, yet the actual reports of treatment by the drivers suggest more that
they're being screwed.

~~~
bobz
The comments on the internet suggest this. The number of people signing up to
be drivers suggests otherwise.

~~~
TeMPOraL
That's marketing for you. There's been enough scandals in the past two years
for it to be clear this is an evil company, but not many people know about
this. For most, Uber is this cool new disruptive startup with awesome app and
cheaper service, an underdog fighting the Evil Taxi Lords.

~~~
1stop
Lets unpack this myth of pure evil argument you've got going.

Uber is an evil company because they do some evil things?

Are they then not a good company because they do some good things?

Or are you saying ALL their actions are evil, and done intentionally, because
they enjoy being evil?

~~~
mfringel
If you have a bucket of honey and a bucket of poop, and you combine one with
the other, you have two buckets of poop.

~~~
1stop
Given capitalism gives us the profit motive.

The profit motive inevitably leads to a company prioritising dollars over
people (whether that is a consumer/supplier/employee/etc). Lets also agree
that prioritisation is generally considered "Evil".

Are all for profit companies buckets of poop?

Is capitalism evil?

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andrewbarba
I was lucky enough to meet Curtis last year at Uber HQ. Awesome dude,
incredibly smart. His Node talk from 2011 was a big contributing factor to me
learning node.js.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jups7FveC1E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jups7FveC1E)

Edit: And yes, God Mode was for developers. The media should chill and learn
to nerd out every once in a while...

~~~
minot
God mode existing wasn't the problem. Access to it in production was... Why
did managers have access?

~~~
cbhl
I don't understand how you would optimize routing/matching algorithms if you
_didn 't_ have a visualization of all the trips/cars in the city. As a entry-
level engineer.

Maybe it shouldn't have been tied to PII, but on the other hand there are some
wins that you miss out on if you don't. (IIRC someone said that pairing women
with women whenever possible increases overall rider engagement?)

~~~
minot
My assumption is that Uber became too big too fast.

> pairing women with women whenever possible increases overall rider
> engagement

I'd fear for the driver's safety if this is true and this arrangement became
public. Whoever thinks this is a good idea?

~~~
cbhl
FWIW, here's a related data point:

> _One in every 10 Lyft ride matches passengers with friends in common,
> according to Lyft._

[http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/lyft-launches-
profi...](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/lyft-launches-profiles-
connect-drivers-passengers-article-1.2163090)

------
bakztfuture
Bit of a plug, I recently put together a collection of changes to homepages
from startups in the ride sharing space (including Uber) over time. You can
check it out here:
[http://www.startuptimelines.org/collections/uber_lyft_taxi_s...](http://www.startuptimelines.org/collections/uber_lyft_taxi_startup_app_competitors/)

~~~
butwhy
Uber.... well that escalated quickly.

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beedogs
Who knew back then that they'd be burning cars in the streets of Paris over
this company.

~~~
pvdebbe
Well, in France they burn cars once in a while over any reason really :-)

~~~
mrottenkolber
Any reason? Youth poverty and loss of trust in the government, really.

~~~
dspillett
Other reasons too. In the protests in the north of France over British beef
(amongst other things) in the 90s(?) there was much burning of lorries.

I doubt it is a french thing either: how many riots end up involving fire
(London the other year for instance). At a certain critical mass of angry
uncontrolled people, a fire will be started somewhere within or near by.

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trimbo
Also this: [http://ubercab.tumblr.com/post/485301492/entrepreneurial-
roc...](http://ubercab.tumblr.com/post/485301492/entrepreneurial-rockstar-
engineer-needed-ground)

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devgutt
If the dates of the posts are correct, they were moving really really fast.

~~~
nostrademons
I had the opposite impression - the dates on the blog post start in Sept 2010,
but the TechCrunch article says that Garrett had the initial idea for the
company in 2008. That's almost 2 years between idea and angel funding.

~~~
dylanjermiah
They tried it multiple times, battery life and phone hardware couldn't handle
the requirements needed. Even with the phone plugged in, until 2010 when it
became possible.

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benblodgett
Tone immediately changes post funding, brash excitement early customer phase
-> pr.

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syllogism
Wait, I'm confused...

So taxi services had no phone dispatch over there? Like, you couldn't ring the
taxi booking, and they would route a taxi to you?

This has been a thing in Sydney for as long as I've been alive --- it probably
started up in the 70s. It wasn't great, and sometimes the taxi wouldn't show.
But it existed.

Was this not available in SF? Elsewhere in the US...?

~~~
SilasX
Of course it was, but it was extremely unreliable. That's what led to the
founding of Uber in the first place:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uber_%28company%29#Founding](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uber_%28company%29#Founding)

From the Wikipedia writeup, it could very well be that they just didn't know
the rules, but the experience in SF is the same: you can call a cab, but it's
hit-or-miss.

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arank
Here is a post of the first tweets from popular app companies -
[https://tapfame.com/launching-an-app/](https://tapfame.com/launching-an-app/)

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nlake44
I didn't know how corrupt YC was until now. How much is your soul worth?

~~~
thanatropism
I'll bite. What?

