
Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Is Leaving the Company’s Board of Directors - theBashShell
https://techcrunch.com/2019/12/24/uber-founder-travis-kalanick-is-leaving-the-companys-board-of-directors/
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Tomminn
While I don't think this is the case here, it's super interesting that leaving
in disgrace can be a valid financial exit strategy. The founder and (ex) CEO
of a company is able to sell 100% of their stock without causing a panic,
under the condition there is another story which justifies it.

Suppose you were in a position where you thought poorly of the long term
viability of the company. Wouldn't engineering a fallout with* the board be
ultimately prudent?

*"with" here could even mean "in collaboration with".

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stevievee
A methodical and peaceful exit ultimately is more prudent. For speed and
financial gain, you might be on to something but I think you pay for it in
negative legacy.

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meowface
Right. When you're already super-rich, positive reputation probably matters a
lot more to you than negative reputation + more money.

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sjg007
Anyone work at Cloud Kitchens? How are things there? They've already raised
$700M so it must be a big opportunity.

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JMTQp8lwXL
Not a Cloud Kitchens employee, but I interviewed with them. They have bright
talent, but the offers aren't all that good, especially for the level of
experience they were looking for: they want the cream of the crop of this
industry, and they do not want to pay top numbers.

The valuation has the "implicit" success baked into the price already-- and I
don't think you could say Uber is a guaranteed success story yet. With CK, you
take the risk of being an early employee with very little, if any, upside.
This came up in other threads recently, but it's likely better odds to stick
with Big N companies.

One angle people might be missing is how much CK is a real estate play.
There's real technical problems to tackle, but it requires spinning up these
dark kitchens in dense, pricy real estate markets. Conceptually, it's the
WeWork of restaurant kitchens, though I'm hesitant to draw that comparison due
to the many other connotations of WeWork that I wouldn't associate with CK.

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hintymad
Typical Travis, cheap as hell. He publicly said that people would join Uber
for purely monetary gains, so he wouldn't want to pay them much. Back in 2016,
he instructed his managers to A/B test packages to see how low a package
candidates can accept. Indeed, "forced" is more accurate than "instructed". I
guess nothing is wrong with Travis' MO. It's a free market anyway. It's just
that I wouldn't bet my future career on him.

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NelsonMinar
I wonder what impact him selling all his stock had on the share price. They
floated 180M shares at IPO, Travis owned 117.5M. Average daily volume is about
25M shares.

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loftyai
The release of the news might move the market a bit, but typically for these
large volume trades, they don't go through the typical exchanges like NYSE.
Instead, traders will often deal with another large player through an OTC
transaction.

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alexnewman
Many studies have shown that in the long term, OTC and normal trades have same
stock impact.

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Traster
I really don't know enough about this: why, in general do people step down
from the board of directors? Is is as simple as him not owning enough stock to
justify it anymore, or are there considerations like whether he's running a
competing business? It seems strange for him to leave - since as far as I can
tell there's no cost to having him on the board and as the founder he brings a
certain level of trust to the operation.

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rb808
Its a job that takes time, commitment and impacts your reputation. It isn't a
trivial title on the side while you do real work.

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ForHackernews
Is that true? Many people are on multiple corporate boards, and some boards
meet only a few times a year. I've only been on charity boards, but it wasn't
a particularly demanding commitment.

I guess the reputation cost is a good point, but Kalanick is always going to
be associated with Uber, whether he's officially on the board or not.

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sgent
In a public company there's a real time commitment -- not just regular
meetings, but committee meetings, etc.

That said, its more like a 5-10hr / wk commitment, not a full time job.

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felipellrocha
What kind of commitment? Can you give concrete examples?

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jeff_tyrrill
[http://jayshah.me/2018/01/05/board/](http://jayshah.me/2018/01/05/board/)
(and discussed at
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16108235](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16108235))

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fossuser
I have a pet theory that Travis is leveraging his new company to end up
attempting a Jobs NeXt Step style reverse take over of Uber.

I could be reading tea leaves, but it seems like something he’d have thought
about.

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blunderkid
Or he is quite happy to have cashed out instead of wasting his life away
trying to run a low (if any) margin, weak network effects business with local
competitors and regulators nibbling at your sanity.

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bane
It's kind of amazing that almost 100% of the Uber and Lyft rides I've taken in
the last 6 months have had drivers/cars that work for both simultaneously.
There only service distinction is which app you use to book the ride, the
inventory and employees are all the same.

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loftyai
It's interesting that you bring this up. Every time I take an uber or lyft
(which is very often), I ask the driver which one they prefer. Around early
2019, I've noticed a lot of drivers say they get more business on uber, but
prefer lyft. So, it seems like there is actually a noticeable distinction for
the 2 services, at least from the driver's perspective.

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CoolGuySteve
In NYC at least, they prefer Juno (RIP) or Via. For Uber they drive the
minimum amount possible to pay for the lease on their car if they have one.

The whole lease situation is kind of fucky though, they're like a
sharecropper.

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WomanCanCode
Uber, unlike WeWork, is offering something the market really need. I see a
viable path for them moving forward.

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BoiledCabbage
So he'll no longer make money if Uber stock takes off?

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greenyoda
If he thought Uber stock would take off, wouldn't he have kept at least some
of his stock? (The article notes that he's sold all his remaining stock.)

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rolltiide
Enjoy the money Travis! You won the game :)

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lostlogin
Considering what went on at Uber under his watch, I disagree.

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rolltiide
When he’s throwing a yacht party at Cannes Film Festival I guarantee you that
nobody will know, care or remember how he has enough money to be in that
situation.

Game = Won.

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aurizon
Running down the anchor chain?

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nickthemagicman
It's just my person musings but..for non-commodities companies(and I don't
think many tech companies are considered commodities)... I think that founders
have a certain vision and talent which cannot be separated from the company.

When that founder leaves, unless the company has become a monopoly, the
company is basically lost.

No amount of the worlds best and brightest bean counters can replace the
talent and spark that founder had.

These are just personal thoughts. It will be interesting to see how this plays
out in the future. To see if the board killed the golden goose like Apple did
in the 90s.

