The fall of Travis Kalanick

In two thousand seventeen, Uber's investors forced out CEO Travis Kalanick following scandals including allegations of sexism, corporate espionage, and a misogynistic corporate culture that failed to hold managers accountable for harassment.

A cultural shift in Silicon Valley

The ouster signaled a bigger shift away from the bro culture of Silicon Valley's early era. Tech journalist Mike Isaac's book Super Pumped noted that with Kalanick's fading, the backslapping bro culture of Silicon Valley's aught era is now seen as passé.

Kalanick returns unrepentant

After nearly a decade of self-imposed exile, Travis Kalanick is back with a multibillion-dollar industrial robotics venture and backing from powerful new patrons, not contrite or chastened about his Uber tenure.

A new generation of admirers

Young founders now see Kalanick's downfall as a cautionary tale rather than a reckoning. Kush Bavaria, who raised thirty three million dollars for his AI data startup Ornn, compares Kalanick to Steve Jobs, saying he's the Steve Jobs for founders of my generation.

“He's the Steve Jobs for founders of my generation.”

Venture capital welcomes him back

Ben Horowitz of Andreessen Horowitz, backing Kalanick's company Atoms, wrote that it takes a rare kind of entrepreneur to change old-school heavy parts of the economy, and Travis is that guy.

“It takes a rare kind of entrepreneur to change these old-school, heavy parts of our economy. Travis is that guy.”

Kalanick blames woke culture

In a video released by Andreessen Horowitz, Kalanick said he continues to stand by every decision he made at Uber, blaming his removal on extreme wokeness rather than accepting any responsibility for the scandals.

“I continue to stand by every decision I made at Uber.”

The Uber scandals detailed

Kalanick and cofounder Garrett Camp launched Uber in two thousand nine. As it grew, allegations emerged of misogynistic culture, covert programs like Greyball and Hell that sabotaged regulators, and passenger safety failures including a rape in Delhi in two thousand fourteen.

Susan Fowler's memo

In early two thousand seventeen, former Uber engineer Susan Fowler published a detailed memo describing a culture of impunity for high-performing managers, including one who sexually harassed her, jolting Uber's board into action.

The board's investigation

Uber's board commissioned an independent investigation led by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. The Holder report's recommendations included guidelines on alcohol and drug use and a prohibition on relationships with subordinates.

Investors force Kalanick out

Investors muttered about a Travis premium that depressed Uber's value. Benchmark partner Bill Gurley architected the ouster, joined by Fidelity and Menlo Ventures. The board replaced Kalanick with Dara Khosrowshahi, former head of Expedia, who remains Uber's CEO.

The timing of the ouster

Benchmark partners blindsided Kalanick with a resignation letter and instructed him to sign it the same day. The ultimatum came eleven days after Kalanick buried his mother, who died in a boating accident that also badly injured his father.

Kalanick's supervillain origin story

A Silicon Valley figure who knows Kalanick well says the experience had a profound effect on how he views the world, framing the traumatic sequence of events as Kalanick's Marvel supervillain origin story.

Kalanick's financial exit

In May of two thousand nineteen, Dara Khosrowshahi achieved an IPO. Kalanick, who had unloaded around a third of his shares to a private investor in two thousand eighteen, sold the rest six months after the IPO for a pretax haul of roughly four billion dollars.

Building Atoms in the shadows

Over nine years after his ouster, Kalanick laid groundwork for Atoms by buying real estate for food delivery hubs, developing AI and robotic technology, and acquiring a mining venture run by former Uber lieutenant Anthony Levandowski.

CloudKitchens and ghost kitchens

Kalanick's food delivery infrastructure business CloudKitchens, now folded into Atoms, was behind many ghost kitchens that began popping up around two thousand nineteen. He aims to do to the kitchen what Uber did to the car.

Atoms raises massive funding

Atoms has raised one point seven billion dollars in equity financing led by Andreessen Horowitz, in addition to previous investment in CloudKitchens likely in the hundreds of millions. The company did not disclose a total valuation.

Kalanick as mentor and patron

Kalanick has become an aspirational figure through active mentorship of young entrepreneurs. Shayne Coplan, founder of prediction platform Polymarket, said Kalanick provided useful guidance during a fraught legal period in late two thousand twenty four.

Founder mode and the new ethos

Paul Graham popularized the term founder mode in two thousand twenty four, extolling a speech by Airbnb cofounder Brian Chesky about founders being wary of having their vision clouded by advisors. Kalanick epitomizes this ethos for his younger fans.

The podcast rehabilitation tour

Kalanick has seized on founder-friendly podcasts and vodcasts to rehabilitate his image. These outlets are generally unabashedly pro-tech and give no truck to what many in Silicon Valley view as the pearl-clutching pieties of traditional news outlets.

Rewriting the Uber story

As Kalanick makes the rounds of the tech podcast circuit, he is building an alternate mythology around himself. In the new telling, his ouster stands not as a cautionary tale but as one step in his hero's journey, with venture capitalist Bill Gurley as the villain.