Travis Cordell Kalanick is the co-founder and former CEO of Uber. He resigned from Uber in 2017 as a result of his involvement in the company’s unethical corporate culture.

Prior to starting Uber, Kalanick founded two peer-to-peer file-sharing startups, Scour and Red Swoosh. Due to legal and financial difficulties, both companies were forced to close. Kalanick, on the other hand, was able to sell Red Swoosh to Akamai for $23 million.

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Uber was conceived while Travis Kalanick and his friend Garrett Camp were attending a technology conference. However, they were unable to hail a cab following the event. Both of them had grown dissatisfied with cab services in San Francisco.

They then devised the concept of a timeshare limo service that anybody could order with an app. Camp became obsessed with the concept and even purchased the domain name UberCab.com. At the time, the concept was exclusive to high luxury black automobiles.

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Travis Kalanick was hired as a ‘Chief Incubator’ for the project and ultimately became the CEO of UberCab. Due to his shareholding, Kalanick had substantial authority over the company as CEO. He also made certain that new investors have limited financial knowledge about the company and only one-tenth of the voting power of the founders.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency issued a cease and desist order to UberCab in 2010. By operating as a taxicab company without the necessary permits, the company violated various city ordinances and labour laws.

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Kalanick instructed the company to disregard the injunction and changed the name from UberCab to Uber. This stopped the company from misrepresenting itself as a taxi service. Following that, the company swiftly expanded and is currently present in every major country and city.

During this time, Kalanick earned a reputation for being hostile and abrasive toward competitors, regulators, customers, workers, and Uber drivers. As a result, Uber’s corporate culture suffered.

Employees performed without pay on nights and weekends under Kalanick’s leadership. According to New York Times journalist Mike Isaac, Kalanick frequently dismissed sexual harassment complaints and favoured employees who were prepared to go to any length to rise in the company.

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Kalanick also allowed the use of industrial espionage tactics against competitors and regulators, according to a New York Times article. In a 2014 interview with GQ, Kalanick joked that the company’s moniker was “Boob-er” because of the female attention it was garnering him.

Travis Kalanick resigned as Uber’s CEO in a boardroom coup in 2017 after five significant investors sought his resignation. This came after the publication of a sexual harassment investigation report that urged Kalanick to take a leave of absence.

He continued to interfere in corporate operations even after resigning. Later, the executive leadership restricted his access to business servers. In 2019, he sold nearly 90% of his Uber shares for a profit of approximately $2.5 billion.