When in a dispute with Philadelphia transit regulators, Uber promised to pay any fines and other costs if drivers’ vehicles were impounded:
Uberx: Reminder: If you are ticketed by the PPA, CALL US at [number removed]. You have 100% of our support anytime you are on the road using Uber–we are here for you, and we will get you home safe. All costs associated will be covered by us.
Source: Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped (p. 148)
Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped (p. 146) summarizes the “financial ruin” that car services and taxis faced when Uber entered their market and destroyed the value of their permits and medallions. Quoting from driver Doug Schifter’s suicide note:
When the industry started in 1981, I averaged 40-50 hours. I cannot survive any longer with working 120 hours! I am not a Slave and I refuse to be one.”
Then working at Google, Anthony Levandowski hired a lobbyist in Nevada to advocate for a law that allowed autonomous vehicles to operate without backup/safety drivers. Google didn’t know about this, and this was contrary to Google’s careful approach.
Source: Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped (p. 143)
Then working at Google, Anthony Levandowski had a startup on the side, 510 Systems. Without Google knowing, Levandowski and 510 sold Google technology for Google’s street-mapping project — using a middle-man so Google wouldn’t know who the seller was.
Source: Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped (p. 141)
Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped reports harsh terms Uber demanded when Google Ventures wanted to invest:
Google Ventures staff had to come to Uber’s headquarters to pitch, rather than Uber traveling to Google to solicit funds.
Google Ventures had to fund the entire round of investment, $250 million — the largest amount Google Ventures had ever invested in any company, with no prospect of sharing with other firms.
Google Ventures had to accept Uber’s valuation at $3.5 billion. (A larger valuation meant their investment would buy a smaller slice of the company.)
Google Ventures would not receive a voting seat on the board and would not receive regular, detailed information about Uber.
(pp. 133-134)
Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped (p. 131) describes Kalanick’s effort to reduce rights of investors:
Private companies aren’t obligated to make their internal statistics public, but investors with a significant ownership stake are generally given insight into the company’s financials. Kalanick, however, over time stripped some major investors of all “information rights,” and limited the degree of detail offered to others.
Isaac (p. 342) explains Kalanick’s response when investors demanded more information:
“So sue me,” he told [the investor]. “What’s your rep going to be in this industry if you sue your own company?”
Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped describes Kalanick’s attempt to “cripple” Lyft through negative advertising:
Uber found ways to mess with Lyft. All around San Francisco, Uber bought street signs and billboards targeting Lyft. Each billboard showed a large, black disposable razor blade with “Uber” printed on the handle, poised above one of Lyft’s pink, cuddly trademark mustaches. In the text behind the graphic, Uber made its message clear: “Shave the ‘Stache.”
(p.122)
Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped describes Kalanick’s attempt to “cripple” Lyft, including by disrupting Lyft marketing events:
He’d send his own employees to the [Lyft] events, where they would show up in jet black T-shirts–Uber’s signature color–carrying plates filled with cookies, each with the word “Uber” written in icing. Each Uber employee had a referral code printed on the back of their T-shirt. The codes were for Lyft drivers to enter when they signed up for Uber, earning them a bonus.
(p.122)
Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped describes Kalanick’s attempt to “cripple” Lyft, including by preventing investors from funding both Uber and Lyft. With Uber larger and ahead, many investors chose only Uber. (p.121)
In the period where Uber used properly-licensed black cars but competitors Lyft and Sidecar used ordinary vehicles, Travis Kalanick tried to get regulators to pursue Lyft and Sidecar. Uber leaders met secretly with San Franscisco transportation regulators to flag what they saw as violations. Source: Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped (p. 119). In addition, Kalanick personally blogged about the situation.
When Uber later launched UberX, with unlicensed vehicles much like Lyft and Sidecar, Kalanick wrote “We could have chosen to use regulation to thwart our competitors,” which Mike Isaac calls “disingenuous” in that Uber had in fact attempted to do exactly that.