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Here is a summary of the key points about copyright from the excerpt:

The excerpt is from the introduction of the book The Upstarts by Brad Stone. It describes two groups of entrepreneurs - Airbnb and Uber - attending President Obama’s inauguration in 2009.
Airbnb’s founders Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, and Nathan Blecharczyk went to promote their fledgling company AirBedandBreakfast.com. They passed out flyers and met with hosts, trying to take advantage of the crowds in DC.
Uber’s founders Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick also attended. They were interested in Camp’s idea for a service to summon black cars with a smartphone. The cold inauguration reinforced this need for on-demand transportation.
The excerpt suggests these groups were at the beginning of building hugely successful companies that would transform industries. Airbnb and Uber went on to become major players in the sharing and gig economies.
The introduction sets the stage for the origins and rise of these companies that would profoundly impact technology and business.
Smartphones and broadband internet became widely available in the 2000s, enabling the rise of Uber and Airbnb.
Neither company owns significant physical assets, yet Uber became a major transportation provider without cars and drivers, and Airbnb became a top lodging company without hotels.
They exemplify internet-enabled businesses that foster trust between strangers to enable new services.
Both experienced extremely fast growth in valuation, revenue, and brand recognition.
But they also faced controversies related to regulation, tenant rights, and employment law.
The founders represent a new generation of startup CEOs who are charismatic storytellers that rallied support for their vision.
Airbnb started as a side project in 2007 by Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky to help pay their rent. Their first guest was Amol Surve, who booked an air mattress in their San Francisco apartment via their website Airbedandbreakfast.com.
Surve was impressed by the thoughtfulness of his hosts, who provided house rules, wifi, maps, etc. He was surprised to see his own photo included in a presentation Gebbia and Chesky were preparing about their new home-sharing service.
The origins of Airbnb show it was not anyone’s main priority at first, just a way for the founders to pay rent. But they had bigger ambitions and hoped it would grow into something much larger.
It illustrates the humble beginnings of Airbnb as a simple side project and foreshadows its massive future growth into a major global company and pioneer of the sharing economy.
Brian Chesky grew up in a supportive middle class family in New York. He was interested in art and hockey as a kid. After breaking his collarbone twice, he started bodybuilding.
Joe Gebbia grew up in Georgia as the youngest child of two sales reps. He was interested in art, music, and sports. He and Chesky met at the Rhode Island School of Design.
At RISD, Chesky and Gebbia studied industrial design and collaborated on projects. They became good friends. Before graduation, Gebbia predicted they would start a company together someday.
After college, Chesky moved to LA and worked as a designer but found it unfulfilling. Gebbia invited him to live and work with him in San Francisco on various design projects.
In 2007, a design conference came to San Francisco and lodging was very expensive, giving Gebbia the idea for AirBed & Breakfast to rent out air mattresses in his apartment. Their first guest was Amol Surve.
Surve’s experience made Chesky enthusiastic about the Airbnb concept. He saw its potential to make a big impact. After the conference, they decided to turn the idea into a startup.
Brian Chesky was working as an industrial designer and getting frustrated with the pointlessness of his work. He was inspired by the success stories of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs like the founders of YouTube.
His friend Joe Gebbia had tried and failed to sell his CritBuns foam cushions after college. He invited Chesky to be his roommate in San Francisco.
In 2007, with a design conference coming to SF and hotels booked up, Gebbia suggested renting out air beds in their apartment to make money. This spawned the idea for Airbnb.
Chesky and Gebbia launched a basic Airbedandbreakfast site and got their first guests during the conference.
After the guests left, the founders kept meeting with their friend Nathan Blecharczyk to brainstorm business ideas. When they told him about Airbnb, Blecharczyk agreed to build the site for the upcoming South by Southwest conference.
The founders weren’t sure Airbnb would be a real business at first, but they needed to find meaning and validate their potential after the disappointment of post-college life. Airbnb represented a chance to build something meaningful.
In early 2008, Chesky, Gebbia, and Blecharczyk launched the initial version of AirBedandBreakfast.com to help attendees of an event find places to stay.
Blecharczyk soon moved back to Boston, leaving the site dormant for a few months.
For the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, they relaunched the site to help match travelers with hosts offering rooms and air mattresses.
Seibel, an entrepreneur they met at a conference, became their first mentor, introducing them to potential investors.
They pitched many investors throughout 2008 but were rejected by all. Investors doubted the market size and the founders’ abilities.
Their site crashed right before a big pitch meeting, sinking their chances.
Despite lacking funding and traction, the founders persevered to get the site working for the 2008 DNC, setting the stage for future growth.
In 2008, Airbnb was struggling to raise money. Investors were wary due to the economic downturn. Even when they got close to securing funding, deals would fall through at the last minute.
The founders were running out of money and going deep into debt. Chesky was filled with anxiety about their prospects.
During this ‘Trough of Sorrow’, the founders came up with a silly marketing stunt - creating Obama O’s and Cap’n McCains cereal boxes to send to the media. This helped pay off some debts.
As a last attempt, the founders applied to Y Combinator. The interview went poorly initially, with Paul Graham questioning the Airbnb concept.
However, after hearing the founders’ persistence through crises, Graham called them “cockroaches” - meaning an unkillable startup. They got into the program.
Upon arriving at Y Combinator, Graham and a VC were discussing entrepreneurial toughness. The Airbnb founders’ resilience through difficulties proved they had this mental toughness.
Garrett Camp, co-founder of StumbleUpon, was inspired to create Uber after becoming frustrated with trying to get taxis in San Francisco. The city had limited the number of taxi medallions, leading to poor service.
Camp came up with the idea of calling multiple taxi companies and taking the first one to arrive. He believes he was eventually blacklisted by cab companies in SF.
After selling StumbleUpon to eBay, Camp began going out more in San Francisco. He met his future girlfriend Melody McCloskey, who also struggled with the city’s taxi situation.
While watching a James Bond movie, Camp noticed Bond looking at a graphical icon on his phone showing his car moving on a map. This sparked the idea for Uber.
Camp recruited Oscar Salazar, an engineer friend, to help build the first prototype of UberCab in 2008-2009. It allowed users to request town cars through a mobile app.
They pitched UberCab to investors but had trouble convincing them of the idea. Camp put in $250,000 of his own money to get it started.
In 2009, Camp brought on Ryan Graves as general manager to help run UberCab. He would later become CEO.
UberCab launched in San Francisco in 2010, initially only on Friday and Saturday nights when taxis were scarcest.
The company shortened its name to Uber after complaints from taxi interests about the UberCab name.
Garrett Camp had the initial idea for Uber after being frustrated trying to meet up with his girlfriend Lisa McCloskey. He came up with the name Uber, envisioning an on-demand car service that passengers could track via a map on their phones.
In 2008, Camp registered the domain UberCab.com and started doing research into the transportation industry. He envisioned a service that could coordinate black taxis, eco-friendly Priuses, and even yellow cabs.
Camp brought on his friend Oscar Salazar, an engineer, to develop a prototype app in late 2008. Salazar received equity in the fledgling startup instead of payment.
In December 2008, Camp pitched the UberCab idea to his friend Travis Kalanick when they were both attending the LeWeb conference in Paris.
The official Uber origin story paints this moment in Paris as the genesis, with Camp and Kalanick looking out over the city and deciding to take on the taxi industry. However, Kalanick was not yet involved at this point.
Kalanick would get involved in 2009, when Camp pursued the idea more seriously. Together they worked to launch UberCab in San Francisco in 2010.

Here is a summary of the key points about the challenges of getting a cab in Paris and how this experience led to the creation of Uber:

In 2008, Garrett Camp, Travis Kalanick, and others were in Paris for a tech conference. They had difficulties getting a taxi one night after going out for dinner and drinks. The cab driver yelled at them and threatened to kick them out for being too rowdy.
This negative experience stuck with Camp and Kalanick and inspired them to find a better solution for hailing rides. They saw an opportunity to use smartphones to make getting a car service easier and more reliable.
At the time, Camp had the idea for Uber but Kalanick was initially only mildly interested. During the Paris trip, they debated the best way to start the business - Camp wanted to buy a fleet of Mercedes, Kalanick thought it was better to just build an app and work with existing drivers.
After Paris, Kalanick became more engaged with helping build Uber, convincing Camp not to buy a fleet of cars but rather to create an on-demand platform for connecting riders and drivers.
In 2009, the early technical development of the Uber app was done by Oscar Salazar and two Mexican developers, who built the first dispatch algorithm and iPhone integration.
The negative Paris cab ride lit a fire under Camp and Kalanick to create a better transportation solution. Their complementary skills and vision led to the launch of Uber as an efficient and classy ride-hailing service.
In fall 2009, Garrett Camp began developing an Uber iPhone app prototype with Oscar Salazar. Travis Kalanick got involved as an advisor.
In January 2010, Ryan Graves responded to a tweet from Kalanick looking for a product manager. Graves soon became Uber’s first CEO.
Graves, Kalanick, and Camp worked to build out the early UberCab app and recruit drivers in San Francisco. The app launched in June 2010.
Many investors passed on investing in Uber’s seed round, not seeing its potential. Those who said no later regretted missing the opportunity.
In June 2010, Kalanick reached out to investors through AngelList. Only First Round Capital and a few angel investors committed to invest in Uber’s $1.25 million seed round.
Key points are the development of the early Uber app, Ryan Graves becoming the first CEO, the initial launch in San Francisco, investor skepticism, and the AngelList outreach leading to Uber’s seed funding round.
In June 2010, UberCab was founded by Garrett Camp, Travis Kalanick, Oscar Salazar, and Conrad Whelan. Camp sent an email to investors announcing UberCab as “everyone’s private driver” via iPhone/SMS.
The email introduced Ryan Graves as CEO. Most of the 165 investors declined, including Ron Conway and Dave McClure.
First Round Capital led an early $600,000 investment after Rob Hayes met with Graves. Other early investors included Chris Sacca, Mitch Kapor, Jason Calacanis, Alfred Lin, and David Cohen.
Investors like Naval Ravikant got “lucky” with their early investments in Uber, even if they didn’t invest as much as they initially wanted. Ravikant invested $25,000 but wished he had done $100,000.
With $1.3 million raised at a $5.3 million valuation, Uber had money and was starting to build a team. Early hires included Ryan McKillen and Austin Geidt.
By fall 2010, Uber was gaining notice in San Francisco through word of mouth. Drivers were also intrigued, with one laughing that Uber was “going to make a lot of money.”
Jason Finger founded SeamlessWeb in 1999 as a way to order food online for delivery. It was a pioneer in using the internet to move physical things in the real world.
Finger had an idea called SeamlessWheels to also let people book town cars online. He got pushback from investors who didn’t think it was a big opportunity. After receiving a threatening voicemail, likely from an established town car company, Finger backed off the idea.
SeamlessWeb focused on food delivery and was acquired by Aramark in 2006. Finger later spun it back out as Seamless in 2011 before merging with GrubHub. He regrets not pursuing SeamlessWheels further.
In 2007, Tom DePasquale founded Taxi Magic to allow people to book and pay for taxis through a mobile app. It was the most prominent predecessor to Uber.
Taxi Magic couldn’t get traction against regulatory hurdles and resistance from taxi companies. DePasquale realized too late that they needed to empower drivers more.
Other early attempts at modernizing taxi services like Cabulous and Couchsurfing for ridesharing also failed before Uber found the right formula.
In 2008, the startup Taxi Magic launched an iPhone app that let users summon and pay for taxis. It worked with existing taxi dispatch systems but couldn’t track cars in real-time like Uber later did.
Taxi Magic expanded to 25 cities in 2008, before Uber’s launch in 2010. But it faced resistance from taxi companies to change how the industry operated.
In 2009, VC firm Benchmark Capital offered $8 million to invest in Taxi Magic, but Taxi Magic’s chairman Tom DePasquale declined, believing change had to come from within the taxi industry.
Not accepting Benchmark’s investment and influence was a mistake, as Uber and Benchmark would go on to revolutionize the industry. DePasquale admits he underestimated how much the regulatory environment would change.
Separately in 2008, the idea for an app called Cabulous emerged out of Best Buy’s short-lived incubator project. It spun out as a startup, raised VC funding, and launched in San Francisco in 2009.
But Cabulous struggled with taxi industry resistance like Taxi Magic. It didn’t have the fundraising ability and blitzscaling mentality of Uber. Cabulous faded away while Uber prevailed.
John Wolpert founded Cabulous in 2009, before UberCab launched. He worked on building an app to connect riders with taxi drivers in San Francisco.
Wolpert cultivated relationships with taxi drivers and tried to empower them with the app. He wanted it to be a “win-win”.
Cabulous faced challenges - it didn’t control the taxi supply or fares like Uber did later. Drivers didn’t always use the app at busy times.
Wolpert turned down an investment offer from Benchmark Capital’s Bill Gurley. UberCab then launched in 2010 and quickly overtook Cabulous.
Wolpert saw UberCab as disregarding taxi regulations, especially with using the iPhone as a taximeter. He argued about this with Ryan Graves.
Wolpert left Cabulous in 2011 after Uber overtook it. He feels he “changed the face of the city” but failed to seize the opportunity Uber did.
Another early home-sharing service called Couchsurfing, founded by Casey Fenton, was similar to Airbnb but doomed by its idealism over making profits.
Casey Fenton was the founder of Couchsurfing, a hospitality service connecting travelers with hosts willing to let them crash on their couches for free. He started it as a nonprofit in 2004 to facilitate cultural exchange, but it struggled to raise revenue.
Airbnb emerged as a threat, as it allowed hosts to charge for stays. Daniel Hoffer, Fenton’s co-founder, wanted to convert Couchsurfing to a for-profit model to compete, but Fenton refused initially.
After failing to get nonprofit status, Couchsurfing eventually converted to a for-profit in 2011 with funding from Benchmark Capital. But it was too late, as Airbnb had taken over the market.
Separately, Logan Green started Zimride in 2007 while in college to facilitate ridesharing between students. It never gained mainstream traction.
Green went on to found Lyft as an on-demand ridesharing service in 2012. Like Airbnb, Lyft would soon compete with taxis and challenge regulations, becoming a key player in the sharing economy.

In summary, Airbnb and Lyft emerged as the successful companies, overtaking the earlier attempts at sharing platforms by Couchsurfing and Zimride.

Greg McAdoo, a venture capitalist, had looked at consolidating the vacation rental market online in the past, but didn’t find any companies with a compelling approach.
In early 2009, Paul Graham suggested that McAdoo meet the Airbnb founders, citing their mental toughness.
McAdoo was impressed by their ambition and progress in a short time, as well as their willingness to take risks.
He decided to invest in Airbnb, providing $20,000 in seed funding. This was a small amount for a VC, but signaled his belief in the founders.
With the new funding, the founders were able to focus full-time on Airbnb. They also brought on a growth hacker, Paul Graham’s friend Paul Buchheit, to rapidly scale the company.
Buchheit helped instill a growth mentality and implemented creative tactics like targeting Craigslist and Democratic National Convention attendees to get users.
This growth hacking approach allowed Airbnb to scale rapidly from 50,000 to 500,000 listings within a year.
Airbnb founders Joe Gebbia, Nathan Blecharczyk, and Brian Chesky got into Y Combinator (YC) in winter 2008 despite skepticism about their concept.
At YC, they had access to advice from Paul Graham, who urged them to focus on pleasing hosts, not just guests. He told them to go visit hosts in New York, which they did on weekends.
They learned hosts needed help taking better photos of their homes, so they started providing free professional photography services. This improved listings.
Sequoia Capital invested $585,000 for 20% of Airbnb right before YC’s demo day in March 2009, seeing potential despite Airbnb’s struggles.
After YC, Airbnb still faced challenges getting hosts and guests to use the platform. Their growth hacks like meetups and cold-calling property managers had limited success.
The founders were frugal with their new capital and slow to hire, to Sequoia’s annoyance. But Airbnb’s growth soon took off thanks to YC’s advice and Sequoia’s early backing.
Airbnb’s first engineer was Nick Grandy, a fellow Y Combinator alum who had abandoned his own startup. Grandy recalls working out of the crowded apartment living room at first, with sales interns on distracting cold calls nearby.
An early challenge was getting hosts to respond to guests’ messages. The solution was displaying each host’s response rate on their profile.
The founders worked tirelessly but also made time for fun - gym, roof hangouts, kickball in the park. Chesky even lived entirely out of Airbnb rooms for a while.
Nathan Blecharczyk was the technical wizard behind Airbnb’s site and flexible payment system. He had a background in controversial “email marketing” (spam) which earned him his first fortune and paid for college.
As a skilled programmer and “growth hacker,” Blecharczyk was key to Airbnb’s sudden rise after Y Combinator, despite much larger competitors like Couchsurfing and Craigslist. His technical expertise allowed Airbnb to scale quickly.
Airbnb designed two schemes to attract listings from Craigslist, its main competitor at the time:

It sent automated emails to Craigslist users who posted rental listings, recommending they also list on Airbnb. This was done via contractors on eLance.
It created a tool to let Airbnb users easily cross-post their listings to Craigslist. This integrated smoothly and pulled many listings over to Airbnb.

These tactics, designed by Nathan Blecharczyk, helped Airbnb grow quickly in its early years by leveraging Craigslist’s large user base.
Airbnb also ran effective online ad campaigns on Google and Facebook, targeting relevant keywords and interests. Blecharczyk pioneered clever uses of Facebook’s new ad platform.
By 2010, Airbnb had grown significantly, formalized leadership roles for the founders, and opened a real office. It also started focusing more on customer service, taking inspiration from Zappos.
The company raised more venture funding from Sequoia and Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn, who was attracted to its growth and potential. Airbnb was establishing itself as a formidable competitor to Craigslist.

Here is a summary of the key points about how Uber conquered San Francisco:

Christiane Hayashi, director of Taxis and Accessible Services at the San Francisco Metropolitan Taxi Agency, was responsible for regulating the taxi industry. She had attempted reforms like requiring credit card readers, but faced resistance from taxi drivers.
In 2010, Hayashi started getting complaints about Uber, which was operating without taxi licenses. She sent plainclothes officers to serve Uber with a cease-and-desist letter threatening penalties.
Uber scrambled to respond, with CEO Ryan Graves and Travis Kalanick strategizing with investors. They were unsure which laws Uber had broken.
Uber resisted the cease-and-desist, arguing it was a technology company not subject to taxi regulations. Hayashi saw Uber as threatening the taxi industry she regulated.
What followed was a years-long battle between Hayashi/the taxi industry and Uber. Uber rallied tech community support and used lobbying and lawyers to fight regulations.
Despite fines, sting operations, and protests, Uber grew rapidly in San Francisco thanks to customer demand and Kalanick’s aggressive tactics. Hayashi was under constant stress dealing with Uber.
By 2013, Uber had largely won in SF, establishing itself as a popular service with backing of much of the tech community, despite lingering regulatory issues.
UberCab allowed rival limo drivers to act like taxis, which was illegal. By law, only taxis could pick up passengers hailed on the street, while limos had to be prearranged. Uber wiped out this distinction with electronic hails and iPhones as fare meters.
Limo drivers complained to city regulators that UberCab was illegal. Hayashi, a city transportation manager, agreed and joined with state regulators to issue a cease-and-desist letter to UberCab.
In the ensuing meeting, Uber executives Kalanick, Graves, and lawyer Rockey were nervous but tried to be respectful. However, Hayashi was angry and uncompromising, yelling “You can’t do this!”
The confrontation likely changed the course of Uber’s history. Kalanick had been considering other startup jobs, but after this fight he started believing in Uber’s mission.
Kalanick’s background as an entrepreneur included starting an SAT prep company in high school and co-founding Scour, an early search engine for illegal movie and music downloads. Though Scour was briefly successful, it ended in failure and lawsuits.
Travis Kalanick co-founded a file-sharing startup called Scour in 1998. Scour attracted investment from Michael Ovitz and Ron Burkle, but was sued for $250 billion by Hollywood studios in 2000 and went bankrupt. This taught Kalanick a harsh lesson about business.
Kalanick started a new company called Red Swoosh in 2001, trying to sell Scour’s technology to media companies. But he struggled for years, working alone much of the time, to make the company succeed.
In 2005, Kalanick got an investment from Mark Cuban that allowed Red Swoosh to move to Silicon Valley and hire engineers.
After more years of scraping by, Kalanick was able to sell Red Swoosh to Akamai in 2007 for $18.7 million. This exit after 6 years of hardship made Kalanick a millionaire.
Kalanick demonstrated resilience and determination, surviving many rejections and near-failures before finally achieving success with the sale of Red Swoosh. This experience shaped his hardcore entrepreneurial spirit.
Travis Kalanick had a pivotal meeting with a San Francisco regulator that reignited his passion for fighting entrenched interests. This cemented his decision to take over as Uber’s CEO.
Uber was exhibiting promising metrics like negative churn where users tended to increase their usage over time. This suggested great potential for growth and attracted Kalanick.
Kalanick negotiated aggressively for a 23% stake as CEO. After some reluctance, the board agreed to dilute their shares.
Kalanick took over smoothly from Ryan Graves as CEO in late 2010. Graves was supportive of the transition.
Uber received a wave of publicity from its regulatory battle. Ride growth accelerated to 30% month-over-month.
Kalanick became fully devoted to Uber, giving up other projects and relationships. He also displayed early signs of combativeness against competitors.
In 2011, the mood in Silicon Valley started to improve after the financial crisis. Facebook, LinkedIn, and other startups were raising money and going public. The term “unicorn” was coined for startups valued over $1 billion.
Airbnb was growing fast thanks to growth hacking by Nate Blecharczyk and media coverage. It had all kinds of unique properties on the site. Word of mouth was spreading globally.
CEO Brian Chesky was rubbing shoulders with business elite and celebrities. He met Travis Kalanick for the first time at a conference.
On stage, Kalanick was aggressive and controversial, talking about “blowing up” regulations. The two CEOs had contrasting styles but got along well initially.
Airbnb was starting to face regulatory issues in some cities. It adopted the “ask forgiveness, not permission” motto.
Chesky realized he needed to shift from a “peacetime” to a “wartime” CEO mentality to deal with the challenges. His co-founder Joe Gebbia agreed Airbnb was under threat.
Advisor Alfred Lin told Chesky to be ready to fight and build a “mafia” team. Ben Horowitz said Chesky needed to get comfortable with controversy.
Airbnb hired political fixer David Hantman to deal with regulators. Chesky was gearing up for battle on two fronts: regulators and rivals.
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick appeared together at a TechCrunch conference in 2011. Chesky denied reports that Airbnb was raising a massive funding round at a $1 billion valuation, while Kalanick encouraged him to embrace the billion-dollar narrative.
Chesky was in fact wrapping up a $112 million Series B funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz that valued Airbnb at $1.3 billion. This addressed some key risks like safety, international competition, regulation, and recruiting executives.
Around this time, Airbnb noticed copycat companies like Wimdu emerging internationally. Wimdu was created by the infamous Samwer brothers, known for rapidly cloning successful internet startups.
Oliver Samwer of Wimdu reached out to Chesky to discuss a potential deal. Chesky, Gebbia, Blecharczyk and investors met with Samwer, who acted nonchalant and offered to buy Airbnb’s non-US businesses.
The Airbnb team rejected the offer, realizing this clone was a serious threat. They decided to compete aggressively against Wimdu despite their inexperience with cutthroat competition.
In 2011, Airbnb was approached by the Samwer brothers, notorious cloning entrepreneurs who had created a copycat site called Wimdu. The Samwers proposed a merger, but Airbnb’s founders were hesitant to partner with them.
To respond, Airbnb considered hiring Oliver Jung, another German entrepreneur with a history of cloning companies, to quickly build up Airbnb’s presence in Europe.
Before they could decide on working with Jung, a crisis erupted when a blog post went viral about an Airbnb host’s home being completely ransacked by a guest.
The company’s poor handling of the incident caused a major media backlash. Airbnb was criticized for not protecting its users and for seeming to care more about its fundraising than the host’s situation.
This was a pivotal moment for Airbnb’s founders, forcing them to mature quickly and confront challenges like leading a global company and managing PR crises. It marked the company’s transition from a small startup to a major tech brand facing public scrutiny.
In 2011, Airbnb faced a major crisis when a guest severely vandalized a host’s apartment. The host, known as EJ, blogged about the terrible experience and criticized Airbnb’s poor response.
This exposed flaws in Airbnb’s approach, including a lack of investment in customer service and safety measures. The founders had believed the marketplace would police itself through reviews.
In response, Airbnb introduced new safety features like user identity verification, a customer support hotline, and the Airbnb Guarantee to cover damages. CEO Brian Chesky also publicly apologized in a letter to users.
The company survived the crisis and continued growing, moving into a new playful office space that summer.
Meanwhile, Airbnb rejected a partnership with copycat startup Wimdu, founded by the controversial Samwer brothers. This demonstrated Chesky’s resolve to compete directly.
Airbnb brought on board key international hire Oliver Jung, who was impressed by the startup’s culture compared to Wimdu’s more corporate environment.
Travis Kalanick was passionate about growing Uber into a global company. He expected employees to work hard to achieve Uber’s goal of expansion.
Kalanick aggressively removed people from his inner circle if he thought they would hinder Uber’s growth.
Unlike Airbnb which was global from the start, Uber had to methodically enter each new market, recruit drivers and riders, and deal with regulators.
New York City was Kalanick’s first target for expansion due to its dense population and lack of car ownership.
To lead the New York expansion, Uber hired recent Cornell graduate Matthew Kochman who had started a campus charter bus service and a taxi text payment service.
Kochman recruited Uber’s first New York drivers by targeting black car limo services and pre-existing networks of drivers.
Despite initial demand, there were struggles in New York due to fragmented regulations and resistance from the taxi industry.
Kalanick took an aggressive approach in New York, comparing the city’s taxi industry to a cartel and declaring “I’m rolling the Trojan horse in, and the taxi industry can’t stop me.”
Kalanick’s approach set the template for how Uber would enter new markets - recruit supply and demand efficiently, while taking an aggressive stance with regulators and competitors.
Josh Mohrer was hired as Uber’s first employee in New York City in 2011. He struggled to get Uber off the ground due to New York’s regulations requiring livery drivers to be affiliated with a base.
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick wanted to ignore regulations and not work with the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC). Mohrer met with the TLC anyway, leading to Uber’s first meeting with them.
Mohrer tried unsuccessfully to partner with large limo fleets in NYC. Kalanick made a threatening comment about “stabbing in the back” a fleet they met with, hurting Uber’s standing.
Mohrer felt misled about his equity stake in Uber, believing it was diluted more than promised. He had tensions with Kalanick over growth goals and strategy.
Mohrer emailed an investor outlining problems with Kalanick’s leadership and claiming key employees might quit. Kalanick fired him for this.
The experience showed early conflicts over Kalanick’s aggressive approach and clashes between the CEO and managers over equity and growth.
Early Uber employee Matthew Kochman was frustrated with Travis Kalanick’s management style and treatment of employees. He resigned after less than a year and tried unsuccessfully to get Kalanick ousted.
Austin Geidt struggled initially at Uber but eventually helped pioneer Uber’s expansion into new cities, creating a playbook for launching quickly.
Uber expanded rapidly into new cities like Seattle, Chicago, and Boston in late 2011.
In New York, Uber faced regulatory issues and a shortage of drivers. Kalanick compromised on his stance against officially registering as a base, allowing Uber to work more closely with the taxi commission.
Bradley Tusk was hired as Uber’s first lobbyist and given equity instead of a cash retainer, in what likely was the most lucrative lobbying deal ever.
Kalanick, Camp and Gurley went to the taxi commission office themselves to register Uber as a base, a sign Kalanick was not yet the rule-breaker he would later become.
Uber launched in New York City in 2011, but initially struggled due to regulations requiring rides to be pre-arranged. They got around this by registering as a base, allowing drivers to accept rides via the app.
Uber focused on directing drivers to busy neighborhoods like Wall Street and SoHo to ensure good service and word-of-mouth marketing. This “SoHo strategy” helped growth take off.
Despite engineer objections, Travis Kalanick pushed to launch in Paris in 2011, wanting to use a conference appearance to generate buzz. The rushed launch was difficult but successful.
In 2011, Kalanick started experimenting with “surge pricing” - raising prices during peak demand times to get more drivers on the road. This was manual at first.
On NYE 2011, they removed caps and let an algorithm determine surge prices. Prices spiked massively, leading to customer outrage. Kalanick defensively justified it initially before admitting they handled messaging poorly.
Travis Kalanick faced criticism for Uber’s surge pricing, but he stood firm in defending it based on data showing it increased driver supply during peak demand.
In fall 2011, Uber was starting to show promise, generating $9 million in fares in September. Kalanick pitched investors on Uber’s potential to become a global brand.
Andreessen Horowitz initially offered a $300 million valuation but later lowered it to $220 million. Upset with the terms, Kalanick turned to Shervin Pishevar at Menlo Ventures, who offered $25 million at a $290 million valuation.
Pishevar didn’t ask for a board seat, allowing Kalanick to maintain control. Kalanick took Pishevar’s offer over Andreessen Horowitz, valuing capital and control over investor name value.
Until 2012, Uber had expanded cautiously into new cities, examining local laws and being flexible.
In 2012, Uber faced challenges from regulators, competitors, and startups ready to discard taxi laws altogether. This brought out Travis Kalanick’s adaptiveness and competitiveness.
It started with a tweet from DC Taxi Watch saying Uber was operating illegally in DC.
DC’s taxi drivers packed a meeting chaired by Ron Linton. He said Uber was violating a law requiring it to use licensed taxi vehicles and drivers.
Uber had partnered with licensed limo and sedan companies, believing this complied with DC’s laws. But Linton said Uber was operating as an unlicensed dispatch service.
Kalanick tweeted that Linton wanted to protect entrenched taxi interests and stifle innovation. This began Uber’s combative approach to regulators.
Uber used technology and rider demand to gain leverage with regulators, exploiting gray areas in laws to expand, a strategy called “principled confrontation.”
In Europe, Uber adopted the same stance against taxi regulations to expand UberPop using non-professional drivers.
Meanwhile in the US, startups Lyft and Sidecar pioneered ridesharing by connecting regular people giving rides in their own cars.
Seeing them as a threat, Uber launched its own ridesharing service, UberX, flouting taxi laws more brazenly than Lyft and Sidecar.
This ushered in a period of intensive legal clashes as authorities tried to stop the rapid growth of ridesharing services operating outside regulations.
Ron Linton, head of the DC Taxicab Commission, cracked down on Uber’s operations in Washington DC in early 2012, fining an Uber driver and impounding his car. Linton viewed Uber as operating illegally by acting as both a taxi and limo service.
Uber’s DC general manager Rachel Holt met with Linton’s office to clarify the regulations, but Linton staged a publicity stunt by taking and fining an Uber himself. Uber mobilized customer support and questioned Linton’s motives.
Linton referred Uber’s status to the attorney general while allowing operations to continue. Uber realized it faced an uphill battle in DC.
Meanwhile, London taxi startup Hailo announced plans to expand to Chicago, Boston, Washington DC, and New York - Uber’s territories. This triggered alarm at Uber.
Uber debated whether to partner with taxi fleets to get regulated cabs on its app before Hailo. This challenged Uber’s upscale branding, but beating Hailo took priority. The move marked an evolution in Uber’s strategy.

Here are the key points from the passage:

Uber was initially positioned as a high-end, luxury service with professional chauffeurs. Some executives opposed moving downmarket to compete on price.
CEO Travis Kalanick eventually decided Uber’s advantage was in convenience and time savings, not luxury. He pushed to compete on price against taxis.
Uber launched UberTaxi in Chicago, allowing riders to hail licensed cabs through its app. This beat competitor Hailo, which only worked with licensed taxis.
Kalanick believed Uber needed flexible supply to meet demand spikes, which taxi apps couldn’t provide. Hailo’s taxi-only model proved limited as Uber grew.
Uber launched SUV and hybrid options alongside its luxury black cars, expanding its range of price points. The cheaper UberX used licensed chauffeurs initially.
Expansion of UberX brought regulatory clashes in Washington D.C. A compromise was reached to legalize Uber temporarily, but Uber fought back against price floor provisions.
The D.C. experience shaped Uber’s aggressive regulatory and political strategies as it expanded into new markets. Uber embraced confrontation rather than compromise.
In 2013, the DC city council proposed regulations that would have limited Uber’s operations, including a minimum fare requirement. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick fought back aggressively, accusing the council of corruption and protecting the taxi industry.
Kalanick rallied Uber’s customers to flood the council members with emails and tweets in support of Uber. This grassroots lobbying overwhelmed the council members and led them to drop the restrictive provisions.
During a contentious public hearing, Kalanick sparred with council member Mary Cheh over pricing controls and competition with taxis. Council member Jim Graham scolded Kalanick for wanting to remain unregulated while taxis faced increasing regulation.
After the hearing, a mayoral aide told Uber’s lobbyists to never bring Kalanick back. But by December, facing relentless public pressure, the council unanimously passed a law legitimizing Uber’s operations without the pricing restrictions.
This was the first time Uber flexed its political muscle by mobilizing its user base, a tactic it would go on to use effectively in many cities to shape regulations in its favor. The DC battle demonstrated Uber’s unwillingness to compromise and its aggressive no-holds-barred approach to regulators.
In 2012, Logan Green and John Zimmer, the founders of the long-distance carpooling service Zimride, launched a new service called Lyft that allowed everyday people to give rides in their personal cars via a smartphone app.
Lyft was inspired by the success of Uber in making transportation more efficient through smartphones. Zimride had been a grind to build and wasn’t growing rapidly.
Lyft devised ways to make sharing a ride with a stranger more comfortable, like fist-bumping drivers and encouraging conversation. Lyft cars had pink mustaches on the front to stand out.
Though Lyft claimed it was fundamentally different from Uber in aiming to reduce car ownership rather than compete with taxis, Travis Kalanick saw Lyft as a direct competitor providing similar services.
Other early ridesharing services like Sidecar had also emerged, but Lyft stood out with its branding and focus on trust and community between drivers and riders.
The launch of Lyft marked the beginning of ridesharing becoming a massive phenomenon, despite the unclear legality of regular people giving rides for payment.
Lyft and Sidecar launched unlicensed ridesharing services in San Francisco in 2012. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick believed these were illegal and wanted them shut down.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) sent cease-and-desist letters to Lyft, Sidecar and TickenGo. However, Lyft hired Susan Kennedy, a former CPUC commissioner, to lobby against shutting them down.
Kennedy convinced CPUC President Michael Peevey to allow Lyft and Sidecar to operate while new rules were formulated. She argued ridesharing was inevitable and CPUC should facilitate the new industry.
Peevey was already inclined to be pro-innovation and disliked the taxi industry. Kennedy’s lobbying likely influenced his decision not to shut down ridesharing.
In early 2013, CPUC reached a consent decree allowing Lyft and Sidecar to operate pending new regulations. This allowed ridesharing to grow rapidly in California and beyond.
Travis Kalanick and Uber initially wanted ridesharing shut down as illegal. But after the CPUC allowed it, Uber soon launched its own ridesharing service.
In 2012, Airbnb faced regulatory challenges in New York City, its largest US market. Landlord Abe Carrey discovered his tenant Nigel Warren was illegally subletting his apartment on Airbnb.
Belinda Johnson, Airbnb’s first in-house counsel, started lobbying lawmakers to portray Airbnb as an economic opportunity for hosts and communities. But many saw it as hurting affordable housing by taking rental units off the market.
In 2013, New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman subpoenaed Airbnb for data on 15,000 NYC hosts to investigate illegal listings. Airbnb challenged the subpoena in court.
Meanwhile, Airbnb ramped up lobbying efforts, positioning itself as a champion of the middle class. It also mobilized hosts to contact local politicians.
In 2014, Schneiderman issued a report showing 72% of Airbnb listings violated local laws. Airbnb argued the laws were outdated. Ultimately Airbnb settled, agreeing to enforce regulations and collect hotel taxes.
The fight established the playbook for Airbnb’s regulatory battles globally. It used lobbying, PR campaigns, host mobilization, and legal action to grow while seeking compromises to address concerns. The New York fight demonstrated Airbnb was too big and influential to regulate out of existence.
Belinda Johnson was hired as Airbnb’s general counsel in 2011 to help change regulators’ skeptical views about home sharing. She had previously worked at Yahoo.
Early meetings with legislators did not go well - many didn’t understand the Airbnb model and were skeptical it could work.
By 2012, Airbnb was facing mounting regulatory challenges in cities around the world, where its sense of righteous mission was clashing with hostile receptions.
Johnson believed Airbnb should take a different approach than Uber’s combative tactics. She focused on building relationships and credibility with lawmakers.
However, some lawmakers like Senator Liz Krueger in New York were very critical of Airbnb’s “disingenuous” tactics.
This can be traced back to 2009 before Johnson joined, when Airbnb started working with Robert “Toshi” Chan, a New York landlord who encouraged illegal short-term rentals, setting an unfortunate tone with regulators.

Here is a summary of the key events:

Toshi Chan was the most popular boy in his high school class and later became an actor in New York City. He started renting out a room in his Brooklyn penthouse on Craigslist for $150/night.
Seeing the favorable economics, Chan began leasing apartments all over Brooklyn and Manhattan and listing them on sites like Airbnb. At its peak, his company Hotel Toshi managed over 200 units.
In 2010, New York City proposed a law banning short-term rentals under 30 days. Airbnb lobbied against the law, but it passed anyway in 2011.
Hotel Toshi was sued by the city for fire code and other violations. Chan settled for $1 million and shut down the company, which had become infamous. This damaged Airbnb’s reputation as well since Hotel Toshi had been one of its largest operators.
Airbnb host Nigel Warren was fined $2,400 for illegally renting out his room on Airbnb while he was away. This highlighted the legal risks to Airbnb hosts in New York City.
The 2010 New York state Multiple Dwelling Law made it illegal to rent out apartments for under 30 days if the permanent resident was not present. Airbnb believed hosted stays where the resident was present were legal.
Warren was unaware of the law when he rented out his room. He felt Airbnb misled hosts by not warning them of legal risks.
Warren’s case threatened to establish a precedent that all short-term Airbnb rentals were illegal in NYC.
Airbnb sent lawyers to support Warren in court, though they could not officially represent him.
The judge ruled Warren broke the law because his guest was a “stranger” without access to the whole apartment. This implied even hosted Airbnb stays were illegal.
Despite Warren’s fine, Airbnb still faced the threat of its entire NYC business being deemed unlawful due to an unfavorable legal precedent.

Here are the key points from the passage:

An intense debate erupted within Airbnb over whether to appeal Nigel Warren’s case. Some worried it would compel involvement in other cases, but others felt Airbnb had to stand up for hosts.
Chesky decided Airbnb should appeal to advocate for the host community. Warren felt Airbnb’s actions were pragmatic, not honorable.
After winning the appeal, Chesky posted a triumphant essay presenting Airbnb’s righteous view of itself. But officials like Senator Krueger felt Airbnb wasn’t earnestly addressing illegal rentals.
The New York Attorney General subpoenaed Airbnb for data on all hosts to determine how many violated the law. Airbnb refused to provide the data.
Despite regulatory troubles, Airbnb was flourishing with incredible momentum. Chesky was thinking big and embracing glamour.
Chesky hired Douglas Atkin, who believed Airbnb was an ideology and movement beyond laws. Atkin helped start an advocacy group called Peers to mobilize hosts as grassroots activists.

So while publicly acting high-minded, Airbnb was reluctant to address illegal rentals. Its phenomenal growth brought greater scrutiny, including demands for host data to determine legal violations.

Airbnb received political advice from Reid Hoffman to create an advocacy group called Peers to support the sharing economy and counter political opposition.
Airbnb’s lawyers, including Belinda Johnson, debated complying with NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s subpoena for customer data but ultimately decided to fight it in court to protect customer privacy.
The subpoena caused anxiety among Airbnb hosts like Seth Porges and Rich Chalmers who relied on Airbnb income. Chalmers eventually stopped listing properties due to increased legal risks.
Airbnb released its own economic study showing its positive impact and benefit to New York City. But city officials remained unconvinced.
Schneiderman revised and refiled the subpoena. Airbnb eventually agreed to provide anonymized data on 16,000 hosts, including info on 124 hosts with multiple listings.
Schneiderman’s report concluded most Airbnb rentals violated the law. New York created a task force to investigate illegal hotels.
Brian Chesky and Travis Kalanick met occasionally to discuss their companies’ successes and regulatory battles. Airbnb insisted its approach was softer than Uber’s “bulldozing” approach.
After Facebook’s successful IPO in 2012, investors became very eager to invest in hot private tech startups like Uber and Airbnb, leading to huge valuations.
From 2014-2016, Uber and Airbnb raised over $15 billion combined and reached nearly $100 billion in valuations before going public.
As the companies grew rapidly, concerns mounted about their impacts, and they faced increased criticism and regulatory scrutiny.
Taxi drivers protested Uber aggressively, seeing it as a threat to their livelihoods. Questions arose about Uber’s driver background checks, insurance, and safety.
Airbnb faced criticism for its effects on housing prices and residential neighborhoods. Both companies were accused of skirting regulations.
Travis Kalanick and Brian Chesky worked to defend their companies against these criticisms. Uber in particular faced a wall of skepticism and tried to rapidly expand globally despite challenges.
Google invested in Uber’s 2013 fundraising round, hoping to align itself with the growing startup. This led to increased scrutiny of Uber’s business practices and controversial programs like “God View.”
In fall 2013, Uber raised $258M from Google Ventures and $88M from TPG Capital. This valued Uber at $3.5B.
Travis Kalanick met with Larry Page but was more excited about the future self-driving cars could bring, viewing drivers as unnecessary costs.
Emil Michael joined Uber as VP of Business Development but was disappointed to hear Kalanick felt fundraising was finished. Michael considered fundraising a talent of his.
By fall 2013, Uber was growing 20% every month and had launched UberX, which was cheaper than taxis and dominating Lyft and Sidecar.
Despite regulatory resistance in some cities, Uber used its playbook to drum up public support and get laws changed in its favor.
Miami was a challenging market but ultimately laws were changed to accommodate ridesharing due to consumer demand.
Thuan Pham joined as CTO, optimized the technical team and systems architecture to support rapid growth.
On NYE 2013, Uber’s technology handled a huge volume of rides without crashing, demonstrating progress since Kalanick’s threat to Pham to not have a system breakdown.
In late 2013, Uber’s systems survived a busy New Year’s Eve night, prompting praise from CEO Travis Kalanick. He then challenged his team to handle any foreseeable spike in demand.
Kalanick implemented two ideas to further grow UberX: providing financing to help new drivers get vehicles, and cutting fares by up to 30% to stimulate demand. While controversial, these moves accelerated UberX’s growth and put pressure on competitor Lyft.
In December 2013, an UberX driver killed a 6-year-old girl in a crosswalk in San Francisco. Uber initially denied involvement, but the driver was waiting for an Uber fare at the time. This tragedy highlighted issues around Uber’s liability and screening of drivers.
The death kicked off a year of negative press in 2014, as Uber expanded aggressively. Critics slammed Uber for safety issues, anticompetitive behavior, inappropriate comments, and an overall ruthless reputation. Mistakes compounded as the business grew rapidly.
Despite these challenges, Uber’s growth continued unabated. Investors and the public were enamored of its service and rapid expansion, overshadowing its mistakes.
After the Liu tragedy, Uber and other ridesharing companies aggressively competed for drivers, using tactics like gas cards and bonuses to poach drivers from rivals. Uber excelled at this “bare-knuckle” competition.
Uber employees went too far when they repeatedly ordered and canceled rides from a rival, Gett, in an attempt to recruit its drivers. Uber apologized when confronted.
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick’s competitive nature and abrasive public comments caused PR problems for Uber in 2014. He made insensitive remarks about driverless cars displacing drivers.
Lyft emerged as Uber’s main rival. Talks of a merger broke down over valuation differences. Lyft expanded aggressively while maintaining a more idealistic image than Uber.
Lyft prepared to launch in New York using regular drivers, which was illegal. After being warned this would bring legal action, Lyft backed down and launched using licensed drivers only.
The rivalries showed Kalanick’s ruthless competitiveness and willingness to cross ethical lines, hurting Uber’s reputation, while Lyft positioned itself as the more principled alternative.
Travis VanderZanden, Lyft’s COO, became disillusioned with Lyft’s prospects against Uber and tried to take over as CEO. He also talked to Uber about merging the companies, angering Lyft’s founders.
VanderZanden resigned from Lyft and joined Uber, leading to lawsuits between the companies. Lyft accused him of stealing documents, while Uber believed Lyft’s CTO hacked into Uber’s system. The legal disputes were eventually settled privately.
Uber moved into a new SF headquarters befitting its growth. But it was trying to improve its combative image, hiring David Plouffe and softening its mission statement.
A controversial Uber promotion objectifying women in Lyon brought widespread criticism. At a media dinner, Uber executive Emil Michael suggested hypothetically digging up dirt on critical journalists, specifically Sarah Lacy.
The Buzzfeed report on Michael’s comments, along with revelations about Uber tracking a reporter’s movements, created a PR crisis for Uber.

Here are the key points from the passage:

Airbnb moved into luxurious new headquarters in San Francisco in 2014, spending lavishly on the space.
The office was designed as a shrine to Airbnb’s ideals of bringing people together and making the world better.
Like Uber, Airbnb was imbued with its founders’ ambition, idealism, and naivete.
Airbnb raised $500 million in 2014 at a $10 billion valuation, just months before Uber’s $1.2 billion raise.
The founders, Chesky, Gebbia, and Blecharczyk, held 15% stakes each after the funding round, making them billionaires on paper.
There were concerns among some investors about Airbnb’s high spending, but growth outpaced those worries.

In summary, Airbnb joined Uber in achieving meteoric growth, lavish new digs, and sky-high valuations in 2014, though both faced critiques about overspending and overzealous idealism.

Airbnb co-founders Chesky, Gebbia, and Blecharczyk became billionaires as the company grew rapidly, similar to Uber’s founders. However, Airbnb was unprepared for tragic incidents that occurred on its platform, like the death of a guest from carbon monoxide poisoning in Taiwan. Airbnb quietly settled with the victim’s family but denied liability.
As Airbnb expanded, it faced backlash in cities over unregulated short-term rentals. In Portland, traditional B&B owner Steve Unger disliked Airbnb hosts renting entire homes frequently without permits. After lobbying, Airbnb struck a deal making short-term rentals legal if hosts registered and rented primary residences for <90 days/year.
Airbnb started a “Shared Cities” campaign to improve relations with cities, pledging community donations and offering to collect hotel taxes, which it had previously resisted. It struck tax deals in San Francisco, Chicago, Washington DC and elsewhere to legalize short-term rentals. But critics argued Airbnb wasn’t doing enough to enforce limits on unhosted rentals.
The summary shows how Airbnb aimed to work with cities to legalize short-term rentals and improve its reputation, while grappling with safety issues and resistance from groups like traditional B&Bs. Tax collection deals were key to its city partnerships.
Airbnb faced growing backlash in cities around the world as officials realized the impact of short-term rentals on housing and hotels lobbied against Airbnb. European cities limited rentals to 2 months per year. France legalized short-term rentals of primary homes but allowed cities to restrict rentals of non-primary residences.
In New York, Airbnb was close to reaching a deal with the attorney general’s office to pay taxes and regulate hosts. But hotel unions and the hotel industry organized against Airbnb, scuttling the deal.
Airbnb hired political consultants and ran subway ads to sway public opinion, but lacked Uber’s populist mobilization tools since hosts only rented occasionally.
Laws passed in agreements with cities like Portland were not being followed as hosts failed to register. Airbnb resisted adding restrictions to enforce compliance.
Chesky fought regulations aggressively like Travis Kalanick, believing strongly in Airbnb’s benefits. During a trip to Kenya, Chesky displayed impressive diplomatic skills, relating to various audiences as an inspirational startup founder. But his warrior spirit came through as he fought for his company’s growth.
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky spoke at a tech event in Nairobi, Kenya, where he discussed Airbnb’s regulatory challenges and his belief that the company needs to grow quickly to achieve “escape velocity” and get past its bumpy startup phase.
Peter Kwan, an Airbnb host in San Francisco, started renting out a spare room in his home in 2012. As a lawyer, he wondered about legal and tax issues but found little guidance from Airbnb. So he started the Home Sharers of San Francisco group to share info and navigate the emerging complexities.
In 2014, San Francisco passed a law legalizing and regulating short-term rentals. Airbnb supported it but it was just the beginning of their fight. Many saw Airbnb as contributing to gentrification and unaffordability.
In 2015, Prop F sought to tighten regulations. Airbnb spent over $8 million to defeat it. Proponents argued Airbnb worsened the housing crisis while Airbnb touted hosts who relied on the income. After heated debate, Prop F was defeated, allowing Airbnb’s model to continue largely unimpeded.
In the lead up to the Proposition F vote in San Francisco in 2015, Airbnb faced intense opposition and protests from housing activists and hotel worker unions. On election day, voters rejected Prop F by a wide margin, handing Airbnb a victory.
However, Airbnb suffered self-inflicted damage during the Prop F battle by running patronizing ads that backfired and portrayed the company negatively. After the vote, progressive Democrats took control of San Francisco’s board of supervisors and passed more anti-Airbnb legislation.
Days after Prop F, Airbnb held its Airbnb Open event in Paris for thousands of hosts. It was an upbeat affair but also acknowledged the regulatory battles the company still faced. During the event, terrorists attacked Paris, killing 130 people.
In the aftermath, Airbnb offered free housing to victims’ families and stranded travelers. This humanitarian response generated tremendous goodwill for Airbnb and shifted the narrative surrounding the company.
The Paris attacks and Airbnb’s response marked a turning point. Airbnb was no longer seen as a housing disruptor but increasingly as a facilitator of authentic travel and cross-cultural connections.
Uber experienced massive growth from 2014-2016, expanding its UberX ridesharing service to over 450 cities globally. Ride volumes exploded exponentially, from 200 million rides in early 2014 to 2 billion rides by mid-2016.
Uber’s valuation skyrocketed from $18 billion in 2014 to $68 billion in 2016, making it the most highly valued private tech startup ever. Its employee base grew from 550 to 8,000.
Uber’s meteoric rise sparked regulatory battles and protests around the world, as the taxi industry fought back against this disruptive threat. There were protests, lawsuits, and regulatory clashes in cities across Europe, Asia, Latin America and North America.
Travis Kalanick had pledged a more mature leadership style after early PR disasters, but Uber became even more aggressive and confrontational as it rapidly expanded globally. Kalanick made bellicose public statements and adopted war-like rhetoric internally.
Uber deployed controversial techniques like “Greyball” to deceive regulators and evade enforcement actions. It also used a tool called “Hell” to spy on rival Lyft. This fed an image of Uber as an unethical, win-at-all-costs company.
Competition heated up as many rivals emerged, like Didi in China and Ola in India. The race to dominate markets globally put immense pressure on Uber as it tried to justify its towering valuation.

In summary, Uber’s adolescence was tumultuous, with incredible growth accompanied by nonstop conflicts and controversies across the world. Its pugnacious tactics damaged its reputation but helped it rapidly achieve global scale.

London was one of the first European cities to deal with the disruptive effects of ridesharing when Uber arrived in 2012. The iconic black cab drivers were highly skilled but resistant to change. They protested Uber with strikes in 2014, but sign-ups for Uber surged after the strike.
In 2015, Transport for London proposed restrictions on Uber like prohibiting showing available cars in the app. But Uber mobilized support from riders to successfully resist the rules. London Mayor Boris Johnson initially supported black cab drivers but later called them “luddites” and conceded Uber could not be stopped.
In France, strict licensing rules led Uber to launch unlicensed UberPop rides in 2014. This brought protests from French taxi drivers in 2015, leading to raids on Uber’s office, arrests of its France executives, and the shutdown of UberPop.
Several other European countries banned or restricted UberPop and ridesharing, including Italy, Sweden, Spain, and Germany. This reflected both Uber’s aggressive tactics but also the influence of taxi interests and reluctance of governments to update outdated transport laws.
So while continental Europe largely opposed Uber, other parts of the world welcomed its services, reflecting greater openness to innovation and technology.
Cheng Wei, a young salesman at Alibaba, was inspired to start a taxi-hailing app in China after reading about Hailo’s plans to expand to the U.S. in 2012.
Cheng left Alibaba and founded Didi Dache (“honk honk call a taxi”) in 2012 along with his former boss. Many other entrepreneurs in China had the same idea around this time.
The taxi-hailing startups in China faced challenges like fierce competition, restrictions from the government, and the need to subsidize drivers’ phones. But Didi was scrappy and focused on younger drivers with smartphones.
A major snowstorm in Beijing late 2012 helped Didi gain traction. An investment from Tencent followed, linking Didi to one of China’s internet giants.
Kuaidi Dache, backed by Alibaba, emerged as Didi’s main rival in 2013. The two startups battled fiercely for market share.
Pony Ma of Tencent provided crucial engineering support to help Didi resolve technical issues during this time.
In 2014, the rise of mobile payments changed the landscape. Tencent and Alibaba saw this as a new battleground and integrated Didi and Kuaidi into their payment apps. This provided resources for the ride-hailing startups to expand.
Between 2009-2014, Uber grew rapidly in the US while in China, Alibaba’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat competed fiercely through their taxi apps, offering discounts to attract users. This benefited Didi and Kuaidi, who merged in 2015 into Didi Kuaidi.
In 2013, Travis Kalanick visited China to explore expansion there despite the challenges for foreign internet companies. He had Uber engineers launch a basic version of the app in Beijing to test it out.
In 2014, Uber officially launched in 4 Chinese cities focusing on expats/tourists. After seeing success, it introduced ridesharing in more cities in late 2014. This rapid growth concerned Didi Kuaidi.
At a meeting, Didi’s Cheng Wei proposed that Uber take a 40% stake in Didi and cede China to them. Uber disputed Didi’s account that Kalanick demanded this stake and threatened defeat if rejected.
Uber and Didi both introduced ridesharing and engaged in a subsidy war over drivers/riders. A mega-unicorn battle ensued over the large Chinese market.
In early 2015, tensions rose between Uber and New York City under Mayor Bill de Blasio. The city proposed new regulations on surge pricing and access to trip data that Uber opposed.
In June 2015, the city proposed capping the number of new for-hire licenses issued to Uber and other rideshare companies, pending a congestion study. This would freeze Uber’s growth.
Uber launched an aggressive 3-week campaign to fight the cap, including ads targeting de Blasio, mobilizing minority drivers, and adding an app feature showing long wait times if the cap passed.
Uber framed the issue as the mayor reneging on promises for job growth and transportation access. It appealed to progressive values against the taxi industry.
Gov. Cuomo opposed the cap, undermining de Blasio. The mayor backed down before a vote.
The win demonstrated Travis’s Law - that Uber could rally public support to influence local policy fights as it expanded in the U.S. It showed Uber’s political muscle against the taxi industry.
In 2015, Uber held a lavish company event in Las Vegas for its employees, involving hotel stays, parties, talks by executives, and performances by Beyoncé and other artists. The event was meant to introduce Uber’s new company values.
Meanwhile, Uber was cutting driver pay through fare reductions, leading to driver protests over low wages and unfair practices. This highlighted the conflict between Uber portraying itself as driver-friendly while treating drivers more like expendable contractors.
Uber called its drivers “small business owners” but its practices resembled those of a company trying to maximize profits by avoiding paying benefits and protections to employees.
Lawsuits alleged Uber was misclassifying drivers as contractors rather than employees, stripping them of rights and protections. Uber fought hard against the claims, arguing drivers wanted flexibility, not employment status.
The conflict illustrated Uber’s dual identities - portraying itself as empowering drivers while adopting corporate practices that disadvantaged them to maximize growth and profits.
Uber drivers filed class action lawsuits seeking employee status rather than contractor status. These suits were unlikely to change the law, but gave the perception Uber could be forced to change its business model.
The lawyer representing the drivers, Shannon Liss-Riordan, scored some early wins getting the cases certified as class actions. But appeals courts later struck these down, making it unlikely the contractor vs employee issue would be resolved through courts.
For Uber, the legal battles clarified that most drivers valued flexibility over employee benefits. Uber agreed to a settlement improving policies but preserving contractor status.
In China, Didi engaged in a fierce competitive battle with Uber, each burning through billions in subsidies. Didi sought leverage by investing in Lyft and other regional rivals.
Both sides eventually sought a truce to focus on profitability and new technologies rather than endless competition. Uber agreed to leave China in exchange for a stake in Didi.
The survival and growth of Airbnb and Uber by 2016 showed their ability to mature as companies, forging pragmatic partnerships and shifting strategies as challenges emerged. But success would depend on identifying new opportunities in a dynamic landscape.
In fall 2016, Airbnb’s Brian Chesky and Uber’s Travis Kalanick were both looking ahead to the future of their companies.
Airbnb was booming, with 1.8 million guests in August 2016. Chesky was preparing to unveil Airbnb Trips, which would offer travelers unique experiences like truffle hunting in Florence. This was an effort to get travelers to explore lesser-known destinations and have more authentic local experiences.
Chesky saw Trips as continuing Airbnb’s mission of fostering connections between people. He also compared its significance to major product launches by Amazon and Apple.
A few weeks later, Uber’s Travis Kalanick reflected on ending his battle in China by selling to rival Didi Chuxing. He said the “ridesharing wars were going global” which led to the sale.
Kalanick defended Uber’s massive fundraising, saying it was required given the competitive environment. He said Uber was already profitable in some cities and could be profitable overall whenever it wanted by reducing investments.
Kalanick remained optimistic about Uber’s prospects in Europe despite regulatory hurdles, believing that ride-sharing would eventually win out. His priority was getting Uber to profitability.

Here are a few key points I gathered from your summary:

Ridesharing faced challenges breaking into some markets like Germany due to regulatory hurdles, but patience and persistence eventually paid off.
Uber drivers continued advocating for better treatment and pay, with some successes like the Seattle unionization vote showing the company still had work to do on that front.
Travis Kalanick made bold predictions about eliminating traffic congestion in 5 years through innovations like carpooling and driverless cars. This illustrates the ambitious vision Uber had for transforming cities.
Both Uber and Airbnb made big promises about improving cities and people’s lives. It remains to be seen if they can fully deliver on those lofty goals.
The author expresses optimism about the potential of these companies to bring positive change, but notes they must be held accountable to their promises and avoid ruthless behavior.
As Uber and Airbnb became establishment players themselves, their inauguration into the new Trump administration marked a major shift. Their early days as scrappy startups were giving way to a new reality.

Does this accurately summarize the key points and narrative arc? Let me know if you would like me to modify or expand the summary in any way.

Here is a summary of the key points regarding Travis Kalanick and Uber in the early days:

In 2007, Kalanick founded Red Swoosh, a peer-to-peer file sharing company that was eventually sold to Akamai Technologies for $19 million. This gave him his first exit and success as an entrepreneur.
In 2009, Kalanick met Garrett Camp and the two came up with the idea for Uber while camping in Paris. They wanted to find a way to book black car limo services on demand via mobile apps.
Kalanick was initially brought on as an advisor for UberCab in early 2010. He invested $250,000 in seed funding and became “Chief Incubator.”
Later in 2010, Ryan Graves was brought on as GM and officially Uber’s first CEO. However, Kalanick was deeply involved in the operations and strategy.
UberCab launched in San Francisco in 2010, focusing on town cars and limo services on demand. Customers could hail rides via iPhone and Android apps.
In December 2010, Kalanick succeeded Graves as CEO of Uber. He began leading the company’s aggressive expansion efforts.
Kalanick and early employees worked tirelessly to get Uber off the ground in the early days, pulling late nights and working out of makeshift offices.
Kalanick’s relentless drive and hustle became core parts of Uber’s culture and strategy for rapid global growth under his leadership.

Here is a summary of the key points from the references:

Uber launched in San Francisco in 2010 and expanded rapidly to other cities, disrupting the taxi industry. It pioneered a model of on-demand transportation through a smartphone app.
Travis Kalanick, Uber’s CEO, took an aggressive approach to growth, disregarding regulations and competing fiercely with rivals. He embraced confrontational tactics and operated in a “wartime” mentality.
Uber utilized tactics like surge pricing, guerrilla marketing campaigns, and recruiting drivers aggressively to grow the service. It also lobbied heavily against regulatory barriers.
Competitors like Lyft emerged, as did global clones trying to replicate Uber’s model. Uber responded aggressively by poaching drivers and other tactics.
Controversies like the “God View” scandal and reports of a sexist corporate culture plagued Uber. But it continued to raise massive amounts of venture capital and expand globally.
Kalanick’s aggressive and confrontational approach was key to Uber’s rapid growth, but also alienated regulators and created PR crises. His win-at-all-costs mentality became known as “Travis’s Law.”

Here are the key points from the articles:

Uber launched in cities like New Orleans and Miami despite initial bans or resistance from local governments. Uber took an aggressive approach to enter new markets regardless of regulations.
Uber rolled out new financing options like auto leases to rapidly expand its driver fleet for UberX. This enabled almost anyone to become an Uber driver, with concerns around driver quality.
Uber made major cuts to UberX pricing in early 2014 to undercut taxi prices and lyft, seeking to kill the competition. This led to driver protests over falling wages.
In late 2013, an Uber driver hit and killed a 6-year-old girl in San Francisco on New Year’s Eve. The driver was found to have a reckless driving record, raising concerns over Uber’s driver background checks. Uber was criticized for its response, initially claiming it was “not liable.”
The articles illustrate Uber’s aggressive and rapid expansion as well as the safety and regulatory concerns that emerged around Uber’s practices like driver recruitment and background checks. Uber prioritized growth and competing with rivals over compliance with regulations.

Here is a summary of the key points from the article 40344931.html:

The article discusses employment background checks in California, focusing on issues around accuracy. It notes that background checks are frequently conducted by employers in California, but there are concerns about false positives and inaccurate information.
It highlights some key California laws related to background checks, like the Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act which gives applicants access to their background check reports.
Issues discussed include faulty records, misinterpreted criminal records, and confusion over common names. Advocacy groups argue these can lead to unfair discrimination in the hiring process.
The article advocates for reform to improve background check accuracy, like allowing applicants to review and correct records and limiting the use of outdated or irrelevant information. It argues accurate background checks are in everyone’s interest.
Overall, the article examines background check use in California employment screening and argues for changes to improve accuracy and fairness for applicants. It sees potential for background checks to incorporate transparency and accountability reforms.

Here is a summary of the key points from the article “t-to-block-airbnb-in-new-york-city-1462842763”:

Airbnb has grown rapidly in New York City, raising concerns among some officials and housing advocates about its effects on affordable housing and residential neighborhoods.
In 2014, the New York attorney general released a report finding 72% of Airbnb listings violated a law banning short-term rentals of entire apartments.
Airbnb disputed the report’s findings and sued the attorney general. It also launched an aggressive lobbying and PR campaign in New York.
A law imposing fines on Airbnb hosts was proposed in San Francisco in 2015, causing Airbnb to spend over $8 million campaigning against it. The law was defeated in a public referendum.
New York City proposed legislation in 2015 to limit short-term rentals that Airbnb criticized as overly strict. After further negotiations, the city council passed a law in 2016 legalizing short-term rentals with some restrictions.
The battles over regulation highlight tensions between Airbnb’s rapid growth and its effects on housing markets, as well as its disruptive impact on existing industries like hotels.

Here is a summary of the key points from the articles:

In July 2015, Uber lobbied against a proposed one-year freeze on new for-hire vehicle licenses in New York City, arguing it would limit competition.
In July 2015, NY Governor Cuomo criticized NYC Mayor de Blasio’s proposed Uber regulations, saying the city should not limit Uber’s growth.
In January 2016, a NYC study blamed deliveries, construction and tourism for traffic congestion rather than ride-hailing services like Uber.
In October 2015, reports emerged of Uber hosting a lavish team-building retreat in Las Vegas for its top performers.
Uber has claimed its platform creates 20,000 new jobs per month, but critics argue Uber drivers make less than minimum wage.
In 2016, Uber investors pushed for a truce between Uber and its rival Didi in the costly China market share war.
In August 2016, Uber launched its first self-driving car fleet in Pittsburgh.

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The Upstarts - Brad Stone