[hectorr1]

Kalanick is a giant asshole, but also built an incredible company. He then proceeded to nearly destroy it out of arrogance. So did Jobs during his first stint as CEO.

Look at the heat Musk and Zuckerberg are taking these days. We would probably have a much different view of Jobs if he was in his prime in the social media era.

[MR4D]

Kalanick built an incredible idea. His company still loses billions of dollars per year.

I've listed a ton of references, but my favorite quote is from [3] :

     The firm actually lost nearly $1.1 billion (GAAP net income) against just $2.22 billion in net revenue in the fourth quarter.
     
     It works out to a -49 percent GAAP net margin.

Also, the graphs on [5] are pretty damning.

So in my opinion, the idea is great (actually, truly freaking fantastic to me), but the company is burning through cash at an incredible (and often growing) rate.

To me, that is not the making of an incredible company.

[0] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-25/uber-lose...

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-06/uber-spen...

[2] https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/13/ubers-loss-jumped-61-percent...

[3] https://news.crunchbase.com/news/understanding-uber-loses-mo...

[4] http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/growth-vs-profits...

[5] https://www.forbes.com/sites/lensherman/2017/12/14/why-cant-...

[socceroos]

How much is going to CapEx? I thought they burnt at such a high rate because of their autonomous R&D.

[coatmatter]

An "incredible" company thanks to asshole methods. Being an asshole was a prerequisite in that case and cannot be separated.

[artursapek]

> We would probably have a much different view of Jobs if he was in his prime in the social media era.

...which one could take to mean that a lot of these peoples' problems today are self-created (see: not knowing when to shut up)