The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley Are Changing the World

by Brad Stone

Then Travis Kalanick took the podium, looking nervous and emotional, with his parents sitting in the first row. Over the next twenty minutes, speaking awkwardly from a teleprompter, he acknowledged the aggressiveness that had made Uber such a polarizing company over the last half a decade. “I realize that I can come off as a somewhat fierce advocate for Uber,” he said. “I also realize that some have used a different a-word to describe me.” Kalanick then made a political case for the company that he had never before so artfully articulated. Uber, he said, brings new transportation options to low-income neighborhoods that aren’t served well by yellow taxis. It creates flexible jobs for the unemployed, for immigrants, and for students looking to finance their education. By combining riders in the same car via the carpooling service UberPool, the company was further lowering the price of for-hire vehicles and potentially taking cars off the road and reducing CO2 emissions. “That’s what we believe is the real game changer and those are the things we’ll be working on in years to come,” he said. The scripted event attempted to showcase a more introspective and optimistic Kalanick. It bore the fingerprints of Uber’s increasingly professional communications team led by David Plouffe, who would soon be replaced by Rachel Whetstone, the former head of communications and public policy at Google. But the message had another target besides the journalists in attendance—regulators and le...