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

by Brad Stone

A few weeks into 2009, after their trip to Washington, DC, to see Barack Obama’s first inauguration as president, Camp called Kalanick. He was about to lease parking spaces in a garage near his home on Hawthorne Street in San Francisco for the fleet of Mercedes he was still determined to buy. Kalanick counseled him against it one last time: “Dude, dude! You don’t want to do that!” Camp finally gave in and ended the ongoing debate; he never signed the lease and never purchased the cars. Instead of buying a dozen flashy Mercedes, Camp, along with Kalanick, would pitch the app to owners and drivers of town cars. Kalanick would brag a few years later, in one of our first interviews: “Garrett brought the classy and I brought the efficiency. We don’t own cars and we don’t hire drivers. We work with companies and individuals who do that. It’s very straightforward. I want to push a button and get a ride. That’s what it’s about.”

Uber in a few paragraphs