Since neither of them wanted to do the job, Camp and Kalanick decided that Graves, young and full of hustle, should be the company’s first chief executive. Graves was ecstatic; he finally had his chance to prove he could make it at a startup. It didn’t last long. Graves’s friends have always considered him an “A-plus guy,” but he turned out to be a B-minus chief executive. During the company’s early fundraising days, he’d walk into important meetings with venture capitalists and fumble stats or other talking points. Despite his confidence, he could never deliver a convincing enough pitch to
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