Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber

by Mike Isaac

On October 20, 2010, just days after Graves had agreed to officially step aside as Uber’s CEO, transportation officials showed up at the offices of the young startup. They hadn’t read TechCrunch and asked to see Graves. UberCab, they said, had been served with a cease and desist order; the company was breaking the law by skirting existing transportation regulations, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency said. Every day UberCab was in operation, the company faced fines of up to $5,000 per trip. The potential fines were enough to put the company out of business. UberCab was already completing hundreds of trips per day in San Francisco. Moreover, Graves, Kalanick, and other employees faced up to ninety days in jail for each day the company remained in operation beyond October 20.