Kalanick’s network of spies in the Valley—mostly made up of other tech workers and venture capitalists—picked up early rumors of Lyft’s new carpooling service. To get the jump on Lyft, Kalanick tasked his chief product officer, Jeff Holden, to drop everything and copy the carpooling feature immediately. Uber announced the impending launch of “Uberpool,” a carpooling feature, mere hours before Lyft announced the product it had invented.
