Travis Kalanick of Uber - TWiST #180

Join our new mailing list and be the first to learn about upcoming guests: http://thisweekin.com/email

0:00-2:00 Welcome to TWiST with Travis Kalanick of Uber.
2:00-3:30 Jason talks about gambling on dinner in Vegas with Mike D from the Beastie Boys.
3:30-5:00 Thank you to GoToMeeting for sponsoring the show. Check out their beautiful new HD Faces product when you sign up at GoToMeeting.com.
5:00-7:00 Travis talks about his first company, doing SAT Prep, when he was 18.
7:00-8:30 Travis' SAT score revealed!
8:30-10:30 Travis's second company, Scour, was the first peer-to-peer software.
11:45-15:30 Travis talks about Michael Ovitz and Ron Burkle, who invested in his first company.
15:30-18:30 Travis discusses how Scour evolved into a huge platform.
18:30-23:30 Scour starts to meet with music execs and senators about copyrighted content and peer-to-peer sharing.
23:30-25:30 How do you deal with all of this insanity as a 22 year old founder?
25:30-26:15 Ovitz invested in Scour, a company that is cannibalizing his own industry, then denies that he knew what was going on.
26:15-28:00 Thank you to Hiscox for sponsoring the show. Go to HiscoxUSA.com/SmallBiz to get a free, fast quote online for your small business or startup!
28:00-35:00 Travis tells a harrowing tale of getting threatened by a shady industry type before going on stage at one of Jason's digital coast events.
35:00-36:00 The Scour lawsuit is settled and Travis sells the company for $10 million in bankruptcy court.
36:00-38:00 Do you remember the first mp3 players?
38:00-40:00 Red Swoosh, in which Mark Cuban was an investor, was too early to market. Travis describes that time as blood, sweat and ramen.
40:00-42:00 Travis explains how he and Mark went on a week long flame war about P2P being crap.
42:30-43:45 How did you and Garrett come up with Uber while at Le Web in Paris?
34:45-46:00 How does Uber work?
46:00-47:00 Travis says there are going to be more Uber cars than towncars in each city.
47:00-48:30 Travis: Successful entrepreneurs can get their first round of funding done very fast.
48:30-50:00 How do you know when you actually have a good idea?
50:00-54:30 The State of California and City of San Francisco sued to shut Uber down. Why?
54:30-56:30 Uber changes the driver/passenger relationship by establishing names, rating system.
56:30-58:00 Uber has experimented with variable pricing on NYE.
58:30-59:45 So you raised a round from Benchmark Capital for $11 million?
59:45-01:00:00 Travis describes what it was like meeting with Benchmark.
01:00:00-01:03:15 What is the future of Uber?
01:03:15-01:05:00 Jason tells about when he realized Uber was a $1B company.
01:05:00-01:07:00 Why is Uber going to work in NYC?
01:10:00-01:15:00 Why can't it be 'push a button, get bagels and lox'?
01:15:00-01:16:00 What is the perfect addition to the service?
01:16:00-01:17:00 Travis explains what the traveling salesman problem is all about.
01:17:00-01:19:00 Uber jets--it that going to happen?
01:19:00-01:20:00 Thanks for joining us Travis, continued success. Remember to check out Uber in Chicago, Boston and DC when they launch in a few months! And if you're an awesome business or sales person, email travis@uber.com.

Support This Week in Startups and independent media by joining the TWiST Producer Program at TwistList.co!

Multilingual? Translate this episode of TWiST into another language and email the transcript to translate@thisweekin.com

FOLLOW ON TWITTER
Jason: @jason
Tyler: @steepdecline
Travis: @travisk
Uber: @uber

Keep up with the latest from our sister company LAUNCH:

Live Blogging 500 Startups Demo Day--Aug. 16, 2011
http://launch.is/blog/live-blogging-500-startups-demo-day-aug-16-2011.html

Attention Developers: Tag and Prioritize Bugs in under 10 Seconds with BugHerd
http://launch.is/blog/attention-developers-tag-and-prioritize-bugs-in-under-1...

WillCall Brings Hotel Tonight Model to Live Events
http://launch.is/blog/willcall-brings-hotel-tonight-model-to-live-events-1.html

Groupon Alternative: Daily Gobble Offers Exclusive Restaurant Deals--No Coupon Required--to Increase Revenues
http://launch.is/blog/groupon-alternative-daily-gobble-offers-exclusive-resta...

Restaurants Make Their Own Deals with Appetizer App
http://launch.is/blog/restaurants-make-their-own-deals-with-appetizer-app.html

Special thanks to the members of the TWiST Backchannel Producer Program! See a list of all the members of the program at twistlist.co

Executive Producers
Louis-Eric Simard, Benjamin Gifford, Jacek Artymiak, Octavian Mihai, Will Paoletto, Geoffrey Clapp, Eien Hyett, Jeff Hoffer, Kyle Lonzo, Austin Miller, Rashaun Sourles, Robb Kunz, Greg Berry, Sean Lynch, Mary Ann Halford, Jim Joyce, Morgan Howard, Margaret Johns, Kyle M. Brown, Paul Cole, Nick Duncan, Magnus Ingvarsson, Amir Ayalon, Carlos Zaidenweber, Avery Keitt, Joshua Shipsey

Category:

• News
• Science & Tech

Starring:

• Jason Calacanis
• Tyler Crowley
• Lon Harris

Directed by:

• Matt Raub
• Branden Lymer

Produced by:

• Kirin Kalia
• Carolyn Bedgood

Tags:

• twi
• this week in
• network
• new
• media
• web
• tv
• entertainment
• shows
• this week in startups
• Jason Calacanis
• startups
• twist
• twistartups
• uber
• travis kalanick
• cab
• san francisco
• taxi
• lawsuit
• red swoosh
• akamai
• entrepreneur
• funding
• round
• jets
• future

[sheeplols]

What a great story!

[bribrett1]

this is a great video. Travis is very impressive. this video goes into my blog. thanks!

[Lurifaxnn]

Awesome episode!!

[tyronefilmshow]

As a proud twistlist memeber I want to publicly say how great it is being on the twislist. I keep an eye on the plethora of tech & business content out there & say with conviction that this is no 1. Everything here is pitch perfect, tone is superb, light hearted, entertaining extremely funny & above all maintaining a high educational value. There is literally no show like this out there and I know them all. Super, super show guys, this one is for sure, in ever respect a freakin 10 out of 10!