Silicon Alley Reporter was an American trade publication focused on New York's Silicon Alley .
66-587: Founded by Jason Calacanis in 1996, then was renamed the Venture Reporter in 2001 and was eventually sold to Dow Jones in 2003. Rafat Ali served as Managing Editor before founding paidContent.org and its parent company ContentNext Media . Notable contributors include Xeni Jardin , Rafat Ali and Clay Shirky . The parent company of Silicon Alley Reporter and Venture Reporter was called Rising Tide Studios . Karol Martesko-Fenster collaborated with Jason Calacanis and Gordon Gould from 1997 to 1999 on
132-482: A multimedia search engine, and Scour Exchange, a peer-to-peer file sharing service. Kalanick handled sales and marketing for Scour. He has referred to himself as a co-founder of the company, but the other co-founders have disputed this. After months of growth, Scour was strapped for cash and sought funding from venture capitalist investors Ronald Burkle and Michael Ovitz . Negotiations were contentious and Ovitz eventually sued Scour for breach of contract. Scour
198-428: A peer-to-peer file sharing application company, and was the co-founder of Red Swoosh , a peer-to-peer content delivery network that was sold to Akamai Technologies in 2007. Kalanick was CEO of Uber from 2010 to 2017. He resigned from Uber in 2017, after growing pressure resulting from public reports of the company's unethical corporate culture, including allegations that he ignored reports of sexual harassment at
264-576: A tipping option in the app for years, Kalanick opposed it, believing it interfered with the otherwise "frictionless" payment process. Following a pair of class-action lawsuits in California and Massachusetts about the employment status of drivers, Uber was mandated to explain its position on tips, which it did via a blog post that argued that the "connection between tipping and quality of service can be weak. Many people tip because it's expected." Kalanick's refusal to allow for in-app tipping "contributed to
330-610: A " dark horse " candidate, Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi , even though Khosrowshahi had strongly opposed any further operational role for Kalanick. During his presentation, Khosrowshahi included a slide entitled, "There cannot be two CEOs." Uber began to negotiate a tender offer with Japanese software conglomerate SoftBank in September 2017. The offer included an agreement to add six new seats to Uber's board, which would dilute Kalanick's influence over it. On September 29, Kalanick unilaterally appointed Ursula Burns and John Thain to
396-483: A 2014 interview with men's magazine GQ , he joked that the company should be called "Boob-er" for all the female attention it was bringing him; the remark was frequently criticized in the press as an example of his toxic masculinity. Executives were known to expense strip club visits to corporate accounts, a practice jokingly referred to as "Tits on Travis". Surveys commissioned by Uber public relations personnel in late 2016 showed that customers appreciated Uber as
462-500: A bid to save money, later complaining that "it sucked", because he "wasn't getting ladies". Kalanick apparently went without a salary while at Red Swoosh for over three years. By 2002, Red Swoosh was down to only two employees: Kalanick and former Scour engineer Evan Tsang. The company continued to have difficulty securing funding, surviving via a series of last-minute deals with various investors. In early 2005, Todd helped recruit Tsang to Google , resulting in public embarrassment for
528-609: A book titled "Angel: How to Invest in Technology Startups—Timeless Advice from an Angel Investor Who Turned $ 100,000 into $ 100,000,000" on angel investing published by HarperCollins in 2017. In 2018, Calacanis invested in Calm , a meditation app that is valued at $ 1 billion. This Week in Startups is a weekly podcast created and hosted by Calacanis. The Wall Street Journal contributor Cecilie Rohwedder described
594-731: A company focused on the redevelopment of distressed real estate assets; he also announced that he would serve as its CEO. CSS subsidiary CloudKitchens , a ghost kitchen managing company, took a controlling interest in U.K.-based startup FoodStars in June 2018. Kalanick personally invested $ 300 million in the startup, and in November 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported that Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund completed an agreement with CloudKitchens in January 2019 to invest $ 400 million in
660-577: A large portion of their shares to Kalanick when he took the CEO position, giving him a significant degree of control over the company. In October 2010, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency served UberCab with a cease and desist order, warning that they were in breach of regulations in the city and could face significant fines if they continued to operate as a taxicab company without appropriate permits. Kalanick directed
726-497: A month and achieved profitability in 2011, but suffered a sharp decline in traffic that year from the Google Panda search algorithm update and shut down in 2014. Calacanis founded ThisWeekIn.com, which shut down in 2012 but is live again and available as a weekly podcast. This Week in Startups (also called TWiSt ) is a show founded and hosted by Calacanis. The show was co-hosted by Molly Wood from 2021 to 2023. Molly left
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#1732859255969792-534: A news post on the Uber website that, as a member of the advisory council, he believed he would be able to directly address his concerns with the President and advocate for immigrants. After continued pressure, Kalanick announced in an email to Uber employees that he would step down from the council. At the end of May 2017, Kalanick's parents were involved in a boating accident that seriously injured his father and resulted in
858-534: A penthouse in New York City for $ 36.4 million. In April 2020, he bought a home in Los Angeles for $ 43.3 million. Kalanick dated Gabi Holzwarth, a violist and business development manager, from 2014 to late 2016. In 2017, Holzwarth told The Huffington Post she was glad to be out of Uber’s orbit, which she described as a deeply misogynistic environment and an "unhealthy world of impossible standards" that
924-455: A report from Recode , Kalanick asked his newly-hired direct report , SVP of Engineering Amit Singhal , to resign; Singhal had failed to disclose that he had resigned from Google following sexual harassment claims. In March 2017, it was reported that in 2014, Kalanick had been part of a group of Uber executives who visited a karaoke bar in Seoul that featured escorts . A female employee who
990-467: A service, but had a strongly negative perception of Kalanick. Shortly after the survey results were first discussed at Uber in February 2017, Eric Newcomer at Bloomberg Businessweek published a video of Kalanick berating an Uber driver at the end of a ride, following a disagreement about falling driver income. Kalanick apologized for the incident to company employees in an email that was later posted to
1056-499: A single 10- or 15-minute presentation. Calacanis is an angel investor in Robinhood , Wealthfront , Uber , Desktop Metal , Datastax , Thumbtack , Superhuman and Trello . Calacanis raised a $ 10 million fund for his own venture investment firm to invest in startups that emerged from the Launch conference. Limited partners in the fund include David Sacks . Following the success of
1122-458: A supporter of Kalanick's, had become frustrated with his reckless corporate spending and overriding of the chief financial officer and chief legal officer . Corporate culture at Uber under Kalanick was grueling. Employees were expected to work nights and weekends regularly without additional compensation, and conference calls were often scheduled at all times of the night. Kalanick favored employees who were willing to do anything to advance in
1188-591: A test preparation company called "New Way Academy" with the father of a classmate. After graduating from Granada Hills Charter High School , Kalanick studied computer engineering and business economics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). While studying at UCLA, Kalanick was a member of Theta Xi fraternity. In 1998, he dropped out to work at the start-up Scour full-time. In 1998, Kalanick, along with Michael Todd and Vince Busam, dropped out of UCLA to work for Dan Rodrigues , founder of Scour Inc. ,
1254-524: A venture capital firm, as an EIA (entrepreneur in action) in December, 2006, a position which he held until May, 2007. Through this program, Calacanis invested $ 25K in Travis Kalanick 's company, Uber . As of 2017 the investment was worth roughly $ 100 million. In 2007, Calacanis is credited with starting an internet trend he called "fatblogging" after being fed up with being overweight . Fatblogging
1320-452: A venture fund named 10100, intended to invest in e-commerce, innovation and real estate in emerging markets like China and India. That same year, Kalanick announced an investment of nearly $ 150 million in real estate redevelopment company City Storage Systems; he also announced that he would be its CEO. The company operates a ghost kitchen startup under the name CloudKitchens , which was valued at $ 15 billion as of 2021. Kalanick
1386-594: Is an American Internet entrepreneur, angel investor , author and podcaster. His first company was part of the dot-com era in New York. His second venture, Weblogs, Inc. , a publishing company that he co-founded together with Brian Alvey , capitalized on the growth of blogs before being sold to AOL . Calacanis is also an angel investor in various technology startups and co-host of the All-In podcast alongside David Sacks , Chamath Palihapitiya and David Friedberg , and
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#17328592559691452-427: Is unusual for an investor to sue a founder directly. The court ruled in the favor of Kalanick to move the case to arbitration on August 30. In a public statement responding to the ruling, Kalanick said that "Benchmark's false allegations are wholly without merit and have unnecessarily harmed Uber and its shareholders." Kalanick initially supported former General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt as his successor. Immelt
1518-478: Is when a person loses weight by exercising and then posting their weight afterwards onto their blog for encouragement and support from commenters and other fatbloggers. He launched the web directory Mahalo ("thank you" in Hawaiian), which raised $ 20 million in venture capital from investors including Sequoia Capital , News Corp , CBS , Mark Cuban , and Elon Musk . Mahalo hit a peak of 15 million unique visitors
1584-475: The "JamPad" – as an informal salon for young tech enthusiasts. In 2009, Kalanick co-founded ridesharing company Uber with Canadian entrepreneur Garrett Camp , co-founder of StumbleUpon . Camp, a frequent guest at Kalanick's home, had become frustrated with taxi services in San Francisco, and had found hiring drivers with upscale black car services inconvenient and expensive. Eventually he developed
1650-667: The Best Business Podcasts". As of 2022, Calacanis is co-host of the All-In podcast, alongside Chamath Palihapitiya , David O. Sacks , and David Friedberg . In May 2022, the All-In Podcast team hosted their first All-In Summit in Miami, where leaders in business and tech attended to discuss the central theme of "What problem do you want to solve right now?" Calacanis married Jade Li sometime between 2006 and 2009. Calacanis
1716-425: The Launch conference, Calacanis declared his intent to get closer and more involved in the new ventures that emerged from that conference. The level of investment was around $ 25,000 to $ 100,000 in five to 10 startups per year. In 2016, Calacanis was banned from attending Y Combinator's Demo Day. According to a post on Hacker News by then-president of Y Combinator Sam Altman , the decision to exclude Calacanis
1782-529: The United States from the Austrian city of Graz , was a civil engineer for the city of Los Angeles. Kalanick has two half-sisters, one of whom is the mother of actress Allisyn Ashley Arm , and a brother who is a firefighter. In middle and high school, Kalanick was known to be competitive and driven to win. As a teenager, Kalanick sold knives door-to-door for direct sales company Cutco . At 18, he started
1848-599: The Weblogs, Inc. blogs business was generating $ 1,000 a day just from AdSense . Time Warner 's America Online agreed to buy Weblogs, Inc. in October 2005 for $ 25–30 million. On November 16, 2006, TechCrunch reported that Calacanis had resigned from his position as CEO of Weblogs, Inc. and general manager of Netscape . Calacanis later confirmed this on his blog and the Gillmor Gang podcast. Calacanis joined Sequoia Capital ,
1914-613: The West Coast. Calacanis' socializing earned him a nickname as the "yearbook editor" of the Silicon Alley community. The company also organized conferences in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco focused on the Internet, web, and New Media. Calacanis co-founded the blog network Weblogs, Inc. with Brian Alvey on September 24, 2003, and the startup was supported by an angel investment from Mark Cuban . Two years after its inception,
1980-587: The already-struggling Red Swoosh and the loss of a potentially lucrative deal with AOL . After getting to know Kalanick during a contentious exchange on an internet forum later that year, American investor Mark Cuban invested $ 1.8 million into the company, leading to further investments from Cuban's contacts. Kalanick was able to hire more programmers, and c. 2006 , he moved to Thailand with his software team for two months. In 2007, competitor Akamai Technologies acquired Red Swoosh for approximately $ 19 million. Kalanick made $ 2 million on
2046-459: The board and hand-picked its members to allow him to "do what I want". In 2016, he negotiated an option to appoint another three board members at his discretion. Journalists and the public alike criticized Kalanick regularly for setting Uber up with a " bro culture " awash in toxic masculinity , bullying , and misogyny , which in turn influenced attitudes in Silicon Valley generally. In
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2112-432: The board. In January 2018, Benchmark dropped its lawsuit against Kalanick to allow the deal to proceed. The share purchase valued Uber at $ 48 billion. On December 24, 2019 Kalanick announced his resignation from the board effective December 31, 2019. In the weeks leading up to this announcement, Kalanick sold off more than $ 2.5 billion of Uber stock holding, which amounted to about 90% of his shares. Following
2178-484: The company Twitter along with David Sacks. In 2009, Calacanis founded the Open Angel Forum , an event that connects early-stage startups with angel investors. The forum was the culmination of a series of public comments by Calacanis questioning the ethics of pay-to-pitch angel forums. Calacanis believes startups shouldn't have to pay to pitch angel investors, calling out fees that can range from $ 1,000 to $ 8,000 for
2244-399: The company blog, stating that he felt he needed to "grow up". Later that year, Reuters reported that Kalanick had developed "a reputation as an abrasive leader". Sexual harassment and other forms of discrimination were rife at Uber corporate headquarters during Kalanick's tenure as CEO. The issues went unaddressed by the human resources department (HR), and Kalanick in particular
2310-401: The company to ignore the order and continue operating, but changed the company's name from UberCab to Uber to prevent it from being accused of falsely advertising itself as a taxi company. Kalanick believed that in addition to efficiency, Uber offered elegance because all drivers had fancy black cars. He did not feel that regular cars would be attractive. When Wingz, Inc. launched in 2011 with
2376-490: The company, even if it resulted in chronic infighting. He authorized the use of industrial espionage tactics against competitors and regulators, including the Greyball blacklisting program, and encouraged the development and use of rider-surveillance programs. Throughout his tenure as CEO, Kalanick had tight control over the company's board of directors , once telling Tim Cook from Apple that he had intentionally structured
2442-496: The company. In January 2022, Business Insider reported that the company had raised new funding valued at $ 15 billion. Since 2018, Kalanick has been on an advisory board for Neom , Saudi Arabia's plan to build a futuristic "mega city" in the desert. Kalanick owns a townhouse in the upper hills of San Francisco's Castro District , which was nicknamed "the Jam Pad" and had its own Twitter account. In 2019, Kalanick purchased
2508-477: The company. Kalanick retained his seat on the board of directors until he resigned the seat on December 31, 2019. In the weeks leading up to the resignation, Kalanick sold off approximately 90% of his shares in Uber, for a profit of about $ 2.5 billion. Following the sale, in 2017, Kalanick was ranked 238th on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans, with a net worth of $ 2.6 billion. In 2018, Kalanick started
2574-481: The concept of a smartphone app that could hail luxury vehicles directly from the user's smartphone . He discussed the concept with Kalanick, who agreed to act as a "mega advisor" to the company, originally called UberCab. As neither Camp nor Kalanick wanted to run the company directly, Ryan Graves was brought on as chief executive officer (CEO) at launch. He held the position for ten months before being removed in favor of Kalanick. Camp and Graves each signed over
2640-483: The deal after taxes and moved to San Francisco . In San Francisco, Kalanick used the money he had made from the sale of Red Swoosh to make small investments in startups. He positioned himself as a "fixer" for startup problems such as talking to investors or hiring new staff. He primarily invested in tech startups like Expensify , Livefyre , Crowdflower , and Formspring . Unsatisfied with only being an investor, he began to treat his Castro District apartment – termed
2706-406: The death of his mother. On June 11, the final report of the independent investigation into Uber's sexual harassment issues was presented to Uber's top management. The scathing report was "hundreds of pages" long and included a dozen pages of recommendations, most prominently that Kalanick needed to take a leave of absence and reduce his level of control over Uber's operations. On June 13, 2017, it
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2772-486: The decision and the fallout that ensued. In 2014, Business Insider reported that Kalanick publicly accused co-founder Michael Todd of making the decision without his knowledge, while Todd stated it was a decision they made together. The article noted that "an email sent by Kalanick at the time and obtained by Business Insider appears to demonstrate his participation in the tax plan." In a 2017 article for The New York Times , Mike Isaac reported that Kalanick and Todd made
2838-421: The decision together, and that "friends and advisors" had warned Kalanick that using tax withholdings in this way could be considered tax fraud . In his 2019 book Super Pumped , Isaac wrote that an unnamed employee made the decision, for which Kalanick was blamed following the employee's departure from the company. According to this version, it was only after the fact that he was advised it could be tax fraud. In
2904-546: The end, a second round of funding provided enough cash to repay the Internal Revenue Service , and no one was ever prosecuted. The incident caused significant tension between the co-founders, and Todd left the company by the end of September that year. Kalanick accused him of trying to solicit a hiring offer for himself and other Red Swoosh employees with Sony Ventures behind Kalanick's back. Shortly after Todd's departure, Kalanick moved back into his parents' house in
2970-668: The first ridesharing website in the world using regular drivers, he felt that Wingz was illegal and contacted authorities to stop regular drivers from giving rides. In February 2011, Kalanick met with Bill Gurley , an investor from venture capital firm Benchmark , and secured an $ 11 million investment for 20 percent of Uber (then valued at $ 50 million) for its Series A round of funding. The company embarked on its Series B round in late 2011, raising an additional $ 32 million. Kalanick's experiences with investors at Scour and Red Swoosh had made him wary of investors who might interfere with his control of Uber, so he ensured that
3036-544: The host of This Week in Startups Podcast . Calacanis was born in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn , New York, and has two brothers. He is of half- Greek and half- Irish descent. He graduated from Xaverian High School in 1988 and attended Fordham University , where he received a B.A. in psychology . Calacanis started his career in the 1990s as a reporter covering the internet industry in New York. Calacanis
3102-608: The launch of Silicon Alley Reporter prior to joining Rising Tide Studios in April 1999. He served as President & Publisher until mid-2001. Doug Mintz, now a Chambers-rated bankruptcy lawyer , served as Editorial Director in 2000-2001 and helped create the spinoff Venture Reporter. The Silicon Alley Reporter 100, the list of the 100 most influential people in New York Technology, was published annually. Jason Calacanis Jason McCabe Calacanis (born November 28, 1970)
3168-468: The lawsuit. In 2001, with Michael Todd, Kalanick started Red Swoosh , another peer-to-peer file-sharing company. Kalanick called it his "revenge business" against the MPAA and RIAA for the lawsuit that killed Scour. Kalanick's business model was that media companies would pay Red Swoosh to provide legitimate copies of media files like music and videos to customers, and the company developed technology to make
3234-571: The perception of Uber as the unfeeling, win-at-all-costs player in ride-hailing, particularly compared to Lyft", which did allow tipping. In December 2016, it was announced that Kalanick would join several other high-profile CEOs as an economic advisor on for the Strategic and Policy Forum of President Donald Trump , organized by Stephen Schwarzman , a businessman with The Blackstone Group . Kalanick publicly opposed President Trump's executive order banning travel from select countries , but wrote in
3300-458: The platform. That same year, Kalanick obtained a $ 250 million investment from Google Ventures , with a valuation of $ 3.5 billion. Kalanick also made a point of undermining potential investments into competitor Lyft , poaching them for Uber. By 2014, Kalanick's reputation was beginning to suffer as a result of his ruthless attitude towards competitors, regulators, customers, employees, and Uber's drivers. By this time, Gurley, once
3366-409: The podcast as "an influential Web series filmed in the U.S." Plans for the podcast were announced on March 16, 2009, through a blog post. The 60-minute program premiered on May 1, 2009, featuring Brian Alvey , CEO and founder of the content management and hosting system Crowd Fusion, as its first guest.. This Week in Startups was listed in an article at Fortune.com titled "The Ultimate Guide to
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#17328592559693432-563: The podcast in 2023 for unnamed reasons. He also founded a startup Inside.com which focuses on delivering thematic newsletters. The company raised $ 2.6 million. In June 2019, Calacanis partnered with the NSW Government to create the Sydney Launch Festival for startups to give their pitches to global audiences. After Elon Musk acquired Twitter in 2022 and re-organized the management and governance structure, Calacanis helped run
3498-547: The sale, in 2017, Kalanick was ranked 238th on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans, with a net worth of $ 2.6 billion. On March 7, 2018, Kalanick announced via his Twitter account that he would start a venture fund, 10100 (pronounced 'ten-one-hundred'), focused on job growth in emerging markets like China and India. Shortly after the announcement of his venture fund, Kalanick announced that his fund had invested $ 150 million in City Storage Systems (CSS),
3564-474: The terms for these and future investments strongly favored himself and Uber. He strictly limited the amount of financial information investors could access, and the shares for new investors had a tenth of the voting power of the shares held by Kalanick, Camp, and Graves. In April 2013, after Wingz, Inc. fought to become legal and obtained the first legal ridesharing license in the world, Uber copied this model and added regular drivers instead of only black cars to
3630-484: The transfer of such large files more efficient. Kalanick had difficulty securing funding as the company was launched right after the dot-com bubble burst. As a result, Red Swoosh ran with minimal month-to-month cash flow , and by August 2001, some employees had gone months without a paycheck. In September 2001, Red Swoosh used approximately $ 110,000 of the company's payroll tax withholdings to fund day-to-day operations. There are differing accounts of what led to
3696-495: Was an early supporter and founder for the effort behind the successful recall election of the San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin in 2022. Travis Kalanick Travis Cordell Kalanick ( / ˈ k æ l ə n ɪ k / ; born August 6, 1976) is an American businessman best known as the co-founder and former chief executive officer (CEO) of Uber . Previously he worked for Scour ,
3762-745: Was announced that Kalanick would take an indefinite leave of absence from Uber, although he continued to work without the approval of the company's board. On June 20, 2017, Kalanick resigned as CEO after five major investors, including Benchmark Capital, demanded his resignation in a letter. Uber added an in-app tipping option a short time later. Following his resignation, Kalanick retained his seat on Uber's board of directors . He continued to attempt to interfere with company operations by contacting employees and board members asking for internal company information and attempting to sway their voting regarding his replacement. The executive leadership threatened to quit en masse ; Kalanick's access to company servers
3828-540: Was born on August 6, 1976, and grew up in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles. Kalanick's parents are Bonnie Renée Horowitz Kalanick (née Bloom) and Donald Edward Kalanick. Bonnie, whose family were Viennese Jews who immigrated to the U.S. in the early 20th century, worked in retail advertising for the Los Angeles Daily News . Donald, from a Slovak–Austrian Catholic family whose grandparents immigrated to
3894-434: Was damaging to her psyche, as she had dealt with eating disorders for years. Holzwarth did, however, praise Kalanick for helping her recover from her eating disorders. Kalanick has been described as a passionate libertarian and a fan of author Ayn Rand . However, Kalanick supported Obamacare because it allows Uber drivers, as independent contractors , to maintain health insurance as they transition between jobs. In
3960-493: Was driven by feedback received from YC founders regarding their interactions with him. Calacanis publicly announced in 2018 that he had sold all of his Facebook stock, expressing sharp criticism of company CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg on the Too Embarrassed to Ask podcast. He called Zuckerberg "completely immoral" in how he runs the business and said, "No founder should ever sell a company to him." Calacanis authored
4026-748: Was forced to accept unfavorable terms for the investment, and Ovitz acquired majority control over the company. The situation would sour Kalanick's view of investor-founder relations. In 2000, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) brought a $ 250 billion lawsuit against Scour, alleging copyright infringement. In September 2000, Scour filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to protect itself from
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#17328592559694092-417: Was known to protect his favored employees from consequences for this type of behavior. Much of this behavior became public in early 2017. That February, it was reported that Kalanick had full knowledge of sexual harassment allegations at Uber and did nothing. After these reports emerged, Kalanick announced that Uber would "conduct an urgent investigation into these allegations". In the same week, following
4158-436: Was open to allowing Kalanick to retain some role in Uber's operations, while the other major candidate, Meg Whitman of Hewlett Packard Enterprise , intended to shut Kalanick out of any operational role. However, Kalanick soured on Immelt after Immelt's presentation went badly. Immelt pulled out of the running after one director privately told him he had no chance at getting the job. Kalanick unexpectedly threw his support behind
4224-449: Was present made a complaint to HR, but little came of it. That summer, it emerged that Kalanick and other top Uber executives had accessed the private medical files of a woman who alleged she was raped by an Uber driver in India; Kalanick had made comments doubting her account as a result of information from the file. Although many drivers and corporate employees had requested the addition of
4290-474: Was stripped. On August 10, 2017, Axios reported that Benchmark was suing Kalanick for "fraud, breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty", in an attempt to remove Kalanick's residual right to name two further board members. Benchmark argued the agreement was invalid due to withholding of material information prior to the vote to allow him to do so. The lawsuit was controversial in Silicon Valley; it
4356-545: Was the founder and CEO of Rising Tide Studios, a media company that published print and online publications. During the dot-com boom, Calacanis was active in New York's Silicon Alley community, and in 1996 began producing the Silicon Alley Reporter . Originally a 16-page photocopied newsletter, it eventually expanded into a 300-page magazine, with a sister publication called the Digital Coast Reporter for
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