 | |
| Author | Mike Isaac |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | W. W. Norton |
Publication date | September 3, 2019 |
| ISBN | 9780393652253 |
Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber is a 2019 book by New York Times journalist Mike Isaac. The book covers the events between the founding of Uber and its initial public offering in 2019.
The book was based on Mike Isaac's coverage of events at Uber for New York Times. [1] [2]
The book presents the history of Uber since its founding by Garrett Camp as UberCab in 2009. Travis Kalanick, who would later run the company and become its largest shareholder before being removed as CEO, was originally brought in as an advisor with its first employee Ryan Graves as its CEO. The book explains how Kalanick came to replace Graves, who stayed on with the company, and gained control over the startup. According to the book, Kalanick was bitter about how venture capitalists had treated his first startup, Scour, and he vowed not to be replaced by them again. The book details the "work hard, play hard" culture at Uber, citing a party where employees celebrated the first billion dollars in revenues in Las Vegas. It also examines the many scandals experienced by the company, including allegations of sexual harassment documented by Susan Fowler, attempts to keep regulators from hiring Uber drivers to avoid fines, and the mishandling of personal information, including in the case of a rape victim in India. It also looks at the ways that, despite these incidents, the company was considered a unicorn by venture capitalists. Isaac writes that for a time, Uber was one of the highest valued private companies in Silicon Valley. The book ends with the company entering the market at below its valuation target. [3]
The book was well-received upon publication. [1] Wired named it its "Book of the Month", praising it for detailing the many problems at the company without vilifying Kalanick. [4] Leslie Berlin wrote in The New York Times that "Isaac is great at the ticktock of events as they unfold, but his best work comes when he steps back to examine the bigger picture." [5]
In May 2021, it was announced that Showtime had given a series order to a television adaptation of the book from Billions creators Brian Koppelman and David Levien. Koppelman, Levien and Beth Schacter will serve as showrunners, writers, and executive producers. Joseph Gordon-Levitt will star as Kalanick. [6] Kyle Chandler will also star as Bill Gurley. [7] Kerry Bishé joined the cast as Austin Geidt. [8] Babak Tafti and Mousa Hussein Kraish joined the cast. [9] Hank Azaria joined the cast as Tim Cook. [10] Bridget Gao-Hollitt was added to the cast as Gabi. [11] The series premiered on February 27, 2022. [12]
Uber Technologies, Inc., commonly referred to as Uber, is an American multinational transportation company that provides ride-hailing services, courier services, food delivery, and freight transport. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and operates in approximately 70 countries and 10,500 cities worldwide. It is the largest ridesharing company worldwide with over 150 million monthly active users and 6 million active drivers and couriers. It facilitates an average of 28 million trips per day and has facilitated 47 billion trips since its inception in 2010. In 2023, the company had a take rate of 28.7% for mobility services and 18.3% for food delivery.
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David Levien is an American screenwriter, director, producer, and novelist. He is co-creator, executive producer, and showrunner of Showtime's Billions, along with Brian Koppelman. Over the past two decades Levien has created an influential and diverse body of work in both film and television. Some of his most noteworthy credits include Ocean's Thirteen,Rounders, Solitary Man, The Illusionist, Runaway Jury, Tilt, and ESPN's 30 for 30 for which he won a sports Emmy.
John William Gurley is an American businessman. He is a general partner at Benchmark, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm in San Francisco, California. He is listed consistently on the Forbes Midas List and is considered one of the top dealmakers in the American technology industry.
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Dara Khosrowshahi is an Iranian-American business executive who is the chief executive officer of Uber. He was previously CEO of Expedia Group, a company that owns several travel fare aggregators. He is on the board of directors of BET.com and Hotels.com, and previously served on the board of The New York Times Company.
Garrett Camp is a Canadian businessman, investor, and software engineer. He helped build the search engine StumbleUpon and is a co-founder of Uber. He lives in Los Angeles.
Travis Cordell Kalanick is an American businessman best known as the co-founder and former chief executive officer (CEO) of Uber. Previously he worked for Scour, 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.
Lowercase Capital was an American venture capital firm that provided seed and early-stage funding for several successful startups, including Twitter, Twilio, Kickstarter, Uber, Instagram, and Stripe. It raised over $1 billion in capital, and sources claim a return of at least $5 billion to its investors. In 2017 Chris Sacca closed the fund for new start-up investments to focus on climate action and politics. He said, however, that Lowercase Capital would continue to support the existing portfolio of investments.
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This is a timeline of Uber, which offers a variety of transportation and logistics services and is an early example of the rise of the sharing economy.
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Penny Dreadful: City of Angels is an American historical dark fantasy television series created by John Logan that premiered on Showtime on April 26, 2020. The series stars Natalie Dormer, Daniel Zovatto, Kerry Bishé, Adriana Barraza, Jessica Garza, Michael Gladis, Johnathan Nieves, Rory Kinnear, and Nathan Lane. The series follows two detectives as they investigate a murder in Los Angeles. A spin-off of the series Penny Dreadful, City of Angels was ordered in November 2018 and is set in Los Angeles, California, in 1938.
Super Pumped is an American anthology drama television series created by Brian Koppelman and David Levien, named for the 2019 nonfiction book of the same name by Mike Isaac. The first installment, subtitled The Battle For Uber, is based on Isaac's book and centers on the rise and fall of former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Also starring Kyle Chandler, Uma Thurman, and Elisabeth Shue, it premiered on Showtime on February 27, 2022. Ahead of the series premiere, the series was renewed for a second season, based on a separate forthcoming book by Mike Isaac about Facebook.
CloudKitchens is a ghost kitchen company started by Diego Berdakin and EarthLink founder Sky Dayton in 2015. Travis Kalanick, cofounder of Uber, bought control of the company in 2018.
Three Women is an American television series based on the 2019 book of the same name by Lisa Taddeo that was initially set to premiere on Showtime. On January 30, 2023, Deadline reported that Showtime had decided not to air the completed series. Starz picked up the series a week later. All 10 episodes of season one premiered on February 16, 2024, in Australia on Stan. After 15 months without news, Starz announced that the show is set to premiere September 13, 2024 with a weekly release.
Babak Tafti is an American actor best known for recurring roles on Super Pumped and Billions.
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