Want to hear a short story that is not true at all?
We were going to call an Uber, but we decided to take a chance and walk instead.
Hilarious, right?
When you can call a cab from your phone to pick you up right from your doorstep, why would anyone want to take chances and walk, ever again?
Uber is not just a cab booking platform, it is a genie, ready to take you where you want to go, while you just sit back and relax.
Formerly known as Ubercab, Uber Technologies, Inc. was founded by Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick in San Francisco, California, and grew it to be present in over 70 countries and 10,500 cities worldwide.
What kickstarted the idea for Uber?
Garrett Camp came up with the idea for Uber to make it easier and cheaper to be able to find transportation. This idea was ignited when he and Tavis Kalanick had to spend $800 hiring a private driver on New Year’s Eve. Now, that is a lot of money.
This was enough to make the entrepreneurial juices run in their minds and come up with an effective solution.
The reason for Uber’s success
The success of Uber can be attributed to many factors, such as the mobile app makes it easy for riders to request rides and for drivers to accept and fulfil those requests. Besides, its affordable pricing model, flexible work schedule and continuous innovation with products like UberEATS, has made Uber a household name across the globe.
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How did the co-founders meet?
Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp, the co-founders of Uber, met at the LeWeb conference in Paris in 2008.
They were both successful entrepreneurs at that time, as Travis sold his file-sharing company, Red Swoosh for $ 19 Million to Akamai Technologies, and Garrett co-founded a web-discovery platform, StumbleUpon.
With the aim of revolutionizing transportation, they began working on a prototype for the service, which would later become Uber. Garrett took the role of the Chairman, while Kalanick became the CEO of Uber.
The ride begins with Uber
The first step for the co-founders was to develop the service further and raise capital to fund the company. In 2010, they launched the first version of the Uber app in San Francisco, which allowed its users to request a ride from a nearby driver using their smartphones.
As the company was growing, they were facing certain challenges along the way in the form of legal. They also faced regulatory challenges from traditional taxi companies and government agencies, controversies around driver wages, passenger safety, and company culture.
The partnership of a lifetime
The co-founders of Uber have left a significant mark on the transportation industry. They revolutionised the way people commute by introducing Uber which disrupted the traditional taxi industry.
Despite their controversial leadership style and numerous legal challenges, they have managed to successfully build a multibillion-dollar company and turned it into a household name.
Their entrepreneurial spirit and willingness to take risks have inspired many other startups to innovate and disrupt traditional industries.
