Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber, By Mike Issac

RATING

1 star

N/A = good but not on the scale

1 star = perspective supplementing

2 stars = perspective influencing

3 stars = perspective altering

SHORT SUMMARY (272 words or less)

First book I’ve read since moving to the Bay Area!

I didn’t take notes from reading, and it’s been a while since I finished the book.  There’s a lot to think about here, much of which has and will certainly will impact how I approach my job.  I won’t describe them here–descriptions would be too verbose–but the factual anecdotes of the industry and company were alone worth the read.  On the highest levels, though, some things that I affirmed–culture and personality matter.  Travis Kalanick basically invented an entire industry and scaled it to hundred of billions dollars in potential market opportunity.  Much of that was due to his drive and self-set cultural standards of how he defined success.  That cult of personality trickled down to people who bought the vision, and the momentum of the culture propagated.  But just as culture and personality matters on the way up, it matters too on the way down, and the trickle down culture is just has hard to shake.

And as with many “fall from grace” stories, sometimes good things can come from it.  I think what makes this “cautionary tale” unique is that it’s an example of how a toxic culture can potentially override myopic investor views of growth and market share.  Uber was big, but investors could only look away from the drama coming out of it for so long.  Or maybe that’s just the pop culture characterization of things–I’m sure it’s more complicated than that.  Just interesting to read this story at this time of record growth in the Valley but also with stories like WeWork’s failed IPO.