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comment by kleinbl00
kleinbl00  ·  1695 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: How Uber Got Lost

    Mr. Kalanick deserves credit for creating a world-changing company, one that scaled vertiginously from a modest black car service in San Francisco to a global brand in hundreds of cities.

Something nobody mentions is that UberCab's business model was illegal. In order to pick up passengers in California (and many municipalities and states) you need a commercial license and a car with a livery plate. Travis Kalanick bet that he could get huge enough to force San Francisco to deal with him rather than shut him down. It's a testament to the weakness of consumer protections that he was right.

Lather, rinse, repeat for half the tech industry. "Go fast and break things" is another way of saying "smash'n'grab."