Tag Archives: travis kalanick

06/7/18

Rebuilding a Reputation – Uber, Uber, Uber

Let’s talk reputation, shall we?

Big Red Car here on a dark and lonely Thursday morning. Hope you are well.

So, today, we talk about Uber’s latest attempts to rebuild its pathetic reputation.

Unless you have been summering over at the South Pole, you know that Uber has replaced its founder/CEO Travis Kalanick with Dara Khosrowshahi.

Uber’s board of directors hopes that Dara K can repair the reputation destruction wrought by Travis K. [Next in the chain of succession is Coach K?]

Read this:

Dara the K, new Uber CEO

That is a hard task. How do you rebuild a reputation which is in tatters? Tatters flavored by lawsuits? Class action lawsuits.

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06/27/17

VC Frat Boy Bad Behavior

Frat boy bad behavior?

Big Red Car here getting ready to unload on venture capitalists who engage in or tolerate frat boy, bro-culture, bad behavior in their firms and in the firms they fund.

Let’s cite examples, shall we?

Take the case of one Justin Caldbeck, formerly a co-founder of venture capital firm Binary Capital. BC is a seed stage firm with $300MM under management, a new $75MM offering in the marketplace. Put money in Snap.

Caldbeck, Harvard guy, was one of two partners with another partner recently joined. The new guy has already resigned. The firm is, essentially, wrecked though when you have $300MM of OPM, it has to be wound up carefully.

Hustling Justin stands accused by six women of inappropriate conduct from staying uninvited overnight at a woman’s apartment to running a hand up a woman’s thigh at a dinner, and engaging in sexually explicit text messaging. Typical frat boy, bad behavior. No style points. No charm. Just a groper with a Harvard sheepskin.

These incidents were all promulgated by Hustling Justin’s ability to do something good for these women. He helped them and he wanted them to “help” him? Ugh!

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