Uber CEO to take leave
I really don&#x27;t buy the Travis Kalanik hate. Yeah, Uber started out as your typical SV unicorn (bro warts and all). Yeah, Uber&#x27;s entire business model can be described as &quot;grey-area&quot; at best and its business practices as sometimes exploitative.<p>But this is exactly how you&#x27;re supposed to run a massively successful startup in its first decade. This is exactly how FB started out. And this follows every rule in the startup book to a tee. Look, we can&#x27;t have it both ways, guys. The recent stuff about Travis has been downright witch-hunty. I mean, every single article about the &quot;leaked&quot; memo was headlined as &quot;You can have sex with your coworkers -- if...&quot; I mean, come on.<p>There was literally nothing wrong with the email, but every single paper covered it in some weird passive-aggressive way. Same with the previous story where TK gets in the altercation with the Uber driver on video. Travis was (yet again) 100% in the right there, but everyone spun it like he was being some kind of asshole, when the driver blindsided <i>him</i>.<p>To be honest, I&#x27;m no Travis Kalanik fanboy (in spite of sharing the same alma mater), but the guy obviously knows what he&#x27;s doing. He found, by accident or not, a market desperately in need of disruption and absolutely nailed it. Uber is a cultural phenomenon that arguably has more longevity than something like Facebook.<p>I just think he&#x27;s been treated unfairly because of his playboy flair, but he&#x27;s actually a pretty smart, ruthless business leader. Even this story tries hard to dehumanize him (cut him some slack; his mom just passed away). I don&#x27;t really understand why.