Algos on demand. About a month ago, word spread that Google had quietly launched a new fund for investing into AI companies. Now this fund has made its first (or at least its first public) investment. Led by Google’s VP of engineering for AI, Anna Patterson, this new fund is leading a $10.5 million Series […]
Month: June 2017
I wonder what the gender diversity of this list of signatories looks like. “Quixotic” is the right word to describe this petition. More than one thousand current Uber employees have signed a letter to the company’s board of directors, asking for the return of deposed CEO Travis Kalanick “in an operational role.” One of its […]
Phase 2 of On-Demand officially arrives today. Goodbye, Travis. Source: Uber Founder Travis Kalanick Resigns as C.E.O. – The New York Times
An onslaught by San Francisco-based Lyft, is taking its toll, with Uber’s US market share dropping from 84 per cent at the beginning of this year to 77 per cent at the end of May, according to data from Second Measure, a research firm that uses anonymised credit card data. Source: Uber loses ground in […]
In an interview, Ms. Huffington, 66, said: “Knowing how to deal with crises without being overwhelmed — keeping one’s head while people all around are losing theirs — is the most important leadership quality. In times of crisis, people often overreact and move into very dark places where they have a hard time seeing their […]
Relic. For decades, David Bonderman, the co-founder of private equity firm TPG, was known as the irreverent enfant terrible of the financial industry, one who took delight in making caustic remarks. But this week, he delivered a quip that crossed a line, costing him his role on the board of Uber and creating an embarrassing […]
This is a stunning and counter-intuitive move by Amazon to place its brand in local neighborhoods. Look to Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods to proliferate like, well, Starbucks. Smaller stores augmented by high-end produce, organics, and impulse purchases. It also makes shopping a local task, so perhaps the next acquisition could be Instacart. The $13.7 […]
“The brand recognition of Lyft is increasing, and has increased a lot in the last 12 months,” says Susan Shaheen, who researchers ridesharing at UC Berkeley’s Transportation Research Center. Both the public and policymakers now know the company’s name, she says. That’s all great, but Lyft has an eye on a bigger prize: a lead […]
There’s a lot at stake. Ride-sharing, as an industry and a civic utility, is too big an idea to be left to a company like the one Uber is now. The company that wins this industry is bound to become one of the world’s most powerful corporations. Its executives and culture will indirectly shape how […]
The depth of the problems at Uber has not been plumbed if a board member, albeit one closely aligned with the source of the problem, Travis Kalanick, can speak this way at a company meeting. Completely tone deaf. My Uber selling price prediction: $18 Billion in the next four to six months or, if they […]