You are surely familiar with Uber’s founder, Travis Kalanick.
His inspiring narrative is given here in brevity:
- Before he turned 18, he was a door-to-door salesperson for Cutco knives.
- Opens his first company, New Way Academy, at the age of 18. Failed.
- Travis enrolled in UCLA to study computer engineering after graduating from high school.
- In 1998, Travis left college and became one of the company’s first workers at Scour, a service akin to Napster.
- Scour submitted a bankruptcy petition in 2000.
- In 2001, Travis founded Red Swoosh with the assistance of Scour’s previous engineering group (similar to Scour).
But he managed to stay out of litigation alleging copyright violation.
- In 2005, Mark Cuban helped him raise $1.7 million.
- For $18 million, Akamai Technologies purchased Red Swoosh in 2007.
- He started making startup investments in 2007 or 2008.
- In 2008, during the LeWeb conference, he learned about Garrett Camp’s concept for a limo timeshare business (cofounder of StumbleUpon).
- Founded Uber with Garrett Camp in March 2009.
- 2009 became the year of the first international litigation, protests, and failed attempts.
- Uber is valued at $70 billion as of 2017.
Source: appinstitute.com