The book focuses on Travis Kalanick, the leading CEO of the Uber company. It is told from the perspective of the journalist author and his following of the Uber rise and fall through articles. Travis Kalanick as the mainly focused individual in the book is described to have had the right material for becoming the grinding CEO of the large company from very young age. Exceptionally smart, he graduated in computer science and economy.
He was always interested in entrepreneurship, but got a taste of its downsides very early. In the early 2000s he started a company called Red Swoosh, which didn’t bode well because of the corruption within, which forced him to sell it by the year 2007.
The book then rehashes the start of Uber company in 2009. It was right at the time when grind and hustle culture was at its peak, and over exhaustion and overexploitation was something to be celebrated within the Silicon Valley. The idea of the company came to Garret Camp, an already successful entrepreneur, who was sick of the inconvenience of the public transportation. He asked Kalanick to be his partner and CEO of the company.
As it started gaining popularity, the potential career at the company started becoming a dream for any potential employee. This is where the phrase “super pumped” comes in. It is a phrase that describes the passionate employees of the company, who are ready to do whatever it takes to move forward. It is a phrase Kalanick coined.
But, the hidden scandals started to come into the light, scandals of harassment, corruption and exploitation of public information, which led to Kalanick’s fall from grace, and he was let go as the company’s CEO. The company’s reputation took the turn for the worse as well, and as it went public by 2019, its market value was already at a high decline.
