Previously on Super Pumped...
Young founders are a hot commodity.
You must basically have women on demand now too.
Yeah, we call that Boober.
Olivia Lungociu just published
our entire list of data access permissions.
Everyone will know that we access
users' messages, cameras, contacts, GPS,
even after the app's been closed.
Olivia Lungociu.
Open her up quick and quiet.
She needs to be fucking neutralized.
I'm going to stay in the city tonight.
Can't you come home?
I've gotta get an early start.
The money is worthless if I never see you.
Quality time in the dark isn't so great
when I can't pay the electricity bill.
Thanks for all you do, brother.
Is Google starting a self-driving
ride-hailing service?
Anything is possible.
That's Levandowski. I want to poach him.
I just sent Google my resignation letter.
Why don't you meet our newest board member.
I am thrilled by Uber's potential
to make the world a better place.
Apple just rejected the update.
Your build breaks dozens of App Store rules.
It's an abomination.
Change it.
Anyone looking at Uber's app
from Cupertino
won't be able to see the privacy-violating code.
Do it.
Tim, you're not gonna believe
the shit Uber's trying to pull.
opening theme music plays
-Hey. -Oh, Jesus.
Hi.
Did they ever play any happy songs back in the day,
or are they all just like funeral dirges?
Okay, they had a lot of people dying on them back then.
-Young too. -But they also played, like,
imperial shit, right, like for kings?
Can you play me something like that?
Guess someone had a good day at work.
I did. I had a great fucking day.
Good. Why don't you go shower
that Johnnie Walker and patchouli off of you...
-And then we can... - No time, babe.
Too busy changing the world. One driverless car at a time.
That's amazing, Trav. Hey, I have some good news too.
Really? So we're going to celebrate you too.
But do you know where the Wii remote is?
'Cause I can feel it right now. I am en fuego.
It's in the cabinet under the TV.
Oh, yeah.
Anyway, so, you-- you know that school
that I've been working with?
-They--
Yeah. Eddy Cue!
I was legit just talking about you, man.
What's going on?
We have a real problem.
You do, I mean. Uber does. An existential crisis.
Define "existential."
Tim's sitting in to decide if you exist.
Cupertino, tomorrow.
They can't know.
They obviously know
we're still running the rejected code,
or else the call I got would've been inviting me to their camp
at the Bohemian Club,
not to reenact The Lives of Others
with Tim Cook asking the questions.
Is this it, man? Is Apple banning us?
Oh, they're just trying to scare us, or scare me.
It could be seen like we're deceiving
the most powerful tech company in the world, TK--
And we have no idea how much Apple actually knows.
Their find could expose heaven, hell, Greyball.
Our whole surveillance operation.
-We don't call it that. - Okay,
none of those things are actually illegal.
Apple's precious App Store rules are not the fucking law.
Most users are dubious of the data we mine
from their phones already.
Discovering blatant privacy infringement
could drive users off the app and the company.
We have to make this right with Apple.
Thank you, Mr. Spock. Now what do I do?
What's my angle? How do I actually get out of this?
You don't.
Leave the bullshit on the farm.
Go to Cupertino.
Confirm only what they know.
Nothing more, nothing less. And then say you're sorry.
I'm not sorry.
And I don't want to let Tim wrestle me to the ground.
TK, you know when it comes to throwing gas on a fire,
I'm both the gas and the fire, right?
-Why I love you, bro. -But this time,
I got some water and a fire extinguisher
because big pic: saying sorry costs nothing.
You're on track to become
the most significant commander
of the most significant startup
of the 21st century.
Legit legend status.
If we don't get flushed.
This could be that rare time
where the truth actually sets you free.
The concern is, if you don't give them what they want,
which is, as Emil said, the truth,
they will make an example of you and ban the app, ending Uber.
But know this:
If they don't like that truth, they may ban us anyway.
So I tell the truth, I lose,
but I lie, I also lose?
One of those will be the better option.
Choose that one,
or else Cupertino will become your Waterloo.
Well, I hear you. I regard you.
But this is nothing like Waterloo, okay?
Napoleon was a great general. I'm not knocking the little man.
But he was not making France the kind of coin
that I am making for Apple,
which is why Apple will never remove Uber from the app store.
I think we have to remove Uber from the App Store.
In all my years at Apple,
I've never seen such a blatant disregard for Apple policy.
Your juvenile, contemptuous game of hide-and-seek
with our compliance engineers is an insult.
If insults determined our actions,
we'd be tossing apps to the lions like the emperors.
This isn't personal to me, but it is clear, Travis.
Your actions, and those of your company,
have led us to one conclusion:
Uber must go.
Anything you'd like to say?
Before you do, know this:
Lying, that I do take personally.
Oh, look at that.
Our main motherfucker would love to find a lie
that he could float.
Uber deserves to be removed from the App Store.
Uber...
No, I deceived you.
It was blatant and egregious.
But I was desperate.
Well, this tribunal can close up fast.
No, I'm saying that there's a reason I did what I did.
Before you end it all for Uber...
just hear me out.
I think you owe me that.
We owe you nothing.
That may well be true, Eduardo,
but Travis is here, and so are we.
Let's let the man talk.
Thank you, Tim.
Oh, no.
He's right, Travis.
I mean, we should shut you down
faster than the Secretariat did
the field at Churchill Downs.
They say that race was over in the first furlong.
Yeah, well, I run motherfuckers down in the final stretch, Eddy.
Hey, try and rise above the day-to-day, uh, chestiness.
Hey, and just tell us why on earth you thought it was okay
to blatantly violate our agreement.
I'm here today because of China.
Oh, God...
From humble beginnings in San Francisco...
...Uber took over the world in record time.
Uh-huh, uh-huh, I like it
That's the way, Uh-huh, uh-huh, I like it
But there was still one land left
to be annexed into Uber Nation.
The People's Republic of China.
A land of 1.4 billion people,
97% of whom own a smartphone.
If we could take China,
we would be the most consequential tech startup
since Apple.
But we had competition.
There were already two big Chinese rideshare companies:
Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache.
They were at war.
That was my opening to conquer China.
And we were winning.
Take Chengdu.
Half the size of New York City,
but 479 times as many rides in less than nine months.
But, and I've never told anybody this,
not even my board.
Half of those rides were fake.
Each centipede represents, at minimum,
50 fraudulent incentive rides.
And there are hundreds more in every city all over the country,
all day every day.
Doing, what, 116,000 rides a day in Chengdu.
Average cost of a ride's 97 yuans,
15 bucks per ride times 20 cities.
Jesus, we're losing 25 million a week on this shit...
to fraud in China because of Apple.
You saying your fraud problem was Apple's fault?
I'm saying we're providing career opportunities to drivers,
a superior brand to riders.
And they pay us back
by coming up with elaborate scams to rip us off.
And there's nothing we could do to stop them.
Until recently,
every phone had the equivalent of a digital signature.
Uber could use those signatures to track the scammers.
But when you guys killed
outside access to the signatures,
then Uber lost the ability
to identify the fraudulent accounts.
When you blocked that access,
you blinded us like fucking Equus.
And, yes, then we had to cut open some new eyeholes--
That's a pretty Orwellian way to say that you decided
to flout our privacy policy like a bunch of--
I have nothing but respect for Apple's commitment to privacy.
Ugh.
I...
understand Apple's commitment to privacy.
But my commitment is to Uber.
I'm duty-bound as CEO to protect my company.
Even against you.
One of my engineers figured out a new way
to identify the fraudulent users.
The new software turns user data in, like, text messages,
contacts, photo albums, et cetera,
into a unique fingerprint.
Once the phone's been fingerprinted,
Uber can track it.
Oh, shit, yes!
-Fuck you guys! We got you! -Nice!
Fuck you fuckers!
I was in for a bil in China, going on two.
But I was about to do what only Musk and you guys have done.
What Zuckerberg and Brin and Bezos couldn't.
Get China.
China doesn't play by the same rules.
We can't let them make that choice.
And we have it.
We've got China under control.
You got our letter to the board.
Two cities have 400 times as many rides
as New York in nine months.
It's unprecedented.
So is your burn rate.
Our burn is commensurate with growth.
Everyone on the board got that same letter. They're
all fine with it. Know how I know? It's like guard dogs.
If they sense something's wrong, they bark.
But we haven't heard a peep from them.
Have you heard anything from anybody, Bill?
We're here on behalf of Benchmark.
On behalf of our limited partners.
Uh-huh, and Emil, what is Uber's valuation as of today?
Thirty bill-yone.
So you can tell your LPs that's 300 times return.
When and if we go public.
And that "if" is if this China insanity
doesn't wipe us out first.
I'm not in the business of wiping out.
And that's what the fat surfer said
in the "Eddie Would Go" T-shirt
right before a 30-meter monster
sends him to the ocean floor at Nazaré.
He brought a shortboard--
Look, let's just take a breath here.
Everybody has faith in you
that you know what's on your balance sheet,
but revenue is not profit,
despite contortionist accounting.
We'll have all the profit we need
once we win China.
You have rolled across Europe like Rommel himself.
With the same elegant fury.
But China ain't France.
China's playing mah-jongg while you're playing pétanque.
Different cultures need different strategies.
We just need you to see the whole game board here.
I am the one on the game board, and I'm crushing it.
China loves Uber.
Whatever happened to grow or die?
In China, it's grow, then die.
-Dude... - China loves us today
because we give more value than what we charge,
because we're depositing incentives out the wazoo.
It's a free fucking cash bonanza.
What's there not to love?
But Uber is always gonna be an interloper from the west.
And once we get a foothold and profitability,
start withdrawing yuan out of their economy,
the CCP is gonna cut us off at the knees.
And they're going to take the business
that Travis Kalanick built,
and they're going to give us back in return nothing.
Not even a fortune cookie.
Don't fucking do that.
You know, Arianna says,
"You never get to witness your own eulogy,
but you write it every day."
I think she's wrong, 'cause I'm witnessing
my own eulogy.
And you're the one writing it.
Some people write words for a living.
Do you think...
Others write checks.
...that I can win in China?
Yes or no?
Because Arianna does.
She believes in me.
She believes in Uber.
And that is worth more than all the money in Benchmark.
We're staying in China.
Rise back up to consciousness.
That was fabulous, darling.
Your vibration is much higher.
Can you feel it?
Yeah, I totally can.
Bill Gurley has invited me to breakfast Monday.
-Can you come? -You know what?
He asked me to mentor one of his CEOs on Monday.
That's convenient.
There are no accidents.
And there are no secrets between us.
Thank you.
At least some people were still on my side.
Shit.
But even her support
couldn't stop the hits from coming.
What?
We've got tragic news.
One of our Uber drivers killed a child in Ohio.
Oh, Jesus. This is going to suck for me.
Suck for-- for Uber, is what I mean.
I know it sucks for the family too.
Obviously it sucks for them.
Twitter's blowing up about it right now.
Olivia Lungociu's leading the charge.
Her.
"@TravisK: a dead child, assaulted women.
When you are going to admit you just don't give a fuck?"
Come on. It's not like her kid died.
-No. No, no, no. -TK.
Don't ever let anyone other than me
hear you say something like that.
You know what? Elon could say it.
They'd put it on a billboard. They would celebrate.
I need some Musk on me. Isn't that your job?
Why don't I get the press he gets?
Because they don't know you.
If they knew the Travis I do,
they'd say nothing but wonderful things.
Arianna's right.
You hide behind comms
when you should be out front communicating.
Elon is rocket man because he gives the press face time.
Makes them feel special.
Yeah, they celebrate him, as you said.
Travis, you can and should do this.
Let's host a press event in New York.
At the Waverly, and I'll co-host.
Great. Steaks, wine, conversation.
Get the media on team TK.
Yeah. I like it.
I don't know.
Kissing up to the press,
it just doesn't feel legit.
An event might help with the calls I've been getting
from journos digging into our burn in China.
And the last thing we need before a new raise
is the press casting doubt on your judgment as CEO.
I don't need the press. You know how I know?
The graphs tell me so,
'cause they are nothing but up and to the right.
Shitty tweet up and to the right.
Bad headline up and to the right.
All I do is grow.
I'm the fucking Revenue Rocket Man.
Why...?
Why can't people report on that
instead of always being like,
"Why women hate working at Uber"?
Give me a fucking break.
Moving on--
No, let's not move on.
I'd like to know why women hate working at Uber.
That seems super germane to your pattern of behavior, Travis.
Why is your attrition rate for women so high?
From my experience,
women are the canary in the coal mine.
When they leave a company en masse,
that's often a sign of deeper,
overlooked cultural and ethical issues.
We are always looking for qualified workers
with the right attitude.
If you're good, you're hired.
And if you get it,
then you stick regardless of gender.
You believe that?
It's not about belief, Tim. I can see our data.
Data can be biased.
So can people.
Anyway, I think I've more than answered your question.
Oh, no, this inquiry is just getting started.
You'll answer for every aspect of your company
before I decide if you stay alive and in the store.
Okay, well, if you're judge and jury,
then may I continue my testimony?
Sure. Start with an answer to Tim's question.
Why are your attrition rates for women so high?
It is imperative you do a temple stay at Bongeunsa
when you're in Seoul with Gabi.
It will balance your chi.
-That sounds amazing. -Hmm.
Hold the elevator.
-Can I say one more thing? -Yes.
What should I do about this constant questioning
of our accounting practices?
Don't break any rules or laws.
And if Gurley keeps coming at you about it,
just tell him to kiss your EBITDA.
-Thank you! -Of course.
I'll tell you why the attrition rate for women at Uber
is so high.
Isaiah Berlin wrote: I wish to be the subject,
not the object of my life.
Couldn't have said it better.
So, let me introduce myself.
My name is Susan Fowler.
You'll remember me as the site reliability engineer
who was sexually harassed on her first day of work at Uber.
Anne-Marie in HR suggested I find a new team.
Her way of telling me to quit.
But I've come too far to quit.
So, after months of floating in Uber limbo,
I found a new team.
And it's a great one.
And I wish people Liked me more
All I did Was try my best...
That's my new manager, Kevin.
I chose his team because it's 25% women,
which, paltry as it is,
is the highest ratio in the company.
If we can split our monolith in under three months,
every person on the team will get this dope jacket.
-Check it out, dude.
A monolith is a block of thousands of lines
of Uber's operating code.
The goal is to separate and reorganize
the block of code into individual lines
called "microservices."
They make the code easier to access and repair
should it malfunction.
TLDR, I'm a techie Marie Kondo.
And coffee brings me joy.
So does my job.
"Job" doesn't even seem like enough of a supercharged word
for how I view what I do.
It's more of a mission.
I obsess about it so much,
I started writing about it on my blog:
I even wrote a book about my experiences as an SRE.
It's a bestseller on Amazon.
HR's reaming me, said my team's too homogenous.
Ideological diversity doesn't count.
How do you keep them on your team?
Trade secrets. And if I keep it
above 23.4% female, it's Tesla time.
All the ladies love Kev.
Really, seriously, fuck you.
Fowler, perfect score on your performance review.
Making me look good.
Appreciate it. I owe you.
I could use your approval on my application
for manager of SRE II.
Once you finish the monolith, no doubt.
Thanks, Kev.
Kevin's great, but he hasn't inured me
to the realities of working here.
I could call it out.
I could make up 20 small-dick jokes
and hurl them at the likely offenders.
Better to just make it disappear.
But this, the old familiar ass ogling,
that I cannot erase.
So I get to report that to HR.
Again.
Not that they'll respond.
Here's a descriptor that's going to land like a giant turd:
"toxic."
I'm the first to admit "toxic" has lost all meaning
in the general sense.
That's why we have to tell our stories.
The specifics matter,
because each specific is another human
pushed that much closer to the edge.
Take Alison, a kickass engineer from Cal Tech.
She's leaving because her team leader
constantly double-checks her work.
He says she's too hot to be a good engineer.
I got this feeling
On the summer day When you were gone
I crashed my car Into the bridge
I watched I let it I burn
I threw your shit Into a bag...
Fran didn't even come back to the office
the day after her team held an all-hands
at an all-nude strip club, and they dubbed her No Fun Fran.
Grace is such a brilliant programmer.
She's had her work stolen by our SVP five times.
Each time she reported it,
he thanked her for taking one for the team,
then promoted mediocre men over her.
Understandably, she lost her shit.
Now she's "crazy."
Literally half of you are looking at me
like I am the most strict-slash-least fun teacher
you had in middle school.
I just ruined your fucking tree house club at recess
when I found your dirty magazines.
I make you remember
how you had to push down your damned hard-ons
or whatever in your corduroys and go back to class.
But the other half of you, well, sure,
some of you are the get-along-to-go-along types
and would like me to shut up.
But the rest know the truth...
that no matter how hard you tried to fit in,
you just don't belong.
And that's because they don't want you to.
I love it, I love it
I don't care
I love it
I don't care
Finished.
I love it, I don't care
Only six women left.
Damn.
Great job, guys. Crushed the monolith.
Here's the thing, ladies.
We bought the guys' jackets in bulk.
We couldn't justify purchasing
six jackets at full cost for the women.
Wouldn't be fair.
But it's fair to not have leather jackets for us?
I'll take that one, even if it's too big, and--
That's Craig's.
Here, man.
Kevin, this is wrong. We're just asking--
Before you go there, let me just say:
If you want equality,
you'd realize you're getting it by not getting jackets.
What if it were the other way around?
Kevin is pretending to not understand
there would never be an instance in tech
where women would outnumber the men.
I'm applying for my promotion
and getting the fuck off his team.
This is about my pushback over the leather jackets?
You're not the only one with aspirations here, Fowler.
If you don't tamp down your behavior--
What's your game plan here, Kevin?
She thinks I'm sabotaging her,
but obviously, I'm not.
She's got to learn to control herself.
I mean, you see it, right?
Of course you do, don't you?
And Kevin, he isn't the worst rat in the lab.
But he wants his rewards.
Instead of sugar, it's advancement,
and the feeling of being powerful in a culture
that not only encourages but celebrates subterfuge.
Kevin had no choice but to deliberately undermine my score.
To be clear, I'm not apologizing for Kevin.
Kevin fucking sucks.
And I know what you're thinking.
What happened to sticking it out and changing things?
I tried. I really did.
I followed protocol.
I told Anne-Marie in HR everything about Alison,
Fran, and Grace, the leather jackets,
-my lowered score.
And you know what she said to me?
She said that by reporting every incident of harassment,
I was creating a toxic work environment.
Thanks for this.
Sorry, I didn't anticipate being here so long.
You were at managing your board members.
Yeah. Bill Gurley was up my ass.
Then he went behind my back.
-Bill! -Arianna.
Ah, so wonderful to see you.
Tell me, how is Amy?
I want to know everything.
Are Rex, Gus, and Ava still enjoying water polo?
They're well. They're well. You do your research.
I have to.
Please sit down.
Thank you.
I know firsthand how insulting it is to be mistaken
for a rich wife who got lucky,
instead of an operator, you know?
Mm.
Soft-boiled and fruit bowl.
Oh!
You do your research too.
Just a coffee. Black.
Of course.
What say we talk about our brash and gifted entrepreneur?
I would say that Travis is, uh,
more tenacious and singular in his vision
than a young T. Boone Pickens.
He is bold and uncompromising.
-Uncompromising. -Hmm.
Now, I'm glad you brought that up.
I'm not so sure
that uncompromising is a good thing.
Grit is great. I love grit.
But, uh, uncompromising is, uh, akin to stubbornness.
And stubbornness is, uh, as we both well know,
a liability.
Every asset has a shadow.
It's a matter of the wolf you feed.
And our wolf is getting pummeled right now.
He's getting beat up by the press,
and he's walking into a trap in China he can't even see.
Arianna...
Travis needs guidance.
No one can walk that path alone.
No, but the problem is,
Travis won't take guidance from his peers.
However, you seem to be the one exception to that.
It is true that Travis and I share a connection
that one rarely finds in this world men have built.
So that means you'll help me get through to him?
I live my life in the service of others.
You do.
That is your north star.
But, and it gives me no pleasure in saying this...
Travis is lost.
What do we know about the Prodigal Son?
He must sow his oats, but he always returns.
God.
I got to tell you, Arianna.
Your, uh--
your style of conversation,
it's a bit too Confucian for my tastes.
Fine, Bill.
I'll shoot straight with you, partner.
Is that what you'd like?
You should take a step back.
Let Travis be Travis.
Like a father who's taught his son how to drive.
If, I mean, once he's won his license
and sits behind the wheel
of the lovely car you've prepared for him,
all a father can do is choose to worry.
Or not.
A father cannot actually step on the brakes.
What does any of this have to do
with the bullshit you pulled, Travis?
Excuse me.
Did he know Steve?
-Because if you knew Steve,
you'd know this has everything to do with what I did.
When no one wants to believe in you,
you make them believe by becoming undeniable.
Now, if winning China wasn't enough,
I needed something more.
This track makes so much sense.
I mean, if you know Travis.
When you come to the house, Gabi, you'll have to see it.
He wore through our carpet down to the floorboards
during that whole Mike Ovitz lawsuit Scour debacle.
-Oh, really? -It was not a debacle.
I was screwed over.
That hole is a testament to my tenacity.
If it weren't for that hole, there wouldn't be Uber.
As I said, this all makes sense.
Even the size and the scale of the place,
no surprise to me.
Okay, what else do I need to know about your son?
The deep, secret stuff.
Well, you know, he's strong and loyal.
Thank you.
You ought to know that by now anyway.
Oh and how he hates losing so much, he'd rather die.
Yeah.
But winning making him happy? That doesn't seem right.
Ah, it gives him a few moments of peace
before he starts his next battle.
I don't know.
She's talking about herself. That's what you're doing.
I'm chill, you know that.
-Come here. - Right.
Mm. Wow.
Very impressive.
Thank you.
Want to show her what we got her in Korea?
Oh, yeah.
-Oh. -Got you something.
Oh, thank you.
It's beautiful.
Very unique.
-Can I put it on you? -Sure. Sure.
So, did you love your trip to South Korea, Gabi?
Eh, I'd never been before, so, uh, yeah.
It was important to have seen it.
-Mm-hmm. -We got wined and dined.
Opened up the market.
You know, it was good to get away
from the sniping from the press, hmm?
Yeah, Trav, that stuff about Uber
putting women and children in danger...
you're on that, right?
You're not really letting that happen?
No...
Mom, that's just, like, middle school stuff.
You know, someone farted, and they're blaming me for it.
Except you're not in middle school anymore.
You're a grown man, and you need to take responsibility
and face your problems head-on.
And, you know,
sometimes it was you who farted, wasn't it?
Jesus, Mom.
Honey, I know your heart.
I know you're a good man.
Let the world see who Travis Kalanick is.
Please.
Yeah, that's just what Arianna said.
-You need me?
I'll be right back.
I love it. It's so pretty.
The Daches have come to a truce and are merging.
They're calling it Didi Chuxing.
The CCP's picked their pony, TK, and it ain't Uber.
Gurley's going to be crowing about this.
We're nearing two bil in incentives.
Now we're up against a behemoth.
-They can bleed us dry.
What's the call?
Stay...
and we blow all their minds with what Uber can do.
Our next round of investors should be Chinese.
It's the People's Republic of China, right?
Well, let's show the CCP that the people love Uber.
-Put out feelers. -On it.
Hold on. One other thing.
Tell Hazelbaker I'll meet the press.
Let's show these motherfuckers
who the fuck Travis Kalanick really is, right?
Hell, yeah.
But who was I?
You know, the press, they will write your story
if you let them.
Look at what the press did to you, Tim,
in your personal life. You wanted privacy,
-and they wanted to force you-- -Stop right there.
So who am I?
Am I the guy that's going to sit back
and let someone else write my eulogy?
No.
No, I am not.
And besides, eulogies aren't enough for me.
I want to leave behind monuments.
Wow. I am one classy motherfucker.
-Looks good, Hazelbaker. -Yeah.
I did my part.
You two ready to step up?
Pictures and bios of who will be in attendance.
Memorize it.
You want me to memorize random facts about people I don't know?
Everyone's favorite subject is themselves.
Charming takes work.
Relax. I got it.
I got it. You want to test me?
No. I know that's a trick in your bag.
I hope you got more, 'cause tonight,
you two are Siegfried and Roy.
The press is your precious white tiger.
You feed it, you pet it, and in return,
it may show you some affection.
But you never forget that with one misstep, you're brain sushi.
-No, I'm not joking.
Guys, they'll rip your face off if you fuck up.
-Go ahead, Rachel. - Travis,
for your opening remarks,
you win the night by not saying anything so interesting
that you make the press want to dig up dirt on Uber,
but not being so uninteresting
that they write nothing about us.
Why is Olivia Lungociu in here?
Wait, what? No, no, no.
Who invited her?
I thought it would be a good idea
for you guys to make friends.
Fuck no. She is out.
Everything we're doing tonight,
the stemware and the fancy restaurant
and the waste of my goddamn time.
The point of tonight is to get her colleagues on our side.
They write nice things about us. She's the asshole.
Okay, fine.
Rachel, make the call.
Jesus, have to do everything ourselves?
-That was a great catch. -Oh, all right.
They'll be here in a minute, so listen up.
Tonight is off the record,
but there are still topics to avoid.
The boy who was killed, X to the X or Miami,
attacked and murdered drivers, friction with the board.
Can we ask them why they're such dicks to us?
Adding that to the no-fly list.
Do not talk about how unfairly
you feel you've been treated by the press,
or women being assaulted.
-Do not talk-- - We get it.
It's just a SportsCenter Top Ten.
I'm not done. Don't talk about
expansion in China or driver treatment,
including complaints, wages or health care.
These are very emotional subjects.
We understand?
Now, I would like to talk about your driver experience,
'cause your company's revenue stream
relies on the will of your drivers
to the point that you call them partners.
Well, that's a figure of spee--
If they don't drive, your business stops, Travis.
Yet, you do not prioritize
driver satisfaction and retention.
Is that a nice way of saying I treat my drivers like shit?
Maybe I should ask you about Foxconn.
Excuse me?
Just saying.
Um, we're not your peers
or your employees, Travis.
You know, I'm sitting here wondering why you won't grant us
the same respect that we are according you
at this very moment.
I'm sorry. Okay, driver experience.
So there are some complainers.
But if you look at the data,
my drivers have never driven more hours,
made more money, or been happier.
My drivers love me. And they love Uber.
Let's move on.
I can tell you about the Uber driving experience.
Come.
Last you saw me,
I was in the car with Travis Kalanick.
And as you could hear, it didn't end well.
You need to publish this video.
The world needs to see it.
He's a rich man. He could ruin me.
Your cousin Malik is a lawyer. He will help you protect us.
You can't let him get away with this.
We all have bad days.
Why should he be penalized for that, Z?
He is not your friend, Fawzi.
I want to formally introduce myself.
I'm Fawzi Kamel.
And yes, sure,
I should probably do as my wife insists.
She's usually right, maddening as that fact can be.
And if you tell her I said it,
I'll drop you far from the curb
so you get your pant leg soaked in a puddle.
But, really, even if I want to post the video,
what will it really do?
Cost me my job?
I came to this country 15 years ago
with a degree in civil engineering.
But in the U.S., the degree was no good.
So my uncle got me a job at Lenny's Limos.
I worked at night, attended school by day.
But it was unsustainable.
Unlike my cousin, the lawyer, I had a family.
Driving became my life.
It was okay, and then Uber came along and made driving better.
For a time, it gave me the opportunity
to work for myself, choose my own hours,
take home more pay.
Thank you, sir.
I used to take three times more on this exact trip.
But that's the ups and downs of the business, right?
I have hope, inshallah, things will get better.
Me and my friends were Mr. Kalanick's first drivers.
We helped him build this company.
He said we were his business partners,
so I doubled down and made an investment in our partnership.
I purchased a new luxury vehicle with the help of Uber financing
to meet Uber Black standards,
but the stretched incentives and the reduced rates,
the payments are now impossible.
Mr. Kalanick refuses to help.
Is this how you treat a partner?
Well, Mr. Kalanick could sue if you release the video,
but he probably won't.
It'll only make him look worse.
Can I still work for Uber if I post the video?
You can, but you may not have a job much longer.
Why is that?
There's no driver.
Holy shit!
There's no fucking driver.
Came in all the way from Primm.
A hundred fifty miles.
But your permit was denied.
Safety third.
Dude, you have balls of titanium.
We've waited long enough, TK.
There's no way the Google guys will think we planned this.
I got other offers and turned them down.
Your offer is going to be the best.
So I take it.
We doing this?
We sure as fuck are, man.
He's getting rid of drivers.
What are you going to do?
Whatever Mr. Kalanick says, I am not a victim.
I don't blame anyone, not even him,
for my circumstances.
In fact, I agree with him.
When a man makes a choice,
he must live with his consequences.
Fuck him.
So no eulogies?
Yeah, well, I learned something about that.
No matter how hard you try,
you cannot stop people from writing
whatever they want about you.
Hey, Emil Michael, Chief Business Officer.
-Michael Wolff. -Yeah, yeah. I read about you.
Media critic.
I'll toast to that.
Welcome. Welcome, everyone.
Just a gentle reminder that this is the Vegas of dinner parties.
We are off the record.
But first, please give a warm New York welcome
to Uber's CEO, Travis Kalanick.
Whoop-whoop! TK!
Thank you. Thank you, Jill.
And thank you to Arianna Huffington,
whose invaluable input
has made me not just a better CEO,
but legit a better man.
Elbows out.
Ego personified.
Asshole.
These are just a few of the ways
I've heard myself portrayed in the media.
And you know what?
Fair e-fucking-nough.
I have been so busy on my grind,
I haven't taken the time to show you
that I'm not a rapacious industrialist.
I'm just a man stewarding a world-altering vision
that's exceeding all expectations.
I mean, not mine, but, uh...
Yeah, so that--
that's what tonight is about:
getting to know each other,
exchanging ideas,
and hopefully making the world a better place.
First, let me introduce myself. My name is Travis.
I am the founder and CEO of Uber.
And contrary to what you might have read,
I am not a monster.
Cheers.
Travis.
All right, so who's got questions?
Hit me.
Real talk.
You must hate us press guys, huh, Travis?
Oh, no, no.
No, that's quite-- quite the opposite.
You know, it's so easy to get pulled into this
"You stab my back, I stab yours."
But really, we should be working together.
We're all on the same team,
we're all trying to do the same thing.
Help the world make lives better.
I mean, that's what I want. Is that what you want?
Sure. That's what I want.
Good.
Hey, glad you could make it.
I want you to meet Emil.
He's the Chief Business Officer at Uber.
Ben's from BuzzFeed.
Good to meet you.
I didn't know BuzzFeed was gracing us
with their presence tonight.
Michael invited me.
Can't let free steak go to waste.
Yeah.
My comms girl said tonight was for,
you know, serious journalists.
Not the first word I think of
when I hear "BuzzFeed."
-No offense. - None taken.
Just glad you didn't mention lolcats.
To new friends, hmm?
Welcome, Ben from BuzzFeed.
A real journalist in...
listicle clothing.
Tell me the truth, Emil.
What's up with this dinner?
Why the about-face on your press policy?
Oh. Got tired of being misrepresented.
You feel like you've been treated unfairly by us?
You two are cool.
Yeah, but some of your colleagues have zero chill.
We wouldn't even be here tonight
if it wasn't for Olivia Lungociu.
-You know her? - Yeah, I know her.
She's tough.
She's not a fan of Uber.
She's trying to kill us, man.
She says women shouldn't take Ubers,
that they're safer taking cabs.
What if some poor woman reads her article,
takes a cab instead, and gets assaulted?
That's not on us. That's on her.
Wouldn't that be on the cab driver?
You know what I mean, Ben.
What if we gave her a taste of her own medicine?
Hmm?
I don't know, spend a million dollars on, uh,
hiring a few journalists and oppo people to--
to dig into her.
You can't be serious.
Cancer-serious.
I mean, we should do it. We can.
Maybe we are.
I don't know.
Oh...
they could dig into her, you know, personal life,
or her family's.
Help us fight back against her negativity.
To me, the perfect dinner party is a séance of the living
to raise the spirits of people who are already alive.
Speaking of sweetness.
Look at this petit bijou Travis feted me with.
-It's divine, right? - Oh!
Most CEOs don't have such a sweet relationship
with their board members.
Is Arianna your favorite?
Well, on the record,
I love all my board members equally.
Off the record...
if I could have a board full of Ariannas...
I would kill the rest of them myself.
That's the thing about Lungociu.
She plays the saint,
but she's anything but, you know.
If people knew...
...what I do about her...
how would that change the way
her reporting is received?
What's that?
She's a slut who cheats on her husband.
Whoa, flinging that S-word around
like Indiana Jones does his whip.
I wouldn't say it if it wasn't facts.
So you have dug into her.
What if you were found out?
Wouldn't Uber be the story, not Olivia?
Wouldn't be a problem.
Nobody would know it was us.
You just told me.
Hmm.
-You got me there.
If you'll excuse me.
I have to hit the head.
You know what happens next.
Let's figure out a next possible acquisition
so we can finally get over this fucking--
How could you, Emil?
How could I what?
The dinner was off the record.
That's not what you should say first.
What you should say first is:
It isn't true.
Oh, that makes it doubly stupid that you said it out loud, Emil.
-Jesus Christ. -How it works is,
we do the things, you fix the things.
Especially when the event in question is one that you set up,
you guaranteed.
If we were in the Mafia right now,
it wouldn't be Emil on the hot seat.
It would be whoever walked us in to the room full of button men.
Thank you.
Yeah, so that was a calamitous event,
mostly 'cause we were lied to by unscrupulous journalists.
But, you know what, my resolution this year was,
I wasn't gonna get brought down by...
You know what makes me happy?
Doing things that other people think were impossible.
And that is what I'm doing.
With China and with driverless, I'm doing the impossible.
But then people like Ben Smith,
they just hate seeing winners win.
So they tear us down,
makes them feel better about their sad little lives.
I mean, Olivia Lungociu,
does she really have to write a story
about Uber's data access permissions?
Who cares?
Like, it's a non-story, right?
But she did it 'cause she wants attention.
And she got your attention, didn't she?
And then Ben Smith got everyone else's.
And that's why I'm sitting here in front of you today.
Your utter disdain for privacy, that's why you're here today.
Your rapacious need to win is why you're here today.
Not because a journalist did her job.
Travis, this is all you. You must see that.
Please tell me you see that.
Okay, d-defying you.
I see how that was reckless, rapacious, like you say,
but that's what it means to be a disrupter.
You want to punish me for embodying
the spirit that built the valley,
that built this building that we're sitting in right now?
I don't know, maybe I should,
but I have to be who the fuck I am.
'Cause the end of the day, that's all I got.
Well, I've got some news for you, Mr. Kalanick.
You and Uber are no longer the disruptors.
Now you're the establishment, you know, so act like it.
And you can start by never defying
our privacy policy again.
Hold on, you're...
you're not killing Uber?
I'm here to stop you from killing it,
which you seem almost determined to do.
Thank you.
Break the rules again, we won't bother to call.
So this could have just been like a 20-minute dressing down?
We needed to know the extent of Uber's subterfuge
before we made our decision.
Oh, so you were fishing.
- Have you ever used
your tracking program for means other than client safety
or abating fraud?
Of course not.
Like I said, I'm not a monster.
Uh, one more thing.
You should know you're finished in China.
Apple will be investing a billion dollars
into Didi Chuxing in the coming months,
and we'll do the same in every territory that you are in
if you ever step out of line again.
By the way, Eddy knew Steve.
I knew him as well as anyone could,
and I can tell you this.
Steve would have understood you, Travis.
Wouldn't have liked you very much, though.
Well, a person can work up
A mean, mean thirst
After a hard day Of nothing much at all
Summer's passed
It's too late To cut the grass
There ain't much To rake anyway
In the fall
And sometimes I just ain't in the mood
To take my place in back
With the loudmouths
You're like a picture On the fridge
That's never stocked With food
I used to live at home
Now I stay at the house
And everybody wants To be special here
This is Levandowski's work laptop, yes?
Barely.
He's only used it once.
I don't see anything.
Hold on, he...
Levandowski installed a new operating system.
Let me-- Oh, here we go.
He downloaded 9.7 gigs off his project servers,
and then erased the computer.
What?
He googled how to scrub a laptop.
And we're fucking Google.
You just beat Tim Cook.
The CCP and everyone else,
they're not going to let Uber survive in China.
We're done.
I'll take a great big whiskey To you anyway
And everybody wants To be someone's...
Arianna told me about your little breakfast.
That woman talks like she writes Internet horoscopes.
Completely manages to obscure whatever her real agenda
and design she has on Travis and the company.
But that's not why you're here.
This a bourbon talk?
-Fuck. -What?
It could be for a celebration too.
That what this is?
No.
Google rang me up.
It's not good.
If this is about the fucking article, we're dealing with it--
That fire is s'mores at a goddamned cookout
-compared to this blazer. -Why? What happened?
Your friends over at Google.
What about them?
You've turned them into enemies.
They're suing over Levandowski.
And not just Uber. They're suing you personally.
It might be time to turtle up, Travis.
I don't cower.
Well, then, it might be time to run.
I recognized the name
Could not stop staring At the face
I'd never see again