Super Pumped

Whenever I think of the word disruption, which is heavily over-used in technology, Uber always comes to mind. As a technology company, Uber has fundamentally changed the transportation industry in little over a decade. By leveraging the rise of smartphones, mobile apps and the gig economy to its fullest, Uber has been able to to disrupt an entire industry and potentially more to come. From humble beginnings to rapid growth with billions of dollars of venture capital at hand, Uber hurtled at breakneck speed towards an IPO, reaching its destination in May 2019. 

From the outside, the rise and growth of Uber is something of legend, but as is so often true, there are two sides to every story. After reading Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber you suddenly feel like you were on the inside the entire time. 

Written by Mike Isaac, the award-winning New York Times technology journalist with an unmatchable inside track on Uber, Super Pumped starts by exploring the origins of the company, its co-founders Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick and their early beginnings in Silicon Valley. The book documents Uber’s rapid expansion across new cities in the US, aided by the company’s readiness to bend rules and blur the ethical line. This is something that Uber would later do at will, leading to catastrophic consequences for Kalanick and his trusted lieutenants. 

Isaac neatly describes the inner workings of venture capital and how Uber became a master at securing it. With excess capital at hand, the book explores Kalanick’s obsession with pouring billions of dollars into cracking the Chinese market, killing Lyft and beating Google in the race to autonomous vehicles. In pursuing those obsessions, Isaac clearly shows that Kalanick’s priorities were misguided, especially when it came to the deep issues being experienced by Uber’s customers and employees. From data privacy breaches, App Store violations, inappropriate expenses and sexual harassment, the company was in crisis and Uber’s leadership was failing to contain it.  

The book dives deep into the nastier side of investor relationships, corporate theft and boardroom politics which saw Kalanick being ousted from Uber in a last-minute coup by his investors. Super Pumped reads like a Hollywood film script that is almost too unbelievable to be true. Fans of books like Chaos Monkeys and Bad Blood will find this one hard to put down. 

All in all, Super Pumped is a stellar fly on the wall account of Uber’s beginnings, its rapid growth and the existential threats from both inside and out that almost destroyed it. A book full of lessons for any future startup! 

You can find a copy of Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber here.