Just as he's about to get the answer to the question "are you an asshole?", Ryan Graves, who was CEO of Uber for a few months in 2010 before Kalanick decided to take over the company with the one he co-founded. Garrett Camp (Jon Bass) himself talks to him about passenger safety issues. The solution? A “safe travel fee” that gives the public the perception that you are listening and puts more money in their coffers. "That's fucking Michael Eisner shit," Kalanick says.
Let's go back to 2011, when Uber was still called UberCab and only served San Francisco. Kalanick is looking to raise a round of venture capital funding from one of the best-known investors in the business, Bill Gurley (Kyle Chandler). His girlfriend Angie (Annie Chang) is confident that she will make it, even if she goes to meet Gurley wearing a sweater and New Balance sneakers.
Creators: Brian Koppelman, David Levien
Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Kyle Chandler, Kerry Bishé
At the meeting over drinks, Gurley doesn't want Kalanick to sell to him, but Kalanick is so committed to the idea of circumventing most cities' medallion-based taxi system that he naturally embellishes stories about Camp being sold to him. The idea of the frictionless ride-sharing service came about.
By the end of the night, Kalanick has pretty much sold Gurley on UberCab, including the fact that he'll take good ideas from his investor, but he doesn't want to be controlled. But Gurley almost withdraws his offer when Kalanick blatantly tells him that he doesn't need the money.
At home, Kalanick's business-oriented mother, Bonnie (Elisabeth Shue), and his dimwitted father, Donald (Brian Howe), support their entrepreneurial son, but are equally proud of Travis' firefighter brother, Cory (Mishka Thébaud). ). Cory, however, is perpetually angry at the attention Travis seems to receive for his technological ideas.
During a party to celebrate UberCab users, Kalanick meets Randall Pearson (Richard Schiff), the head of San Francisco's transportation commission. Pearson intends to shut down UberCab or convince Kalanick to use its technology for the city's existing taxi system. Kalanick is not interested in either of them and tells Pearson as much in no uncertain terms.
Pearson immediately issues a cease and desist, but Kalanick is determined to move forward. In an effort led by the company's fourth employee, Austin Geidt (Kerry Bishé), he not only attempts to recruit drivers outside of the taxi system, but also get UberCab users to sign a petition to present to the mayor. But the company is spending so much money that it will soon go bankrupt. He sheepishly returns to Gurley for more money, and Gurley gives it to him, but installs a financial genius, Emil Michael (Babak Tafti), to help him oversee Kalanick's spending.
Then, when the mayor grants UberCab permission to operate, although they still have to pay the previous fines they incurred, Kalanick has an idea to help circumvent the regulations: they are no longer a taxi company called UberCab, but a taxi company. shared trips. company called Uber.
All the shows about real life techbros seem to take the same tone. They're aggressive and in viewers' faces, with the actor playing any techbro speaking in rapid-fire speeches laden with F-bombs rather than dialogue that sounds like something a real person would say. That's what we get in the first 20 minutes of Super Pumped: The Battle For Uber, and it's a real turn-off.
We like Gordon-Levitt as an actor, and we know he has the range to play someone like Travis Kalanick and turn around and play the extremely depressed lead character in Mr. Corman. But creators Brian Koppelman and David Levien (creators of the aforementioned Billions) gave him dialogue that may have come from Kalanick's mouth (the show is based on a book by Mike Isaac), but not all at once and in one so fast way.
There's a voiceover from Quentin Tarantino that doesn't make much sense, since we're not even sure if he's playing himself, Kalanick, or someone else. And there are graphics that interrupt the initial flow of the episode in a way that sets our teeth on edge.
But once all the mania dies down and we get into the meat of the story about Kalanick's fight to establish Uber and make it what it is today, we actually get bored. You know why? Because The Battle For Uber is about a company that has been shown to treat its drivers poorly, even without providing the app with provisions for a rider to leave a tip, pays lip service to passenger safety, charges passengers "price increases" during busy periods.
Watch Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber 2022 Trailer
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