In 2017, it looked as if the tech world had seen the last of Travis Kalanick. Following a spate of scandals and allegations ranging from sexism to corporate espionage, Uber’s own investors took the extraordinary step of forcing the CEO out of the firm he cofounded.
Kalanick’s ouster also signaled a bigger cultural shift. As the epilogue of Super Pumped, the definitive account of Uber’s chaotic early days by tech journalist Mike Isaac, put it: “Change had indeed come to the Valley. With the fading of characters like … Kalanick, the backslapping bro culture of Silicon Valley’s aught era is now seen as passé.”
