Travis Kalanick's CloudKitchens Repeats Uber Playbook, Loses Staff

https://www.businessinsider.com/travis-kalanicks-cloudkitchens-repeats-uber-playbook-loses-staff-2021-4

by coloneltcb • 5 years ago

50 33 5 years ago

businessinsider.com

wikibob• 5 years ago

Full text mirror?

t0mas88• 5 years ago

https://archive.is/0ouFK

sschueller• 5 years ago

Seriously, fuck Travis and anything he is involved with.

Then again being up to the same shit again might actually get him in trouble this time around.

dang• 5 years ago

Please don't. Perhaps you don't owe $person better, but you owe this community better if you're participating in it.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

thecleaner• 5 years ago

One good thing that has come out of this is that there a precent for leaving ill managed companies. This kind of behaviour is unacceptable and its great that employees have set a precedent.

magneticnorth3• 5 years ago

"When some employees complained internally about what they felt was racist and misogynist branding created by CloudKitchens for customers, like "happy ending" for dessert at an Asian restaurant, Kalanick said the startup did not seek to accommodate the press or woke culture. "

Wow.

I am astonished that someone like Kalanick, who is in some ways so smart and business savvy, can make mistakes like this twice.

In case anyone is unfamiliar with early Uber culture, I highly recommend reading Susan Fowler's account of being a female engineer at Kalanick-heyday-era Uber. https://www.susanjfowler.com/blog/2017/2/19/reflecting-on-on...

qazxcvbnmlp• 5 years ago

Not that I support his behavior - but it more or less worked at Uber. They became dominant. Why change now? Being a jerk feels good to those in charge.

magneticnorth3• 5 years ago

Yeah, it may be a bit optimistic/naive of me to assume that Uber's success was despite this behavior, not positively correlated to it.

pmiller23• 5 years ago

Yeah, I got an email from a recruiter about this company a while back. The main thing they touted was that it was run by Travis K. I wrote them back and said "Sorry, but that's actually a negative to me. Good luck." Sucks to be them, but it's good to know my instincts were on target.

dilyevsky2• 5 years ago

It’s like nigerian spam - they want only people who don’t care about that to reply so you’re not gonna waste their time then nope outta process after realizing who your boss is going to be

listenallyall2• 5 years ago

I don't think it sucks to be them at all. Travis and his team probably want people who aren't overly sensitive whiners who constantly get offended at every little thing. (Actually I don't think any companies want these types of people, it's just that most don't try very hard to filter them out). If you happen to be a person who opts out as soon as the name Travis Kalanick is mentioned, then both parties are satisfied.

cbozeman• 5 years ago

I am astonished that someone like Kalanick, who is in some ways so smart and business savvy, can make mistakes like this twice.

I hope I too can fuck up and become a billionaire some day.

majoram• 5 years ago

Do you think Kalanick would react the same if instead of "happy ending" for a dessert at an Asian restaurant, it was something like "Uncle Tom's Chicken & Watermelon"? To me, this is just another example of the acceptance of racism toward Asian people in American society.

ampdepolymerase• 5 years ago

Yes, he should be consistent and put that on the menu too.

prepend2• 5 years ago

Those aren’t really equivalent.

Maybe something closer would be “finger licking good” and that’s actually used by many restaurants and was used by KFC until covid.

“Happy ending” is actually super common for use on Asian restaurant menus. And I usually assume the Asian owners made that decision.

Using “Uncle Tom’a Chicken” is an offensive stereotype and even if it was made by a guy named Tom who had niblings it wouldn’t funny or clever to me.

perl4ever3• 5 years ago

"happy ending" for dessert

I am expressing no opinion on whether this is ok or not, but there has been a chain restaurant in the northeastern US catering mainly to families whose signature dessert was a "happy ending" sundae for decades.

And it appears that they do not use that phrase any more, but I found evidence it was eliminated in the last 3 years. I don't know why - it might have been a combination of changing sensibilities and their bankruptcy leading to reexamining things.

(2018)

"Get a free Happy Ending Sundae when you try any of our 5 new entrées!"

- friendlysrestaurants.com

magneticnorth3• 5 years ago

Imo, specifically associating it with Asian restaurants is the problem.

My guess is that Friendly's use of that phrase dates back to before the days that it was a well-known wink-and-a-nudge phrase related to Asian massage parlors.

youeseh• 5 years ago

People left due to:

paltry bonuses and a contentious new leveling system

No one joined the company because they were hoping for a rehabilitated boss with a new outlook and world view.

The nice thing about paying people well and treating them fairly is that you can wear any t-shirt you want. If you break trust or fail to deliver though, you might get labeled as an adjective you didn't know you were.

chosen1111• 5 years ago

So many people complain about the culture. Why even hire Americans at this point?

biggc• 5 years ago

How do you get good employees with such a terrible work culture? Their compensation structure doesn't seem great either.

Employees receive 10% of their equity allotment (in some cases called profit units, since the company's an LLC) for their first year, 20% the second, 30% the third, and the final 40% the fourth year. And employees need to stay through the entire fourth year – if you leave at day 364, you're out of luck for your 40%.

AFAIK, even Amazon shares vest monthly.

bestcoder69• 5 years ago

Nope, every 6mo

dilyevsky2• 5 years ago

They are in LA area so probably local market is that way bc afaik Snap did the same

bigmutant• 5 years ago

Amazon's vest structure is 5/15/40/40. Every vest after the first two years is bi-yearly ie every six months (including additional grants). Amazon makes up the difference with cash in the first two years. The Target Compensation limit is another story entirely...

bombas• 5 years ago

Racist going to racist.

mola• 5 years ago

So this is wework for kitchens? A real estate company pretending to be a tech startup, getting showered with "stupid" money, with a wonky unproven business model?

Gee, what could go wrong....

Travis Kalanick's CloudKitchens Repeats Uber Playbook, Loses Staff

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