Founders are a revered breed in Silicon Valley, but for Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick, that goodwill evaporated a long time ago. Now, according to multiple reports, Kalanick won’t be invited to the New York Stock Exchange balcony to celebrate the company going public next week. Ouch.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi was allegedly the one to nix Kalanick’s invitation. Axios initially reported that Kalanick requested last week to be present during the bell-ringing ceremony at a board meeting. The original plan was for Khosrowshashi to be flanked by fellow executives and a group of Uber’s longest-serving drivers.
That isn’t to say that Kalanick will be barred from the event entirely. He’s just been relegated to the NYSE floor with Uber’s other company directors. And not on the balcony. Because, you know, of all the awful things he did and said that led him to his ouster in 2017.
Khosrowshahi has spent most of his time as CEO basically cleaning up Kalanick’s mess, so it’s unsurprising he isn’t exactly keen to have Uber’s infamous tech bro founder up there with him. Still, Kalanick is at least mildly butt hurt.
“[E]very time Mr Khosrowshahi uses the word ‘culture’, Mr Kalanick considers it a thinly veiled synonym for his reign,” reports The New York Times, citing Kalanick’s friends.
Not that anyone should feel bad for subjacent Kalanick. He can still wipe his tears from the NYSE floor with the roughly $US9 billion ($13 billion) his 8.6 per cent stake in Uber is valued at.