Travis Kalanick, who last night resigned from his post as CEO of ride-share giant Uber, has taken the blame for the company’s very long list of problems, from..
Travis Kalanick, who last night resigned from his post as CEO of ride-share giant Uber, has taken the blame for the company’s very long list of problems, from allowing a culture of sexual harassment to thrive, to skirting the law with its Greyball program, to mishandling the medical files of a customer raped by one of the company’s drivers (for starters) .
But many view the VCs who pushed Kalanick from his role are nearly as culpable for what’s gone wrong. Indeed, while Benchmark, First Round Capital, Lowercase Capital, Menlo Ventures and Fidelity Investments all reportedly pressed Kalanick to quit last night, it was also their fault the company drove into trouble, say industry types who’ ve watched the saga from the sidelines.
“The investors were really caught with their pants down here, ” says Jeff Cohn, a succession planning expert at the New York-based leadership development firm Elevate Partners, who’ d immediately predicted that the leave of absence taken last week by Kalanick wouldn’ t work.
“The fact that Uber is right now being led by 14 internal people is absolutely insane, ” says Cohn of the company’s current status as without a CEO, CFO, COO, or general counsel, among other executive openings. “It’s not uncommon for leaders to suddenly depart for whatever reason; that [the company and its board] weren’ t developing any viable candidates in recent years in case Kalanick were hit by a bus . for a company with 14,000 employees and a $70 billion market cap, that’s nuts.”
There have been changes since Kalanick announced to employees late yesterday that he was relinquishing his role. The New York Times is reporting tonight that longtime director Bill Gurley of the venture firm Benchmark is leaving the board; Gurley’s colleague, Matt Cohler, will replace him. David Trujillo, a partner at the private equity firm TPG Capital, is also joining the board, as Bloomberg reported earlier today; Trujillo is replacing colleague David Bonderman, who resigned as an Uber director last week after making a sexist remark at a company presentation.
That’s perhaps as it should be.
