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Re:Why I would never want to compete with Travis Kalanick by tptacek on Wednesday February 04, 2015 @02:43PM (#8999171)
“I have a confession to make, Mr. Sacca. I’ve played a fair amount of Wii Tennis before.” While talking, he used his controller to navigate through the settings pages on the Wii to a list of high scores. “In fact,” he continued, “on the Wii Tennis global leaderboard, I am currently tied for 2nd in the world.”

[...]

So, if Travis decides he wants to provide a cleaner, safer, easier experience than the current taxi system, he will make that work. If he sets his sights on reforming pervasive, anti-consumer regulatory corruption, watch those laws soon fall while exposing the shady backroom deals that created them. If he wants to eviscerate the racism that keeps people of color from having consistent access to rides in taxis, that will be the result. If he wants to take drunk drivers off the street, you will see the fatality rates fall wherever he operates his business.

To understand how someone can reasonably jump from the Wii Tennis leaderboard to an unequivocal valorization of Uber and the process of building Uber, it helps to know that Chris Sacca is one of Uber's earliest investors.

The article was more interesting before the "anti-corruption" "shady backroom deals" stuff. Horserace coverage of markets is interesting and Sacca has an unique vantage point. I don't know why he bothered trying to sneak the moral justification in.

Re:Why I would never want to compete with Travis Kalanick by api on Wednesday February 04, 2015 @02:46PM (#8999196)
I think they call this "jawboning your portfolio," though in this case more colorful metaphors come to mind.

Not saying Travis isn't brilliant, hard working, great at Wii tennis, and a tough person to compete with in general, but come on... rarely do I ever read such a transparent bit of...

Re:Why I would never want to compete with Travis Kalanick by tptacek on Wednesday February 04, 2015 @02:50PM (#8999231)
Also "talking your book". :)
Re:Why I would never want to compete with Travis Kalanick by rasz_pl on Wednesday February 04, 2015 @03:30PM (#8999515)
I think he just wanted to express in full detail how big of a wanker Kalanick is.
Re:Why I would never want to compete with Travis Kalanick by paul on Wednesday February 04, 2015 @02:54PM (#8999259)
Guessing which founders are going to start the next multi-billion dollar business is surprisingly hard. To me, the fact that Sacca is an early investor in Uber gives the post more credibility, not less.
Re:Why I would never want to compete with Travis Kalanick by tptacek on Wednesday February 04, 2015 @03:26PM (#8999485)
Sorry, I was totally unclear. His assessment of Kalanick's competitive prowess is very credible. His assessment of the public policy impact of Uber is less so. (I edited the comment shortly after writing it, trying to capture that).