Categories | Lawsuits & Litigation Article

Uber Looks For a Life Line In COO Search

March 8th, 2017 • Lawsuits & Litigation • 2 minute read
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Author Sara E. Teller

Uber Looks For a Life Line In COO Search

Uber, the popular ride sharing company headquartered in San Francisco and valued at $70 million, has received a lot of negative flack in the news lately.  Officially Uber Technologies Inc., the enterprise was originally founded in 2009 as UberCab by Garrett Camp, founder of StumbleUpon, and Travis Kalanick, who had sold his start-up Red Swoosh for $19 million in 2007 in order to begin a new line of work.  In 2011, in a true millennial-like move, the company opted to drop the last half of its name, becoming just "Uber" to the general public.

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This is partly why the relatively young 40 year old CEO just announced his quest for a new leader to take on the company's Chief Operating Officer position.  Perhaps finding a more business savvy individual to fill the spot will steer the transportation company into calmer waters.  "We’re actively looking for a Chief Operating Officer: a peer who can partner with me to write the next chapter in our journey," Kalanik announced to team members on Tuesday, adding "I need leadership help, and I intend to get it.”  That is an understatement, especially coming from someone who may not be cut out for this line of work, routinely boycotting city laws and regulations to more quickly grow his business while bragging to the public that his position has helped him get women.  Finding a leader who is willing to fill the COO spot despite the poor position in which Uber now sits and work beside a leader with such a negative track record will not be easy.  But, the company desperately is in need of someone willing to throw a life line and restore its reputation.  This business move has become somewhat of a fad in Silicone Valley with many young entrepreneurs bringing in tried and true business minds to help keep their companies afloat.  Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg is a prime example.  The young executive hired Sheryl Sandberg, a technology executive with a long track record, into its COO spot. It's a plan that has so far seemed to work.

Sources:

Travis Kalanick, Uber’s Chief, Wants a No. 2 ExecutiveUber CEO Travis Kalanick Just Made a Big Step Toward Getting Some ‘Leadership Help’
Sara E. Teller

About Sara E. Teller

Sara is a credited freelance writer, editor, contributor, and essayist, as well as a novelist and poet with nearly twenty years of experience. A seasoned publishing professional, she's worked for newspapers, magazines and book publishers in content digitization, editorial, acquisitions and intellectual property. Sara has been an invited speaker at a Careers in Publishing & Authorship event at Michigan State University and a Reading and Writing Instructor at Sylvan Learning Center. She has an MBA degree with a concentration in Marketing and an MA in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, graduating with a 4.2/4.0 GPA. She is also a member of Chi Sigma Iota and a 2020 recipient of the Donald D. Davis scholarship recognizing social responsibility. Sara is certified in children's book writing, HTML coding and social media marketing. Her fifth book, PTSD: Healing from the Inside Out, was released in September 2019 and is available on Amazon. You can find her others books there, too, including Narcissistic Abuse: A Survival Guide, released in December 2017.

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