Inside Travis Kalanick’s Resignation as Uber’s C.E.O.
Mr. Kalanick, who had built Uber into a transportation behemoth in just eight
years, quickly called Arianna Huffington, an Uber board member, for advice.
Mr. Bonderman also increasingly clashed with Mr. Kalanick at board meetings
because he felt Mr. Kalanick was dragging his feet on hiring key executives, like a chief operating officer and a chief financial officer.
One by one, executives, board members, investors and even close friends slowly fell away as Uber became embroiled in a seemingly ceaseless series of legal
and ethical scandals, according to interviews with more than a dozen Uber insiders, former employees, investors and others, who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
“I love Uber more than anything in the world, and at this difficult moment in my personal life, I have accepted the investors’ request to step aside so
that Uber can go back to building rather than be distracted with another fight,” Mr. Kalanick said late Tuesday.
Finding a replacement for Mr. Kalanick, who built up the company aggressively, is likely to be complicated
because he will remain a presence at Uber: He still has a board seat and voting rights.
Two venture capitalists — Matt Cohler and Peter Fenton of the Silicon Valley firm Benchmark, which is one of Uber’s biggest
shareholders — presented Mr. Kalanick with a list of demands, including his resignation before the end of the day.