''Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber'' is a 2019 book by ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' journalist Mike Isaac. The book covers the events between the founding of

Uber Uber Technologies, Inc. is an American multinational transportation company that provides Ridesharing company, ride-hailing services, courier services, food delivery, and freight transport. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California, a ...

and its

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

in 2019.

Background

The book was based on Mike Isaac's coverage of events at Uber for ''The New York Times''.

Synopsis

The book presents the history of Uber since its founding by

Garrett Camp Garrett Camp (born October 4, 1978) is a Canadian-French businessman, investor, and software engineer. He helped build the search engine StumbleUpon and is a co-founder of Uber. He lives in Los Angeles. Early life and education Camp was born ...

as UberCab in 2009.

Travis Kalanick Travis Cordell Kalanick (; born August 6, 1976) is an American businessman best known as the co-founder and former chief executive officer (CEO) of Uber. Previously he worked for Scour, a peer-to-peer file sharing application company, and was th ...

, who would later run the company and become its largest shareholder before being removed as CEO, was originally brought in as an advisor with its first employee Ryan Graves as its CEO. The book explains how Kalanick came to replace Graves, who stayed on with the company, and gained control over the

startup A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship includes all new businesses including self-employment and businesses that do not intend to ...

. According to the book, Kalanick was bitter about how

venture capitalists Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

had treated his first startup,

Scour Scour may refer to: Hydrodynamic processes * Hydrodynamic scour, the removal of sediment such as sand and silt from around an object by water flow ** Bridge scour, erosion of soil around at the base of a bridge pier or abutments via the flow ...

, and he vowed not to be replaced by them again. The book details the "work hard, play hard" culture at Uber, citing a party where employees celebrated the first billion dollars in revenues in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

. It also examines the many scandals experienced by the company, including allegations of sexual harassment documented by Susan Fowler, attempts to keep regulators from hiring Uber drivers to avoid fines, and the mishandling of personal information, including in the case of a rape victim in India. It also looks at the ways that, despite these incidents, the company was considered a

unicorn The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since Classical antiquity, antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn (anatomy), horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unico ...

by venture capitalists. Isaac writes that for a time, Uber was one of the highest valued private companies in

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

. The book ends with the company entering the market at below its valuation target.

Critical reception

The book was well-received upon publication. ''Wired'' named it its "Book of the Month", praising it for detailing the many problems at the company without vilifying Kalanick.

Leslie Berlin Leslie Berlin is an American historian. Berlin is Project Historian for the Silicon Valley Archives at Stanford University. Career Berlin received her Ph.D. in History from Stanford University in 2001 and also holds a B.A. from Yale University ...

wrote in ''The New York Times'' that "Isaac is great at the ticktock of events as they unfold, but his best work comes when he steps back to examine the bigger picture."

Television adaptation

In May 2021, it was announced that Showtime had given a series order to a television adaptation of the book from '' Billions'' creators

Brian Koppelman Brian William Koppelman (born April 27, 1966) is an American television and film writer, producer and director. Koppelman is the co-writer of ''Ocean's Thirteen'' and ''Rounders (1998 film), Rounders'', a producer of films including ''The Illusion ...

and

David Levien David Levien (born December 9, 1967) is an American screenwriter, director, producer, and novelist. He is co-creator, executive producer, and showrunner of Showtime's '' Billions'', along with Brian Koppelman. Some of his credits include ''Ocean' ...

. Koppelman, Levien and Beth Schacter will serve as showrunners, writers, and executive producers.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt (; born February 17, 1981) is an American actor. He has received various accolades, including nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for his leading perform ...

will star as Kalanick.

Kyle Chandler Kyle Martin Chandler (born September 17, 1965) is an American actor. He received critical acclaim for his performance as Eric Taylor in the NBC series '' Friday Night Lights'' (2006–2011), winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding L ...

will also star as Bill Gurley.

Kerry Bishé Kerry Bishé is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Donna Clark in the AMC period drama series '' Halt and Catch Fire'' (2014–2017) and Lucy Bennett, the lead/narrator in the final season of the ABC medical sitcom '' Scrubs'' ...

joined the cast as Austin Geidt. Babak Tafti and Mousa Hussein Kraish joined the cast.

Hank Azaria Henry Albert Azaria ( ; born April 25, 1964) is an American actor and producer. He is known for voicing many characters in the long-running animated sitcom ''The Simpsons'' since 1989, including Moe Szyslak, Chief Wiggum, Superintendent Chalmer ...

joined the cast as

Tim Cook Timothy Donald Cook (born November 1, 1960) is an American business executive who is the current chief executive officer of Apple Inc. Cook had previously been the company's chief operating officer under its co-founder Steve Jobs. Cook joined ...

. Bridget Gao-Hollitt was added to the cast as Gabi. The series premiered on February 27, 2022.

References

{{Reflist American non-fiction books 2019 non-fiction books Works about Uber English-language non-fiction books Books about multinational companies W. W. Norton & Company books Non-fiction books adapted into television shows Books about computer and internet companies