YouSaid · the spoken record

Adam Lashinsky

lines on the record: 128
first: 2017-06-26
most recent: 2017-06-26
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“A prenapster, but less successful and less meteoric. So it started and failed more quickly than Napster did. And Red Swoosh, the next company, was an iteration of that technology intended to be legitimate. It was legitimate. They sold to corporations instead, but it took forever to get going. And then it was down to one person, him at one point. And ultimately, he sold it for what nobody in the valley would consider, you know, a lot of money.”
2017-06-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Adam Lashinsky, author, 'Wild Ride' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, well, I don't think that the, well, I don't know if the rage accounted for a success, certainly for his ultimate success with Uber, if we call it that, I think there was a period of time when that would have been a less controversial statement. Now it's a more controversial statement. He's clearly, and I talk about in the book, he's a stubborn, persistent, relentless, ruthless person. And so those things became important in Uber. The part of the story that I think is really interesting, he was part of this company. He was part of the founding team of this company called Scour, which, as you say, went completely belly up. And then he did something that was...”
2017-06-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Adam Lashinsky, author, 'Wild Ride' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What do you think made them stand out from what they're doing? I did a profile of Travis a couple years ago for Vanity Fair, and a lot of it had to do with his early years, most of which were not great. He presided over two relatively failed startups, one completely failed. He just created a lot of trouble wherever, you know, it just seemed like he was at the nexus of trouble and then was like, I don't can't believe this trouble. And so a lot of this stuff was to me to be motivated by rage about that. He had sort of a rage at his heart that is very different than other entrepreneurs and older and also older.”
2017-06-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Adam Lashinsky, author, 'Wild Ride' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The next stage of these kinds of companies that we cover, if you put them in buckets or phases of evolution From the companies that existed around Microsoft and Intel to the companies that existed around Google or Yahoo and Google and then the companies that existed around Facebook and Twitter and whatnot, this was the next thing. And I thought that was interesting”
2017-06-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Adam Lashinsky, author, 'Wild Ride' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What I think was compelling about it was that it was both an internet digital software company. And a hard assets people company that involved messy things like regulators and drivers and cars and transportation networks in a way that Facebook and Google and Yahoo weren't.”
2017-06-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Adam Lashinsky, author, 'Wild Ride' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I don't think it's a good pitch in Silicon Valley. But the idea was that this was a different, how was it different? Because it is one of the few, several Airbnb, I guess, and some others that have come out of this next year of Silicon Valley.”
2017-06-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Adam Lashinsky, author, 'Wild Ride' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And Uber wouldn't have been able to go around the world without the iPhone, without the App Store, the App Stores everywhere, the iPhone's everywhere. So Uber could be everywhere very quickly in a way that startups couldn't have done in another era, that other era being five or ten years earlier. And they had raised already billions of dollars. They already had a multi-billion dollar valuation. They had had this profound impact on taxi systems in many places. So I thought and think that it was and is an important story and that it was if you believe that this That this app revolution was serious. I was far more and am far more interested in what the app enabled than phrases like the gig economy or the sharing economy. And I believe that it was the best example of what this thing could power.”
2017-06-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Adam Lashinsky, author, 'Wild Ride' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“When I started, which was when I sort of started thinking about it, it was 2014 or so, and what I was witnessing was this company that being at that point barely four years old. Had already expanded around the world very quickly. Of course, they've done it in their second year of operation. And that fascinated me in particular because I had just at that point 18 months out of publishing a book about Apple.”
2017-06-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Adam Lashinsky, author, 'Wild Ride' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So that's different. She goes, Oh, yeah, that's different. And I think they're very intent on taking this down to the wire. That's a big issue. Let's talk a little bit about the book and getting to it because all this does matter in terms of what's going to happen at this company. I think they're in much more serious trouble than most people do. But let's talk about the genesis of the book. When you started the book, it was like, look at this bare-knuckled startup that's changing the world and this pugnacious in-yourface CEO who's just such a character kind of thing. Tell me what you were thinking about when you wanted to.”
2017-06-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Adam Lashinsky, author, 'Wild Ride' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They're kind of rich. We just recently had Ruth Perrat on stage at our code conference and talked about that. And I said Google never, in fact, Google usually pays people they don't like even to leave. You know what I mean? Even if they like. And I said, well, you don't usually sue people. And she says, we don't usually sue people. And I said, but you're suing Uber. And she goes, oh, yes, we're suing Uber. And I said.”
2017-06-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Adam Lashinsky, author, 'Wild Ride' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So Uber has tried vociferously to settle, to go to mediation. The judge disallowed that. Uber obviously would rather write a check. And my only point is that Google Alphabet doesn't seem to be too interested in receiving a check”
2017-06-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Adam Lashinsky, author, 'Wild Ride' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So Waymo is the renamed Google self-driving car unit. It's actually not part of Google now, it's part of Alphabet because it's an other bet or something like that. But Waymo has sued Uber because it says that Anthony Lewandowski, who worked as an engineer for the Google self-driving unit when that's what it was called, left, started a new company called Auto, sold it for 800 or 640 million dollars very quickly to Uber. And they allege that this was Uber's way of stealing their technology. And embedded in this is that, and this hasn't happened yet, but if the next step would be that that's fraudulent behavior, not merely stealing of trade secrets.”
2017-06-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Adam Lashinsky, author, 'Wild Ride' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“On the subject of this acquisition, which means that the content and the content of their conversations while they were having this romantic walk is going to be germane. And so anyway, it's quite serious, right? Because Waymo's alleging theft of trade”
2017-06-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Adam Lashinsky, author, 'Wild Ride' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was Anthony Lewandowski. And this was before the auto purchase, which was why he couldn't tell me about it. So, you know, I've published that. Other people have published that they walked together. The judge has specifically said that he's allowing Waymo to interview anybody who has had any interaction with Lewandowski.”
2017-06-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Adam Lashinsky, author, 'Wild Ride' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“He told me at some point during that conversation there's one other person I take this walk with frequently, but I can't tell you who it is yet.”
2017-06-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Adam Lashinsky, author, 'Wild Ride' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Believe me, I would rather have been sitting at a table taking notes with my recorder sitting. Instead, I'm walking down the street holding my recorder with my hand, praying.”
2017-06-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Adam Lashinsky, author, 'Wild Ride' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so huge. I mean, existential threat. So, you know, forgive me for mentioning the book, but it's germane to your question, which is the final chapter includes this anecdote where Travis Calleck and I take this long walk through San Francisco. We walk for hours from the headquarters down to the ferry building to almost to the Golden Gate Bridge.”
2017-06-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Adam Lashinsky, author, 'Wild Ride' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“More, aside, because I don't think there are morals. I agree with you. I think there's a lot of issues around the Waymo lawsuit. Criminal indictments around several different things. I suspect if Anthony Lewandowski, who Uber ultimately fires, faces any kind of criminal problems, I don't imagine he would not roll over. And point upward, presumably, that's how it seems to work. Those are the kind of things I'm more interested in.”
2017-06-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Adam Lashinsky, author, 'Wild Ride' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I understand. And what we can discuss the morality of it, but we know that Silicon Valley venture capitalists will tolerate almost anything if they can make their almighty buck. And I think there's ample evidence that the same is true for public shareholders. There's almost no evidence Well, I shouldn't say that. There certainly have been instances of CEOs being drummed out for one transgression or another. I'm not saying people don't care, and I'm not saying that it's a slam dunk that Kolinik will be the CEO when this company goes public, but it doesn't. It wouldn't shine.”
2017-06-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Adam Lashinsky, author, 'Wild Ride' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Even before this week, even before last month, I didn't think they were going to go public anytime soon. I don't know. A lot can change”
2017-06-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Adam Lashinsky, author, 'Wild Ride' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“People have asked me as I've been out talking about the book why wasn't Camp the CEO? Why did Camp turn over the reins of Uber so willingly to Travis Kalinick so early? And my answer has been among the many controversial things that have gone on at the company, that wasn't one of them. Nobody ever said, gee, Garrett Camp should have run Uber. I think, and I've heard many people say to me, that Garrett Camp was grateful from the beginning that Travis took this thing that Garrett had created and he created many little things like what this little Uber cab thing was in 2009 and made it into Uber. So I think Garrett Camp was very comfortable with that. He's been grateful. He was the really the first person to take serious money out of the company and one of the very few people to take serious money out of the company. He was grateful to Travis for that”
2017-06-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Adam Lashinsky, author, 'Wild Ride' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't know how much, but I just think even what we saw yesterday, there's clear evidence that he is. Again, I can't quantify it or qualify it, but he said I will be involved in the most strategic decisions. So, the question is why or how was he able to hang on? I think we've known for quite a while that he has the ability to control the board through the form of his shares. And he had to acquiesce in whatever they decided. I think you would agree with me that if he had his druthers, he wouldn't have gone at all. Right, nobody would have”
2017-06-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Adam Lashinsky, author, 'Wild Ride' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And why do you think that tells me because it's a really interesting situation. Because let me get back to that idea that it wasn't just that there were all these issues at the company that report. I've had parts read it to me. It's quite devastating about a culture out of control, never built, run badly breakneck speed, sexual harassment, sexism, all kinds of things. It's like as if the quintessence of Silicon Valley's problems concentrated themselves in one company. And so you think that he's still in power, that he's still pulling the...”
2017-06-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Adam Lashinsky, author, 'Wild Ride' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I read that as him not leaving at all. Not stepping down as CEO is sort of beside the point. So I think where you're going with this is that it's not over. It's clearly not over.”
2017-06-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Adam Lashinsky, author, 'Wild Ride' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think if you want to, you know, you made the point that any other company would have these recommendations would have included the firing of the CEO. I thought the precise wording of Travis Callanick's email to the employees was interesting. First of all, he's taking a leave of absence of an undetermined length. So that could be Monday. Or it could be 2019, and that he will continue to be involved, I believe the way he put it, was with the most strategic decisions.”
2017-06-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Adam Lashinsky, author, 'Wild Ride' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, the details of what he found. So, in other words, you have to infer everything from the recommendations. And you can infer a fair amount, but not a lot. You don't scale. You don't know details. You don't have dirt, which again is where you will come in. The other thing that I think is interesting.”
2017-06-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Adam Lashinsky, author, 'Wild Ride' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, you know, a couple interesting things to me. One is, as you pointed out, they released Eric Holder's recommendations. They did not release his findings. The findings would have been far more interesting. Yeah, I'll be releasing.”
2017-06-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Adam Lashinsky, author, 'Wild Ride' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Hi, everybody. Welcome to tonight's program with Inform at the Commonwealth Club. I'm Kara Swisher, Executive Editor of Recode and host of the Recode Decode podcast. And it's my pleasure to be talking with my friend Adam Lyszinski. He really is a friend that's accurate, a veteran journalist, currently the executive editor of Fortune, the best-selling author of Inside Apple, here to talk about his latest book, Diving Deep into the Crazy World of Tech, the appalling world of tech, really, Wild Ride, Uber's Quest for World Domination.”
2017-06-26 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: Adam Lashinsky, author, 'Wild Ride' · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT