One of the most innovative entrepreneurs in history is Travis Kalanick. Travis marked his name by coming up with a unique value proposition that can shun away the fears of getting into a cab with a stranger. Travis Kalanick was born on August 6, 1976, in Los Angeles, California, in America. This American businessman created a ride-hailing app company called Uber, providing a transportation facility that connects freelance drivers with users to book vehicles over the mobile application. This mobile app revolutionized the way people look at traveling. However, the journey wasn’t that easy when it started.
Dropping out of College:
As a child, he loved computers and programming. He wanted to study computers, which led him to study computer coding by the time he started middle school. Later, Kalanick started studying computer engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). UCLA is one of the renowned educational institutes of Los Angeles, but he along with his friends dropped out of university to start their own business. In 1998, they started working on their start-up for its launch, Scour Ltd., designed to offer Search Engine and file-sharing services. This company was one of the first few companies that enabled users to share movies and songs online.
Career Journey:
His interest inspired him to start working on his start-up project, Scour. Scour was a relatively new business venture; however, it soon crashed due to copyright infringement charges by recording businesses and motion movie companies. After Scour got sued, Travis declared bankruptcy in 2000.
In 2001, Kalanick bounced back from bankruptcy by founding Red Swoosh. Red Swoosh was a file-sharing technology that got several promising companies as clients very soon. Soon, Red Swoosh got sold around $17 million in 2007, creating an uprise for the business career of Travis Kalanick. Soon after he sold the company, this investor realized that he had to come up with a new innovative business proposal. He came up with the idea of Uber, started small, but gradually the business kept expanding. This expansion became global with more and more people using Uber over other transportation options. However, the former CEO of Uber left the company in 2017, accusing Uber to have a toxic workplace culture fostering discrimination and harassment.
Travis Kalanick Net Worth:
After he left Uber, people assumed that the former Uber BOD and CEO’s worth will fall. However, Travis has always been a keen investor and he carefully invested his money in new business ventures. He even started a new investment unit called 10100. Today, he secures an estimated net worth of $2.8 billion and he has successfully marked his name among the top successful entrepreneurs in America.