Transportation and logistics. Gillig Corporation – Livermore; Companies formerly based in the San Francisco Bay Area. This list contains both extant companies which have moved their headquarters out of the Bay Area (often during a corporate buyout), and defunct companies.

1. Air Transport Firms In Silicon Valley Today

Six months after their initial launch, the Silicon Valley-based Ventures fund and the A³ outpost of Airbus Group (stock exchange symbol: AIR) have become fully operational, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tom Enders told participants of the 2016 Digital-Life-Design conference in Munich.In late May 2015, Airbus Group had announced a plan to establish its Silicon Valley operations with a fully independent venture capital fund and an innovation center, which has been branded A³ by Airbus Group. The Group had appointed Tim Dombrowski as CEO of Airbus Venture Capital and Paul Eremenko as CEO of A3.Airbus Ventures has now completed its core leadership team set-up and is operating with a $150 million commitment from Airbus Group. The fund’s mission is to identify and invest in the most visionary entrepreneurs in the global aerospace ecosystem. Just recently, Airbus Ventures has made a first investment in Local Motors, a Phoenix, Arizona-based motor vehicle company that combines open-innovation development and micro-manufacturing. Local Motors operates with a growing global network of micro-factories and the funds invested by Airbus Ventures are slated for the firm’s set-up of micro-factories and laboratories in Germany with a focus on aerospace.Based in San Jose, California, A³ (“A-Cubed”) is an organization optimized for speed of execution and tolerance of risk, while maintaining strong linkages to the Airbus Group core businesses.

A³ is charged with harnessing the Silicon Valley ecosystem to pursue opportunities for technological, business model, manufacturing, and other types of disruption with the goal of disrupting Airbus Group and its Divisions, as well as the rest of the industry. Having fully staffed its management team, A³ is now focused on launching a series of projects aimed at delivering demonstrators at convincing scale on aggressive timelines, as well as supporting rapid partnership pilots for Airbus Group in Silicon Valley and globally. A3 also supports Airbus Ventures with technical due diligence and provides technology expertise to portfolio companies.As one of its first projects, A³ is collaborating with terrestrial mobility provider Uber on a market pilot to provide an on-demand transportation service using Airbus Group’s H125 and H130 helicopters – with a goal of proving out a new business model for helicopter operators to access a broader customer base.“Paul Eremenko and Tim Dombrowski have reported for duty in 2016 with a fully operational innovation center and ventures fund. That`s a great achievement in record time and I am glad to see that both have already lined up promising projects and investments”, said Tom Enders. “Although they’re located in the Silicon Valley, both organizations will operate on a global scale and their objective is nothing less than to disrupt ourselves. Clearly, digitalization is a prerequisite for successful innovation in the future. I am glad to see that from where we have come only a year ago, the spirit of innovation in the company has made a huge leap forward and will keep on doing so in 2016.”The Airbus Ventures core leadership team is composed of Tim Dombrowski, who serves as Managing General Partner.

Ten years ago, the idea of getting into a stranger’s car, or walking into a stranger’s home, would have seemed bizarre and dangerous, but today it’s as common as ordering a book online. Uber and Airbnb are household names: redefining neighbourhoods, challenging the way governments regulate business and changing the way we travel.In the spirit of iconic Silicon Valley reneg Ten years ago, the idea of getting into a stranger’s car, or walking into a stranger’s home, would have seemed bizarre and dangerous, but today it’s as common as ordering a book online. Uber and Airbnb are household names: redefining neighbourhoods, challenging the way governments regulate business and changing the way we travel.In the spirit of iconic Silicon Valley renegades like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, a new generation of entrepreneurs is sparking yet another cultural upheaval through technology. They are among the Upstarts, idiosyncratic founders with limitless drive and an abundance of self-confidence. Young, hungry and brilliant, they are rewriting the traditional rules of business, changing our day-to-day lives and often sidestepping serious ethical and legal obstacles in the process.The Upstarts is the definitive account of a dawning age of tenacity, creativity, conflict and wealth. In Brad Stone’s highly anticipated and riveting account of the most radical companies of the new Silicon Valley, we find out how it all started, and how the world is wildly different than it was ten years ago.

Air Transport Firms In Silicon Valley Today

I read this at warp speed. Like, I read it in the tube, I read it in a taxi (bad idea,) I read it while code was compiling. I had to know what happens next.Did it address any of the big issues about the sharing economy?Let’s put it this way: the author is very clearly aware of all the questions that come up. The narrative is always set in the context of the impact the sharing economy is having on all of us: those who work in it, those who share in it (and often would not have access to some rath I read this at warp speed. Like, I read it in the tube, I read it in a taxi (bad idea,) I read it while code was compiling. I had to know what happens next.Did it address any of the big issues about the sharing economy?Let’s put it this way: the author is very clearly aware of all the questions that come up. This book was ok - I liked the Amazon one by Brad Stone better, but that could be because I'm more familiar with Amazon (Seattleite, customer.employee) and also more curious.

Brad Stone did a good job of detailing the tension between Uber and (particularly) Airbnb's sense of mission/doing good and the grittiness, often outright ugliness, required to expand aggressively and gain a foothold in untapped markets. Uber and Travis Kalanick specifically have been getting a l This book was ok - I liked the Amazon one by Brad Stone better, but that could be because I'm more familiar with Amazon (Seattleite, customer.employee) and also more curious. Brad Stone did a good job of detailing the tension between Uber and (particularly) Airbnb's sense of mission/doing good and the grittiness, often outright ugliness, required to expand aggressively and gain a foothold in untapped markets. Uber and Travis Kalanick specifically have been getting a lot of bad press in 2017 and I've wondered if that will really make a dent in the long haul.

The book takes an optimistic stance though. It spends some time getting into the valuation numbers as well as the obstacles that each company has had to face as they've expanded.

Really, both stories are pretty astounding. The upstarts contains a solid telling of the history of AirBNB and Uber.

I was pretty intimately involved with the Uber part of the story and I can say that the history there is very much accurate. I was also so focused on Uber at that time that I actually had no idea what was going on at AirBNB. The stories being told together in an intertwined way was actually perfect. These are really exciting times in the worlds of technology and commerce and this book captures that. I don't know what the fu The upstarts contains a solid telling of the history of AirBNB and Uber. I was pretty intimately involved with the Uber part of the story and I can say that the history there is very much accurate. I was also so focused on Uber at that time that I actually had no idea what was going on at AirBNB.

The stories being told together in an intertwined way was actually perfect. These are really exciting times in the worlds of technology and commerce and this book captures that. I don't know what the future will hold, but the idea of the sharing economy is so compelling that it certainly is here to stay. I expected to like this, since I liked his Amazon book a lot, and I enjoyed his book talk at the LA Book Festival. But this one didn't really catch my interest, maybe because the companies are more works-in-progress, and the writing was pretty meandering.

His topics never seemed to come into focus.Anyway, the book came due after I was maybe a third of the way in, including a fair bit of skimming. I'll probably call that good. 2.5 stars for what I read. It's not as if I'm short of stuff to re Eh. I expected to like this, since I liked his Amazon book a lot, and I enjoyed his book talk at the LA Book Festival.

But this one didn't really catch my interest, maybe because the companies are more works-in-progress, and the writing was pretty meandering. His topics never seemed to come into focus.Anyway, the book came due after I was maybe a third of the way in, including a fair bit of skimming.

I'll probably call that good. 2.5 stars for what I read. It's not as if I'm short of stuff to read. Books about highly successful firms and their often legendary founders and leaders are often of mixed quality and not very interesting. Many are hagiographies that tell the amazing stories of their subjects with clarity and near omniscience, so that the reader recognizes that the success of the firm and its leaders was a necessary development owing little to luck. But readers are likely drawn to such books because they already know the firms are successful due to the blaze of media coverage and Books about highly successful firms and their often legendary founders and leaders are often of mixed quality and not very interesting.

Many are hagiographies that tell the amazing stories of their subjects with clarity and near omniscience, so that the reader recognizes that the success of the firm and its leaders was a necessary development owing little to luck. But readers are likely drawn to such books because they already know the firms are successful due to the blaze of media coverage and self-promotion that tends to follow such firms. What can a popular trade account add to the media story? Besides, if the author is too critical, access to entrepreneurs and managers will be limited and lawyers promptly notified. To tell contemporary negative stories, authors need to rely on already accessible information that also rehashes well known situations, unless of course some new information from whistle blowers or untapped sources is used.Brad Stone is a journalist who has written an informative and entertaining book about Uber and Airbnb, along with their start entrepreneurs Travis Kalanick and Joe Chesky. These firms are the most visible example of the latest wave of internet start-up that use high tech communications and data analysis capabilities to disrupt large and locally organized industries that have been resistant to innovation and reorganization.

Uber has revolutionized taxi and limo businesses and was a pioneer in ride sharing. Airbnb is facilitating a similar revolutionn in the hotel business. Both firms follow what might be called 'network platform' strategies that allow scalable market- matching transactions that were unthinkable as early as 2000. As a result, both firms are valued in the tens of billions of dollars and examples of 'unicorn' start-ups.There is no doubt that these 'matchmaker' businesses provide services that many consumers value highly. To be able to quickly and safely hail a ride in strange surroundings with your cell phone is a wonderful development.

To settle lodging arrangements in advance of travelling to a new city takes a lot of stress out of a trip. It is not surprising that these services are popular.There is also much ambivalence about these businesses and concerns about how they relate to broader social and economic conditions. To start with, the business strategies of Uber and Airbnb fundamentally involve contesting (and often ignoring) existing laws and regulation that had developed around incumbent industries. While I do not wish to defend entrenched local bureaucracies, I am also very reluctant to endorse civil disobedience as a business strategy. Related to this is the place of Uber and Airbnb in the 'sharing' economy. Drivers for Uber are not employees but contractors who must acquaint themselves with all local regulations, pay their own insurance, and pay their own health care and benefits.

For Airbnb, hosts are not employees either and there is potentially much woe to be had by them if they do not read the fine print in their agreements and then run into the guest (or inspector) from hell. For both firms, there is more then a little suspicion that the 'contractor' framing of employee relations is better explained by the need to reduce liability and lower the employee wage bill than it is to pay homage to individualism.Don't get me wrong on this. Corporate paternalism has never been that prominent in capitalism and business history provides much evidence that the builders of great firms often did so on the back of their low paid and little protected workers. Better conditions for workers have been won through more conflict than cooperation and often do not last long into the onset of bad times.

So it is not surprising to find that employee relations in the internet world have more continuities with those sponsored by prior titans of industry than discontinuities. Try to find out how much Uber drivers actually make after their housekeeping chores. What will happen to the drivers/contractors once Uber follows through on its plans to launch a fleet of driverless cars for hire?One of the interesting aspects of 'the sharing economy' is that the pushing of costs onto employees and off of the parent firm balance sheet is publicly glorified as a social good. Uber is not forcing its employees to make ends meet by working multiple jobs, including being a driver. No the drivers are 'sharing' - I am not sure what - and driving to fulfill themselves. Airbnb hosts are not kicking long term tenants out and raising housing costs but instead are fostering a community of sharing accommodations.

Stone notes throughout his book the dual face of these two firms.Tied up with the stories of these firms are the stories of their founders. Stone is art his best in showing how these firms likely would not have survived and prospered without the steely determination of their founders - even if the founders do not come across in a sympathetic manner. I do not have to like these guys to acknowledge their roles in building huge and influential businesses. This is not a new story for internet or tech firms. The biographies of Steve Jobs are notable examples in which the often antisocial side of the founder was a central role in the story.Stone's book is not dependent on these outsize personalities, however. He does a good job in showing how Uber and Airbnb can be seen in the context of other less successful startups that were trying to provide similar services but did not figure out how to do so.

The book is useful in showing how different parts of these business models, for example, surge pricing for Uber, were developed, tested, and included in the firm's strategy. Far too many books do not explain why and how a start-up strategy works and why it succeeded. Stone is also effective as balancing the good and the less good in these firms, as well as how they have evolved based on their experiences. He could have spent more time on the threats ot these firm's long term viability (after they have an IPO) and the prospects for these firms developing scaled up models for ongoing operations once growth levels off.This was better than most books of the genre and is well worth reading.

Journeys Marked By Nonstop Controversy.In THE UPSTARTS, author Brad Stone explores how Uber and Airbnb (and a few other 'also-rans') drastically increased their business (and market value). This book caught my attention because both of the two big firms in this book are located pretty closed to me. I was vaguely familiar with the history of each company, but didn't really know much detail.

Well, I know a LOT more now.What's really amazing is how quickly Uber and Airbnb blasted-off: 'How did they Journeys Marked By Nonstop Controversy.In THE UPSTARTS, author Brad Stone explores how Uber and Airbnb (and a few other 'also-rans') drastically increased their business (and market value). This book caught my attention because both of the two big firms in this book are located pretty closed to me.

I was vaguely familiar with the history of each company, but didn't really know much detail. Well, I know a LOT more now.What's really amazing is how quickly Uber and Airbnb blasted-off: 'How did they maneuver past entrenched, politically savvy incumbents to succeed where others had failed and build large companies in a staggeringly short amount of time?' The author notes something really interesting about both Uber and Airbnb. They each have huge market value, but don't really have many assets: 'Airbnb can be considered the biggest hotel company on the planet, yet it possesses no actual hotel rooms. Uber is among the world’s largest car services, yet it doesn’t employ any professional drivers or own any vehicles.' Much of the book details the long, bitter fights with regulatory commissions. I did not find these sections terribly interesting, but of course, regulatory battles figure prominently in the history of each firm.

(FYI: In my area, San Francisco, the city enacted regulations hugely restricting how often owners can rent out rooms.)Especially with Uber, the internal fighting and strategizing plays a big part of the book. The contention with Uber founder Kalanick reminds me a lot of Steve Jobs. The bizarre work atmosphere at Uber in the early years reminds me of Jobs cracking the whip on his elite team at Apple.One really zany story regards one of Uber's original managers, Matthew Kochman. He became so fed up with Kalanick that he left behind 50,000 shares of stock. He has ample reason to regret this: 'in just a few years, those shares would be worth more than a hundred million dollars.' As recently as 2010, Uber was puny-just a handful of employees and a score of drivers.

Now, some estimates put Uber at $70 billion market capitalization. I had not realized the huge ramp-up in Uber business. In 2014, Uber had UberX in 26 cities. By 2017, Uber was in 500 major cities worldwide.Both Uber and Airbnb made early missteps and paid the price in negative publicity. Uber had trouble getting enough drivers to meet wildly changing demand.

(This led to the 'surge pricing' idea.) I found the story of Uber's 'surge pricing' fascinating. For instance, at one point, surge pricing caused massive spikes in the cost of a ride: 'After midnight, prices spiked seven times the normal rate in New York and San Francisco. Passengers were paying more than a hundred dollars for relatively short rides.'

Airbnb suffered horrific publicity of a different sort, when a blogger detailed how her home was wrecked by an Airbnb renter. This news spread quickly: 'The tech-news sites piled on— Airbnb was bringing strangers together in homes without ensuring a safe experience.' Obviously, this was a massive PR issue: 'If this host’s home had been vulnerable to such methodical destruction, what could be in store for other people?' (The home-wrecker was later arrested in San Francisco on charges of possession of stolen property.)All in all, I found THE UPSTARTS to be an interesting read on the history of two big players. The internal strategizing was fascinating; I thought the bitter fights over regulations was tiresome at times, but I understand the story would not be complete without these chapters. To be honest, I never thought Uber would 'win' that regulatory battle, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area.Advance Review Copy courtesy of the publisher.for more views like this, see. An account by Brad Stone on the sharing economy giants Uber and Airbnb.

It does paint a more balanced picture of the actions of Uber in contrast to the over sensationalized negative media coverage on them. Brad usually gives both accounts of the story and let's the reader decide. Brad also gives a blow by blow account of the important moments that defined each companies history in a fair way. One big voice that was missing was the people who have been displaced or affected by this shift in the e An account by Brad Stone on the sharing economy giants Uber and Airbnb. It does paint a more balanced picture of the actions of Uber in contrast to the over sensationalized negative media coverage on them. Brad usually gives both accounts of the story and let's the reader decide. Brad also gives a blow by blow account of the important moments that defined each companies history in a fair way.

One big voice that was missing was the people who have been displaced or affected by this shift in the economy. The Future of Business - Uber 'n' Airbnb's Digital DisruptionThe future of business has always been a topic people have talked about. Right now it's as hot a topic as it has ever been before with the types of technology you can get your hands on and how fast they develop.Many industries are changing, such as the transportation and hospitality industry among hundreds of others. In fact, there are many products and services for existing industries that haven't even been invented yet.

Some people s The Future of Business - Uber 'n' Airbnb's Digital DisruptionThe future of business has always been a topic people have talked about. Right now it's as hot a topic as it has ever been before with the types of technology you can get your hands on and how fast they develop.Many industries are changing, such as the transportation and hospitality industry among hundreds of others. In fact, there are many products and services for existing industries that haven't even been invented yet. Some people say this is for the good and other say for it's for the bad. This is the story of the beginning of several companies, but especially Uber and AirBnB. The coverage of their story felt reasonably balanced.

The author doesn't shy away from describing the negative impacts of these new companies or from showing conflicts where they look like the bad guys. However, we do get most of the story from the perspective of the founders of Uber and AirBnB. The author gives us their biographies starting in childhood. A lot of the story is told in their words. This made This is the story of the beginning of several companies, but especially Uber and AirBnB. The coverage of their story felt reasonably balanced. The author doesn't shy away from describing the negative impacts of these new companies or from showing conflicts where they look like the bad guys.

However, we do get most of the story from the perspective of the founders of Uber and AirBnB. The author gives us their biographies starting in childhood. A lot of the story is told in their words. This made them feel like our protagonists and I think it makes readers more likely to be sympathetic to them. Regardless, it was a fun to get the history of these companies with some insider perspective. I particularly enjoyed hearing about their first encounters with the legal system.

The way the companies and the laws have both evolved was fascinating. Compared to some of the other books I read though, it didn't have a lot of depth. A good book about the rise, almost fall, and continued rise of the startups most responsible for the new sharing economy. The Uber side of the story is much more interesting, perhaps because of the heated competition with Lyft, much stronger threats and legislative pushback from cities and taxi companies / unions, and the hotheaded, sometimes self-destructive alpha bro personality of Travis Kalanick. (Side note, it's really odd that a book that just came out this year feels dated, but the only U A good book about the rise, almost fall, and continued rise of the startups most responsible for the new sharing economy. The Uber side of the story is much more interesting, perhaps because of the heated competition with Lyft, much stronger threats and legislative pushback from cities and taxi companies / unions, and the hotheaded, sometimes self-destructive alpha bro personality of Travis Kalanick.

(Side note, it's really odd that a book that just came out this year feels dated, but the only Uber legal woes discussed relate to reckless driving accidents, not the wave of driver / passenger sexual assault cases that came to light right after this book was published.). Very in-depth coverage of both companies. Interesting, but perhaps a bit longer than I would have needed to get the point. Great if you're considering investing in either of them should they have an IPO.I found it interesting how Uber's clients have been a major key in ride sharing legislation, which just recently passed where I'm from - upstate NY. I was one of those supporters.

After reading the book, I love Uber just as much. Irrelevantly - I got the impression I'd like to be friends with Gar Very in-depth coverage of both companies. Interesting, but perhaps a bit longer than I would have needed to get the point. Great if you're considering investing in either of them should they have an IPO.I found it interesting how Uber's clients have been a major key in ride sharing legislation, which just recently passed where I'm from - upstate NY. I was one of those supporters.

After reading the book, I love Uber just as much. Irrelevantly - I got the impression I'd like to be friends with Garrett Camp.I found Airbnb mostly uninteresting, perhaps because my single experience using their service was an unpleasant one. I found them unlikable throughout the book as well.I preferred The Everything Store by this author to this book. Perhaps I find Jeff Bezos and Amazon even more interesting. This is a a smart and evenhanded look at how two companies, Airbnb and Uber, changed our world in the eight short years from 2008 to 2016. Both companies emerged out of the sclerotic world of San Francisco's urban politics, and both spent most of their early lives battling diffident regulators and entrenched opponents.

They are now worth tens of billions of dollars and are household names around the globe.Garrett Camp came up with the idea of Uber after he sold an early social media site to eBay This is a a smart and evenhanded look at how two companies, Airbnb and Uber, changed our world in the eight short years from 2008 to 2016. Both companies emerged out of the sclerotic world of San Francisco's urban politics, and both spent most of their early lives battling diffident regulators and entrenched opponents.

They are now worth tens of billions of dollars and are household names around the globe.Garrett Camp came up with the idea of Uber after he sold an early social media site to eBay, and used the money to buy a series of Mercedes he couldn't drive in San Francisco's crowded streets. He loved the night life and hated having to take cabs, especially to see his new girlfriend Melody McCloskey, so he wanted to start his own internet taxi fleet. Camp then convinced the serial internet entrepreneur, and early file-sharing advocate for movies, Travis Kalanick to sign on to Uber after a trip to Paris in 2008 (where Kalanick had been pondering on the possibilities of a personal hotel site remarkably similar to what became Airbnb). A cabbies's irate attack on Camp's tall girlfriend's heels poking through the middle seat convinced Kalanick their had to be a better way. After deciding to become CEO in 2010, Kalanick came up with the idea of just distributing apps instead of trying to start their own fleet, and instituting surge pricing on holidays.

Later, pushed by John Zimmer of Lyft, he moved to offering the apps to non-taxi-licensed drivers, and eventually anyone with a car. He had to battle local taxicab and blackcab regulators in San Francisco, DC, and New York City, which, under Bill de Blasio, attempted to limit the total number of drivers in the City in 2015, only to be attacked and foiled by State governor Andrew Cuomo. In other furious battles with Lyft, Didi in China, Hailo in Britain, and others, Kalanick established Uber as the predominant internet transportation company in the world, but pissed off almost everyone in the process.Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia were both graduates of the Rhode Island School of Design who were friendly and excitable. They started a home-sharing service to make some money during a San Francisco design conference in 2008, and hopefully pay for their apartment while they came up with a better idea. They enlisted the aide of Y Combinator's Paul Graham, Reid Hoffman at Greylock Capital, and, in their 'Series B' round, Marc Andreesen. They had to fight a series of local political battles to keep their business going. In New York, they faced regulators like state senator Liz Kruegar, state attorney general Eric Schneiderman, and the Office of Special Enforcement in NYC, which enforced the new Multiple Dwelling law of 2010 against short-term rentals.

After Schneiderman sent a massive subpoena for every user the site, they negotiated a deal to send over a handful of anonymized data, and then helped to create a task force to shut down illegal hotels in New York. Later, in 2014, Airbnb struck their first official deal with a city, agreeing to limit unhosted rentals to ninety days a year, and to collect registration fees. They soon agreed to many other 'taxes-for-legalization' deals, such as to start collecting the 14% hotel tax in San Francisco. Yet they also faced blowback, such as the fierce Prop F campaign to ban Airbnb in their home town, which ended up failing 55% to 45%. Like Uber, they had become a popular part of urban life, and their opponents had underestimated their clout.These two companies reshaped both the internet economy and urban living, both for better and for worse, and this book shows why and how. It also shows why, just 10 years later, it's hard to remember how recent this change was. Couchsurfing + Craigslist + VRBO + Wimdu.

My personal subtitle response: How? It's not for the better. I really appreciate the tone and detail in this book. Upstarts covers a lot of ground in terms of laying out the backstories of the founders of Airbnb and Uber specifically, but also touches on many of the stories behind similar companies, both the ones that tried to do similar things earlier but failed, and the ones still operating and staying relevant today (like Lyft). Stone's writing is engaging, but as a minor silly detail, the My personal subtitle response: How?

It's not for the better. I really appreciate the tone and detail in this book. Upstarts covers a lot of ground in terms of laying out the backstories of the founders of Airbnb and Uber specifically, but also touches on many of the stories behind similar companies, both the ones that tried to do similar things earlier but failed, and the ones still operating and staying relevant today (like Lyft). Stone's writing is engaging, but as a minor silly detail, the only thing that jarred me was the excessive use of the words'fracas.' I find using the word once in a book is questionable, but Amazon's 'Search inside' feature tells me at appears four times (!!!!) and when I read it felt like it was even.more. than that.

Alright, now back to the serious stuff.I'm not optimistic about the influence of hugely overfunded startups, the ill effects they already cause, and frighteningly the potential for future misconduct afforded them. It's quite sad, depressing, but at least this book points out some of them, and provides many examples of unethical, disreputable behavior. There's no doubt we are steeping in the age of tech-based robber barons.

Not all of them are entitled aggressive megalomaniac assholes, though Uber's Travis Kalanick certainly is. The Airbnb founders certainly come off as more personable, and doe-eyed in their origin story.

However, they do not question the.reason. housing prices were so high in SF (a wave of Google, Apple, Facebook employees moving in), and how their solution of allowing people to make money off of their housing can actually make the situation worse (which gets covered in the book).

Unlike Uber's origins of 'techbro wants a sweet ride', Lyft came from a different, more noble place. I actually met Logan Green (Lyft's CEO) back then in 2007., not too long after he started ZimRide - a Facebook-based ridesharing community tool. But as Brad Stone covers, it's not all sunshine and rainbows for Lyft either, as it cut corners and made shady calls of its own.It's important to think critically not just about.what. a given startup changes, but who the people driving them are, and how do they get there. This book provides a wealth of material for such rumination. If you're curious, you can find. This book takes a look at the history (until the end of 2016 or so) of two tech giants, Airbnb and Uber.

Normally, a book about either one of these companies would be interesting. So you can imagine my happiness at getting a two-for-one book, especially since Stone is a trusted author (I liked his previous book on Amazon). However, in a case of the sum of the parts being greater than the whole, Stone manages to not only tell both their stories but also weaves those two stories together to talk a This book takes a look at the history (until the end of 2016 or so) of two tech giants, Airbnb and Uber. Normally, a book about either one of these companies would be interesting.

So you can imagine my happiness at getting a two-for-one book, especially since Stone is a trusted author (I liked his previous book on Amazon). However, in a case of the sum of the parts being greater than the whole, Stone manages to not only tell both their stories but also weaves those two stories together to talk about a new type of global business that uses technology to provide a platform and community for people to physically interact. Basically, a type of melding of the worlds of online and offline. The story of how these companies actually managed to do this was a real eye-opener for me, both in terms of how it could be done and the fact that it could actually be done.So, if you want to learn about the pasts of these two companies, this is the book to go to.

It's well researched and Stone had access to the founders of both companies as well as access to other key players on the scene. The book, like the companies, is intense. From beginning to end, you find yourself being drawn more and more into this unlikely story of how a few people can wind up fighting multiple battles on multiple fronts with people, politicians, taxi-unions, and other competing businesses and still come out on top. If that wasn't enough, the fights never end and our protagonists, instead of tiring out and dying, just keep on going and getting better. It's amazing and inspiring. After reading this book, I do not think that I can ever complain about being overworked again.There are also two important lessons that I took away from this book.

If you need to fight old regulations in an area, one way to do it is to build a product that people love and quickly build your userbase. Once you have enough people who love you, you can leverage them to put pressure on politicians to enact more favorable laws.

A second lesson is that to build a platform for a service, where you have to build both sides of the marketplace (the people who provide the service and those that use it), divide the market into segments and target each segment one by one. You'll probably lose capital to incentivize the service providers in that segment initially, but once you gain a monopoly or at least sufficient market share, you can make your money back and it will now be easier to tap into other allied market places. Essentially, if you want drivers to drive people around in California, target one city and get drivers on board first. That'll attract the customers, who will in turn publicize the app, and it might also become easier to break into other cities from there. WHEN I THOUGHT BIG.' You think we can start a rustic homestay in our coconut farm in Talaguppa?' I asked my cousin on phone from Houston in 2009.

My cousin in Bangalore, India answered in affirmative. Nestled in the middle of the Western Ghats, the Appalachians of India is Talaguppa, a beautiful village that has access to all the modern facilities in spite of its proximity to hills with magnificent views, lush evergreen forests and heart catching waterfalls.During the same time, Brian Chesky, WHEN I THOUGHT BIG.' You think we can start a rustic homestay in our coconut farm in Talaguppa?' I asked my cousin on phone from Houston in 2009. My cousin in Bangalore, India answered in affirmative.

Nestled in the middle of the Western Ghats, the Appalachians of India is Talaguppa, a beautiful village that has access to all the modern facilities in spite of its proximity to hills with magnificent views, lush evergreen forests and heart catching waterfalls.During the same time, Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, and Nathan Blecharczyk - the founders of Airbnb were at President Obama's inauguration speech festivities, shivering in January Washington DC cold without warm clothes, and not a lot of money either, planning on their idea that would become a multi-billion dollar company. A few months earlier in Paris, Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp were frustrated by their taxi experience and decided to do something about it that resulted in another multi-billion dollar company called Uber.The book chronicles the rise of these companies from their humble beginnings, their struggles, their play - fair & dirty, their philosophies and their breakthroughs. I loved the book and almost did not want it to end. I would recommend the book to you even if you have not used either Uber or Airbnb.Btw, our rustic homestay idea ended in our realization that we liked the idea of staying in a homestay more than running one:D. I am the senior executive editor for global technology coverage at Bloomberg and the author of 'The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley are Changing the World.'

Previously I wrote 'The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon,' which won the Business Book of the Year Award in 2013 from The Financial Times and Goldman Sachs.Over the last few years, I am the senior executive editor for global technology coverage at Bloomberg and the author of 'The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley are Changing the World.' Previously I wrote 'The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon,' which won the Business Book of the Year Award in 2013 from The Financial Times and Goldman Sachs.Over the last few years, I have authored a few dozen cover or feature stories for Bloomberg Businessweek on companies such as Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter, Costco and the Chinese tech companies Didi, Baidu and Xiaomi. I joined the magazine from the New York Times, where I covered Silicon Valley from the newspaper's San Francisco bureau. Before that, I was a reporter for the once proud magazine known as Newsweek. I am also the author of a previous work of non-fiction, Gearheads, which the San Francisco Chronicle selected as one of the best books of 2003.I graduated from Columbia University in 1993 and am originally from Cleveland, Ohio.

I've lived in San Francisco for over 15 years but I'm still a Clevelander at heart- or should I say, at heartbreak, since the sports teams always manage to lose big (except the Cavs!) I have twin daughters and am teaching them to root for Cleveland teams as well because I believe adversity builds character. I hope you enjoy my books. Feel free to write me at brad.stone at gmail to let me know what you think. “If you want to build a truly great company you have got to ride a really big wave. And you’ve got to be able to look at market waves and technology waves in a different way than other folks and see it happening sooner, know how to position yourself out there, prepare yourself, pick the right surfboard—in other words, bring the right management team in, build the right platform underneath you.

Only then can you ride a truly great wave. At the end of the day, without that great wave, even if you are a great entrepreneur, you are not going to build a really great business.”—.