The Upstarts: Uber, Airbnb and the Battle for the New Silicon Valley

Airbnb became the biggest hotel company on the planet within 8 years of starting, yet is possesses no actual hotel rooms. Uber is among the world’s largest car services yet it does not own any vehicles or employ any professional drivers. Both businesses were enabled by Steve Jobs decision to allow Apps on the iphone. Uber depends upon Google Maps for navigation. They both appeal to the young and computer literate.Yet Brian Chesky and Travis Kalanick, CEO’s of Airbnb and Uber, have not disrupted their respective industries by clever IT alone in the pattern to previous dot com wonders like Google and Facebook. Yes, they have raised multiple millions whilst continuing to trade at astounding losses. Yes, they have positioned their companies in the context of dramatic progress for humanity. But they have aggressively taken on what they regard as vested interests, and methodically entered each individual city and recruited armies of engineers, drivers, hosts, lobbyists and lawmakers to their ventures.Both companies experience has been marked by nonstop controversy. Uber aggressively challenged restrictions, licensing and fierce resistance from authorities and taxi companies in every city in which they launched. They sidestepped laws requiring rigorous driver training and government licences. Airbnb attempted to be more conciliatory with hotel authorities as they encountered laws in every city designed to thwart illegal hoteliers. But in Nathan Blecharczyk they had one of the best on line marketeers the world has ever seen or a nefarious “black hat” operator depending upon your viewpoint. Both companies undercut prices of existing operations whist avoiding taxes and continuing t operate at losses no conventional business can sustain.Both companies put enormous resources into public relations. Travis’s Law was coined “Our product was so superior to the status quo that if we give people the opportunity to see it or try it, in any place in the world where government has to be at least somewhat responsive to the people, they will demand it and defend its right to exist”Brad Stone tells the story in a compelling , yet objective way, of how both companies have broken the mould in their respective industries..He fairly describes the uneven playing field and dubious practices as well as the sheer bottle, hardwork and impressive organisation of the two companies. Will they ever become viable? We shall see.

I stumbled on this book and didn’t regret, fascinating insights interesting the upstarts and how dis similar paths were so connected. Great overview of how these businesses became who they are today

Well written and enjoyable storytelling. Did a good job weaving the stories of two seperate companies into a single narrative. Would have been good to get an expanded view of the initial trough of sorrow period though, rather than an even weighing to all periods of the company history. But that's just a personal preference as I found that chapter the most interesting by far. All in all a good read.

Overall enjoyed this book very much! Brad Stone is an eloquent writer who draws out the stories of AirBnB and Uber in an engaging manner. Although what eventually happens to these start-ups is well-known, this book still sheds a lot of light on their backstories and challenges. You will be surprised with how compelling Brad Stone's narrative is!

Interesting story. It truly dismistify Uber and Airbnb business. Easy to read and engaging

Another great read from Brad Stone. Really enjoying The Upstarts just as much as The Everything Store. Brad Stone always provide a compelling narrative with great research. The in depth interviews provide real texture to the story line which always moves at pace. A must for all interested in Corporate Strategy and Digital Disruption JKA

The Upstarts is a great expose of the founders of Airbnb and Uber and has great analysis of the companies' brands and public perception. A good quick read like The Everything Store, but not as great a story to be told, yet. It is too soon to write about these companies. Brad Stone also reads slightly too generously about them, are they really changing the world? (they will, but not yet) and it feels more like how Kalanick and Chesky want to be portrayed than how reality is: they cannot be this naive about the consequences of their companies. A more critical review might have hit harder.Ultimately, the book has left me more informed about the debate involving Uber and Airbnb, but no more enlightened as to how I feel about it.

Business writing at its finest - it quickly becomes a difficult book to put down. Yes, he recounting the stories of two industry-changing business but he never shies away from reflecting on the reasons for their success.

A must read to understand the sharing economy. Very good insights and insides from the titanics of our time!Go on!

Ironically, mostly in the back of Lyft and Uber’s on the way to one of the properties I manage on Airbnb.Here’s a quote from p. 13 when I suspected I was going to be pleased by the end of the book:“It is not a comprehensive account of either company, since their extraordinary sorties are still unfolding. It is instead a book about pivotal moments in the century-long emergence of a technological society. It’s about a crucial era during which old regimes fell, new leads emerged, new social contracts were forged between strangers, the topography of cities changed, and the upstarts roamed the earth.”Translation: This book dives deeper into fewer issues in the 9-year history of both companies rather than covering a vast amount of topics with little detail.Even though Airbnb and Uber are in the title of the book, it must have been about 70% Uber.Overall, I felt the book was really well researched and well put together from a storyline point of view. The Uber/Airbnb stories crisscrossed nicely. Actually, I was surprised at the amount of overlap from the founders both attending the 2008 presidential inauguration (though, from different perspectives) to friendships formed between Chesky and Kalanick in the early days that last through today.The book didn’t try to cover every topic over the past 8 years. Instead Brad Stone focused on fewer topics while adding more substance to them. As a prior Airbnb employee and an early adopter of Lyft and Uber, I still learned much from reading this book. Not to mention it was entertaining and more so based on storytelling rather than analyzing past events.I was pleased to learn that my memory of history is accurate (well, kind of). The Uber as we know it today has Lyft to thank. In 2012 when Lyft put those pink mustaches on their cars in San Francisco and popularized ride-sharing as we know it today, Uber was still a black car service for rich people. Uber copied Lyft about six months later and started allowing anyone to drive while offering lower cost alternatives to passengers. In reality, SideCar beat Lyft by about 2 months, but they no longer exist.The book went into an interesting history of Uber’s Chinese competitor, Didi Kuaidi (which means ‘honk-honk speedy’ in English) starting p. 303. It put some color to the news headlines, ‘Uber loses in China, sells to Didi.’A couple interesting factoids:Lyft was originally named Zimrides (short for Zimbabwe rides). Designer Harrison Bowden came up with ‘Lyft’.On New Yeas Eve 2015, 550K guests slept in Airbnbs; on NYE 2016, it was 1.3M; by the middle of 2016, 1.3M guests per night was the average.

It is great to get an impartial story of how everything happened. The autjor manages to mention the good the bad about the companies and their founders. To me the on,y thing missing would be a picture of the cereal boxes.

just finished, its a great read if you want to know the story of Air BnB and Uber. the writer has done a good job to present the story in a detail and understandable way. language is simple and easy to understand. in the middle part some pages drags a little but its a part of the story so manageable. Uber story is great and the way it started and still fighting. Air Bnb start is inspiring and its growth remarkable. so there story becomes saturated after some time but uber continues to thrill you like a suspense drama. must read for everyone.

Brad Stone beschreibt den Aufstieg der zwei Tech-Giganten Airbnb und Uber sowie deren Parallelen. Sowohl Airbnb als auch Uber haben Milliarden an Risikokapital aufgenommen, teilweise von den gleichen Investoren. Ebenso lieferten sich beide Unternehmen heftige Gefechte mit den Behörden, aufgrund der Gesetztesverstöße. Beide Unternehmen sind vor rund acht Jahren auf Ba­sis des Smart­pho­ne-Booms in­ner­halb kür­zes­ter Zeit zu mil­li­ar­den­schwe­ren Technik-Giganten geworden. Ein sehr interessantes, gut geschriebenes Buch über die Entstehung zweier Start-ups aus denen Milliardenkonzerne geworden sind und wie diese die Welt verändern möchten. Brad Stone ist ganz nah dran und liefert viele Details. Ich kann dieses Buch uneingeschränkt weiterempfehlen!