Billionaire businessman Travis Kalanicka co-founded Scour, Red Swoosh and Uber with his associates. The business mogul ranks 115th on the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans. Kalanick pulled back the curtain on his association with Uber in 2017 following a series of controversies surrounding the company’s ethics. This included a truck loaded with allegations of sexual harassment and other illnesses that he allegedly ignored. It will be interesting to find out lesser known facts about him.
Biography of Travis Kalanick
He was born on August 6, 1976 in Los Angeles, California. Travis Kalanick attended the University of California where he studied computer engineering and business economics.
He was a member of the Theta Xi fraternity at UCLA. Always business-minded, Travis started an online file sharing service – Scour which eventually became his first business. Combining studies with business did not quench Kalanick’s thirst; He finally left school in 1998 to fully focus on the business. Travis made the decision to leave school alongside Micheal Todd and Vince Busam, and the trio worked with Dan Rodrigues to found Scour Inc. a multimedia search engine.
Also, Scour Exchange, a peer-to-peer file sharing service was born. Scour thrived until 2000, when a copyright infringement lawsuit was filed against it by three news outlets. This caused the establishment to file for bankruptcy in September of the same year. After Scour failed, Travis and Michael Todd came together to launch Red Swoosh, also another peer-to-peer file sharing company. Red Swoosh has grown from nothing to something with the help of dedicated workers, including their former employees at Scour.
Travis Kalanick in 2009 teamed up with GarrettCamp to form Uber. The business mogul reveals that Camp came up with the idea after realizing the cost of black car services could be shared with people and made affordable for everyone. Uber was born and Kalanick became the mega advisor. The following year, he became CEO after succeeding former CEO Ryan Graves. However, in June 2017, Kalanick retired from the company by taking an indefinite leave of absence.
His move came after several allegations of assault were committed against the company. These allegations turned out to be implicit for the CEO at the time, who would have trivialized the reports. Kalanick’s misery at this time was compounded by the news of his mother’s untimely death. Despite the mourning, Benchmark Capital has always asked for his resignation.
Kalanick later vacated his seat but remains a member of the company’s board of directors. The former CEO of Uber announced in 2018 a new establishment, 10100 aimed at creating large-scale jobs.
His net worth
With a healthy entrepreneurial spirit and impeccable innovative attributes, Travis Kalanick has garnered more than life fortune in his career. With a mammoth net worth of $5.9 billion, the business mogul ranks 115th on the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans.
After leaving the company, Kalanick sold $1.4 billion in shares representing almost a third of his Uber stock after a billion-dollar deal with Japan’s Softbank. This reduced the value of the company by up to 30%. Kalanick made many wise ventures which improved his financial situation and made him so prominent in the business world.
Family – Parents, Siblings
Travis was born to his parents; Bonnie Renee Horowitz Kalanick, her mother and Donald Kalanick, her father. Travis’ mother, who died in 2017, worked as an announcer for Los Angeles Daily News and his father worked as a civil engineer.
Travis Kalanick is of mixed ethnicity; his mother Bonnie was Jewish and his father Donald is of Slovak-Austrian descent. The business mogul has two half-sisters and a brother named Cory. One of her half-sisters is Anji, the mother of actress Allisyn Ashley Arm.
Personal life – wife or girlfriend
The business tycoon is so tied to his job that it’s beginning to seem to some that he has little time to think about starting a family. Travis’ Uber mishap brought him a lot of attention as people started to learn about the business owner’s personal life.
He would have a relationship with Angie You. The couple bought a house in Castro, San Francisco. They dubbed the townhouse ‘The Jam Pad’ and set up a Twitter account there. Travis and Angie are not married, although fans are considering something more to happen.
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