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You know how tech CEOs come up with some fairy tale

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about the magical moment that started their company?

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Well, according to Uber's founders,

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they were in Paris one night.

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It was a snowy evening, but they couldn't call a cab.

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So in a moment of brilliance,

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they asked themselves,

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what if you could just tap your phone and get a ride?

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And Uber was born. Well,

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it's a total lie.

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Everything at the time was moving to apps on our phones.

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Hailing a cab was no different.

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Uber didn't come up with this.

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There were several competitors doing this already,

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and Uber wasn't even trying to do this at first.

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Uber's idea was to use an app on your phone to order this luxury

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black car service, and it didn't really work.

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Lift was the one who came up with the ride sharing we know of today

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after seeing how car pools were organized in a trip to Zimbabwe.

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And that product was doing well.

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So Uber launched Uber X afterwards as a copy of lift.

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But today, a lot of people think lift was the copy.

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And I'm not saying lift is a perfectly wholesome company,

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but Uber got ahead simply because of how much more willing it was

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to dodge any safety standards

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and push others down.

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Uber's strategy was to launch in cities so quickly,

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get drivers dependent on it for income,

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and get riders accustomed to it for convenience.

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At regulators didn't have time to Act,

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Uber had basically zero safety standards,

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while other apps were at least

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trying to figure something out with the regulators about this.

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But it didn't matter for Uber,

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because Uber was so entrenched in people's lives

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that regulators now had to accommodate Uber

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rather than the other way around.

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Well, a lot of libertarian Silicon Valley glorifies this

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as a show of how sheer speed and hustle can force slow

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boomer regulators to adapt to innovation.

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But the problem with this approach is that you're pairing some guys

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who were hardly even really checked for driver's licenses,

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who were sometimes convicted violent felons,

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and pairing them with young woman

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who thought this was a trustworthy app

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because it was so big and popular.

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So it must be regulated to some degree.

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And that young woman was now in his car alone.

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Well, what did we think was going to happen?

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This LED to 400,000 reports of sexual misconduct in five years alone.

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But it's not like this was a surprise.

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The Uber executives were not stupid.

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They knew that they were creating the conditions

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where this was bound to happen.

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They did so anyway

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because things like conducting thorough background checks on drivers

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and working with regulators would be too slow and expensive.

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They knowingly let women get

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and had them pay the price for Uber's growth

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because it was cheaper to pay off a few lawsuits

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from the few women who did come forward

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than it was to Take their time

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and prevent those in the first place.

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Well, horror stories started going viral about this,

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and that could hurt Uber's bottom line.

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So if you were working in Uber,

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what would you do? Fix the issue?

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How about

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blackmailing the journalists who were reporting on those stories?

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Because that's what a senior executive genuinely proposed.

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Seems like Uber's still doing fine regardless of all this.

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that means rivals will try to out compete you with better algorithms

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or service. So what would you do?

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Compete on service? How about

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just have your employees create fake accounts on rival rideshare apps,

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book rides on them, and then cancel to waste the driver's time

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and make them frustrated enough to leave the app and join Uber?

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Want to get more customers?

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Subscribe to Uber one. Just charge some for it without their consent.

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And then when they try to cancel,

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make it as frustrating and confusing as possible

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by forcing those customers to go through 23 screens and 32 actions

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just to cancel. If I listed every horrific thing Uber did,

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this video would be an hour long.

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But the point is, all of this is Uber's real innovation,

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not calling a cab on your phone.

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So I. I really don't think it's that impressive.

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Because of course you'll grow faster than everyone else

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if you have zero morals or standards.

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Of course you'll make your service cheaper if your competitors,

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like taxi companies, have to do strict Fingerprint based

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FBI background checks of their drivers

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while you let your drivers, young woman