Uber’s revenues in the San Francisco area were more than three times larger than the taxi industry had been pre-Uber.4

The gamble paid off. Despite Stanford’s success in persuading two institutions to withdraw their oral commitments to Benchmark’s fund, other investors stepped forward and the partners secured the $85 million in institutional capital that they had announced they would raise. At Bob Kagle’s urging, the partners started business by giving their secret

Building a better product is one of the classic levers in the tech industry, but Uber focused much of its effort on targeted bonuses for drivers. Why bonuses? Because for drivers, that was their primary motivation for using the app, and improving their earnings would make them sticky. But these bonuses weren’t just any bonuses—they were targeted at