Name: The Upstarts
Rating: 3.4 (36 reviews)
Author: Brad Stone

What’s in it for me? Learn the history of two huge tech upstarts.

As you probably know, start-ups tend to be new, small companies with innovative business ideas. Google, Facebook and eBay were all start-ups once. In the past few years, new start-ups have begun popping up everywhere. But at some point, a business stops being a start-up and becomes something else, something bigger. We call them upstarts.

In these blinks, we’ll look at two upstarts that have become household names: Uber and Airbnb. Both have challenged and pioneered new ways of doing business, taking the personal transportation and hospitality industries by storm.

So what has made these upstarts what they are today, and where will they go from here?

In these blinks, you’ll find out

how the personality of the CEO can influence the way a company does business;
how a competitor forced Uber to reinvent itself; and
what Uber and Airbnb should do in the future.

The term “upstart” is used for mega start-ups like Airbnb and Uber.

Companies like Airbnb and Uber that have grown rapidly to become phenomenally successful are hardly start-ups anymore. They’ve shown they like to tussle with the big boys, and they’ve paid scant respect to the usual ways of doing business. We can call such companies upstarts.

Both Airbnb and Uber are renowned all over the world and business is booming. And that’s despite the fact that unlike many other major companies, they don’t actually have any physical assets.

Airbnb might at first glance appear to act like the world's largest hotel company. Except, of course, it doesn’t own the rooms that get rented out.

Equally, we think of Uber as the world’s largest car service. But it doesn’t even have its own fleet.

In part, the freedom granted by this lack of assets helps explain how these companies have been able to expand so far and so quickly. In the world of tech, speed and flexibility are crucial to success.

We also shouldn't underestimate just how massive these businesses are. They’re what are known as unicorns, start-up giants worth more than a billion dollars.

In 2016, Airbnb was valued at $30 billion, and Uber at $68 billion.

Airbnb’s meteoric rise was largely assisted by venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, one of its first big investors. In turn, Sequoia Capital has reaped huge returns. In fact, the amounts it earns from similar investments in Google and WhatsApp are chickenfeed in comparison.

But of course, to become this successful requires a lot of effort and sometimes a rather ruthless approach to business.

Uber’s constant reinvention has made it a global success, even when it doesn’t win contracts.

Before Uber became successful, the idea of a business that encouraged you to ride in strangers' cars seemed ridiculous. So how did Uber manage it?

The company actually began as a town car service in San Francisco, which had a notoriously terrible transport situation. Finding a taxi there was almost impossible, as there wasn’t enough supply to meet demand.

Airbnb has grown from one man’s idea into a powerhouse in the hospitality industry.

Just as climbing into a stranger’s car went from being unthinkable to routine, so has paying to sleep in a stranger’s house become commonplace. Nowadays, thanks to Airbnb, many tourists see this as a perfectly acceptable way to find accommodation.

Airbnb arose from necessity and humble beginnings. One of the company’s founders, Brian Chesky, was busy working on other projects and simply couldn’t afford to pay his rent. So he decided to instead sleep on a friend’s sofa and pay him just a bit.

The CEOs of Uber and Airbnb are determined, but sometimes court controversy.

Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg will be remembered as two giants of the entrepreneurial world. But both are shy and softly spoken, not the stereotypical brash and fast-talking CEOs.

The CEOs and co-founders of Uber and Airbnb, Travis Kalanick and Brian Chesky, are a different kettle of fish. Both are charismatic and sharp speakers.

Key ideas in The Upstarts