Startups reaching out to you for advice
I was out in San Francisco late last month, and one of the things I did was set up some coffees, lunches, and visits with entrepreneurs and investors who are working on disruptive ideas for cities. The result was this column: “Dispatch from the disruption zone.” Often, these startups find themselves operating at the edge of the law, or in conflict with existing regulations. Their role models are businesses like Uber and Airbnb, which have fought those battles before them — and also attained multi-billion-dollar valuations in the process.
Posting some bonus material here, from e-mail interviews with Uber founder and CEO Travis Kalanick and with Spark Capital partner Nabeel Hyatt. (Hyatt and I had tea while I was in San Francisco, and this was a follow-up question to that conversation.)
Travis Kalanick, CEO and founder, Uber
Scott Kirsner: Do you notice more startups reaching out to you for advice or connections, and patterning themselves in some way after Uber… IE, launching businesses that may in some way run up against a state/local/federal regulatory conflict, or challenge some existing players? From my perch, it seems like this is something not only entrepreneurs are doing more often, especially in SF and the Valley — but that investors have gotten more comfortable with it… Whereas 10 years ago they might’ve said, we don’t want to spend our money fighting these battles… couldn’t you find a nice CIO to sell software to?