Uber's first pitch deck shows just how far they've come
Uber was once known as simply a black car service, powered by smartphones. Now, it's known for a toxic workplace culture, among other scandals.
As Uber tries to move past the last year of controversy, Uber cofounder Garrett Camp shared the company's first pitch deck on Medium this week.
The 25 slides describes UberCab's original vision to disrupt the taxi industry and private car services, complete with pictures of Blackberry phones and a Lexus.
Now, Uber is a little more focused on iOS and Android. But it's a nice shoutout to the phones of 2009.
Uber is one of the most valuable startups in the world at about $69 billion. Recent moves by investment banks may be bringing that estimate down, according to The Wall Street Journal.
That makes the valuation and the worst case scenarios in the first pitch deck laughable.
Uber pulled in $20 billion in overall revenue in from bookings in 2016, doubling its 2015 numbers, Bloomberg reported. It's far from profitable, however. Uber lost $2.8 billion last year, excluding its China business, and more than $3 billion if now shutdown China operations are included.
It's far from the worst-case scenario. Sure, it probably continues to be a "time-saver for San Francisco based executives," but it's also a service used in more than 700 cities by more than 40 million monthly riders, the company said in October last year. In June, Uber completed its 5 billionth trip.
Possible slogans for UberCab were "The one-click cab," "The NetJets of Limos," and "Cabs2.0." Eventually the team decided on "Everyone's private driver."
At the time, the founders were looking to raise "a few million" and build a "small office" in San Francisco. Now, Uber employs more than 17,000 people all over the world while simultaneously supporting thousands of contractors in the new gig economy.
As to what's next? Uber is seeking to hire a new CEO to replace cofounder Travis Kalanick, who was ousted in June.
Topics Uber
Kerry Flynn is a business reporter for Mashable covering the tech industry. She previously reported on social media companies, mobile apps and startups for International Business Times. She has also written for The Huffington Post, Forbes and Money magazine. Kerry studied environmental science and economics at Harvard College, where she led The Harvard Crimson's metro news and design teams and played mellophone in the Band. When not listening to startup pitches, she runs half-marathons, plays with puppies and pretends to like craft beer.
