Showtime’s newest drama Super Pumped dives into the gritty reality that is working at a tech start-up in the 2010s. Season one focuses on Uber and its CEO Travis Kalanick, who is famously not a nice guy.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Uber’s real-life founder Kalanick in the latest Showtime drama Super Pumped: The Battle For Uber which premiered last week. Kalanick is, for lack of a better word, kind of a villain. The CEO went through many uphill battles to create the ride-sharing app, but also made many mistakes along the way, which led to his ultimate downfall in 2017. Kalanick stepped down from the company after a series of mishaps — including videos of Kalanick yelling at Uber drivers, and a long list of accusations of a toxic workplace. But before all that, when Uber’s popularity initially skyrocketed, the company almost merged with its biggest competitor: Lyft.
Many people thought that this was kind of a no-brainer: two ride-sharing apps joining to become one to become to ultimate taxi replacement. But, the deal actually never went through, obviously, since the two apps still co-exist. What happened? Well, as predicted, Uber didn’t want to spend the $9 Billion that Lyft was asking for.
In 2014, Uber tried to acquire the app with no success. Then, in 2019, Uber was prepared to buy Lyft for $7 Billion, but the ship had sailed, and Lyft rejected the idea, and instead stayed a separate entity.
Lyft of course has also had various blunders over the years, including sexual harassment claims from riders and ADA complaints. Though, there is still time for Uber to buy out to the app, now that Kalanick has left the company. Only time will tell. For now, you can watch Uber’s origin story on Super Pumped: The Battle For Uber on Showtime.
