创新租车服务Uber遭遇拦路虎

    然而，我拜访卡兰尼克的公司一个月后，华盛顿出租车委员会（Taxi Commission）主席容•林顿就指责这家初创企业非法经营，而他协助筹划钓鱼执法行动、诱捕Uber私家车主的消息更是令舆论哗然。林顿通过Uber叫来一辆车，让它前往五月花酒店（Mayflower Hotel）。等在那里的警官给驾车者开出了罚单，称其有四项违法行为，包括开黑车、没有运营牌照、不合理收费等。驾车者当场被罚款1,650美元，但这一事件引起的冲击波直抵Uber加州总部。全美出租车行业似乎都不怎么喜欢卡兰尼克的模式。这对于这家羽翼未丰的公司可能是一个灾难性的拐点。当前，气氛紧张，任何直指其商业模式内在根本性缺陷的消息或举动都可能造成严重的后果。团购网站Groupon、公寓对租服务公司Airbnb和社交游戏巨子Zynga在创业早期都曾因为严重危机而不得不调整发展方向。

    但华盛顿这次找茬可能找错人了。在某种意义上，Uber是卡兰尼克总结14年创业失败经验之后的成果。1998年，他从加州大学洛杉矶分校（UCLA）退学，潜心于一款与Napster相仿的P2P文件共享软件Scour。Scour一度获得了罗恩•伯克尔和迈克尔•奥维茨旗下的CKE Associates融资，一切似乎都在向着好的方向发展。但平地起风波，Scour与奥维茨因投资意向书而发生摩擦，最后双方和解，但卡兰尼克即便今日提起这项和解仍愤愤不平。（奥维茨的律师和前Scour董事会成员詹姆斯•埃利斯称：“这个问题几年前已经友好解决。”）接着，2000年好莱坞（Hollywood）起诉Scour侵犯知识产权，要求获得2,500亿美元的赔偿。虽然该案只需要100万美元就能达成庭外和解，但却导致Scour最终破产。卡兰尼克很受伤。很长时间他都没法坐到电影院里看电影，因为光是看到电影公司的标识都会让他火冒三丈。

    怒意难平的卡兰尼克再次创业。2001年，他和合伙人迈克尔•托德共同创立了Red Swoosh，专门为企业客户提供文件分享系统。但卡兰尼克自称，当时他想把Red Swoosh做成一家“复仇企业”。他想让那些曾把Scour告到破产的好莱坞公司心甘情愿地为一项类似的技术掏钱。但和Scour一样，Red Swoosh也遇到了麻烦。卡兰尼克称，在他毫不知情的情况下，他的共同创始人想舍弃Red Swoosh，把工程师团队带到索尼（Sony）去。（托德不认可这种说法。）更糟的是，2001年秋季，公司没钱了。那些年，卡兰尼克不拿分文工资，一心只想维持企业。这意味着他又被迫搬回了位于洛杉矶郊区北岭的母亲家里。有一次消费电子展（Consumer Electronics Show）上，他甚至要睡在租来的丰田（Toyota）塞纳车里，在附近赌场的盥洗间里简单擦了个澡。他开玩笑地说：“那个时间没有太多女士。”

    到了2007年，情况出现了转机。当时，Akamai Technologies技术公司决定以1,500万美元收购Red Swoosh，这时，当初起诉Scour的29家好莱坞公司中有23家已成为Red Swoosh的客户或间接用户。这对于理解Uber当前的困境可能很关键。卡兰尼克除了聪明，也冲动固执，甚至会乐于为一个毫无创意的点子而冲下悬崖。随着Red Swoosh被收购，这些都是值得的，但这经过了多年的努力打拼。（一位前女友评价他是“最倒霉的成功企业家”。）

    A month after I visited Kalanick's offices, Ron Linton, D.C.'s Taxi Commission chairman, accused the startup of operating illegally and made news when he helped orchestrate a sting, hailing a car via Uber and sending it to the Mayflower Hotel. There, city inspectors ticketed the driver for four violations, including driving an unlicensed vehicle, not holding a chauffeur license, and charging an improper fare. The driver was fined $1,650 on the spot, but the incident sent shockwaves all the way to Uber's headquarters in California. Taxi interests around the country, it seemed, weren't so happy with Kalanick's model. It was a potentially disastrous turn for the fledgling company. In today's skittish climate, anything that knocks a startup off message or gestures at a fundamental flaw in its business model can have serious repercussions. To wit, Groupon (GRPN), Airbnb, and Zynga (ZNGA) all had to trim their sails due to early snafus.

    D.C. may have picked a fight with the wrong entrepreneur, though. In one sense, Uber is the result of 14 years worth of entrepreneurial misadventures on Kalanick's part. In 1998, he dropped out of UCLA to work on a peer-to-peer file-sharing program similar to Napster dubbed Scour. With funding from Ron Burkle and Michael Ovitz's CKE Associates, Scour seemed headed for prime time. It wouldn't end well. Scour got into a scrape with Ovitz over their term sheet, which eventually lead to a settlement Kalanick still bristles over. ("That matter was amicably resolved years ago," says James Ellis, Ovitz's attorney and former Scour board member.) Then, in the summer of 2000, Hollywood served Scour with a lawsuit claiming a whopping $250 billion in copyright damages. Though the suit would be settled for $1 million out of court, the company went bankrupt. Kalanick was scarred. He couldn't watch a movie in the theater for months; the sight of a studio logo set his blood boiling.

    Still smarting, Kalanick tried again. In 2001, he co-founded Red Swoosh with partner Michael Todd. Officially billed as a file-sharing system for corporate clients, Kalanick says he intended Red Swoosh as a "revenge business." He wanted the Hollywood litigants who sued Scour into nonexistence to pay for a similar technology. But like Scour, Red Swoosh ran into problems. Without his knowledge, Kalanick says his co-founder sought to abandon Red Swoosh and take the engineering team to Sony (SNE). (Todd disputes this claim.) Worse, the company ran out of money in the fall of 2001. Kalanick spent those years not paying himself, desperate to keep the business afloat. That meant living with his mother again in Northridge, a suburb outside Los Angeles. At one Consumer Electronics Show, he slept in a rented Toyota (TM) Sienna, giving himself hobo baths in the restrooms of nearby casinos. "There weren't a lot of ladies during that time period," he jokes.

    By 2007, things had turned around. When Akamai Technologies (AKAM) acquired the company for $15 million, 23 of the 29 Hollywood litigants who had sued Scour either had content flowing through Red Swoosh or had become clients. And that may be the key to understanding Uber's current predicament. Kalanick, as well as brilliant, is brash and headstrong, even happy to charge off a cliff with an innovative idea. With Red Swoosh it paid off with a multimillion dollar acquisition, but only after years of struggle. (An ex-girlfriend calls him "the unluckiest successful entrepreneur ever.")