Quote · The a16z Show
Ben Horowitz and Travis Kalanick on Building Again
Where this was said
Q&A: Dirty Fuel — Revenge, Fear, and the Cleanest Motivation
At 26:20 · chapter starts 24:05
This chapter contains arguably the deepest self-disclosure of the episode [1] — Travis Kalanick "Spite got Kalanick through one company. Fear of failure nearly broke him at Uber. His cleanest creative state came when he fell in love wit…" 24:04 . An audience member notes that revenge-driven founders often hit ceilings, and asks Kalanick whether he's found a cleaner source of fuel. The answer is a full career retrospective. Before Uber: a peer-to-peer file sharing startup got him sued for $250 billion by 33 media companies. His response was pure spite — build a CDN to turn those same companies into customers. It worked, partially. At early Uber, the fuel shifted to fear of failure — long nights, manic energy, a vibe that unsettled people. Post-Uber, something changed. He fell in love with a new problem, and that changed the chemistry entirely. When you're in love with the work, he says, you stop thinking about the ex. The revenge and the fear dissolve. He presents this as the hardest and cleanest version of entrepreneurial motivation — and the one most likely to let you build something truly great.
After being sued by 33 media companies, Kalanick deliberately built a CDN business specifically designed to turn those same companies into paying customers.
