6 madcap revelations about Uber's controversial CEO Travis Kalanick

Kalanick sometimes flies too close to the sun, according to a blockbuster New York Times profile

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick in Paris
(Image credit: ERIC PIERMONT/AFP/Getty Images)

When Travis Kalanick started Uber in 2009, he was already a millionaire and on his third startup company. He adopted the mantra "growth above all else," and that has both helped launch Uber into the marquee ride-sharing service and global juggernaut valued at nearly $70 billion, and pushed Kalanick, now 40, to step into legal gray areas and even incur the potentially Uber-killing wrath of Apple, says Mike Isaac in The New York Times, basing his Icarus-like profile of Kalanick on interviews with "more than 50 current and former Uber employees, investors, and others with whom the executive had personal relationships." The entire article is full of amazing details. Here are six of the most fascinating:

1. Kalanick violated users' privacy and Apple's policies, and blocked Apple from finding out

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.