FailCon 2011 - Uber Case Study

This is a valid criticism, but is mitigated a little by the fact that some of these success stories include within them wisdom from preceding (or competitive-contemporaneous) failures. This is even the case, indirectly, where the Startup School presentation can't fit the speaker's whole story. For example, I think the Travis Kalanick presentation about Uber at Startup School was great. (I'd love to see the time-unconstrained 'two-hour' version of the same talk.) But, it was just about Uber: a current big success. Kalanick also did a shorter -- and perhaps even better -- talk about his previous ventures at the 2011 FailCon: [this video] Combined with the SS12 Uber presentation -- indeed, perhaps best viewed just before -- it provides real context, and a much better idea of the range of outcomes and challenges startups face. And, of the entrepreneurial qualities that gave Kalanick repeated chances at Uber-like success.