The rise and fall of Travis Kalanick, 's embattled billionaire founder who just resigned as CEO Avery Hartmans and Rob Price; Jun. 21, 2017, 5:11 AM

Eight years ago, Travis Kalanick launched a startup called UberCab in San Francisco. Today, Uber is a global behemoth and one of Silicon Valley's most successful companies — and one of the most contentious. Uber operates in around 600 cities worldwide, and it's said to be worth nearly $70 billion. The 40-year-old Kalanick is now said to have a net worth of more than $6 billion. But Uber — and Kalanick — have been caught up in one scandal after another in recent months, leading to a four-month investigation, more than 20 firings, and finally, Kalanick's resignation from the company he created.

Here's how it all began.

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick grew up in Northridge, California. When he was a kid, he wanted to be a spy. Kalanick got good grades and was athletic growing up, running track and playing football. But he was bullied by older students, and later vowed that he'd never be pushed around by anyone again. Kalanick would eventually follow in the entrepreneurial footsteps of his mom, a retail advertiser: He went door-to-door as a teen, selling knives for Cutco. He then started his first business at 18, an SAT-prep course called New Way Academy. Kalanick's parents, Donald and Bonnie, would be "rider zero" when Uber launched in Los Angeles.

Kalanick went to UCLA to study computer engineering. He would drop out in 1998 to work on Scour, a peer-to-peer search engine. However, after being sued by several entertainment companies to the tune of $250 billion, Scour filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Kalanick rebounded with Red Swoosh, a networking-software company. But he clashed with his new cofounder, Scour cofounder Michael Todd. Between the post-9/11 stock market crash, the company's pushing of legal boundaries by reinvesting its employees' income taxes back into the startup, and a final falling-out between the cofounders, Red Swoosh almost never made it to exit. In 2007, Kalanick sold Red Swoosh to Akamai for $23 million and became a millionaire.

While attending the LeWeb technology conference in late 2008, Kalanick first heard the idea for Uber. He envisioned it as a way to lower the cost of black-car service at the touch of a button. The first version of Uber, a black-car service called UberCab, cost about 1.5 times as much as a cab, you could request a car in San Francisco by sending a text or pressing a button. UberCab launched in June 2010 in San Francisco. It was a huge hit there, though investors weren't initially knocking down Uber's door to invest but by summer 2010, Uber raised money from investors: a $1.25 million seed round from First Round Capital, Kalanick's friend , and Napster cofounder Shawn Fanning. Uber would go on to raise $11.56 billion in venture capital funding.

An early version of the Uber app. After San Francisco, Uber rapidly expanded its services to other US cities. In May 2011, Uber launched in New York City, now one of Uber's biggest markets: More than 168,000 Uber rides are hailed in New York City every day. Uber now operates in more than 260 North American cities and around 600 cities worldwide. Uber is currently valued at $69 billion, making it the most valuable privately-held tech company in the world. Kalanick's personality — described by those who know him as reckless and arrogant— has been the reason Uber has found so much success but it has also backfired for Kalanick and Uber as a whole. Uber weathered its first scandal in 2014, when in an interview with GQ, Kalanick called the service "boob-er" since it helped attract women.

Fast-forward to February 2017, when a former employee alleged in a blog post that she was sexually harassed at Uber and experienced gender bias during her time at the company. But since then, the company has been pummeled by a seemingly never-ending barrage of scandals. published a bombshell report in February that alleged employees did cocaine during a company retreat and a manager had to be fired after groping multiple women. A dashcam video then caught Kalanick losing his cool in an argument with an Uber driver on Super Bowl Sunday after the driver confronted him about lowered fares. Uber is also currently embroiled in a legal battle with Google over self-driving car technology. A self-driving Uber vehicle also jumped a red light in San Francisco. Also in June 2017, Uber fired more than 20 employees after an investigation that revealed 215 claims of harassment at the company.

Earlier in June, Kalanick took a leave of absence from the company to "work on myself" and to deal with his recent family tragedy. The company said that upon his return, he would be stripped of some duties which would be passed on to a new chief operating officer. But later, the news broke that the embattled CEO had resigned. What's next for Travis Kalanick? It's not yet clear. For now, he will remain on the company's board, and still owns a massive stake in the company. Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-ceo-travis-kalanick-life-rise-and-fall-photos- resigned-2017-6/?IR=T