Creating something new is one thing, but disrupting an existing and thriving industry is something that is a lot more difficult.
Only a few managed to succeed, and Uber is one of those elites.
When the company became one of the earliest pioneers that introduced ride-hailing through mobile apps, the traditional transportation industry considered it a threat. When it first came to several large cities, Uber created chaos that ended in violence.
Many taxi companies felt threatened, and a lot more of their employees didn't like the idea, and felt that their job was also at risk.
This also happened in France.
But Travis Kalanick, the company's founder and CEO at the time, was skillful, and also cunning.
That is at least what the over 124,000 leaked documents were trying to suggest.
From the leaked documents, which included more than 83,000 emails made between 2013 and 2017, showed how Uber's controversial former leader managed to persuade some of Europe's top politicians, including French President Emmanuel Macron while he was the Minister of Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs.
It is said that Kalanick had a close relationship with Macron, in his attempt to launch Uber's operation in France, which initially sparked widespread violent protests from the country's taxi companies and drivers.
The two figures first met in October 2014, not long after Macron was appointed as a Minister.
During the session, Kalanick discussed Uber's launch in the country, and managed to persuade Macron, by making him see how Uber is a potential new source of jobs. Kalanick was also able to make it seem that Uber was so enthusiastic about helping the country.
Sooner than later, Macron became Uber's most dependable "ambassador."
That first meeting was summarized by Uber lobbyist Mark MacGann in an email, who said that the meeting was "spectacular. Like I've never seen," adding that "we'll dance soon."
At one point Kalanick texted his colleagues about the possibility of organizing pro-Uber counter-demonstrations after violence that happened in Paris.
"I think it’s worth it," Kalanick said. "Violence guarantee[s] success. And these guys must be resisted, no?"
While violent protests happened on the streets, where many protested Uber's UberPop service, which allowed unlicensed drivers to offer rides at low prices, Macron was working with Uber in an attempt to pass revised laws that would be friendly to the ride-sharing company.
"Uber will provide an outline for a regulatory framework for ridesharing. We will connect our respective teams to start working on a feasible proposal that could become the formal framework in France," read an email from Kalanick to Macron.
"[I] will gather everybody next week to prepare the reform and correct the law," Macron later texted Kalanick.
While UberPop was suspended in France, a few months later, Macron signed off on a decree that relaxed the licensing requirements for Uber drivers.
In another email, Uber told Macron that the company was "extremely grateful" for his help, saying the "openness and welcome we receive is unusual in government-industry relations."
So here, while the courts and parliament banned the Uber service, Uber won in the end.
"His functions naturally led him to meet and interact with many companies engaged in the sharp shift which came out during those years in the service sector, which had to be facilitated by unlocking administrative and regulatory hurdles," a spokesperson for Macron said.
Kalanick had at least four meetings with Macron.
While big companies having relationship with governments is already common, the leaked documents suggested that Uber went to great length to cover its tracks.
In an attempt to avoid regulators, the documents revealed that Uber also had a "kill switch" that would essentially lock the authorities out of the company's computers and servers, in the event that one of their offices was raided.
The "dawn raid manual" was meant for employees to act quickly.
In the leak, it is even said that Kalanick had once ordered the use of the switch when the police were descending on its Amsterdam headquarters.
"Please hit the kill switch ASAP," Kalanick ordered.
"Access must be shut down in AMS [Amsterdam]."
Uber grew from a small startup company into a world-conquering, multi-billion dollar business, in a relatively short amount of time.
The company promoted itself as a leader of the digital revolution, but somehow managed to reach its height through the old-fashion way of lobbying.
And the leaks revealed how the ride-hailing giant’s executives managed to squeeze Uber into new markets, to then conquering it, by spending huge amount of cash to market and influence, to also win favors from politicians, regulators and other leaders.
The leaks said that the company had a proposed budget of $90 million in 2016 alone, to spend to lobby influential figures.
The company borrowed the strategy it used and succeeded when it launching in the U.S.
At the time, Uber needed a way to move into the business, and that it had done it by hiring former government officials.
When accused of breaking rules, the company solicited customers to serve and sign "save Uber” petitions. And when its agenda seemed in need of a scholarly push, it paid academics to produce favorable research.
The strategy is to do something first, even without permission. And if proven wrong, ask for forgiveness, and provide a solution that seems to address current issues.
Rather than going through the traditional licensing process or working to change of laws and regulations, Uber's strategy was to charge straight ahead, undercutting rivals by offering steep discounts.
The guerrilla strategy was described by its executives as the "pyramid of shit." "Driver lawsuits," "regulatory investigations," "administrative procedures" and "direct litigation."
"Our initial approach was at times too brash," said Jill Hazelbaker, a spokeswoman for Uber.
The records, called simply as the Uber Files, were first obtained by The Guardian news agency.
It included emails, text messages, company presentations and other documents, made when Uber was barging into cities in defiance of local laws and regulations, dodging taxes and seeking to grind into submission the taxi industry, most prominently, but also labor activists.
"Right now you are seen as aggressive," the prime minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, once said to Travis Kalanick, in 2016. “Change the way people look at the company” by stressing the positives, Rutte advised.
“This will make you seem cuddly.”
The leaked documents also included details of private exchanges and get-togethers.
From the U.S. ambassador chatting with an Uber investor in a Finnish sauna; a Russian oligarch entertaining company executives with a Cossack band; and more.
“We’re just fucking illegal,” Nairi Hourdajian, then head of Uber’s global communications, wrote to a colleague amid government efforts to shut down the ride-hailing service in Thailand and India.
Besides Macron, Kalanick also had personal meetings with other public officials, including Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Benjamin Netanyahu, Enda Kenny, and Toomas Hendrik Ilves, among other world leaders.
"I’ve had my people let him know that every minute late he is, is one less minute he will have with me," Kalanick said in a message with his colleague, when Joe Biden ran late.
In all, the records reveal more than 100 meetings between Uber executives and public officials from 2014 to 2016, including 12 with representatives of the European Commission that haven’t been publicly disclosed.
Beside politicians and diplomats, Uber also had close ties with other business moguls.
With the many things that happened off the records, Hazelbaker acknowledged that the company's "mistakes" and "missteps" that culminated five years ago in "one of the most infamous reckonings in the history of corporate America."
As for Kalanick, he denied taking any actions to obstruct justice in any country.
Kalanick was eventually forced out by shareholders in 2017 as investors voiced concerns about Uber’s workplace culture, including allegations of sexual harassment, racial discrimination and bullying.
He remained a director until the end of 2019.
Through a spokesperson, he said that Uber "used tools that protect intellectual property and the privacy of their customers," and that "these fail-safe protocols do not delete any data or information, and were approved by Uber's legal and regulatory departments."
While the company has since tried to distance itself from its previous way of doing business, saying that its "past behaviour wasn't in line with present values" and that it is a "different company" thanks to a different leader, the company cannot simply erase that history.
Dara Khosrowshahi, Kalanick's replacement, has since been tasked with transforming every aspect of how Uber operates, that she has "installed the rigorous controls and compliance necessary to operate as a public company."