Super Pumped

Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber is a work of narrative business journalism that chronicles the rise and near-collapse of the ride-hailing giant. Drawing on hundreds of interviews, Isaac traces the company from its founding in 2009, when Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp conceived the app after a frustrated night trying to hail a cab in Paris, through its transformation into one of the most valuable and combative startups in Silicon Valley. The book’s central protagonist is Kalanick, whose aggressive “always be hustling” ethos becomes the company’s operating code. Isaac details how Uber embraced a doctrine of regulatory defiance, launching in cities like San Francisco and New York before authorities could respond, and how its cutthroat internal culture—exemplified by the “Toe-Stepping” and “Super Pumped” company values—rewarded ruthlessness. He also follows the parallel campaign against Lyft, the rivalry that fueled much of Uber’s expansion and its scorched-earth tactics. The narrative’s turning point comes with the arrival of political operative Emil Michael and later board member Arianna Huffington, as well as the February 2017 blog post by former engineer Susan Fowler describing sexual harassment and institutional dysfunction. Isaac documents the ensuing investigations, the ouster of Kalanick, and the board’s decision to bring in Dara Khosrowshahi as CEO. The book is less a how-to than a cautionary tale about venture capital’s appetite for growth at any cost, the blurring of startup bravado with ethical breakdown, and the ways a single company’s excesses came to define an era of tech hubris.