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What it argues
Super Pumped is New York Times technology reporter Mike Isaac's account of Uber's rise from a San Francisco startup to a $70 billion company — and of the internal chaos, ethical failures, and leadership battles that nearly destroyed it. The protagonist is Travis Kalanick, Uber's co-founder and CEO, whose relentless aggression shaped the company's culture at every level and eventually made him its most serious liability.
Isaac had unparalleled access during the period and the book reads like the best kind of investigative journalism: granular, specific, and willing to let scenes speak for themselves. The account of Kalanick's management of Uber's expansion is both admiring and damning. His willingness to operate in regulatory gray zones, bully competitors and governments, and push engineers and managers past ethical limits produced enormous short-term results. It also built a culture where a senior engineer could get away with stealing trade secrets from Google, where sexual harassment complaints were suppressed, and where the board prioritized growth metrics over governance until it was nearly too late.
What it gets right
- 1.
Kalanick's 'super pumped' ethos — relentless aggression and winner-takes-all thinking — drove Uber's early growth and also created the culture of ethical shortcuts that nearly destroyed it.
- 2.
Boards that prioritize growth metrics over governance create the conditions for the problems they will eventually have to clean up. Uber's investors saw warning signs for years.
- 3.
Regulatory battles are a competitive strategy, not just a compliance problem. Uber used regulatory conflict to create political and public legitimacy for its model.
What it covers
Who wrote it
Mike Isaac is a technology reporter at the New York Times and has covered Silicon Valley since 2011. He has written extensively about Uber, Facebook, and the technology industry's relationship with regulation, labor, and governance. Super Pumped was his first book, drawing on years of reporting and dozens of sources inside and around Uber. The book was adapted into a Showtime limited series in 2022. Isaac continues to cover technology and its intersections with politics and culture from San Francisco.
