Uber cofounder Travis Kalanick unveiled a robotics company for the food, mining and transport industries after being in stealth mode for eight years.
The new company is called Atoms and sprang from his real estate company, City Storage Systems, which owns ghost-kitchen operator CloudKitchens.
“The whole idea was can you get a meal that’s prepared and delivered to you so efficiently that it starts to approach the cost of going to the grocery store,” Kalanick said on the TBPN show on Friday. “Because if you do, you do to the kitchen what Uber did to the car.”
He also said that he’s on the verge of acquiring Pronto, a self-driving startup focused on industrial and mining sites that was created by former Uber colleague and Trump official Anthony Levandowski. The Information first reported the deal and said the company also has backing from Uber.
Kalanick was ousted as Uber CEO in 2017 via a shareholder revolt amid allegations that he ignored reports of sexual harassment at the company.
Google also sued Uber for allegedly stealing trade secrets related to autonomous driving. Levandowski was convicted but avoided prison after getting a pardon from President Donald Trump.
During his interview on TBPN, Kalanick acknowledged the challenge of running Uber during intense public scrutiny and “dealing with 100 headlines every day.”
“So I was just like, I gotta wake up every day and sort of just get to work and build,” he recalled. “So I went under the radar.”
But that also meant thousands of his employees were not allowed to put the name of the company on their LinkedIn profiles. That’s despite choosing a purposely nondescript name, City Storage Systems, after previously toying with the idea of calling the company “Super.”
Instead, he decided to go “full underground, full stealth” which created some obstacles when recruiting talent to the startup.
“You have a name like City Storage Systems, and it’s like, ‘so do you guys just have like these these boxes sitting in parking lots?’” Kalanick said.
But there are advantages to being in stealth for so long, he added. For one, he said he has the best recruiters in the world.
Flying under the radar also attracts a certain type of employee and contributes to a more progress-oriented, unselfish environment.
“What you get when you create a culture around that is you have you then build a culture of builders,” Kalanick explained. “You build a culture of people that want to build and do not need to be famous when they do it, which basically means emotional intelligence.”
Travis Kalanick, the cofounder of Uber, has announced the launch of a new robotics company named Atoms, after keeping it under wraps for eight years. This venture aims to innovate within the food, mining, and transport sectors and emerged from his real estate company, City Storage Systems, which includes the ghost-kitchen enterprise CloudKitchens. Kalanick’s vision behind Atoms is to revolutionize meal delivery, making it as cost-effective and efficient as grocery shopping. He likened this potential disruption to the impact Uber had on the transportation industry.
In a recent interview on the TBPN show, Kalanick revealed his plans to acquire Pronto, a self-driving startup focused on industrial and mining applications, founded by former Uber colleague Anthony Levandowski. This acquisition is significant as Levandowski has a controversial history, including a conviction for stealing trade secrets from Google related to autonomous vehicles, although he was pardoned by then-President Donald Trump.
Kalanick’s tenure at Uber was marked by intense scrutiny and controversy, leading to his ousting as CEO in 2017 following a shareholder revolt. This scrutiny included accusations of fostering a toxic workplace culture and legal battles over trade secrets. Reflecting on his time at Uber, Kalanick spoke about the pressures of managing a company under constant public attention, stating that he chose to focus on work and development, which led him to operate in stealth mode.
Operating under the radar presented certain challenges, particularly in recruiting talent. Kalanick noted that employees were unable to publicly acknowledge their work at the company due to its nondescript name, City Storage Systems. Despite this, Kalanick believes that the stealth approach has its benefits, such as attracting dedicated individuals who are less concerned about personal fame and more focused on building innovative solutions.
Kalanick emphasized that the culture cultivated within Atoms is one of collaboration and forward-thinking. By fostering an environment where employees are encouraged to build without the need for recognition, Kalanick aims to create a team that values emotional intelligence and teamwork.
In summary, Kalanick’s new venture Atoms seeks to disrupt traditional industries through robotics and automation, drawing on his past experiences at Uber while attempting to create a more positive and innovative work culture.
