Brad Stone is Senior Executive Editor for technology at Bloomberg News and author of the New York Times bestseller The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley Are Changing the World.  

Today he’ll discuss how both companies got there starts including how a James Bond movie inspired Uber and how a wiley illegal hotelier who almost wrecked AirBnB’s plans in New York City. We’ll talk about the rideshare wars between Uber and Lyft, Uber’s efforts to muscle in on the Chinese market, and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick’s decision to resign from President Trump’s business advisory council. We’ll also discuss why the rivals to Uber and AirBnB failed to take off, we’ll talk about Amazon’s latest experiments with blimps, drones, and cashless convenience stores, and why it’s good to be a “cockroach” in Silicon Valley.

Order Brad Stone’s book The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley Are Changing the World on Amazon or you can download the audio version at www.audibletrial.com/kickassnews. Read Brad Stone’s articles at www.bloomberg.com or www.brad-stone.com and subscribe to his podcast Decrypted on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.  Follow Brad on twitter at @BradStone.

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