Kalanick's Wii Tennis Deception
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Sam Parr shares a story about Uber founder Travis Kalanick's intense competitive nature, as told by investor Chris Sacca.
"Chris Sacca was in Tahoe or Truckee where he has a home, and Travis Kalanick right when he was about to start Uber came over to spend the weekend. Travis and Chris Sacca's dad, Mr. Sacca, start playing Wii tennis casually. Travis was like 'alright you want to step it up?' So he steps it up and crushes him, beats this guy so bad.
Mr. Sacca's like 'what the hell man' and Travis goes 'I've got a surprise to show you' and he puts the Wii from his left hand into his right hand and says 'I was playing left-handed the whole time, I'm actually right-handed. Let's really play.'
Travis then says 'I do have to tell you something' and they go to the ratings board and he's number 2 in the whole world at Wii tennis. Chris Sacca said right then and there 'I realized I never want to compete against this guy because his drive and his hobby is winning.' He just proved that in his free time of starting this company, he's going to be number one in the world at Wii tennis just because he has to. He hustled my dad thinking he was left-handed and it worked perfectly. This guy is a winner.' That's why Chris Sacca said he invested in him - he saw his intensity just walking around."
Sam Parr
Host of MFM and fitness influencer
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur and business media pioneer.
In 2016, he founded The Hustle, a business news media company that started in his kitchen with just $12 and grew to eight figures in revenue.
Sam led the charge in making newsletters popular when few believed in their potential.
After four successful years, he sold The Hustle to HubSpot, a publicly traded company. Now operating as HubSpot Media, The Hustle reaches 3 million readers daily, employs a team of nearly 100, and has been the launchpad for dozens of its staff to found their own media companies and newsletters.
Sam remains the host of the popular business podcast, My First Million, and continues to start and sell companies. He also co-founded Hampton, a highly vetted community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs, and teaches people to write better through his platform, Copy That.