Uber Becomes Essential Transportation

A story about how Uber's mission statement evolved from its initial luxury car service roots to a grander vision.

"The early stories of anybody who knew Travis and Garrett at Uber - they'd be at their Michelin star dinner and be like 'Dude check this out' and push a button. They're like 'Watch this car shows up' and they're like 'Yeah that's right, it's baller. I could see where he's at on the map. This is amazing, this is my private driver.'

But then as the marketing teams and consultants get in there, they're like 'We're our mission at Uber is to make transportation as readily available as running water.' That became their mission statement. It sounds awesome, but it wasn't really what they started with - they started by showing up in a black limo."