Uber chief has ‘sleepless nights’

Competition and the drive to serve customers better gives sleepless nights to Travis Kalanick, co-founder and chief of Uber, one of the world’s most valuable startups.

The young billionaire is also impressed by the innovation and creativity coming from the Indian startup ecosystem. “I lose sleep because of competition but that sleep I lose is similar to what the honourable Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) was talking about. That sleep I lose is about how to serve people and cities better. So I like that it is hard, I like the challenge and we feel pretty good about how we are doing so far,” Mr Kalanick said on the sidelines of the Start Up India event here.

Asked about the challenges in the Indian market, he said these were similar to those in other global cities. “Challenges for Uber here in India are similar to the challenges in most other cities. You have rules that were adopted in another time and you know what, the old rules that exist today, way back they were new and controversial rules and then they became old,” he said.