The Rise of the Uberlings
Alumni of the ride-hailing giant have been more likely to go it alone than previous tech titans.
In the run-up to its rocky initial public offering last week, Uber Technologies Inc.’s impact was analyzed from an endless number of angles: traffic, employment, driver wages, VC investing, San Francisco housing prices and on and on.
But one of Uber’s most underappreciated legacies, particularly in the tech world, is the effect it’s having on startup creation. According to an analysis by David Rosenthal, a general partner at the venture capital firm Wave Capital, an astounding 34 companies—let’s call ‘em Uberlings—have already sprung from the ride-hailing firm, founded by former employees seeking to reproduce Uber’s success (much to the delight of investors). This is well ahead of the number of startups spawned from companies like Google, Facebook Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. at a comparable time in their respective histories.