Missing! Uber founder Travis Kalanick from 'The Social Network'

Anyone who's seen the 2010 film " The Social Network" knows that Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook was initially called 'The Facebook'. In a memorable scene in that film Napster founder Sean Parker (played by Justin Timberlake) makes a dramatic suggestion, as he walks away from the dinner table after his first meeting with Jesse Eisenberg's Zuckerberg. "Drop the 'The'. Just Facebook. It's cleaner," says Parker. Whether this conversation between Parker and the Facebook founder is fact or fiction has been debated. But one attendee at that meeting was certainly omitted from the scene — Travis Kalanick, co-founder, Uber.


Travis Kalanick (Image: Reuters)

During his recent visit to India, Kalanick mentioned about being written out of the scene. "We met Zuck when he was still at Harvard. The network was called 'The Facebook' and still just a few weeks old. I left that dinner and told my girlfriend at the time, that I just met the smartest 21-year-old on the planet. She's not my girlfriend today. She will still vouch for it," he said.


Mark Zuckerberg (Image: Reuters)

Uber's founding in 2009 and the movie's filming were probably overlapping events. The company wasn't a global phenomenon at the time and Kalanick was not the global pinup boy for techpreneurs. Perhaps, that explains the omission.


A still from ​"The Social Network"


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