Why Persistent Systems' CEO Anand Desphande availed Uber's cab service

After launching Uber Black in Pune around June, the world’s highest valued cab service launched its lower cost option UberX in the city mid-September. In keeping with tradition, Uber Zero customers (first to use the service) were picked to officially launch the service. One of the three Uber Zero customers was Anand Deshpande, founder, CEO & MD, Persistent Systems, an ET 500 company.

Why did this high flying CEO take a cab, you ask? The simplest answer is — for old times’ sake. Deshpande and Pham were colleagues at HP, way back in 1989 -90, that is more than 25 years ago. Over time, the two may have gone their separate ways taking on much bigger roles in their career, but the friendship they struck during their days at HP clearly continues to stay with them.