Won’t ‘forget nor forgive’ 2017 ouster with Travis Kalanick: former Uber executive Emil Michael

Emil Michael, former chief business officer at Uber and an ally of founder Travis Kalanick, declared in a recent podcast that he would “never forget, nor forgive” venture firm Benchmark Capital for its role in ousting the duo in 2017.

During the podcast, hosted by Joubin Mirzadegan, a Kleiner Perkins partner, Michael said he was "effectively" shown the door alongside Kalanick.

Michael, who is now a senior Pentagon technology official, then posted on X, "Forgiving @benchmark and others would be like letting the Wuhan Institute of Virology slide back into a good reputation because the new Senior Manager of Pandemic Causation has made more friends than his predecessor," in a nod to Covid lab-leak debates.


Bitter exit

The comments revisit the investor revolt that reshaped Uber back in 2017. Benchmark, an early backer of the ride-hailing company, led a shareholder push amid scandals over workplace culture, which ended up in Kalanick’s resignation and Michael’s exit.

The investor revolt saw five top shareholders send a letter demanding Kalanick's immediate exit from the company, citing leadership failures. Benchmark partner Bill Gurley was a key driver of the move, New York Times reported.

An investigation revealed rampant sexual harassment, bullying, and retaliation, with 57 complaints unresolved.

Michael criticised Benchmark’s alleged prioritisation of short-term gains over Uber’s ambitious autonomous driving vision, which he claims could have made the company “two or three times” larger.

New ventures

Michael is currently navigating high-stakes DoD disputes, including a public feud with Anthropic over AI safeguards.

Meanwhile, after eight years of radio silence, Kalanick has just emerged from stealth mode with his new venture, robotics startup Atoms.

In a recent appearance on the TBPN podcast, Kalanick said that he chose to build his new company in stealth because of his experience with Uber. After the intensity of facing “a hundred headlines every day” at the ridehailing company and shaping decisions around media reaction, Kalanick said he chose to go quiet. “That’s a tough way to run a business,” he added.