Lucky 13 - Uber London press launch
After a couple of weeks settling in, Uber London had it's press launch today, at Apartment 58 in Soho. Attendees heard from CEO Travis Kalanick, who revealed his excitment at being in London. Indeed, although it's easy to say at a press launch, many employees seemed to be genuinely excited about being over here, and many have made the trip from over the pond.
As I explained the other day, Uber is based on the principle of getting you a luxury car as quickly as possible - to become "everyone's private driver" in the cities in which they operate. It's a premium product, but not an overpriced one. Kalanick is rightly proud of the quality of cars Uber have in their fleet, and indeed the quality of the drivers.
One thing that was clear from the assorted techy's, fashionistas and photographers at today's event was that people love Uber. I mean really love it. Indeed one newly hired nameless tech blogger is one of a few who may soon be needing treatment for an Uber addiction. The drivers are pretty passionate about the service too.
An acceptance, and indeed pride, that the service would improve as it was rolled out was really refreshing too. Uber are getting used to a knew city and building a network of drivers and customers in order to make the service thrive. It's a very American, 'beta', attitude that UK tech firms could do well to learn from.
Today marked the 13th city in which Uber have launched. They hope it will prove to be lucky 13.