Travis Kalanick, CEO of on-demand car service Uber, took the stage at Business Insider's IGNITION 2013 conference and described how his friends reacted the first time that a fancy black car pulled up outside of a San Francisco bar to pick up him and co-founder Garret Camp. Their jaws dropped.
When the startup launched in beta mode, everyone Kalanick knew—even elementary school classmates—started begging him for an invite.
They all wanted to ride in style, which is actually the exact reason that Kalanick founded Uber in the first place.
"We just wanted to push a button and get a ride," he said. "And we wanted to get a classy ride. We wanted to be baller in San Francisco. That’s all it was about."
Uber is currently valued at $3.4 billion dollars, and Kalanick also discussed the company's secret to pricing success.