Brad Stone, Author of The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley are Changing the World

• The similarities and differences between the cultures of Airbnb and Uber
• Challenges and concerns faced by Airbnb and Uber
• The influence of Jeff Bezos and Amazon on Airbnb and Uber
• The successful balance of idealism and aggression as an indicator of a startup’s success
• Growing pains experienced by startups as they attempt to transition to public companies
• The importance of startups having a strong executive team around a CEO
• Travis Kalanick’s and Brian Chesney’s leadership styles
• The role of tech companies in managing the cultural anxiety caused by technological advance

Brad Stone’s Biography

Brad is the author of the recent release The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley are Changing the World. Brad’s previous book, The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon was both a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller and won the 2013 Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award.

Brad is the senior executive editor for technology at Bloomberg News, a $9 billion global news and information organization. He oversees a team of 50 reporters and editors that cover high-tech companies, startups, and internet trends around the world. Brad also co-hosts a weekly Bloomberg podcast, Decrypted, and contributes to a morning email newsletter on technology called Fully Charged.

Previously, Brad was a senior writer for Bloomberg Businessweek and a technology correspondent for the New York Times.

Brad holds a bachelor of arts in English from Columbia University.