Five years ago, Travis Kalanick launched a startup called UberCab in San Francisco.
Fast-forward a few years and Kalanick's company, now just called Uber, is one of the most lucrative in Silicon Valley.
Uber operates in more than 300 cities in 58 countries, and it could be worth as much as $60 billion.
Thanks to that sky-high valuation, Kalanick made Forbes' list of the world's billionaires this year, where the 39-year-old serial entrepreneur is said to have a net worth of about $6 billion.
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Uber CEO Travis Kalanick grew up in Northridge, California, a suburb outside Los Angeles. When he was a kid, he wanted to be a spy.
But Kalanick would eventually follow in the entrepreneurial footsteps of his mom, a retail advertiser. He went door-to-door, selling knives for Cutco as a youngster. He started his first business at 18, an SAT-prep course called New Way Academy.
Kalanick's parents, Don and Bonnie, would be "rider zero" when Uber launched in Los Angeles.
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