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Eight years ago, Travis Kalanick launched a startup called UberCab in San Francisco.
Now, Uber is a global behemoth and one of Silicon Valley's most successful companies — and one of the most contentious.
Uber operates in nearly 600 cities worldwide, and it's said to be worth nearly $70 billion. The 40-year-old Kalanick is now said to have a net worth of more than $6 billion.
But Uber — and Kalanick — have been caught up in one scandal after another in recent months, calling into question the future of the world's most valuable startup.
Here's how Kalanick got his start and built Uber into a global empire.
Maya Kosoff contributed to an earlier version of this post.
SEE ALSO: The story of how Travis Kalanick built Uber into the most feared and valuable startup in the world
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.
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Source: Business Insider
Kalanick got good grades and was athletic growing up, running track and playing football. But he was bullied by older students, and later vowed that he'd never be pushed around by anyone again.
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Source: The New York Times
Kalanick would eventually follow in the entrepreneurial footsteps of his mom, a retail advertiser: He went door-to-door as a teen, selling knives for Cutco. He then started his first business at 18, an SAT-prep course called New Way Academy.
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Source: Business Insider
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