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Data informs every point of the company and is the foundation of the service. Supply and demand was transformed: when you need a ride there is a car available. I think many transportation entrepreneurs still think of a network of vehicles. Uber had a different mindset -- mobility infrastructure.

Travis Kalanick was one of the first tech entrepreneurs to recognise the potential of inventory that already exists. If you're going to unlock the value of latent capacity through technology, you need situations where supply and demand is broken. Uber went after an experience that is painful, complicated and unreliable when it doesn't need to be. These are areas ripe for startups to disrupt quickly. The key is in finding the inventory and then going for the consumer -- building up loyalty as fast as possible.

The assets that flow through networks lend themselves to the Uber model. But you have to be able to make them liquid very easily so you can move the capacity around the network. Transportation and cars are liquid. Professional services are liquid. Other elements of spare capacity -- for instance, everyone has a power drill they barely use – are harder to model.

Knowing its model would face regulation, Uber relied on users to try the service and decide for themselves if it was superior. Then it's difficult for government to reverse the trend. Uber's consumer play is smart; it has become a part of people's everyday lives and become a "badge of honour" brand -- people tell others they took an Uber car.

If Uber is going to continue with a model where it doesn't employ the people that deliver the value, it needs to think about how to treat those people and protect them. There is a lack of sophistication and consistency in the brand values and corporate communications. Uber plans to move beyond taxis -- but the company is living in a new era of trust. If it wants to move beyond disrupting transport, what is the story it wants around the brand in two years' time? That's not something I think it has cracked.

This article was originally published by WIRED UK