Before Kong CEO Augusto Marietti cofounded the API company, he was trading his pasta-cooking skills for a spot on former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick 's couch. "Travis gave me his place to stay for a few weeks as long as I would cook carbonara for his better half once a week," Marietti told A16z general partner Martin Casado during an episode of the firm's podcast . Marietti recounted in vivid detail how, after spending months coding in a garage in Milan, he and his cofounders spent the last money