Seeing its meteoric rise, other startups quickly tried to apply the Uber model to every type of service under the sun. These days, you can even buy an "Uber for X" script to make an Uber-like app for anything your disrupting heart desires. But this strategy doesn't always work.

"Whenever you have a breakaway successful company, there are immediate replicas across multiple industries and others get overfunded," David Goldberg, VC at Corigin Ventures, whose portfolio includes on demand apps like Zeel and Stylisted, told me over the phone.

With Uber's astronomical success, the tech industry became a Wild West of on-demand services, with startups scrambling to put together hailing apps for just about anything. As The New York Times noted earlier this year, "Other than Uber, the hypersuccessful granddaddy of on-demand apps, many of these companies have come under stress. Across a variety of on-demand apps, prices are rising, service is declining, business models are shifting, and in some cases, companies are closing down."