The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
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Zimmer: App-based drivers support California's Prop 22 by four to one
“Four to one driver support Prop. 22 versus the alternative.”
Zimmer proposes $500 monthly Lyft subscriptions to replace personal car ownership
“We want to offer you transportation as a service. Instead of spending 9000 dollars a year to own and operate your vehicle, we want to sell you, maybe it's a 500 dollars a month subscription plan. Similar to how you buy minutes, you'll buy a thousand miles. And…”
Zimmer predicted in 2017 that AVs would soon handle half of rides
“What's real is that over the next couple years, it'll be able to do A few percent of our trips, 10% of our trips, 50% of our trips.”
Zimmer: 3 percent of the US workforce had earned income on Lyft
“Yeah, there were, I think it was when I was leaving, like, three percent of the U.S. Workforce had, had earned on Lyft”
Zimmer: 86% of California Lyft drivers work under 20 hours a week
“The majority, something like 80% of our drivers Maybe in California it's 86% of drivers drive less than 20 hours a week.”
Zimmer: Lyft's pandemic cuts were healthy for the business in hindsight
“Some of which I think actually In hindsight, we're very healthy for the business, but very difficult to make, especially for people that are all in this tough time where, where, where the job market is difficult.”
Zimmer: Lyft avoids mandatory rider photos because it would reduce ride volume
“We don't want it to be a blocker in the sense that we don't want to get less rides, which would be less income earning opportunities for you and the company. But we have increased the percent of riders that are posting a photo and we're working on more feature…”
John Collison: Payments has shifted from tactical vendor decision to product strategy
“For internet businesses, payments is actually part of the strategy that matters. It's part of the product experience. And so basically, I think this used to be a fairly tactical vendor decision for the business, where it was just something that needs to be tak…”
John Zimmer: Congestion Pricing Is the Best Solution to Traffic Congestion
“Congestion pricing is the best solution. Getting more investment in public transportation is another solution, and those two things can be directly tied together.”
Zimmer: Lyft had $100M and months of runway when Uber raised $3B
“We woke up one day, it was about four or five years ago, and Uber has raised three billion dollars, and we had a hundred million dollars left in the bank, which is a lot of money, but only a few more months left, and now you have this Crazy competitor who want…”
Over 200,000 riders deleted Uber in 2017, causing a Lyft business spike
“Kalanick has since left that group, but before that happened, more than 200,000 riders deleted their Uber accounts, and all of that has led to a spike in business for Lyft.”
Zimmer predicted autonomous cars would gradually handle a growing percentage of rides
“An autonomous car is not going to drop out of the sky and be able to do a hundred percent of our trips. That's not real. What's real is that over the next couple years, it'll be able to do A few percent of our trips, 10% of our trips, 50% of our trips.”
Zimmer: Lyft rides among essential workers increased during the pandemic
“We've seen a lot of essential workers using this way more because there are other options, potentially public transportation are things that they're more concerned about from a health safety perspective. And so we've seen those rides increase.”
Zimmer: Autonomous vehicle adoption remains limited by technology and cost
“It's still a technology limitation and a cost limitation at this point. And so those haven't changed materially during this time.”
Zimmer: If founding Lyft today, I would start with a subscription service
“I think if we were starting over today, I might start with Pink, which we talked about as the subscription, as a way to get people to interact with Lyft. To say, hey, there's a membership service, it's gonna be more affordable than owning a car, and we're gonn…”
Zimmer: Lyft refuses to build a consumer food delivery app
“So we have no intention to be another kind of food delivery consumer app. We will not do that, but there's a lot of small and local businesses That are having to pay 30%, 20% of their revenue to be on those platforms.”
Zimmer: Lyft instructed employees not to gloat during Uber's crisis
“We told our team, this is not a time to gloat, and we mean that, and we meant that.”
Zimmer: Lyft Introduced Driver Tipping and Weekly Rental Programs
“You know, we started tipping for drivers. We started rental cars that are completely flexible on a weekly basis for drivers.”
Zimmer: Lyft prioritized US coverage over food delivery and global expansion
“We've chosen to be careful about international launches. We've chosen not to go into food delivery, but we did think having coverage in the United States for every American is a critical factor.”
Zimmer: Lyft will likely offer monthly subscription miles plans for all transportation
“In fact, what you'll be able to do is buy, you know, likely a miles plan from us, a monthly subscription to handle all your transportation needs.”
Lyft bypassed early taxi regulations by making passenger payments optional donations
“And so one of the ways that we saw around that was to say to make it optional for payment in the early days until we had forged through the right regulatory structure.”
Carter Was an Early Investor in Spotify, Uber, Dropbox, and Slack
“Spotify, Warby, Uber, Lyft, Dropbox, Slack really great companies that we're proud of.”
Collison: Payments shifted from tactical decisions to strategic product advantages
“For internet businesses, payments is actually part of the strategy that matters. It's part of the product experience. And so basically, I think this used to be a fairly tactical vendor decision for the business, where it was just something that needs to be tak…”
Troy Carter Was an Early Investor in Spotify, Uber, and Slack
“Yeah, yeah, Spotify, Warby, Uber, Lyft, Dropbox, Slack really great companies that we're proud of.”
Zimmer predicted Lyft would sell monthly subscriptions mixing human and autonomous rides
“In fact, what you'll be able to do is buy, you know, likely a miles plan from us, a monthly subscription to handle all your transportation needs. And over the next few years, some of those trips will be done by human drivers, and others will be done by autonom…”
Zimmer: California CPUC required $750k insurance while Lyft provided $1M
“We've gone above and beyond on the background checks, which actually still to this day for, ah, limos in, in California are not required. We've done driving record checks with more strict criteria, and we've created an insurance policy that's a million dollars…”
Early Lyft bypassed taxi regulations by relying on optional passenger donations
“It was in the early days. You got to remember, again, one, that this was very, very new and not normal, and you know, I'd say would, was fall, would fall in a regulatory gray area, and so one of the ways that we saw around that was to say to make it optional f…”
Zimmer: Lyft created a system for drivers to receive IPO equity
“We did something at IPO. We recreated a system for drivers to get equity.”
Lyft co-founder Zimmer launches Yes to build positive consumer businesses
“How could we Create multiple consumer businesses that are tuned to the modern world of social media, internet, and AI, but that have self-fulfilling, very positive outcomes. So simply, you know, we're creating a platform to help more and more people build thos…”
Zimmer: Lyft rides fell 75% at pandemic peak, recovering to half down
“We were down about 75% at the peak in terms of rideshare rides. We, we've now returned to a little under half down which is actually good progress.”
Zimmer: Citi Bike hit a record of over 100,000 daily rides
“And for City Bike in New York, I believe it was last weekend, we hit our record of over, over a 100,000 rides in one day.”
Zimmer: Lyft had nearly $3 billion in cash entering the pandemic
“We're lucky that we went public when we did and have, you know, nearly, nearly three billion dollars in the bank.”
Collison: Stripe Co-Developed Payout Tech to Help Lyft Pay Drivers
“So in Lyft's case, for example, they wanted to not just charge their customers, but they wanted to pay their drivers and there was no product that enabled a really good driver payment experience, and so we've kind of co-evolved with them to enable the best End…”
Zimmer: Lyft delivers over 50 million rides every month
“So, every month we do over fifty million rides.”
Zimmer: Original Lyft app was built in three weeks
“Before we launched it, the working title was Zimride Instant, but while going through, it was actually really a three-week period that the Lyft app, the original Lyft app was built.”
Zimmer: Lyft received its first cease-and-desist a month after launch
“Yeah, so about a month into launching Lyft, this was in later we received our first of many cease and desist from various different governments and it basically said, you need to stop operating.”
Zimmer: Enterprise bought Zimride assets while team pivoted to Lyft
“So we sold Zimride to Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and basically the assets the contracts with the universities, and retained the entire team, and went all in on, on Lyft.”
Collisons: Stripe co-developed driver payouts because no product supported Lyft's needs
“So in Lyft's case, for example, they wanted to not just charge their customers, but they wanted to pay their drivers and there was no product that enabled a really good driver payment experience, and so we've kind of co-evolved with them to enable the best
End…”
Zimmer: Lyft takes a 20% to 25% commission on ride fares
“So the rate is calculated based on distance and time, and then Lyft receives a commission off of that 20 to 25% off of the overall rate, the rest goes to the driver, as well as a trust and service fee.”
Lyft received its first government cease-and-desist letter one month after launch
“About a month into launching Lyft, this was in later we received our first of many cease and desist from various different governments and it basically said, you need to stop operating.”
Zimmer: Lyft launched 24 new markets on April 24, 2014
“Maybe the most intense moment was April 24th, 2014, when we launched 24 markets on the same day.”
Lyft founders sold Zimride assets to Enterprise Rent-A-Car
“So we sold Zimride to Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and basically the assets, the contracts with the universities, and retained the entire team, and went all in on Lyft.”
Lyft pledged $1M to the ACLU following the 2017 travel ban
“For starters, Trump's travel ban prompted Lyft to make a one million dollar pledge to the ACLU, which is fighting the ban.”
Zimmer: Lyft had over 300,000 drivers and grew significantly
“No, we, we've said several months ago that, you know, last year there was over 300,000, and you can assume that this year that number has grown quite significantly.”