Disclosure certainty 4/5 debate potential 1/5

Prompting stranded riders to become drivers failed to generate significant Lyft supply

Benjamin Lauzier · How marketplaces win: Liquidity, growth levers, quality, more | Benjamin Lauzier (Lyft, Thumbtack) · Sep 29, 2024 · at 14:56

Benjamin Lauzier led the supply side of product at Lyft and reflects on guerrilla tactics tested to resolve supply constraints during high demand periods.

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“In our case at Lyft early on, we were, you know, we had a wait list on the demand side because we just couldn't you know, onboard enough supply. And so we had this idea of like having a pop-up instead of saying like no drivers available, it would be like, Hey, Sorry, all the drivers have taken. Do you want like people making 50 bucks an hour right now? Do you want like hop on your car and drive? And we had like some conversions, but it felt a little distracting to the overall experience and wasn't like a huge driver of supply.”

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