Lyft's cofounder on how Uber has helped it succeed
IMAGE: LYFT
"Sorry, I was in the zone," John Zimmer says on the phone when he calls me back. He's feeling productive and in good spirits. Pumped, even. Ready and excited to talk.
On the one hand, this shouldn't be too surprising. Lyft, the company he cofounded with Logan Green in 2012, has undoubtedly been one of the bigger successes of 2014. It raised an impressive $250 million in funding earlier this year, and has expanded into dozens of new markets. It also debuted Lyft Line, a new carpooling option, and Lyft for Work, a service for commuters, both of which Zimmer believes push Lyft closer to his ultimate goal: replacing the need to own a car.
It's when talking about this ambitious — and some might say, impossible — goal that Zimmer really gets excited. He launches into the story of a light going on in his head after a professor in one of his Cornell classes explained that more than 80% of seats from cars on the road are empty. He talks briefly about Zimride, a university carpooling service that marked the cofounders' first attempt at addressing this issue, which they sold in 2013 to focus on Lyft. And then he dives into the economic, environment and even social benefits of a ride-sharing service like Lyft.
"We've designed our worlds with screens all around us, and designed ourselves into isolation, where we go from our garage alone to our car alone to our cubicle alone," Zimmer says. "We could solve all of these components through a very simple, elegant solution of bringing more people together."
For all that well-earned optimism, there have been plenty of unpleasant moments for Zimmer and Lyft this year. The company continued to run up against regulators in various markets. Lyft was vastly out-funded by chief rival Uber, which has tried to poach its drivers and undermine its funding efforts. Just last month, the company sued its former chief operating officer for allegedly stealing internal document before defecting to an executive job at Uber. And if all that isn't enough, more outlets are criticizing Lyft's iconic pink mustache.
We talked with Zimmer about the unintended benefits of competing with Uber, why the company is re-thinking the giant pink mustache and whether he sees an IPO in Lyft's future. (This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.)
Q&A with John Zimmer
Mashable: Lyft has always had a more playful persona with the pink mustaches and fist-bumping drivers. Some have criticized that branding more recently, with one prominent publication suggesting Lyft may be "too cute to fight Uber." Did Lyft make a mistake with the branding, or wait too long to change it?
John Zimmer: It's a story that people want to read about, given the competitive environment. But the fact is we just brought on the creative director from Virgin America. If you look at the website today, it's different than it was yesterday. We are going to keep many elements of it, but we are also going to ... continue to evolve the brand. I think Virgin America is a really good example.
So does that mean the pink mustache will be phased out, or fade into the background?
There's no big mustaches anymore. We stopped shipping those a couple months ago.There's no big mustaches anymore. We stopped shipping those a couple months ago. All the press images that are out there, that's kind of part of our launch strategy. We actually did it [the mustache] longer than we expected because it increased our word of mouth and awareness incredibly well. There's a way to mature and polish the brand experience and that will have a new place in a different way, and not in the way we launched it.
What do you think is the biggest misconception about Lyft these days, either among the media, consumers or businesses?
I think the biggest misconception is that we are trying to build a better car service or taxi company. We are actually trying to replace the need for you to own a vehicle, and that's very different. It's much bigger and broader: every car, every driver, every seat.
At least one of your competitors has experimented with delivering meals,supplies and kittens, suggesting aspirations to go beyond transportation, and become more of a logistics company. Lyft hasn't really gone this route, at least not yet. Do you have plans to?
We're open to that, and we see that just as anyone else sees those opportunities peripheral to what we're doing.We're open to that, and we see that just as anyone else sees those opportunities peripheral to what we're doing. But the innovation cycle in this space is still extremely early. Lyft Line, as an example, is a few months old ... Focus is super important. It's not to say we won't.
Analysts I've spoken with generally agree the ride-hailing space will not be a winner-take-all market, though it may be a winner-take-most market. Are you approaching it with the goal to win, or do you believe there's plenty of opportunity, here, even if you come in second?
We play to win, and we feel like we have the best platform and strategy to do that. I agree that it will be a couple players in the market that have a successful offering, and there will be levels of differentiation. But we're confident in our strategy and our ability.
Uber, in particular, seems to be playing the winner-take-all game, which once included aggressive marketing against Lyft and, allegedly, a "sabotage campaign" against your company and its drivers. How do you respond to those brass tactics inside the company?
We used to acknowledge it, but now we are focused on what we do. We are incredibly competitive in our way. Part of that is focusing on our vision.
Some startups in this space have told me that Uber's aggressive tactics and jaw-dropping funding have actually helped them raise awareness and funding. Do you think Uber's tactics and the attention it generates have helped Lyft?
The space getting a lot of attention, and people realizing what a big opportunity it is, is beneficial for all.The space getting a lot of attention, and people realizing what a big opportunity it is, is beneficial for all.
You noted in one recent interview that Uber'sattempts to undermine your last funding round "didn't work." Care to elaborate?
In that specific situation, we went out to raise $150 [million], and we raised $250 [million]. It either didn't have an impact, or was positive. There's so many different elements to the tactics and the competitive things, I'm sure there are some that are more distracting than others. Overall, the growth we've seen, the attention we've seen for Lyft in the space has been a good thing.
Every week now, we seem to hear about regulatory battles and safety complaints in this space. Were you expecting all that when you were thinking about entering this space?
When we were thinking in 2007 about what we wanted to do about creating a service that people could use for every ride, that people could use multiple times a day to replace a car, we weren't as focused on the regulatory component. But when we launched Lyft in 2012, we did realize there would be challenges. I haven't lately been surprised. One thing that I think is important is that people know on the safety front that they need to have a holistic view of all the safety components.
Thirty percent of drivers on our platform are women, and the majority of passengers are women. That's not true on other platforms.Thirty percent of drivers on our platform are women, and the majority of passengers are women. That's not true on other platforms. Our background-check criteria restricts DUIs and criminal convictions, and that's not always the case for specific other industries.
Do you see Lyft becoming a public company in the foreseeable future, or do you think it will be better served staying private for the next few years?
I think both over the next several years are real options. We just brought on a CFO and a CMO, and we are excited about building up a team, but I can't comment on when we would go public.
So what do you expect will be your biggest challenge in the year ahead?
The biggest challenge, I think, probably continues to be on the regulatory front to make sure people understand the larger vision we are going after, and how rules that are made now can effect what steps three and four look like for the vision.
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