At Lyft, the co-founders, CEO Logan Green and president John Zimmer have overseen the company’s meteoric growth. They are stepping down from their roles by mid-April in order to focus on their other ventures. In their new role as chair and vice chair of Lyft’s board, they will continue to play a key role in guiding the company’s future.
Recently, Amazon announced that they would be hiring David Risher as their new CEO. Risher is a former retail executive at Amazon and has experience in the online and e-commerce industry. He is expected to bring some new changes and innovations to Lyft, which could lead to an even stronger future for the company.
Today, Lyft is one of the largest rideshare companies in the world, with over 600,000 drivers and over 60 million riders. However, it started off as a small pink mustache company that aimed to serve an especially important niche market: women. Pink mustache company founder Tony Green and co-founder John Zimmer remember thinking that Lyft would be a perfect service for women because it was safer than traditional forms of transportation and specifically designed for them. Now Lyft is one of the most popular rideshare apps in the world and has touched many lives along the way.
Lyft is an up-and-coming transportation company, which has garnered a lot of attention in the past few years. Its investors were so pleased with its performance that they raised billions of dollars in an afternoon after the company priced its shares at $72 each. Today, Lyft’s stock price is hovering around $9.60 per share, but it surged close to 6% after hours on the news that Risher was taking over as CEO. With this new leadership team in place, it’s hoped that Lyft can maintain its momentum and continue growing rapidly
After leaving Amazon, Risher joined Lyft as the company’s head of product and store development. With over 20 years of experience at one of the largest retailers in history, he is no stranger to turning a business around. His focus at Lyft will be on growing the company’s core product and expanding into new markets.
Inspite of developing the company into a Fortune 100 company, Lyft’s original goal was always to make transportation more affordable and accessible for everyone. Risher has been integral in accomplishing this over the years and will continue to be involved with Lyft as Board President. His community-minded spirit makes him an ideal leader for the Company moving forward.
Risher was named as the interim head of Lyft operations on April 17th. She will take over full leadership responsibilities for the company on April 17th, only three months after being appointed to the board of directors. Her appointment comes in the midst of controversy involving sexual assault allegations against the company’s president, who has since been fired. Risher is a experienced businesswoman, having spent 13 years at Expedia before joining Lyft’s board of directors in 2021. During her time with Expedia, she managed their Asia-Pacific business and helped grow its revenue by 50%.
Given the disappointing performance in its fourth quarter and full year 2022 earnings, it seems likely that Lyft will miss its revenue target for Q1 2023. This could lead to continued downward pressure on the company’s stock price, which is already down about 25% from its all-time high of $29.90 earlier this year.
