John Zimmer (Lyft cofounder) Concepts

The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley Are Changing the World

by Brad Stone · 30 Jan 2017 · 373pp · 112,822 words

on Facebook, specifying where they were traveling to and looking for rides with others going in the same direction. Across the country, a recent graduate of Cornell saw the app and was fascinated. A student at Cornell University’s school of hotel administration, John Zimmer had learned that the key to running a profitable

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to write a check. They spoke for a few hours that day and Aggarwal became the company’s first investor and adviser. Now they had a little bit of money and guidance. With the new cash, John Zimmer randomly purchased a frog costume and a beaver costume. The founders would wear them while handing out Zimride

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every day, anytime, from one point to another within big cities. Inspired by a giant orange felt mustache that decorated the cubicle of an employee, John Zimmer decided to give every driver a pink mustache to put on his or her car fender; the mustache would make the car stand out

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or more of a looming threat in the eyes of Kalanick and his colleagues, than the sharing-economy pioneer and near nonstarter known as Zimride. After a four-year slog, Logan Green and John Zimmer’s long-distance carpooling service had contracts with dozens of universities and several companies to use customized versions of its website

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as successful as Uber is by not giving a fuck what regulators think of you.” Logan Green and John Zimmer, escorted by Susan Kennedy, also made their way up to the fifth floor. They were earnest and personable, explaining with their usual missionary zeal their goal of filling empty seats in cars. “They

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, was coming after the mustache. There was no shortage of animosity between the companies and their willful execs. Around that time, Kalanick and John Zimmer got into a heated and puerile battle on Twitter, accusing each other of having inadequate insurance and ineffective background checks; “@Johnzimmer, you’ve got a lot of catching up to do

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services to our residents. Should they be regulated as taxicabs? Yes!” Hayashi had previously taken two Lyft rides, paid nothing of the suggested donation, and then marveled that Lyft drivers would no longer pick her up. When she asked John Zimmer why over breakfast one morning, he looked up her ride history on his phone

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had been responding to an actual rumor. For a brief period in 2014, Lyft had been ready to throw in the towel, and representatives approached Uber about combining the companies. Kalanick and Emil Michael went to dinner with Lyft president John Zimmer and Andreessen Horowitz partner John O’Farrell to discuss a deal, according to three people

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have seemed unfair to Kalanick that Lyft had the better reputation, even though in some ways it was the more aggressive player. It had been the first to introduce unregulated ridesharing in San Francisco, Miami, and Kansas City, yet the endeavors of its founders, Logan Green and John Zimmer, often came off as sincere idealism

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hasty retreat.24 As Uber had discovered during the introduction of Uber Black and Uber Taxi in New York, the TLC could be a formidable adversary that did not tolerate disruption in the city’s already jammed streets. But Lyft president John Zimmer wouldn’t take no for an answer. He announced publicly that

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front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. (Courtesy of Uber) Lyft President John Zimmer wearing a frog costume to promote the ridesharing service Zimride in 2011. (Courtesy of Lyft) John Zimmer, co-founder and chief operating officer of Lyft, left, and Logan Green, co-founder and chief executive officer of Lyft, have a laugh at the TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2013 conference

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Hourdajian, and Travis Kalanick and his executives. At Airbnb, I’m grateful to Kim Rubey, Maggie Carr, and Mojgan Khalili, as well as Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, Nathan Blecharczyk, Belinda Johnson, and their team. At Lyft, Brandon McCormick had infinite patience for my inquiries, and John Zimmer and Logan Green were generous with their

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, April 24, 2014, https://techcrunch.com/2014/04/24/lyft-24-new-cities/. 22. Kara Swisher, “Man and Uber Man,” Vanity Fair, December 2014, http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2014/12/uber-travis-kalanick-controversy. 23. Sara Ashley O’Brien, “15 Questions with… John Zimmer,” CNN, http://money.cnn.com/interactive/technology/15-questions

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-with-john-zimmer/. 24. Yuliya Chernova, “N.Y. Shutdowns for SideCar,

The Sharing Economy: The End of Employment and the Rise of Crowd-Based Capitalism

by Arun Sundararajan · 12 May 2016 · 375pp · 88,306 words

connected to the sharing economy. I recount many of these in the book, and am particularly happy that Jennifer Billock, Brian Chesky, Antonin Leonard, Adam Ludwin, Frédéric Mazella, Benjamin Tincq, and John Zimmer took the time to sit down and speak to me specifically in connection with its writing. Numerous other fascinating conversations have helped

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bruising battles it has waged with Uber for market share, Lyft projects a decidedly kinder and gentler feel than their larger competitor, even as they have graduated from the giant pink mustaches to a more subtle branding strategy. Their co-founder and president John Zimmer, with whom I have had many fascinating conversations over the

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, both of whom I discussed in chapter 7. The 40 or so other initial signatories included the CEOs of Etsy (Chad Dickerson), Handy (Oisin Hanrahan), and Instacart (Apoorva Mehta); Lyft’s president John Zimmer and its CEO Logan Green; the Silicon Valley icon Tim O’Reilly; the influential labor organizer

The Business of Platforms: Strategy in the Age of Digital Competition, Innovation, and Power

by Michael A. Cusumano, Annabelle Gawer and David B. Yoffie · 6 May 2019 · 328pp · 84,682 words

vehicles available on its ride-hailing platform. Lyft’s chief strategy officer noted in late 2017 that “we’re focused on partnering with the auto industry because frankly, we think we can’t do this alone and need each other to be successful.”12 Lyft cofounder John Zimmer even predicted that “autonomous vehicle fleets will

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,” New York Times, September 27, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/27/technology/lyft-ford-self-driving-cars.html?mcubz=0 (accessed June 2018). 13.John Zimmer, “The Third Transportation Revolution: Lyft’s Vision for the Next Ten Years and Beyond,” Medium, September 18, 2016, https://medium.com/@johnzimmer/the-third-transportation-revolution-27860f05fa91

WTF?: What's the Future and Why It's Up to Us

by Tim O'Reilly · 9 Oct 2017 · 561pp · 157,589 words

that there are not enough of them to meet demand. There are many historical examples of peer-to-peer public transportation. Zimride, Logan Green and John Zimmer’s predecessor to Lyft, was inspired by the informal jitney systems they observed in Zimbabwe. But using the smartphone to create a two-sided, real-time market

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an updated version of Chase and Danielson’s Zipcar. In 2007 Logan Green and John Zimmer had founded a peer-to-peer service called Zimride, which was focused on matching drivers and passengers for long intercity rides. In 2012, Sunil’s work inspired them to launch a new service, called Lyft, which offered the first public

After the Gig: How the Sharing Economy Got Hijacked and How to Win It Back

by Juliet Schor, William Attwood-Charles and Mehmet Cansoy · 15 Mar 2020 · 296pp · 83,254 words

Travis Kalanick to found Uber.24 Lyft’s story started in Zimbabwe, where Logan Green saw passengers using shared minivan taxis, a common practice in many Global South countries, as well as some low-income neighborhoods in the U.S. Impressed by this example, Green and John Zimmer started Zimride (from Zimbabwe), focusing

New Power: How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World--And How to Make It Work for You

by Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms · 2 Apr 2018 · 416pp · 100,130 words

and threats of boycotts. Lyft, weighing a response to Uber’s price cut, had a decision to make. When Uber had made similar cuts in the past, Lyft had not, but it had cost them business. For all the fist-bumps in the world, price is the name of the game. As CEO John Zimmer

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Uber is exploring a range of initiatives to sweeten the deal for drivers, including offering them equity in the company. Lyft co-founder John Zimmer is warmly anticipating the fight ahead. If Lyft can begin to match Uber on product, as they are doing in major cities like San Francisco, where they hold almost

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therideshareguy.com. “Even with [our] better service”: John Zimmer, “Standing Together: Community Update from John,” The Hub (blog), February 2, 2016. www.thehub.lyft.com “the bonds you create”: Ibid. “I love @Lyft drivers”: Cori Online, “#ThankYourLyftDriver,” Lyft (blog), January 31, 2016. www.blog.lyft.com. “As a new Lyft driver”: Harry Campbell, discussion with authors, February

The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations

by Daniel Yergin · 14 Sep 2020

California at Santa Barbara and started a carpooling service for students going home that he whimsically named Zimride, in honor of his recent visit to Zimbabwe. In New York, a Facebook posting by Green caught the eye of a young Wall Street analyst named, by odd coincidence, John Zimmer, who could not help

Hustle and Gig: Struggling and Surviving in the Sharing Economy

by Alexandrea J. Ravenelle · 12 Mar 2019 · 349pp · 98,309 words

other is lower than what humans need. . . . Part of the appeal of the sharing economy is helping to bridge that gap.”24 John Zimmer, a cofounder of the taxi app Lyft, compares the sharing economy to his time spent on the Oglala Sioux reservation in Pine Ridge, South Dakota: “Their sense of community

Subscribed: Why the Subscription Model Will Be Your Company's Future - and What to Do About It

by Tien Tzuo and Gabe Weisert · 4 Jun 2018 · 244pp · 66,977 words

sorts of other services. I’m not going anywhere. Uber and Lyft are both vying for that same lock-in effect by offering discounted services around consistent consumption patterns—in other words, they’re going after my commute. As Lyft president John Zimmer, anticipating fully autonomous vehicles, told The New York Times: “The cost of

The Network Imperative: How to Survive and Grow in the Age of Digital Business Models

by Barry Libert and Megan Beck · 6 Jun 2016 · 285pp · 58,517 words

next five years than there has been in the last 50,” and GM is getting ready for that change.1 From that perspective, Lyft is an excellent partner who will help GM turn their views of the market upside down. Lyft’s president John Zimmer stated, “We strongly believe that autonomous vehicle go-to-market