Imagine this: You order a Lyft. The driver seems friendly enough, and you ask him if Lyft is his main gig or a side hustle. That’s when he tells you he’s actually the company’s CEO.
No, Lyft isn’t so hard up for cash that the big boss is driving. And no, this isn’t an episode of “Undercover Boss.” CEO David Risher just likes to stay in touch with drivers’ experiences. And he says he’s learned some surprising lessons along the way.
“I drive to learn, not to earn…But I really want to learn about what the driver experience is like and what the rider experience is like.” –David Risher, Lyft CEO
David Risher’s first job was delivering papers. He eventually became senior VP of U.S. retail at Amazon. When Lyft was struggling and seeking a new CEO, Risher was on the short list of executives with both tech and logistics experience. He took the helm in 2023 and has seen stock prices rise 75%. He said he tries to light up the Lyft badge and accept some rides every couple of months if he has time.
The Lyft CEO has learned some lessons behind the wheel
Risher recently told Fortune about some discoveries made behind the wheel. He recalled picking up a passenger one morning and asking why they chose Lyft. “He said: ‘Look, if I get there at 10:01, I’m fired. I got to get there by 10 o’clock. And public transportation—as much as I’d like to use it because it’s less expensive—it’s not reliable enough.’”
Risher concluded, “The most surprising thing is we are a really important part of a lot of people’s lives…I think it’s sometimes easy to overlook that.”
Risher was raised by a single mother and remembers that his first car—a used Honda Accord—was an expense she could barely shoulder. He says Lyft “would have been great for her, and frankly, great for me.” Part of his conversation with Fortune was announcing Lyft “Teen” to help similar folks out.
I’ll add that right out of college, I worked as a rideshare driver for a while. I chose the then-new Lyft company because it treated its drivers better than Uber. It’s good to hear the CEO is still prioritizing the humans behind the wheel—and the ones in the back seat. That said, most other developed countries offer public transit reliable enough to get folks to work on time. If the U.S. wants to level the playing field, it will prioritize doing the same. Mobility shouldn’t be a luxury.
Read about how Massachusetts is making Lyft and Uber pay drivers a liveable wage.
