Logan Green

Logan Green
Logan Green at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2015
Occupation Co-founder and CEO of Lyft
Spouse(s) Eva Green
Website www.lyft.com

Logan Green is the co-founder and CEO of Lyft, an on-demand transportation company, which he founded with John Zimmer in 2012.[1] Lyft grew out of Zimride, a ride share company previously founded by Green and Zimmer in 2007.[2][3]

As of July 2017, Lyft provides over 1 million rides a day.[4] As of October 2017, Lyft is available in all 50 United States and in Toronto.[5][6][7][8]

Early life

Green attended New Roads High School in Santa Monica, California.[9] Green graduated from UCSB in 2006 with a B.A. in Business Economics.[9] While a student, Green created The Green Initiative Fund, served as a board member for the Isla Vista Recreation and Park District, and was the youngest director for the Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District.[9][10] From August 2007 to February 2008, Green was the Sustainability Director at UCSB.[11] In 2007, alongside John Zimmer, Green founded Zimride, a ridesharing platform that coordinated carpools, especially across college campuses.[12]

Career

Inspiration

Green grew up in Los Angeles where he "spent most of [his] life stuck in traffic."[11][13] Interested in solving transportation flaws, Green forced himself to travel around California without an automobile.[11] While attending college in Santa Barbara, he used public transportation options like Greyhound and Amtrak to visit his girlfriend in Los Angeles. He also used Craigslist’s ride boards for carpooling, but always felt anxiety about not knowing the passenger or driver.[13]

After realizing the limits of public transportation, Green started a car-sharing program and asked Zipcar to place cars at UCSB. Because the company only had 100 cars at the time and was based on the East Coast, it couldn’t provide any vehicles.[11] Instead, Green acquired Toyota Priuses and other cars and began a car-sharing program that let users unlock cars with radio-frequency identification.[11] The program had over 2,000 people on campus sharing four cars.[11]

During college, Green also served on the Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District (MTD) board. During his time on the board, Green realized that large scale changes to public opinion were needed in order to improve public transportation.[14]

Zimride (2006–2013)

In 2006, Green was inspired by a post-college trip to Zimbabwe in which he saw locals using crowdsourced carpool networks for transportation. Using the Facebook API, he developed a platform that allowed users to find and plan carpools.[15] He named his app Zimride in honor of Zimbabwe's carpooling network.[14] Of the early versions of Zimride, Green said, “Public transportation is broken. We’re trying to create the next form that works.”[16]

Green eventually met Zimmer when they were introduced through a mutual friend on Facebook.[17] Green had posted details about his new company called “Zimride,” which interested Zimmer, who had been keeping a journal about carpooling ideas.[18] Within a week of being introduced, Green flew out to New York City to meet with Zimmer.[18]

Zimride launched the first version of its rideshare program at Cornell University where, after six months, the service had signed up 20% of the student body.[19][20] Later in 2007, Zimride was active on both the Cornell and UCSB campuses.[21] Green and Zimmer promoted the service through guerilla marketing campaigns; in particular, the pair would dress in frog suits and hand out flyers to students on the Cornell campus.[18]

Green and Zimmer moved to Silicon Valley to work on growing the company, where they shared an apartment that also doubled as their office. The two did not take a salary for three years.[22]

In 2012, Green and Zimmer shifted the company's focus to their bigger mission of providing an alternative to car ownership. That year, the company launched a smartphone app that allowed users to request rides more frequently and for shorter commutes rather than long-distance trips as Zimride had previously done.[23]

In May 2013, the company reincorporated as Lyft and sold Zimride to Enterprise Holdings.[24][25]

Lyft (2013–present)

As of 2017, Green and Zimmer have raised $4.1 billion dollars for Lyft, valuing the company at $11.5 billion.[26][27] Green and Zimmer have also made Lyft available in all 50 United States and have autonomous driving partnerships in place with NuTonomy, Waymo, General Motors, and Ford.[28][29][30]

Recognition

In 2014, Green and Zimmer were named in Inc. Magazine’s “35 Under 35 list.”[31]

References

  1. ↑ Lawler, Ryan. Lyft-Off: Zimride’s Long Road To Overnight Success. TechCrunch. August 29, 2014.
  2. ↑ Chima, Chikodi. Ticketfly partnership makes music events more intelligent and more social. VentureBeat. December 5, 2011.
  3. ↑ Nicole, Kristen. Zimride Launches Carpooling Network for Facebook. Mashable. April 14, 2007.
  4. ↑ "Lyft is now doing over 1 million rides per day". The Verge. Retrieved 2017-12-20.
  5. ↑ "Lyft is now doing over 1 million rides per day". The Verge. Retrieved 2017-12-04.
  6. ↑ Zaveri, Deirdre Bosa, Paayal (2017-10-11). "Lyft has now delivered half a billion rides". CNBC. Retrieved 2017-12-04.
  7. ↑ "Lyft will launch in Toronto in its first push outside the US". The Verge. Retrieved 2017-12-09.
  8. ↑ "Lyft Now Live in All 50 States". Planetizen - Urban Planning News, Jobs, and Education. Retrieved 2017-12-20.
  9. 1 2 3 Logan Green - LinkedIn. LinkedIn. May 2, 2012.
  10. ↑ Students’ Green Fund Helps Finance Sustainability. News for the Faculty and Staff of UCSB.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Logan Green - Zimride. Founderly. April 18, 2012.
  12. ↑ "Logan Green and John Zimmer". Fortune. 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2017-12-04.
  13. 1 2 Bell, Josh. Two Startups Harness Facebook’s Power to Connect Riders to Rides. ABC News. September 4, 2007.
  14. 1 2 Lawler, Ryan. "Lyft-Off: Zimride's Long Road To Overnight Success". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-11-15.
  15. ↑ Lien, Tracey. "Lyft CEO Logan Green has a plan that's far bigger than ride-hailing". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2017-12-09.
  16. ↑ Garthwaite, Josie. With $6 million in New Financing, Zimride has some Car Seats to Fill. New York Times. September 21, 2011.
  17. ↑ Cohen, Deborah. Former Lehman’s banker drives startup Zimride. Reuters. September 15, 2010.
  18. 1 2 3 Shah, Semil. Why Zimride’s John Zimmer Left Wall Street to Start a Company. TechCrunch. April 19, 2012.
  19. ↑ Sullivan, Colin. Startup Bets that Social Networking Will Spur Carpool Craze. New York Times. July 29, 2009.
  20. ↑ Schomer, Stephanie. Zimride: Carpooling for College Students Archived 2012-06-15 at the Wayback Machine.. Fast Company. January 5, 2011.
  21. ↑ Booking a ride in someone else’s car. Smart Planet. April 9, 2012.
  22. ↑ "Lyft's cofounder didn't take a salary for 3 years and slept on a couch in an 'apartfice' before his company was worth $11 billion". Business Insider. Retrieved 2017-12-09.
  23. ↑ "Lyft is now worth $11 billion — its founder reveals how he went from taking no salary for 3 years to running a giant startup". Business Insider. Retrieved 2017-11-15.
  24. ↑ Lawler, Ryan. "Lyft-Off: Zimride's Long Road To Overnight Success". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-12-09.
  25. ↑ "Lyft's cofounder didn't take a salary for 3 years and slept on a couch in an 'apartfice' before his company was worth $11 billion". Business Insider. Retrieved 2017-11-15.
  26. ↑ "Lyft | Crunchbase". Crunchbase. Retrieved 2017-12-13.
  27. ↑ "Alphabet's CapitalG leads new financing at Lyft". www.telecompaper.com. Retrieved 2017-12-16.
  28. ↑ Isaac, Mike (2017-05-14). "Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-12-20.
  29. ↑ Ohnsman, Alan. "Honeymoon's Over? GM Cruise Said To Turn To Uber As Lyft Alliance Cools". Forbes. Retrieved 2017-12-20.
  30. ↑ Isaac, Mike (2017-06-06). "Playing Catch-Up to Uber on Self-Driving, Lyft Teams Up With Partners". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-12-20.
  31. ↑ Lagorio-Chafkin, Christine (June 24, 2014). "Can Pink Mustaches Be a 100-Year Company?". Inc. Archived from the original on 2014-06-27. Retrieved December 9, 2017.
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