Lyft

Lenny's Podcast · Sep 29

How marketplaces win: Liquidity, growth levers, quality, more | Benjamin Lauzier (Lyft, Thumbtack)

Lyft matched most of Uber's footprint with a tenth or a twentieth of the resources. It used $35 paid driver mentors, $20 peer recruiters, and a GM-backed rental fleet that became the fourth largest in the U.S. within 18 months. Its focus on transportation and shared rides left it exposed when COVID hit.

Tips

• Pay your best drivers to onboard new drivers▶ 49:01This let Lyft match most of Uber's footprint with a 10th or a 20th of the resources, at a time when Uber was about 30X Lyft's size.
• Turn top supply into paid recruiters who call drop-offs▶ 52:55Driver recruiters outperformed Lyft's best trained salespeople, and the role also gave drivers earnings during low-utilization times.
• Define a market health metric that predicts your liquidity▶ 19:12A supply team can then check whether adding 100 supply units actually reduces ETAs.
• Manufacture supply surgically with a rental fleet▶ 43:30Built in a few months, it became the fourth-largest rental fleet in the U.S. within 18 months, with greater driver retention and engagement.
• Add value-added services to retain early supply▶ 13:54Uber reportedly got meaningful supply from converting riders to drivers.
• Expand beyond one use case so a shock does not break the business▶ 57:20

David Senra · Aug 16

Excellence Is the Capacity To Take Pain | Travis Kalanick, Founder of Uber

Kalanick says Lyft is smaller than Uber because Uber was better at the subsidy-and-efficiency fight that determines who wins a ride-hailing market.

Lenny's Podcast · Jul 7

Pattern Breakers: How to find a breakthrough startup idea | Mike Maples, Jr. (Partner at Floodgate)

Rode the iPhone 4S GPS chip inflection with the insight 'Airbnb for cars'. Riders faced a choice rather than a comparison with taxis, and its pink mustache made getting into a stranger's car less scary.

Tips

• Test any idea against three inflection questions before building▶ 21:26Telemedicine was a regulatory inflection during COVID, and the open question was whether laws would revert after shelter-in-place ended.
• Force a choice, not a comparison, with a radically different product▶ 1:01:52Nobody riding Lyft asked how it differed from a taxi, and nobody is neutral about the Tesla Cybertruck.
• Tell the story with the customer as hero and yourself as mentor▶ 1:16:30Lyft's pink mustache honored that people resist the call of getting into a stranger's car, and made it less scary.

Lenny's Podcast · May 5

Business strategy with Hamilton Helmer (author of 7 Powers)

Its market cap is about 5% of Uber's. Helmer guesses it has network effects but not network economies, because the advantage is not material.

Tips

• Judge flywheel and network claims by materiality, not existence▶ 25:55He thinks Uber and Lyft have network effects but not network economies, because the advantage is not material.
• Define your business at the level where your scale economy operates▶ 28:06Lyft has about 5% of Uber's market cap.

Lenny's Podcast · Dec 3

Crafting a compelling product vision | Ebi Atawodi (YouTube, Netflix, Uber)

Its vision is a world where cities feel small again, with transportation and tech bringing people together. Lenny called it warm and fuzzy, yet aggressive Uber beat the nicer Lyft.

Lenny's Podcast · Oct 13

How to build a high-performing growth team | Adam Fishman (Patreon, Lyft, Imperfect Foods)

Adam was its first growth and marketing hire and led growth for two and a half years. He hired Ben Lazier there, who showed strong execution by deploying a fix from a borrowed Chromebook mid-interview.

Tips

• Hire a junior growth person for customer knowledge and execution first▶ 29:08Ben borrowed a Chromebook mid-interview to deploy work at the job he was leaving, which signaled strong execution.
• Screen companies on people, mission and financials before you join▶ 53:20Adam did this well at Lyft and Patreon, and poorly at Wyzant and Imperfect Foods.

Lenny's Podcast · Oct 9

Developing a growth model + marketplace growth strategy | Dan Hockenmaier

It competes with Uber to guarantee the highest first-week or first-month earnings so unlucky new drivers don't churn. Disillusioned drivers who switch to Lyft are an externality a dual-sided ROI equation can miss.

Tips

• Improve retention through the early experience, not late-stage emails and pushes▶ 21:50Uber and Lyft compete to guarantee the highest first-week or first-month earnings.