It was just a little over a year ago that a little company called Zimride launched a new product called Lyft. The idea was simple — connect drivers with a car and extra time with passengers who need to get from one place to another. Thanks to GPS, mobile phones, and Facebook Connect, the company has built a platform that has quickly taken off in San Francisco and select other markets around the country.
Lyft has recently made some big strategic decisions, such bringing on Cherry co-founder Travis VanderZanden as its new COO, raising more than $75 million in two rounds of funding in the first half of the year, and — most recently — selling off the legacy Zimride business to Enterprise Holdings. All of those moves were made to focus its business on ride sharing and help it quickly expand into new markets.
Want to know how Lyft got to where it is and where it’s going next? At Disrupt SF 2013, we’ll be talking with co-founders Logan Green and John Zimmer about the company’s recent moves and its plans for the future.
The Lyft co-founders aren’t the only speakers we’ll have at Disrupt. We’ve already booked Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, and investor Doug Leone. And there are lots more yet to be announced. Tickets are on sale now.
The conference starts September 7 and runs until the 11th at our favorite location, the San Francisco Design Concourse. Stay tuned for more speaker announcements and a few surprises yet to come.
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Logan Green
Zimride / Lyft
Co-Founder & CEO
Logan Green is the co-founder and CEO of Zimride. He has a background in transportation and web development. He created the first car-share program at UC Santa Barbara, and served on the board of the Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District.
His favorite Zimride is Palo Alto to Los Angeles.
John Zimmer
Lyft & Zimride
Co-Founder and COO
John is the Co-Founder and COO of Zimride & Lyft. John (luckily) left Lehman Brothers in early 2008, where he spent two years after graduating from Cornell University’s Hotel School. He moved from New York City to Palo Alto in July of 2008 by using Zimride to carpool across America.
John and Zimride have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and on ABC World News. He was recognized by BusinessWeek in 2009 as one of ‘America’s Best Young Entrepreneur’s 25 and under’.
Since 2007, John has led Zimride’s business development efforts forging over 150 university and corporate clients, as well as exclusive partnerships with Zipcar and Facebook. His favorite Zimride is San Francisco to Los Angeles and his favorite Lyft is from home to work.