“The most amazing thing is that we are such an important part of so many people’s lives.” Risher said luck. “I think it’s sometimes easy to forget that.”

Risher recalls picking up a customer at 9:30 a.m. in a “not-so-nice part of town in San Francisco” and asking him why he took Lyft. The passenger said that being on time for work was important for him to keep his job.

“He said: ‘Look, if I get there at 10:01, I’ll be fired. I get there at 10. And public transportation—as much as I like to use it because it’s less expensive—it’s not reliable enough,'” Risher said.

Risher took the helm of the rideshare company from cofounders Logan Green and John Zimmer in 2023 when Lyft was still lost ground to Uber and struggling to make a profit. In the nearly three years that Risher has been CEO, Lyft’s stock has risen more than 75%. Lyft launched Lyft Teen on Monday, a feature that allows 13-to-17-year-olds to ride on the app, a change from the company’s policy that requires adult supervision for minors. Uber launched a similar feature for a younger age demographic in 2023. In the summer, Alphabet-owned Waymo also teen accounts are introduced in some parts of the country.

Risher said before luck Acting as a driver from time to time allows him to see areas for improvement within the company. He picked up a woman in Sausalito, Calif., one morning, who told him that if the price of a ride got too high, he would drive himself to work and find his own parking space. From his conversation, Risher said he learned that customers were strongly opposed to price increases, which informed the decision to implement a price lock feature in the app.

“I drive to learn, not to make money,” he said. “But I really want to know what the driver’s experience is and what the rider’s experience is.”

All-round career moment

Before Risher got behind the wheel of a Lyft, he was no stranger to the gig economy and provided copies of The Washington Post as his first job. Through high school and college, the CEO worked as a waiter and in food service. He drives a used car Honda According to her mother, who preceded her, bought from her ex-boyfriend. Risher said that if Lyft had been around when she was growing up, her mother, who wanted to avoid the expense of an extra car, would have preferred it.

“That’s good for him, and frankly, good for me,” he said.

After earning his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1991, Risher worked Microsoft in its early days and serves as Amazon’s senior vice president of US retail under Jeff Bezos from 1997 to 2002.

Risher’s career came full circle when Bezos, the owner of the The Washington Postbecame Risher’s boss. Risher said Bezos’ business advice still informs his decisions at Lyft: “Bet on things that don’t change, and build products for things that don’t change.”