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Lyft, Inc.

Ride-Hailing and Mobility TechnologyFounded 2012
Reviewed by Swet Parvadiya
Company data updated: October 2026

Founders

Who Founded Lyft?

Logan Green, John Zimmer · Founded 2012 · HQ today: San Francisco, California, United States

Who founded Lyft?

Lyft was founded by Logan Green, John Zimmer in 2012. It is now led by David Risher.

Founders
Logan Green, John Zimmer
Founded
2012
Headquarters
San Francisco, California, United States
Number of founders
2
Current CEO
David Risher (since 2023)
Where was Lyft founded?
Lyft was founded in San Francisco, California in 2012.
When was Lyft founded?
Lyft was founded in 2012.
Who started Lyft?
Lyft was founded by Logan Green and John Zimmer.
How old is Lyft?
Lyft is 14 years old as of 2026.

Founding Story

Logan Green and John Zimmer started Zimride in 2007, a long-distance carpool service for college campuses named after the shared minibuses Green saw in Zimbabwe. In 2012 they launched Lyft inside Zimride as an on-demand, peer-to-peer ride service in San Francisco. Early drivers mounted pink fuzzy mustaches on their cars and riders often sat in front, a friendly image that set Lyft apart from Uber's black-car origins. Zimride was sold to Enterprise Holdings in 2013 so the team could focus on Lyft.

Logan Green

Co-founder 2012

Background

Green studied at UC Santa Barbara. A 2005 trip to Zimbabwe, where he saw shared minibus taxis, inspired the Zimride name and the carpooling idea behind Lyft.

Role at Lyft, Inc.

Logan Green co-founded Zimride in 2007 and Lyft in 2012 with John Zimmer, and served as Lyft's CEO from its founding until David Risher took over in April 2023. A longtime public-transit advocate, he created a car-sharing program as a student at UC Santa Barbara and sat on the Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District board. He led Lyft through its 2019 Nasdaq IPO.

Green was born in 1983 or 1984. He served as chairman as well as chief executive of Lyft.

John Zimmer

Co-founder 2012

Background

Zimmer studied hotel administration at Cornell University and worked as a real estate finance analyst at Lehman Brothers before co-founding Zimride.

Role at Lyft, Inc.

John Zimmer co-founded Zimride and Lyft with Logan Green and served as Lyft's president until stepping back from executive duties in 2023. He focused on brand, hospitality and policy, helping push the state and city rules that legalized transportation network companies across the U.S.

John Zimmer was born in 1983. Education: Cornell University School of Hotel Administration.

Zimmer announced in March 2023 that he would step down as president that June and become vice-chair of the board.

Lyft, Inc.: CEO & Leadership History

Full timeline →

David Risher

Chief Executive Officer

2023 – Present

Under Risher, Lyft went from a $340M net loss in 2023 to more than $1.1B of free cash flow in 2025.

Erin Brewer

Chief Financial Officer

2023 – Present

Oversees Lyft's finances, including the cost program behind record 2025 cash flow.

Logan Green

Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

2012 – 2023

Co-founded Lyft in 2012 and led it until David Risher was named CEO in 2023.

John Zimmer

Co-founder and President

2012 – 2023

Co-founded Lyft and served as president, leading brand and policy work.

Keep researching Lyft

Who Founded Lyft? FAQ

Who founded Lyft and how did the co-founders meet?

Lyft was founded by Logan Green and John Zimmer. Green (a UC Santa Barbara graduate) and Zimmer (a Cornell University School of Hotel Administration graduate) met in 2007 through a mutual friend on Facebook, bonding over their shared passion for solving urban traffic congestion.

What was Zimride and how did it lead to the creation of Lyft?

In 2007, Green and Zimmer founded Zimride, a long-distance carpooling platform for college students and corporate campuses (named after Zimbabwe's shared minibus system). In 2012, during an internal hackathon, they developed an on-demand smartphone rideshare concept codenamed 'Lyft', which quickly eclipsed Zimride.

What was Logan Green's background and early transportation inspiration?

Growing up in Los Angeles, Logan Green was frustrated by gridlock traffic. While studying at UC Santa Barbara, he created the university's first car-sharing program, served on the board of the Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District, and was inspired by Zimbabwe's shared transit taxis during a 2005 trip.

What was John Zimmer's background and hospitality vision for Lyft?

John Zimmer studied hospitality management at Cornell and worked as a real estate finance analyst at Lehman Brothers. Zimmer applied hospitality principles to ridesharing, envisioning Lyft not merely as a taxi replacement, but as a warm, community-driven social transit experience.

Who was Zimride's first institutional venture capital investor?

Zimride raised early seed funding from Silicon Valley investors including Floodgate's Mike Maples, and Lyft later raised large rounds from investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Rakuten, General Motors and Alphabet's CapitalG.

When did the founders sell the original Zimride carpooling service?

In July 2013, following the rapid growth of the Lyft smartphone app, Green and Zimmer sold the original Zimride inter-city carpooling service to Enterprise Holdings (parent of Enterprise Rent-A-Car) to focus 100% of corporate resources on Lyft.

What role did early community traditions play in Lyft's viral launch in San Francisco?

Early Lyft rides in 2012 featured distinctive social rituals: passengers rode in the front passenger seat, greeted drivers with a friendly fist bump, plugged their phones into the aux cord, and spotted cars by their giant pink fuzzy dashboard mustaches.

How did the founders advocate for ridesharing regulation across US cities?

Between 2012 and 2016, Logan Green and John Zimmer worked extensively with state governors, mayors, and public utility commissions to establish new legal frameworks for 'Transportation Network Companies' (TNCs), formalizing ridesharing legality across North America.

Who founded Lyft?

It was founded by Logan Green and John Zimmer. Green got the idea while traveling in Zimbabwe, witnessing highly efficient crowd-sourced minivan networks. Zimmer, a former Wall Street analyst, quit his job to join him. Their massive original vision was highly utopian: they genuinely believed that by maximizing the occupancy of every car on the road, they could completely eliminate traffic, parking lots, and the need for private car ownership.

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Content is for informational purposes only. Not financial advice. Data sourced from SEC filings, annual reports, and public records. See our full disclaimer and methodology.