Logan Green

Logan Green
Born	Logan Green
Occupation	Co-founder and CEO of Lyft
Website
www.lyft.com

Logan Green is the co-founder and CEO of Lyft, a peer-to-peer ride sharing company, which he founded with John Zimmer in 2012. ^[1] Lyft operates in more than 60 cities in the U.S. with more than 10 million shared rides taken to date.

Lyft grew out of Zimride, a ride share company previously founded by Green and Zimmer in 2007.^[2][3] In April 2014 Lyft closed a $250 million round of financing, bring the total raised by Lyft and Zimride since 2007 to $330 million. Lyft has 240 employees and operates in 30 U.S. cities.^[4]

Early life

Green attended New Roads High School in Santa Monica, California.^[5] Green graduated from UCSB in 2006 with a B.A. in Business Economics.^[5] 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.^[5][6] From August 2007 to February 2008, Green was the Sustainability Director at UCSB.^[7] In 2007, alongside John Zimmer, Green founded Zimride: a ridesharing platform that coordinated carpools, especially across college campuses.

Lyft

Inspiration

Green grew up in Los Angeles where he "spent most of [his] life stuck in traffic."^[7][8] Interested in solving transportation flaws, Green forced himself to travel around California without an automobile.^[7] 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.^[7] Instead, Green acquired Toyota Priuses and other cars and began a car-sharing program that let users unlock cars with radio-frequency identification.^[7] The program had over 2,000 people on campus sharing four cars.^[7]

Zimride and Early Years

Green had the inspiration for Zimride after sharing rides from the University of California, Santa Barbara campus to visit his girlfriend in Los Angeles.^[8] He had used Craigslist’s ride boards, but wanted to eliminate the anxiety of not knowing the passenger or driver.^[8] When Facebook opened its API to third-party developers, Green thought "Here’s the missing ingredient."^[8]

Green was introduced to John Zimmer through a mutual friend and the pair initially met on Facebook.^[9] The company name comes from the country Zimbabwe, where, during a trip in 2005, Green observed locals sharing minivan taxis.^[7][9] He says, "I came back to the US inspired to create that same form of transportation here."^[10] Green had coding experience and was able to develop the site in four months.^[7][11]

Zimride launched the first version of the rideshare program at Cornell University, where, after six months, the service had signed up 20% of the campus.^[12][13] Of the early versions of Zimride, Green said, “Public transportation is broken. We’re trying to create the next form that works.”^[14]

Zimride is currently the largest rideshare community in the United States.^[15] As of April 2012, Zimride has raised $7.5 million in funding, has facilitated more than 26,000 carpools, has helped users travel over 100 million miles, employs 29, and has saved over $50 million in vehicle operating expenses.^[16] The service is active at over 125 universities including the USC, University of Minnesota, UCLA, UCSF, Cornell, Harvard, and the University of Michigan.^{[9][17][18][19]}

Founding

Lyft was launched in the summer of 2012 as a service of Zimride. The change from Zimride to Lyft was the result of a hackathon that sought a means of daily engagement with its users, instead of once or twice a year. In May 2013, Green and Zimmer officially changed the name of the company from Zimride to Lyft.

Growth

In June 2013, Lyft completed a $60 million Series C venture financing round led by Andreessen Horowitz, bringing its total amount raised to $83 million. In July 2013, Lyft sold Zimride to Enterprise Holdings, the parent company of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, enabling the company to focus exclusively on the growth of Lyft. In April 2014, Lyft completed a $250 million Series D financing round led by Coatue, Alibaba, and Andreesen Horowitz, bringing its total amount raised to $332.5 million.

In August 2014, Lyft introduced Lyft Line, a ridesharing product that utilizes its existing driver network to transport passengers going the same direction at the same time. To incentivize riding together, Lyft Line offers passengers discounted costs. This feature harkens back to Green and Zimmer’s original goal for Zimride.

Reception

In 2009, Green and Zimmer were named finalists in Business Week’s list of “America’s Best Young Entrepreneurs.”

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

Personal life

He lives with his wife in Menlo Park, California.^[20] In 2009, Zimmer and Logan Green were named finalists in Business Week’s list of America’s Best Young Entrepreneurs.^[21]

References

External links

• Zimride.com