Logan Green is the co-founder and CEO of Lyft, a transportation company that provides ride-hailing services in San Francisco, California. Green is famous in the business world as he, together with John Zimmer made it to the Business Week’s list of America’s Best Young Entrepreneurs. The two were also listed on Inc. Magazine’s 35 Under 35.
Early years and education
Logan Green’s interest in transportation started at an early age while growing up in Southern California. Often time that he was driving with his veterinarian and doctor parents, they would be stuck in traffic and he would notice how most of the vehicles only contains one person—the driver. He thinks that this is inefficient. That is why by the time he left for college, he decided to leave his 1989 Volvo 740 at home.
Logan studied high school at New Roads High School in Santa Monica, California and took up BA in Business Economics at the University of California in Santa Barbara and graduated in 2006. During his undergraduate he worked for Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District and became the youngest director.
After graduating from college, Logan traveled to Zimbabwe. Because of the lack of public transport, Zimbabweans used crowd-sourcing to carpool and he was inspired by it. Logan would eventually meet John Zimmer through Facebook and would later become partners and co-found Zimride and Lyft.
Zimride
Logan Green and co-founder John Zimmer launched Zimride through Facebook in May of 2007 at Cornell University as a means of carpooling through social networking. It acts as a matchmaker for drivers and riders. After 6 months of launch, 20% of the student body has signed up for the service. Zimride also received $250,000 from FbFund, a program where Facebook chooses a startup and provides funding. By the end of 2007, Zimride was active on both Cornell University and University of California-Santa Barbara.
In 2012, Zimride became mobile friendly when the website was redesigned for use on web browsers for smartphones. At this time, Zimride has facilitated 26,000 carpools and saved more than $50 million in vehicle expenses. The service expanded from two universities with more than 350,000 users in more than 130 colleges and universities.
Zimride focuses on long trips ridesharing between cities and eventually became the largest rideshare program in the US. It was sold to Enterprise Holdings in July of 2013.
Lyft
Lyft was announced by Zimride in 2012, a ride hailing application that connects drivers to passengers that needs rides for shorter trips within the same city. Payments are approximately 30% less than cab fares.
It initially launched in San Francisco, California and by 2014 it expanded to at least 60 other cities. On the same year, Lyft introduced Lyft Line with the same application, however this time, passengers can shared the ride and split the fare. There was also a delay during the launch of Lyft in New York City to structure the business based on Taxi and Limousine Commission and Manhattan Supreme Court.
Improved service was provided by Lyft when scheduling trips up to 24-hours in advanced was introduced and making multiple stops during a trip. 2016 wasn’t just a year of additional ride service for Lyft, but the fourth quarter of 2016, it completed 52.6 million rides which is almost triple the number of rides it made the previous year. And a partnership with GM (General Motors) which will add $500 million in investments during Series F $1 billion fundraising effort by the company.
Lyft partners with Walt Disney World Resort in 2017 to provide services around selected Walt Disney World Resort hotels. Minnie vans can be requested through the same Lyft app. By 2018, the company’s value increases to $15.1 billion and over 1 billion rides.
It was announced that Lyft will be added to Nasdaq Stock Market and shares will be available by the end of the first quarter of 2019.