John Zimmer

John Zimmer is the co-founder and former president of Lyft, an on-demand transportation company,[1] which he founded with Logan Green in 2012.[2]

For the American ornithologist, see John T. Zimmer.
John Zimmer
Zimmer at the TechCrunch Disrupt NY in 2015
Born (1984-03-14) March 14, 1984
NationalityAmerican
CitizenshipUnited States
Alma materCornell University School of Hotel Administration
Occupation(s)Co-founder and President of Lyft
PartnerCristina García Rivas
Children1

In March 2023, Zimmer announced that in June he would step down as Lyft president and become vice-chair of the board of directors.[3]

Early life

Zimmer grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut.[4] In 2006, Zimmer graduated from Cornell University School of Hotel Administration where he was a member of Sigma Pi Fraternity.[5] After graduation, Zimmer worked as an analyst in real estate finance at Lehman Brothers in New York City.

Zimmer left Lehman Brothers three months before it declared bankruptcy.[6] In 2007, while Zimmer was working at Lehman Brothers, he and Logan Green founded Zimride, a ridesharing platform across college campuses.[7]

Zimride

Inspiration

While at Cornell, Zimmer was inspired to develop a rideshare program by filling the empty seats he had during his rides home over school breaks: "I was driving from Upstate New York to New York City and all around me were these empty seats."[8] As a student at Cornell, Zimmer took a City and Regional Planning Class, called Green Cities (taught by Dr. Robert Young, now at the University of Texas at Austin).[9] The class discussed the principles of simple design changes to large infrastructure, which would later influence the development of Zimride.[9]

Zimmer and Green were introduced through a mutual friend on Facebook.[10] Green had posted details about his new company called "Zimride," which interested Zimmer, who had been keeping a journal about carpooling ideas.[11]

Co-founding of Zimride

Within a week of being introduced, Green flew out to New York City to meet with Zimmer.[11] Zimride launched the first version of its rideshare program at Cornell University where, after six months, the service had signed up 20% of the student body.[12][13] Later in 2007, Zimride was active on both the Cornell and UCSB campuses.[14] Green and Zimmerman promoted the service through guerilla marketing campaigns; in particular, the pair would dress in frog and beaver suits and hand out flyers to students on the Cornell campus.[11] Later, while on a Lehman Brothers recruiting trip, Zimmer was recognized by a potential recruit, who asked "I swear I recognize you—were you in a beaver suit on Saturday on campus?"[11]

Growth

Zimmer quit his job at Lehman Brothers to work with Green full-time on Zimride.[12] When asked why he quit, Zimmer said, "The feelings I had about what I wanted to do and what was important to me didn't match up with the culture in Wall Street. There was a focus on money, there was a focus on what people were wearing, and things that didn't seem to lead to productivity."[11]

Green and Zimmer focused the service on carpooling between connected users and making carpooling fun and interesting.[15] By April 2012, the company was renamed Lyft and had raised $7.5 million in funding and was active at over 125 universities.[10][11][16]

Lyft

After leaving his job at Lehman Brothers, Zimmer moved to Silicon Valley with Green to work on Zimride full-time.[17] 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.[18][19] In May 2013, Zimmer and Green officially changed the name of the company from Zimride to Lyft. Zimmer did not take a salary during the first three years of Lyft's operation, and he and Green worked on the company out of an apartment they shared.[17]

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 Zimmer and Green's original goal for Zimride.[20]

Personal life

Zimmer is married. He met his wife while studying abroad in Seville, Spain.[21] They have a daughter named Penélope, who was born in December 2015.[22] Zimmer supports the ACLU.[23]

Recognition

In 2009, Zimmer and Logan Green were named finalists in Business Week's list of America's Best Young Entrepreneurs.[24]

In 2014, Zimmer was named in Forbes' "30 Under 30: Technology" list, and both he and Green were named in Inc. Magazine's "35 Under 35" list.[25]

Zimmer has spoken at events including SXSW and TechCrunch Disrupt.[26]

In 2017, Zimmer received the Cornell Hospitality Innovator Award from the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration.[27]

References
  1. "LA Looks to Rideshare to Build the Future of Public Transit". WIRED. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  2. Lawler, Ryan. Lyft-Off: Zimride's Long Road To Overnight Success. TechCrunch. August 29, 2014.
  3. Lyft's Co-Founders to Step Down as Company Struggles
  4. Bryant, Adam (2017-07-21). "Lyft's John Zimmer on Empowering Others to Help Them Grow". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-08-29.
  5. "Need a Lyft" (PDF). The Emerald of Sigma Pi. Vol. 99, no. 2. Summer 2015. p. 6.
  6. Shontell, Alyson; Lebowitz, Shana (18 October 2017). "Lyft's cofounders met on Facebook and lived on opposite coasts – here's how they launched a $7.5 billion startup long-distance". Business Insider. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
  7. "Zimride offers college students cheap, safe rides home". The Washington Post. 2011-12-31. Archived from the original on 2019-03-29.
  8. Shaughnessy, Haydn. How to Win Friends AND Cut your Travel Costs. Forbes. November 18, 2011.
  9. Bogusky, Alex. Digital Hitchhiking with Zimride. Fearless. February 28, 2011.
  10. Cohen, Deborah. Former Lehman's banker drives startup Zimride. Reuters. September 15, 2010.
  11. Shah, Semil. Why Zimride's John Zimmer Left Wall Street to Start a Company. TechCrunch. April 19, 2012.
  12. Sullivan, Colin. Startup Bets that Social Networking Will Spur Carpool Craze. New York Times. July 29, 2009.
  13. Schomer, Stephanie. Zimride: Carpooling for College Students Archived 2012-06-15 at the Wayback Machine. Fast Company. January 5, 2011.
  14. Booking a ride in someone else's car. Smart Planet. April 9, 2012.
  15. Kwan, Connie. Zimride's John Zimmer. Triple Pundit. November 1, 2010.
  16. Takahashi, Dean. Zimride raises $6M for ride-sharing car service. VentureBeat. September 21, 2011.
  17. "Lyft is now worth $11 billion – its founder reveals how he went from taking no salary for 3 years to running a giant startup". Business Insider. Retrieved 2017-11-09.
  18. "How Lyft Learned to Stop Worrying and Embrace the Pivot". Inc.com. Archived from the original on 2017-10-13. Retrieved 2014-10-08.
  19. "Lyft team gets $60M more; now it must prove ride-sharing can go global". venturebeat.com. 23 May 2013. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  20. Manjoo, Farhad (2014-08-06). "Lyft Hopes to Coax Commuters to Leave Their Cars". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-01-06.
  21. "15 questions with John Zimmer". CNNMoney. Retrieved 2019-03-31.
  22. "A New Year's Eve Ride With Lyft Co-Founder John Zimmer". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 2019-03-31.
  23. "Lyft's Jewish Co-Founder Donates $1 Million to ACLU to Fight Immigration Ban".
  24. 2009 Finalists: America's Best Young Entrepreneurs Business Week.
  25. Lagorio-Chafkin, Christine (June 24, 2014). "Can Pink Mustaches Be a 100-Year Company?". Inc. Archived from the original on 2014-06-27.
  26. Lawler, Ryan. "Lyft Co-Founders Logan Green And John Zimmer To Join Us At Disrupt SF". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-01-14.
  27. "Lyft's John Zimmer to receive Cornell Hospitality Innovator Award". sha.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2017-11-16.
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