Every six weeks, Lyft CEO David Risher, 60, gets in his car to go to work. But instead of heading to the office, he starts picking up passengers.
In an interview earlier this month with the Wake-Up Call at Work newsletter, Risher said that he regularly drives for Lyft to “learn, not to earn.” The CEO’s trips are part of the two million rides taken every day and 800 million given annually.
“Like most leaders, I need to spend most of my time at high altitude,” Risher told the newsletter. “But sometimes you’ve got to dive deep, like a falcon spotting its next meal.”
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Risher, who joined Lyft as CEO in 2023, said that his Lyft rides gave him deeper insight into riders and drivers, and have even led to the creation of a new product, such as Price Lock, a $2.99 subscription service that caps prices to avoid surge pricing during peak demand, which Lyft launched in September 2024.
Price Lock originated from a conversation he had with a customer on one of his Lyft trips, who said that price surging “impacted her daily stress levels.”
“This interaction is a big part of the reason why we built Price Lock,” Risher said, adding that “it was listening to this woman” that helped him understand why riders “hated” surge pricing.
Lyft competitor Uber launched its own Price Lock feature in May.
Meanwhile, Lyft’s business is booming. The rideshare company achieved record financial performance in its latest earnings report released in August, setting all-time highs in key financial metrics.
Risher stated in a press release that the company “delivered off-the-charts performance, resulting in our strongest quarter ever” with record gross bookings of $4.5 billion, up 12% year-over-year. Revenue for the quarter hit $1.6 billion, up 11% year-over-year.