🚗 Lyft's Bold New Strategy (with CEO David Risher)

The Best One Yet

Nick & Jack Studios

News, Business

4.7 • 9.5K Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Lyft’s comeback story ain't Uber’s playbook — it’s something different.

David Risher, Amazon employee #37 and now Lyft’s CEO, joins us to break down the strategy driving Lyft’s turnaround.

This guy has a total TBOY vibe, he's doubled Lyft's stock price, and reveals what proposing to his wife taught him about management (no joke).

Oh, and this Lyft CEO... also drives for Lyft.

But there's so much more. In this interview, David tells us all about:

• His 100-day plan to refocus Lyft on riders and drivers

• How driver cancellations fell from ~15% to ~4.5%

• The story behind Women+ Connect and Lyft Silver

• Lyft’s “situationship” with Waymo (and where self-driving cars fit)

• Why he still drives Lyft — and what he learns from chit-chatting with you in the backseat.

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LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE:

"Thank you, David Risher" Amazon Easter Egg

Jim Collins' "Good to Great"

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Yeties, look out for that white Toyota with the license plate ending in P-B-O-Y.
0:06.0	Because we're hailing an interview with the guy who connects your hail to that Honda.
0:10.0	David Risher didn't invent, found, or create the ride hailing industry.
0:13.0	But now he's the leader of Lyft.
0:15.0	Yeah.
0:16.0	He's the CEO of the Pepsi to Uber's Coke.
0:18.0	But Bessies, this guy ain't just the CEO.
0:20.0	He is the ultimate early hire.
0:22.2	Because this guy was employee number 37 at Amazon.
0:26.4	And then he quit the entire tech industry to give away books around the world.
0:30.7	And he's the only tech CEO whose favorite show is Reading Rainbow.
0:35.3	When Lyft hit a traffic jam back in 2023, Jack, who does a company call?
0:39.3	David Freaking Risher.
0:41.7	Besties, this guy traded philanthropy for pink mustaches and has been lead in Lyft ever since.
0:46.8	And under his watch, Lyft cut corporate clutter, refocused on rides, and launched a women's
0:52.3	only option.
0:53.2	Oh, and he launched a Waymo deal since David
0:56.0	took over Lyft stock has doubled, which means Lyft is now worth to Lyft. David, David is so different.
1:03.4	He dropped the word in shittification and an earnings report. And he declared war against surge pricing.
1:08.9	He even drives as a driver for Lyft while being the CEO of Lyft.
1:13.3	So there's a 0.01% chance that if you hail Lyft in San Francisco, your driver is the CEO.
1:20.8	And yet he's since Lyft announced earnings the day before this interview, we will jump in T-boy style to those numbers too.
	...

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