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The rideshare market has reached a crossroads. Autonomous vehicles are on the rise, driver unrest is mounting, and customers are questioning everything from pricing to trust and safety. In the midst of it all, Lyft is mounting a comeback. CEO David Risher, who came into the role at Lyft two years ago, is taking a birds-eye view on the operation and pushing to reposition the company squarely against their competitor, Uberwith faster execution, bold new programs, and Lyfts biggest international acquisition to date. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by the former editor-in-chief of Fast Company Bob Safian. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with todays top business leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to Rapid Response wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode. [A recent letter you wrote to shareholders] includes this phrase “falcon mode,” which has also sparked a bunch of interest. I wanted to ask you to explain, what is falcon mode? So falcons fly thousands of feet in the air. But of course, they can’t stay up there always because theyve got to eat. So falcons have adapted to become extremely perceptive at seeing very small things on the ground and then being able to dive down very, very quickly, grab the mouse or whatever it is, and then go back up to cruising altitude. I use that kind of figurative language to help my team actually understand my job, which is to try to stay up at the high level. I mean, a CEO doesn’t hopefully need to be in the details every single day, but I have never found a successful CEO, and I’ve worked for some very successful CEOs, I’m very lucky in that way, who doesn’t also judiciously decide when to come down and to go really, really deep into the things, to get to the point where you’re literally saying, “You know what, I think this language on the screen isn’t quite doing the job,” as an example. How much of that is about you identifying something that’s strategic that you could have seen at 30,000 feet that maybe others are missing versus pointing to your team that this is the way you want them to act? I think if you never do it yourself, if all you’re doing is telling your team, “Go look at this, go look at this, go look at this, go look at this,” I think the chance of you having good intuition on that, where to actually go deep, is low. But then on the other hand, hopefully they see you doing it, and they become comfortable themselves. And again, I want to make a distinction: you haven’t mentioned the word micromanagement, but that’s a word that sometimes people say, “Well, doesn’t that sound like micromanagement?” And for me, the distinction I make is I try, again, sometimes unsuccessfully to be clear, but I try not to use it as a way to propose answers. Of course, sometimes I do. I’m a human being, I have ideas, but I try more to use it as a way to understand a problem space better. A story I tell in the letter is you can understand the issue of surge pricing at a generic level. People don’t like prices that are unpredictable, and that gives you a certain amount of insight. But when I drove and I picked up a woman named Anne, and she said, “Sometimes the price is 20, sometimes it’s 30, sometimes it’s 40. When it’s 20, I take a Lyft. When it’s 40, I drive myself, but I’m really annoyed. I get up at six in the morning, just check the price every single morning.” You have these conversations, and you get so much more empathy and understanding for the contours of that problem and why it matters so much at an individual level. And then you can go back to your team and say, “You know what, guys, I know we’ve been talking about trying to get rid of surge pricing or at least some of it for a while. Let me give you some examples that I’ve picked up by going deep that maybe help us understand both why this is a big problem for people and maybe understand, as I say, the contours of this space a little bit better as a result.” And so this is why you get on the road and you drive a Lyft every six weeks for a day, so you’re close to the experience of both sides of your marketplace, the driver and the rider. It’s exactly it. And it’s so interesting. I actually took my first drive, I think it was a week before I joined even. So it’s been a little bit over two years now. And at first what I really thought it was going to be is really understanding the driver app and the driver experience. And I learned a lot, but what it’s really taught me is how the rider experiences the ride. And it’s so different to look at the data versus talk to the riders and ask them, “Why did you choose Lyft today versus the other guys? What are some of the perceptions you have?” And sometimes people talk about a credit card deal we have with Chase Sapphire Reserve, and sometimes people will talk about a bad experience they had on the other guys. Sometimes they’ll talk about how they think they like our values better or they like Women+ Connect, which is a service we have. So you get a sense of both sides of the marketplace, and it’s quite efficient. I mean, it’s only two or three hours, and gosh, you can learn a lot in two or three hours if you really, really focus on them. You have more riders than ever, you have more drivers than ever, but you’re still far behind Uber, which has 75% of the market or something. I mean, we’ve heard a lot about the streaming wars in TV, and there’s arguably a ridesharing war going on. Do you have to beat Uber to become like Netflix in streaming, or is it just about staying competitive? You don’t have to be Netflix. If you can be BritBox, and that’s you, that’s okay. So a couple of things I think about that, every year just in the U.S., so we’re not even talking about overseas, just in the U.S., people take about 160 billion rides in their own car, 160 billion. So every single one of those rides, they’re getting behind the wheel, their stress level is probably going up a little bit, hopefully they’re not texting, but they’re certainly tempted to text every time they come to a stoplight, they’re road rage sometimes, frustrated. At the very least, they’re not able to do very much else with their life, and then they got to park, and then they got to pay for parking, and all these different things. So there are a lot of times where, you know what, it’s actually kind of nice to have someone else pick you up. You can do the texting, you can sit back, you can make a phone call if you want to, you can put on your makeup if you’re a woman, whatever it is, guy too, whoever. So the point is it’s a better experience, and we want to do it so reliably and at such a high service level that we move from, call it, 800 million rides a year, which is about what we do, to a billion to two billion to three billion to four billion. So do I have to compete with someone else to do that? Not really. Now, we have to compete with private cars, and to a certain extent, with people staying at home on their couch. I mean, hose are things I have to compete with, but I don’t really need to dominate the other guy. Now, having said that, there is another guy in the marketplace. Our share when I joined was about 26% share. Now it’s about 31% share. So we’ve made nice progress there, and that’s hard. I mean, every single point of share you get over a bigger competitor is quite hard. I’ll give you two stats that I’m very proud of. One is we pick you up about 30 seconds faster than they do. Second is for our drivers, we have a 23-point advantage, 23-point advantage in preference of dual-appers, people who use both apps. Who would you prefer to drive for? So I consider those to be very good leading early indicators that we’re doing some things well. The share thing is a little bit of a trailing indicator. It’s just an interesting little thing to look at. Leading indicator is more to people like you more, you get better service. And over time, that tends to grow a business quite nicely.
Category:
E-Commerce
Now that the 100 men vs. one gorilla debate has been settled, a new question is circulating on social media: Who would win, 100 Americans or 100 Brits? British creator @2mwad_ first posed the question on TikTok: I got a new one, 100 British people versus 100 Americans. One big room, no weapons, whos winning? The video has since gained over a million views, succeeding in uniting both nations against a common, historical rival. @2mwad_ #fyp #2mwad original sound – 2mwad The patriotism sparked in the comments section is truly something to behold. Our president is a felon who you think is winning, one American wrote. Do they have the Britain man? We have the Florida man, another added. A third chimed in, 100 British people vs one Waffle House shift. But the Brits werent going down without a fight, and if theres one thing British people do best, its getting under Americans skin. British people 100%, one wrote. Dont get me started. I might start sounding patriotic, added another. In a follow-up video, the creator made the hypothetical brawl more specific. He said the British side would include groups of 20 from Birmingham, London, Manchester, Nottingham, and Liverpool. For the Americans, the fighters would be drafted from Louisiana, L.A., New York, and Chicago. (For what its worth, as a Brit, my money is on the Americans.) @2mwad_ #fyp #2mwad original sound – 2mwad Theres something so uniquely special about being American because our country can be in complete shambles . . . but as soon as someone tries to attack America, we are all patriotic, said creator @adivunsolicited in a video with 1.2 million views. The only people Americans are scared or intimidated by are other Americans, he added. TikTok creator Keara Sullivan posted her ideal American lineup: two people from Appalachia, two Floridians with criminal records, two blue-collar workers from Boston, one drunk Eagles fan born and raised in Philadelphia, and one Waffle House employee from any state. On the British side, TikToker Max Baledge pushed back: Guys, you would not be allowed guns. Id like to see all of those people have a bare knuckle bash with someone from Newcastle. One commenter replied: We already did thiswe celebrate it on July 4th.
Category:
E-Commerce
If youre a frequent eye drop user, nows the time to check your medicine cabinet: The pharmaceutical lab BRS Analytical Service, LLC has issued a voluntary recall of five different ophthalmic solutions, including some eye drops and artificial tears, due to concerns that the products may be of unacceptable quality. Heres what to know: What is the reason for the recall? According to a notice published by the distributor AvKare, the recall was initiated when a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) audit found manufacturing cGMP deviations in the production of the five eye products. CGMP, or Current Good Manufacturing Practice, refers to the required manufacturing process guidelines set by the FDA for a certain item. Per the AvKare notice, Health Hazard to the user is unknown, cGMP deviations may lead to products of unacceptable quality, and it is not possible to rule out patient risks resulting from use of these products. Separately, an FDA enforcement report surrounding the five products notes that there was a lack of assurance of sterility found during the agency’s audit. BRS Analytical Service voluntarily initiated the five recalls on April 23. On May 6, the FDA classified each as a Class II, meaning it is considered a situation in which exposure to the product may cause reversible adverse health consequences, or where the probability of serious health consequences is remote. Which products are being recalled? The recall encompasses five products, totaling over 75,000 cases of ophthalmic solution, shipped over a two-year period: May 26, 2023, to April 21, 2025. The products include: NDC# 50268-043-15 Artificial Tears Ophthalmic Solution; recall number D-0404-2025 NDC# 50268-066-15 Carboxymethylcellulose Sodium Ophthalmic Gel 1%; recall number D-0405-2025 NDC# 50268-068-15 Carboxymethylcellulose Sodium Ophthalmic Solution; recall number D-0406-2025 NDC# 50268-126-15 Lubricant Eye Drops Solution; recall number D-0407-2025 NDC# 50268-678-15 Polyvinyl Alcohol Ophthalmic Solution; recall number D-0408-2025 Detailed lots numbers and specific expiration dates can be found here. Where were the products sold? According to the FDA, the items were distributed nationwide in the U.S., though specific states and stores were not listed. What should I do if I have one of the recalled products? If you have a recalled eye solution, do not use it. Instead, AvKare requests that you follow the instructions listed in its notice to alert the company that you received the recalled product, and then ship the affected items back to its headquarters. With any follow-up questions, AvKares customer service email is customerservice@avkare.com.
Category:
E-Commerce
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