David Risher’s been in the driver’s seat at Lyft since 2023. But before he became CEO, Risher had the chance to learn from the best, spending the early ‘90s working under Bill Gates at Microsoft and later helping Jeff Bezos build Amazon into a retail behemoth.
Today, he’s focused on charting Lyft’s global expansion and growing its fleet of robotaxis, which just hit the street this week in Atlanta. For our latest issue of Wake-Up Call at Work (subscribe right here!) we got to chat with the rideshare exec about the tough calls he’s made, what he’s learned from Bezos about leadership, and how he’s steering the multibillion-dollar company into the future.
What’s the hardest decision you’ve made so far as CEO?
Every decision around people is hard — as it should be. The second-hardest decisions involve stopping something that the team had passion around but just isn’t working as well as it should. Shortly after I first joined, we released a product focused on optimizing the airport pickup experience. The idea was to make it feel like magic by having your Lyft waiting when you walked out of the airport. Unfortunately, it just didn’t work as imagined. Pulling the plug felt like telling the team it had failed. Instead, their energy was better spent elsewhere, and it was the better call than disappointing customers.
What’s one thing you always look for in a potential hire?
The ability to put themselves in the shoes of a customer. I design business around customers’ needs — that’s what drives growth. So, how do you suss that out? If I say, “Design a car for a deaf person,” I want to see the candidate close their eyes and ears and imagine what that feels like, then be able to describe the experience to me in detail, including what someone in that position might need. That’s how I know I’ve got someone who can build great customer-obsessed experiences.
You regularly drive for Lyft incognito. What have you learned from that — and has it informed any policy changes you’ve made at the company?
Absolutely. I often say I drive to learn, not to earn — and I mean it. Like most leaders, I need to spend most of my time at high altitude. But sometimes you’ve got to dive deep, like a falcon spotting its next meal. Driving gives me insight into riders and drivers that I’d never get sitting in my office.
Not too long ago, I picked up a woman in Sausalito, Calif., who told me how surge pricing impacted her daily stress levels. She’d wake up each morning not knowing if she was going to need to spend $20 or $40 to get to work. The thing is, economists love surge pricing as a way to balance supply and demand. But it was listening to this woman that helped me understand why riders hated it so much. This interaction is a big part of the reason why we built Price Lock, a product designed to let riders lock in the fare on frequent routes.
Jeff Bezos wrote a tribute to you when you left Amazon that you can still find on the site. What did you learn from working with him — and what’s your relationship like today?
Jeff taught me to wake up every morning remembering that customers are fickle, so you’ve got to innovate on their behalf every day. That idea shapes everything we do at Lyft, from Women+ Connect to Lyft Silver. Our mantra is that customer obsession drives profitable growth.
As for our relationship, we still keep in touch. Every so often, I’ll shoot him a note with something I think he’d appreciate.
Lyft intends to start rolling out robotaxis. How do you envision Lyft using self-driving cars, and what opportunities or challenges do you anticipate from this shift?
Autonomous vehicles are already here in San Francisco and elsewhere, and once riders use them, they love them. But the future isn’t AVs or human drivers — it’s both. Sometimes we want to be alone in a car to make a call; at other times, there’s no replacement for a driver who can help with luggage or even with groceries. I see it as a hybrid network, one that combines AVs and human drivers working together to give riders the best experience.
We’re already putting that vision into action. We’re rolling out our first May Mobility AVs in Atlanta this month, and our planned partnership with Mobileye is coming to Dallas soon. We’ve also partnered with Baidu and BENTELER Mobility to accelerate innovation and help bring AVs to scale. AVs can operate 24/7, which can mean great availability in the middle of the night; on the other hand, drivers are available in more complex moments, like the most busy rush hour or after a Taylor Swift concert.
Looking further into the future, I see a world where today’s drivers can put AVs they own onto the Lyft platform and use them to make money, just as they do today. We call this making cars “Lyft Ready,” and we’re super excited to bring it to life.
You’ve said that you want to live to 100. What’s one longevity hack you incorporate into your everyday routine?
I never stop moving. Lyft operates the bike systems in San Francisco, New York, and elsewhere, so I bike to work every day. Every afternoon I take a 20-minute walk, usually with a matcha in hand. That time is non-negotiable. It clears my head each day, and hopefully will add years to my life!
If you could hire one fictional character to join your company, who would it be and why?
Odysseus. I’m a sucker for the joyful warrior!
Want to hear more from the best in business? Subscribe to our LinkedIn newsletter, Wake-Up Call at Work, for more thought-provoking interviews.
