Logan D. Green is the chairman and former CEO of

Lyft Lyft, Inc. is an American company offering ride-hailing services, motorized scooters, and bicycle-sharing systems in the United States and Canada. Lyft sets fares, which vary using a dynamic pricing model based on local supply and demand a ...

, which he co-founded with John Zimmer in 2012. Lyft grew out of Zimride, a rideshare company previously founded by the duo in 2007.Chima, Chikodi
Ticketfly partnership makes music events more intelligent and more social
''VentureBeat''. December 5, 2011. , Lyft provides over 1 million rides a day. , Lyft is available in all 50 United States and in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Early life and education

Green attended New Roads High School in

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

.Logan Green - LinkedIn
''LinkedIn''. May 2, 2012. He graduated from the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an ...

(UCSB) in 2006 with a B.A. in

Business Economics Business economics is a field in applied economics which uses economic theory and quantitative methods to analyze business enterprises and the factors contributing to the diversity of organizational structures and the relationships of firms wit ...

. While a student, Green created The Green Initiative Fund, served as a board member for the Isla Vista Recreation and Park District, and was the youngest director for the Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District. From August 2007 to February 2008, Green was the Sustainability Director at UCSB.Logan Green - Zimride
. ''Founderly''. April 18, 2012. In 2007, alongside John Zimmer, Green founded Zimride, a ride-sharing platform that coordinated carpools, especially across college campuses.

Career

Inspiration

Green grew up in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

where he "spent most of islife stuck in traffic".Bell, Josh
Two Startups Harness Facebook's Power to Connect Riders to Rides
''ABC News''. September 4, 2007. Interested in solving transportation flaws, Green forced himself to travel around California without an automobile. While attending college in Santa Barbara, he used public transportation options like

Greyhound The English Greyhound, or simply the Greyhound, is a dog breed, breed of dog, a sighthound which has been bred for coursing, greyhound racing and hunting. Some are kept as show dogs or pets. Greyhounds are defined as a tall, muscular, smooth-c ...

and

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

to visit his girlfriend in Los Angeles. He also used

Craigslist Craigslist (stylized as craigslist) is a privately held American company operating a classified advertisements website with sections devoted to jobs, housing, for sale, items wanted, services, community service, gigs, résumés, and discussi ...

's ride boards for carpooling but always felt anxiety about not knowing the passenger or driver. After realizing public transportation's limits, Green started a car-sharing program and asked

Zipcar Zipcar is an American car sharing, car-sharing company and a subsidiary of Avis Budget Group. Zipcar provides vehicle reservations to its members, billable by the minute, hour or day; members may have to pay a monthly or annual membership fee i ...

to place cars at UCSB. Because the company only had 100 cars at the time and was based on the East Coast, it couldn't provide any vehicles. Instead, Green acquired several

Toyota Prius The is a Compact car, compact/small family car, small family liftback (supermini/subcompact sedan (car), sedan until 2003) produced by Toyota. The Prius has a Hybrid vehicle drivetrain, hybrid drivetrain, combined with an internal combustion ...

cars and other vehicles and began a car-sharing program that let users unlock cars with

radio-frequency identification Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically Automatic identification system, identify and Tracking system, track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder called a tag, ...

. The program had over 2,000 people on campus sharing four cars. During college, Green also served on the Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District (MTD) board. During his time on the board, Green realized that large-scale changes to public opinion were needed to improve public transportation.

Zimride (2006–2013)

In 2006, Green was inspired by a post-college trip to

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

in which he saw locals using

crowdsourced Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digit ...

carpool networks for transportation. Using the

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

API An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ...

, he developed a platform that allowed users to find and plan

carpool Carpooling is the sharing of Automobile, car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car, and prevents the need for others to have to drive to a location themselves. Carpooling is considered a Demand-Responsive Transport (DRT) serv ...

s. He named his app Zimride in honor of Zimbabwe's carpooling network. Of the early versions of Zimride, Green said, "Public transportation is broken. We're trying to create the next form that works".Garthwaite, Josie
With $6 million in New Financing, Zimride has some Car Seats to Fill
''New York Times''. September 21, 2011. Green eventually met Zimmer when they were introduced through a mutual friend on Facebook.Cohen, Deborah
Former Lehman's banker drives startup Zimride
''Reuters''. September 15, 2010. Green had posted details about his new company called Zimride, which interested Zimmer, who had been keeping a journal about carpooling ideas.Shah, Semil
Why Zimride's John Zimmer Left Wall Street to Start a Company
''TechCrunch''. April 19, 2012. Within a week of being introduced, Green flew out to New York City to meet with Zimmer. Zimride launched the first version of its ride-share program at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

where, after six months, the service had signed up 20% of the student body.Sullivan, Colin
Startup Bets that Social Networking Will Spur Carpool Craze
''New York Times''. July 29, 2009.Schomer, Stephanie

. ''Fast Company''. January 5, 2011. Later in 2007, Zimride was active on both the Cornell and UCSB campuses.Booking a ride in someone else's car
''Smart Planet''. April 9, 2012. Green and Zimmer promoted the service through

guerrilla marketing Guerrilla marketing is an Advertising, advertisement strategy in which a company uses surprise and/or unconventional interactions in order to promote a Product (business), product or Service (business), service. It is a type of publicity. The ...

campaigns; in particular, the pair would dress in frog suits and hand out flyers to students on the Cornell campus. Green and Zimmer moved to Silicon Valley to work on growing the company, sharing an apartment that doubled as their office. The two did not take a salary for three years. In 2012, Green and Zimmer shifted the company's focus to their bigger mission of providing an alternative to car ownership. That year, the company launched a smartphone app that allowed users to request rides more frequently and for shorter commutes rather than long-distance trips as Zimride had previously done. In May 2013, the company reincorporated as

and sold Zimride to

Enterprise Holdings Enterprise Holdings, Inc. (doing business as Enterprise Mobility) is an American private holding company headquartered in Clayton, Missouri, in Greater St. Louis. It is the parent company of car rental agencies Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Nationa ...

Lyft (2013–present)

, Green and Zimmer raised $4.1 billion dollars for

, valuing the company at $11.5 billion. The company debuted on the

Nasdaq The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

exchange in March 2019, with a value of $24.3 billion. In March 2023, Green announced that on April 17, he would step down as Lyft CEO and become chair of its board of directors.

Recognition

In 2014, Green and Zimmer were named in Inc. Magazine's "35 Under 35 list".

Personal life

He is married to Eva Gonda Green, daughter of

Louis Gonda Louis L. Gonda (born 1949/1950) is an American businessman, active in commercial real estate and venture capital. Early life He is the son of Leslie Gonda, a Hungarian-born American businessman and Holocaust survivor, and his wife Susan. He has ...

. Green stated he exercises 20–30 minutes daily.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Green, Logan Living people Lyft people American technology chief executives American computer businesspeople American technology company founders Year of birth missing (living people) University of California, Santa Barbara alumni