Speaker 1: Let's start chronologically. When did Logan and John come to
Speaker 1: you and say, Hey, we have this idea, would you
Speaker 1: like to lead our company? It was first of all,
Speaker 1: I characterized it as a crazy idea of what we'll
Speaker 1: come back. Why is it crazy because it's outside of
Speaker 1: your CV what you've done in the past in a sense,
Speaker 1: But in another sense it isn't you know? I was
Speaker 1: at Amazon focused on the customer. I was at Microsoft
Speaker 1: focused on competing. I built a nonprofit against twenty million
Speaker 1: kids reading with very limited resources, so I'd do quite
Speaker 1: a lot with very little. That's the idea. Yeah. But
Speaker 1: they approached the board actually at the end of last
Speaker 1: year saying it was time for them to think about
Speaker 1: the next thing with your name or just generally speaking,
Speaker 1: at the end of last year, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 1: And then the board created a search committee, as they do,
Speaker 1: They hired a search firm as they do. They saw
Speaker 1: hundreds of people, dozens of strong candidates. In the end, right,
Speaker 1: it came to me and said maybe maybe you're the guy. Okay,
Speaker 1: So when they came to you, what was it that
Speaker 1: they wanted you to do? What was their kind of
Speaker 1: big pitch around? Why lift would be better under your leadership.
Speaker 1: You know, I think they're really proud of what they've created,
Speaker 1: and for good reason. I mean, the rideshare sector exists
Speaker 1: in large part because of Lift. They are the ones
Speaker 1: that introduced the whole concept of shared rides. They are
Speaker 1: the ones that introduced tipping for drivers and so forth.
Speaker 1: But I think they realized at a certain point it
Speaker 1: was time to pass the betime to somebody else. Right,
Speaker 1: you looked at my background and said, I think you're
Speaker 1: the guy. Do you go into this sort of acknowledging
Speaker 1: that LIFT is kind of a kind of increasingly distant,
Speaker 1: smaller second player and ride share. Now, well, I don't
Speaker 1: love the word increasingly, but I certainly do think it's
Speaker 1: number two. I'd like to reverse that, I do. That's
Speaker 1: the idea. So what it comes down to, and a
Speaker 1: lot of the analysts and investors talk about is diversification.
Speaker 1: What is your plan for LIFT at this early stage
Speaker 1: is does it remain a ride share business or do
Speaker 1: you JV with delivery other delivery platforms? Do you expand
Speaker 1: the business offering? Where's your head out of that? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I'll tell you where my head is as I
Speaker 1: reserve the right to change my mind, of course, because
Speaker 1: but look, I think our focus is right. And I'll
Speaker 1: tell you why. The United States is gone through a
Speaker 1: crisis where we've all been locked inside our houses, where
Speaker 1: we've all been locked outside of work, and we're coming back.
Speaker 1: And I think if you look at happy, well lived lives,
Speaker 1: bringing people together is a really, really good idea. And
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what, if you try to also deliver
Speaker 1: pizzas and packages at the same time, it might be
Speaker 1: a good business model. We'll see, But I don't know
Speaker 1: that it's a great experience for passengers. You're not ruling
Speaker 1: it out. Have to ask which expanding beyond just pure
Speaker 1: play rides shack not ruling it out, but really the
Speaker 1: focus is going to be on picking it up on time,
Speaker 1: matching price, making sure you get dropped off on time.
Speaker 1: That's the fault. I think what's so interesting about Lift
Speaker 1: is people use lift strange thing to say. But I
Speaker 1: went to our audience and I said, look, the new
Speaker 1: CEO of Lifts coming on the show, what should I
Speaker 1: ask him? And actually the majority of people say, when
Speaker 1: is Lift going to get? Outside of North America? There
Speaker 1: are people in Europe that want to know when lifts coming.
Speaker 1: Maybe the ideas that competition brings better pricing, but have
Speaker 1: you thought about that an international expansion. I mean, look,
Speaker 1: I love your second point. I do think that's right.
Speaker 1: I think competition is good for everybody, and that's a
Speaker 1: generic statement, but in this case, specifically, I think you're
Speaker 1: better off if you've got one service, and maybe they
Speaker 1: disappoin your little time you go to the other. We
Speaker 1: keep each other honest. Whether or not we'll go to Europe,
Speaker 1: that's for the future. There is a big question in
Speaker 1: the marketplace right now. Is left for sale? No? Not
Speaker 1: for sale? No? Do you see why people might think
Speaker 1: you coming in opens the door to that, you know,
Speaker 1: being acquired by a larger player that does something different,
Speaker 1: or does it not make sense to you? I mean, look,
Speaker 1: you know there's people can make these sorts of arguments
Speaker 1: about how aggregation is good. But my argument right now
Speaker 1: is unfocused. I'm really making sure that for our customers
Speaker 1: and for our drivers who are doing a great job.
Speaker 1: You talk about when you're at Amazon learning to obsess
Speaker 1: over customers, and I've been trying to work out how
Speaker 1: you obsess over people that take ride sharing. But I
Speaker 1: guess it comes down to pricing. I think it starts. Well, no,
Speaker 1: let me say it a different way. I think if
Speaker 1: you're not price competitive, you're not in the game. So
Speaker 1: let's just call it back. If you're not price competitive,
Speaker 1: you're not in the game. Is lift price competitive? That's
Speaker 1: our goal for sure. Whether we're there or not, that's
Speaker 1: to be determined. But for sure that's our goal. But
Speaker 1: I think then you build on top of that, and
Speaker 1: I really do think you can build over time differentiated
Speaker 1: products and services. I won't go there today, but I
Speaker 1: think that's where your seas got the phrasing that people use,
Speaker 1: this pricing war. And we're trying to monitor real time pricing,
Speaker 1: right lift versus uber in Manhattan or in New York
Speaker 1: City or here in the Bay Area. Are we already
Speaker 1: in a pricing war? Well, you tell me what have
Speaker 1: you felt? Well, there are anecdotal evidence, you know, where
Speaker 1: one ride in Manhattan maybe ten dollars cheaper on lift
Speaker 1: one moment, but more expensive than next. What is your
Speaker 1: goal in that respect is the bigger question. Our goals
Speaker 1: to match? Our goals to match. And look, if you
Speaker 1: get in a lift and you have a problem with
Speaker 1: the lift that the price is too high, or you
Speaker 1: don't get it because the price is too high. My
Speaker 1: email addresses David at lift dot com, so we know
Speaker 1: what we want to know. It really against plug your email?
Speaker 1: Do you know how many you might get? Sorry, we'll
Speaker 1: figure it out. You haven't had that much time to
Speaker 1: look under the hood, so to speak. But let's go
Speaker 1: back to some sort of financial basics. The concern is
Speaker 1: that a recession comes in the second half of this year.
Speaker 1: You've just pledged to match pricing with Uber. How does
Speaker 1: cash burn look there? For Well, look, I don't know
Speaker 1: that what I said as a pledge. To be clear,
Speaker 1: what I said is that's our goal. Now, how does
Speaker 1: cash burn look? There's two under the covers for me
Speaker 1: to go into right now. What I can say is
Speaker 1: to be a strong number two you have to be competitive.
Speaker 1: It's just that simple. So that's the business model. So
Speaker 1: we have to figure out how to do that. View.
Speaker 1: You've seen evidence already that lifts pulling in ride a ship.
Speaker 1: I don't want to talk about it because it'll give people,
Speaker 1: it'll make people connect dots in a funny way, but
Speaker 1: it's something I'm very focused on. Looking under the hood.
Speaker 1: What is good at Lift? What is the niches where
Speaker 1: lift is more competitive. Which cities do you feel you're
Speaker 1: stronger in than your direct competitor. But let me ask
Speaker 1: you a certain two ways on the city question, I
Speaker 1: probably can't go there. I will say there are certain
Speaker 1: cities where we have strength, and largely correlates to where
Speaker 1: have we been operating the longest. I'll give you an
Speaker 1: example of Portland, Oregon, is a city we have relative
Speaker 1: strength compared to other cities. We've been there a long time.
Speaker 1: The second thing, though, which I think is a real
Speaker 1: asset and is underappreciated, is millions and millions of people.
Speaker 1: A third of the US population has taken a lift
Speaker 1: since its beginning. Millions of drivers have made billions of
Speaker 1: dollars on lift. So this is not a small thing.
Speaker 1: This is quite a complicated thing. And building on that
Speaker 1: architecture is actually really I think it gives us all
Speaker 1: sorts of opportunities. When Logan and John came to you,
Speaker 1: did they kind of give you any into insight in
Speaker 1: what kind of rides are more profitable or better? You know,
Speaker 1: you talked about the shared ride experience pulled ride for once.
Speaker 1: For another expression those more profitable is that the future
Speaker 1: I'm trying to work out how you put your stamp
Speaker 1: on Lift and make it more competitive. Yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean I love the question, and of course I got
Speaker 1: a thousand ideas. Haven't you even said in the chair officially? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so a little too early, But I can say, yes,
Speaker 1: there are segments where I think there is some extra
Speaker 1: margin to be made, but you have to deliver a
Speaker 1: great service there. I want to be very clear. You
Speaker 1: can't just say I want to create margin that I
Speaker 1: want to raise prices or whatever without also having a great,
Speaker 1: great service and maybe even a service that's better for
Speaker 1: that segment. But you know, stay tuned. There's a cultural
Speaker 1: discussion around Lift as well, the brand, the market or
Speaker 1: demographic that it resonates with. There's this idea that broadly,
Speaker 1: a younger audience might use Lift over Uber. Do you
Speaker 1: lean into that or do you actually try and look
Speaker 1: a bit more broad to grow the company. Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 1: I've heard that too. I've looked at the data. I
Speaker 1: would say Lifts customers and Uber's customers are not as
Speaker 1: deferred as maybe you know some people think. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say that's going to be a real area
Speaker 1: of focus. I'm more interested in If people want a
Speaker 1: great rioters experience and don't necessarily want to get in
Speaker 1: a car that's just dropped off a pizza, then I
Speaker 1: want you as a customer for sure. Let's finally talk
Speaker 1: about supply. This was actually a really interesting story during
Speaker 1: the pandemic because of how gig economy work has behaved
Speaker 1: and demand. But what does supply look like to you?
Speaker 1: And it's a similar question, how do you get drivers
Speaker 1: to come and drive for Lift? Not for Uber, where,
Speaker 1: for example, they have a choice to not just drive
Speaker 1: people but also do deliveries as well. Yeah, well, look
Speaker 1: they do have a choice on deliveries. I'll say that
Speaker 1: the drivers I've talked to not always a huge fans
Speaker 1: of that choice. Double parking restaurant, get a ticket, have
Speaker 1: to get out of the car a bunch of times,
Speaker 1: maybe not a great experience, don't make as much money.
Speaker 1: So that's the value proposition for the driver on the
Speaker 1: Uber side. Look, the best way to get drivers is
Speaker 1: to get passengers. If you've got a lot of passengers,
Speaker 1: the drivers will come. Lift cut around seven hundred workers
Speaker 1: last year and cut costs many did. Actually that level
Speaker 1: isn't too severe as other companies you lean into your
Speaker 1: background working and leading and not for profit running with
Speaker 1: fewer resources to do more. Can you just talk me
Speaker 1: through how you take that mindset into a company like Lift.
Speaker 1: It will more layoffs come, more belt tightening or have
Speaker 1: you seen evidence that this is a company in good health. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The way I'd say that is I do think you
Speaker 1: can get a lot done with limited resources. That's what
Speaker 1: I've learned over the last thirteen years. But I'm not
Speaker 1: going to speculate about the LIFT specifically, though. Give me
Speaker 1: just one sentence your vision for LIFT under your leadership.
Speaker 1: So I'll say this purpose driven. Together, We're gonna lead
Speaker 1: with purpose because we want people to come out of
Speaker 1: their house and get out and go to the movie
Speaker 1: and so forth. We're going to be driven. It's kind
Speaker 1: of who I am, and I think it's a strong
Speaker 1: cultural thing and we're going to do it together.