Masters in Business · Wednesday, July 8, 2026
Lyft CEO David Risher discussed his formative experiences at Microsoft, where he was the first product manager for the Access database, and later at Amazon, where he joined as employee number 37. At Microsoft, Risher learned the importance of understanding customer needs by observing users of competing products. His transition to Amazon was prompted by a call from Jeff Bezos himself for a reference check, which ultimately led to Risher playing a key role in scaling Amazon's US retail operations from $15 million to $4 billion in revenue.
“And really all that meant is my job was to go around and watch other people you use competing products at the time paradox debase again, products that don't even exist anymore, and try to pay attention to what they were doing with these products, how were they using them, where were they stumbling?”
“Remember, the company had maybe ten people at this point, was very very small, very very small. But he had a big vision. You know, he was going to be Earth's biggest bookstore.”
“He said, if we play our cards right, and as you say, it was a fifteen point six million dollar store at the time, so tiny, tiny little thing. He said, if we play our cards right, maybe by the year two thousand, this is a nineteen ninety six, we might be a billion dollar company. Maybe maybe, but a lot has to go right in order for that to happen.”