Masters in Business · Wednesday, July 8, 2026
Lyft CEO David Risher detailed his surprising appointment as CEO, which came about when the co-founders decided to step down. Initially hesitant, Risher eventually applied for the role after realizing the opportunity to leverage his experience from Microsoft, Amazon, and Worldreader. He acknowledged the company was facing financial and operational challenges, making the transition a significant undertaking.
“So the board did what it does. You know, boards do this. They form a special committee, they start to recruit look around. I wasn't on the committee. I was sort of watching, you know, from from a side. But as they say, then my phone rings one day and a Shawan on the phone with John and Logan and they basically say, you know what we've been thinking and as we've been looking at external people, frankly, we think we might have the right person to at least apply for the job.”
“I said, absolutely not really. Your frust reaction was, hey, thanks, but no things. Zero percent chance, zero percent. Wow. I literally said, you should hang up the phone right now because you got better things to do. There's just no way.”
“But you know what, as the day wore on, I found myself saying, you know what, this is a really interesting opportunity. How many people, you know, get this opportunity to run it? And I never run a public company before.”