This article contains content that is written like
an advertisement. (May 2022) |
John Zimmer | |
---|---|
Born | March 14, 1984 |
Nationality | American |
Citizenship | United States |
Alma mater | Cornell University School of Hotel Administration |
Occupation(s) | Co-founder and President of Lyft |
Partner | Cristina García Rivas |
Children | 1 |
John Zimmer is the co-founder and former president of Lyft, an on-demand transportation company, [1] which he founded with Logan Green in 2012. [2]
In March 2023, Zimmer announced that in June he would step down as Lyft president and become vice-chair of the board of directors. [3]
Zimmer grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut. [4] In 2006, Zimmer graduated from Cornell University School of Hotel Administration where he was a member of Sigma Pi Fraternity. [5] After graduation, Zimmer worked as an analyst in real estate finance at Lehman Brothers in New York City.
Zimmer left Lehman Brothers three months before it declared bankruptcy. [6] In 2007, while Zimmer was working at Lehman Brothers, he and Logan Green founded Zimride, a ridesharing platform across college campuses. [7]
While at Cornell, Zimmer was inspired to develop a rideshare program by filling the empty seats he had during his rides home over school breaks. [8] Logan Green had also been thinking along those lines and had started "Zimride". [9] [10] Zimride launched the first version of its rideshare program at Cornell University where, after six months, the service had signed up 20% of the student body. [11] [12] Later in 2007, Zimride was active on both the Cornell and UCSB campuses. [13]
Zimmer quit his job at Lehman Brothers to work with Green full-time on Zimride. [11] Green and Zimmer focused the service on carpooling between connected users and making carpooling fun and interesting. [14] By April 2012, the company was renamed Lyft and had raised $7.5 million in funding and was active at over 125 universities. [9] [10] [15]
After leaving his job at Lehman Brothers, Zimmer moved to Silicon Valley with Green to work on Zimride full-time. [16] Lyft was launched in the summer of 2012 as a service of Zimride, [17] [18] before Zimmer and Green officially changed the name of the company from Zimride to Lyft. Zimmer did not take a salary during the first three years of Lyft's operation, and he and Green worked on the company out of an apartment they shared. [16]
Zimmer is married. He met his wife while studying abroad in Seville, Spain; [19] they have a daughter. [20]