Logan Green

Logan Green
Born	Logan D. Green Template:Birth year and age
Nationality	American
Occupation	Entrepreneur, business executive
Known for	Co-founding Lyft and Zimride
Spouse(s)	Eva Green
Awards	Fortune 40 Under 40 (2015)

Logan D. Green (born c. 1984) is an American entrepreneur and business executive who co-founded the ride-hailing company Lyft alongside John Zimmer in 2012. Before Lyft, Green and Zimmer created Zimride, a long-distance ridesharing platform launched in 2007 that connected drivers and passengers through social networking technology. Under Green's leadership as chief executive officer and later chairman of the board, Lyft grew from a small San Francisco startup into one of the largest transportation network companies in the United States, providing over one million rides per day by mid-2017 and expanding its service to all 50 U.S. states. Green stepped down as CEO in 2023 and departed Lyft's board of directors entirely in August 2025, concluding a two-year succession plan. Following his departure from Lyft, Green was appointed to the board of directors of Yelp in August 2025.

Early Life

Logan D. Green grew up in Los Angeles, California. His early experiences with transportation in the car-centric city shaped his later interest in alternative mobility solutions. In a 2016 profile by the Los Angeles Times, Green discussed how the congestion and car culture of Los Angeles influenced his thinking about how people move through cities.

Green's interest in ridesharing was reportedly catalyzed during a trip to Zimbabwe, where he observed the informal minibus taxi systems that served as shared transportation networks. The communal approach to transportation he witnessed abroad stood in contrast to the single-occupancy vehicle culture dominant in the United States and prompted him to consider how technology could facilitate similar ridesharing models in American cities.

While still a student, Green became involved in transportation policy. He served on the board of the Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District, engaging directly with the governance of public transit systems at a young age. This experience provided him with insight into the institutional and regulatory challenges facing public transportation in the United States. Green's early involvement in transit governance was unusual for a college-age individual and foreshadowed his career-long focus on transforming how people travel.

Education

Green attended the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. During his time at UCSB, Green's interest in sustainable transportation and ridesharing deepened. His involvement with the Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District's board of directors while still an undergraduate gave him practical experience in transportation policy and public-sector decision-making. The university environment also exposed Green to the possibilities of combining technology with social networking to address transportation inefficiencies, ideas that would directly inform his founding of Zimride shortly after graduation.

Career

Zimride (2007–2012)

In 2007, Green co-founded Zimride with John Zimmer. The company was conceived as a long-distance ridesharing platform that leveraged social networking to connect drivers with empty seats to passengers heading in the same direction. The name "Zimride" was inspired by Zimbabwe, a nod to the shared transportation systems Green had observed during his travels in the country.

Zimride initially targeted college campuses and corporate environments, providing a platform through which students and employees could coordinate rides for longer trips. The service integrated with Facebook, using social connections to build trust between riders and drivers — a concept that was relatively novel in the late 2000s. The idea was that people would be more willing to share rides with individuals they had some social connection to, even if indirect, rather than complete strangers.

The company gained traction on university campuses, partnering with institutions to offer the ridesharing service to their student bodies. Green described the early growth strategy in a 2010 interview with Fast Company, discussing how the campus-focused approach allowed Zimride to build dense networks of users in specific geographic areas.

In September 2011, Zimride secured $6 million in new financing, a significant fundraising milestone that signaled investor confidence in the ridesharing model. The New York Times reported on the funding round, noting that Zimride intended to use the capital to expand its service and fill more empty car seats across the country. The funding round helped Zimride scale its operations and explore new market opportunities beyond its initial campus-focused model.

In December 2011, Zimride acquired Ticketfly's event ridesharing technology, further expanding its capabilities in connecting people traveling to common destinations.

Founding of Lyft (2012)

While Zimride focused on longer-distance ridesharing, Green and Zimmer recognized an opportunity in urban, on-demand transportation. In 2012, they launched Lyft as a peer-to-peer ridesharing service that allowed individuals to request rides from nearby drivers using a smartphone application. The service was initially distinguished by its friendly, community-oriented branding, including a prominent pink mustache (known as the "carstache") affixed to the front of drivers' vehicles.

Lyft entered a market that was already being reshaped by Uber, which had launched its black car service in 2010 and its lower-cost UberX service around the same period. However, Green and Zimmer positioned Lyft as a more approachable and community-driven alternative. The company encouraged passengers to sit in the front seat and engage with their drivers, and its early marketing emphasized themes of sharing and connection rather than luxury or convenience alone.

John Zimmer later described the founding journey in a 2017 interview with Business Insider, recounting how he and Green transitioned from the campus ridesharing model of Zimride to the real-time, urban ride-hailing model of Lyft. The Zimride long-distance ridesharing platform was eventually sold to Enterprise Holdings in 2013, allowing Green and Zimmer to focus entirely on building Lyft.

Growth and Expansion of Lyft

Under Green's leadership as CEO, Lyft experienced rapid growth throughout the mid-2010s. The company expanded its service area from a handful of cities to a nationwide footprint. By July 2017, Lyft announced it was providing over one million rides per day, a milestone that underscored the scale of the platform's adoption. By October 2017, the company had delivered its 500 millionth ride, as reported by CNBC.

Also in October 2017, Lyft became available in all 50 U.S. states, cementing its position as a nationwide transportation platform. The following month, in November 2017, Lyft launched in Toronto, marking the company's first expansion into an international market.

The company attracted significant investment throughout this period of growth. Alphabet's growth equity fund, CapitalG, led a financing round in Lyft, reflecting the interest of major technology companies in the ride-hailing sector. The backing of Google's parent company was seen as a significant endorsement of Lyft's business model and competitive positioning.

Throughout this growth phase, Lyft competed intensely with Uber for market share, drivers, and riders. Green and Zimmer consistently sought to differentiate Lyft through its brand identity, its treatment of drivers, and its emphasis on shared transportation as a societal good rather than merely a commercial service.

Lyft IPO and Later Leadership

Lyft went public on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker symbol LYFT. The initial public offering was a major milestone for the company Green had co-founded, transforming it from a venture-backed startup into a publicly traded corporation.

As a publicly traded company, Lyft faced increased scrutiny from investors and analysts regarding its path to profitability, its competitive dynamics with Uber, and its long-term strategic direction. Green continued to serve as CEO during this transition, navigating the challenges of operating a public company in a highly competitive and rapidly evolving market.

Departure from Lyft (2023–2025)

Green stepped down as CEO of Lyft in 2023, transitioning to the role of chairman of the board of directors as part of a broader leadership succession plan. John Zimmer similarly moved from his role as president to vice chairman of the board.

On August 14, 2025, Lyft announced that both Green and Zimmer would step down from the company's board of directors, completing the two-year succession plan that had begun with their departure from day-to-day executive roles. As part of their departure, Green and Zimmer converted their Class B shares, which had carried enhanced voting rights, effectively relinquishing the additional control they had maintained over the company since its founding.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the departures wrapped up a carefully planned transition designed to hand full operational and governance control of Lyft to its professional management team and independent board members. Reuters noted that the move marked the end of the co-founders' formal involvement with the company they had built over nearly two decades, beginning with Zimride in 2007.

Post-Lyft Career

Shortly after his departure from Lyft's board, Green was appointed to the board of directors of Yelp Inc. on August 25, 2025. Yelp announced the appointment, citing Green's experience in building and scaling technology platforms. The appointment signaled Green's continued involvement in the technology sector in a governance capacity following his departure from the company he co-founded.

Personal Life

Logan Green is married to Eva Green. Green has maintained a relatively low public profile regarding his personal life compared to some other technology industry executives. His public statements and interviews have generally focused on transportation, urban planning, sustainability, and the business of ride-hailing rather than personal matters.

Green's interest in sustainable transportation has been a consistent theme throughout his career, stemming from his early experiences growing up in Los Angeles and his observations of shared transportation systems during travels abroad.

Recognition

In 2015, Green and co-founder John Zimmer were jointly named to Fortune magazine's "40 Under 40" list, which highlights influential young leaders in business. They were ranked number three on the list that year, reflecting Lyft's rapid growth and its impact on the transportation industry.

Green was also featured in Inc. magazine's "35 Under 35" list, which recognized emerging business leaders and entrepreneurs. The profile highlighted his role in building Lyft into a significant competitor in the ride-hailing market.

Green has been a featured speaker and participant at major technology industry conferences, including TechCrunch Disrupt, where he appeared in 2015. His public appearances have generally focused on the future of transportation, the sharing economy, and the competitive landscape of ride-hailing services.

Legacy

Logan Green's primary legacy is the co-creation of Lyft and the broader influence he had on the development of the modern ride-hailing industry. Along with John Zimmer, Green helped pioneer the concept of peer-to-peer ridesharing facilitated by smartphone technology, beginning with Zimride's campus-focused model in 2007 and evolving into Lyft's on-demand urban transportation service in 2012.

Lyft, under Green's co-leadership, played a significant role in establishing ride-hailing as a mainstream mode of urban transportation in the United States. While Uber is often credited as the first major player in the space, Lyft provided competitive pressure that influenced pricing, driver treatment, and service features across the industry. The company's emphasis on community and its branding as a friendlier alternative to Uber helped shape public perceptions of ride-hailing services more broadly.

Green's early work with Zimride also contributed to the broader sharing economy movement of the 2010s, demonstrating that technology platforms could be used to unlock the value of underutilized assets — in this case, empty seats in cars traveling between cities. This concept influenced subsequent entrepreneurs and companies working in adjacent sectors of the sharing economy.

The transition of Lyft from a founder-led company to one governed by professional management and an independent board, completed with Green and Zimmer's departure in August 2025, represented a maturation of the company and a model for how founder-led technology companies can plan for leadership succession.

As of late 2025, Lyft continued to operate as a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq exchange, serving millions of riders and drivers across the United States and beyond — a direct outgrowth of the ridesharing vision Green first pursued nearly two decades earlier.