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