Lyft CEO David Risher shares key lessons he learned from Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos
Lyft
CEO
David Risher
said he has spent years working with two of the biggest names in business —
Bill Gates
and
Jeff Bezos
and is now applying the lessons he learned from both of them to shape his leadership at Lyft. Risher joined Lyft as CEO in 2023. In a letter to employees that year, he shared what he had learned from his earlier jobs: "From Microsoft, I learned how to compete ...
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From Amazon, I learned how to obsess over customers," he wrote.
Lyft posted record-high ride numbers in 2024. Risher says he's relying on another important lesson he picked up from Gates: focus more on weaknesses than on strengths.
Lyft CEO on lesson he learnt from Bill Gates
Risher recalled a key moment from the 1990s when he saw Gates answer a question at a Microsoft conference. Gates was asked about plans for Excel, which was already very popular at the time.
"Gates just very honestly, and frankly, very directly said, 'I don't spend any of my time thinking about Excel because I know that right now we've got [around] 60% market share, and I know that's going to go to 80 or 90 ... I don't have to worry about that. I don't have to think about that," Risher told Fox Business in March 2024.
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At the time, more than 30 million people around the world were using Excel. Gates' thinking, Risher explained, was that it was better to focus on weaker areas where improvement was needed, instead of spending time on products that were already successful.
Tackling Lyft's challenges head-on
In a letter to shareholders in April 2025, Risher praised Lyft's "best-ever results" in 2024, but quickly turned to the company's ongoing challenges.
"Looked at as a whole, the
rideshare
experience had become worse than it was a decade ago," he wrote.
To better understand Lyft's problems, Risher said he regularly becomes a driver himself.
"Every six weeks or so, I open my Lyft Driver app and hit the road. It's the best way to understand the experience of drivers, to pick up on frustrations we can improve upon, and to talk to riders. I love every minute of it," he wrote.
One big complaint he noticed was about
surge pricing
— the practice of raising ride prices when demand is high. After hearing frequent complaints from riders, Risher asked his team to work on fixes. These included adding more drivers and giving riders the option to lock in set prices ahead of time for regular trips.
"By the end of 2024, we could see that these were the right investments when drivers chose us at record rates," Risher wrote.
Risher also admitted he hasn't always gotten it right in the past.
"Over the years, I've made mistakes on both ends — avoiding the work of diving into a troubled area, swooping down on issues that don't matter, the works," he wrote.
Still, he believes focusing on weaknesses is key to leadership success.
"But I've never met a great leader who isn't curious about the details," Risher added.
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