Lyft Director of Product Leaves Amid Spate of Departures

By Serena Saitto  

Lyft Inc. is losing more executives.
Ryan Fujiu, director of product at Lyft, recently left the San Francisco-based ride-sharing company, the startup confirmed. He had joined Lyft in January from self-marketing startup about.me, where he was head of growth, according to his LinkedIn profile. Erin Simpson, a Lyft spokeswoman, declined to comment on the reasons for the departure.
The exit follows that of Chief Operating Officer Travis VanderZanden, who left Lyft in August. His departure was accompanied by those of Steve Schnell, Lyft’s vice president of operations, and Art Henry, vice president of data engineering. VanderZanden joined rival car-booking application Uber Technologies Inc. this month as vice president of international growth.
VanderZanden, Schnell and Henry all joined Lyft last year after the company bought their startup Cherry.com, an on-demand car-wash service provider. They left after disagreements with Lyft’s co-founders, Logan Green and John Zimmer, over how
the company was being run, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation, who asked not to be identified because the details are private.
Simpson confirmed the departures and declined to comment on the reasons.
The exits contrast with the hiring that rival Uber is doing. Apart from bringing on VanderZanden, Uber hired David Plouffe, a former top political adviser to President Barack Obama, in August to be senior vice president of policy and strategy. In March, Uber hired former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker Cameron Poetzscher as head of corporate development. The San Francisco-based startup landed a $17 billion valuation in a $1.2 billion financing in June.

Lyft’s Recruiting

Lyft said it is also hiring. New recruits include Brian Roberts, previously senior vice president of business development for Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s e-commerce business, as senior vice president of partnerships and corporate development. The startup also hired Pradeep Elankumaran and Brendan Lim, the co-founders of photo-sharing app Kicksend Inc., who have both taken senior product roles at Lyft.
“Lyft has made more than 30 recent hires on the product and engineering teams, as well as an SVP of partnerships and corporate development and the senior leadership team from Kicksend,” Simpson wrote in an e-mailed statement yesterday.
Green and Zimmer co-founded Zimride, a ride-sharing company, in 2006. In 2012, the company morphed into Lyft. The startup has raised more than $330 million, including $250 million in April. Its investors include Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Andreessen Horowitz. Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, is an investor in Andreessen Horowitz.
To win customers and users, Lyft waived commissions for months, while giving away rides for at least two weeks as it began services in new markets. Lyft operates in 65 cities in the U.S., while Uber is in 220 cities in 44 countries worldwide.