Humans of Lyft Science: Early Days of Lyft
By: Viviana Hernandez, Shuang Wu, Nick Ung, Jason He, and Kelly Haberl
For many of us, it’s hard to imagine a world without Lyft. Three of our awesome data scientists — Balaji, Chris, and Prachi — have been with Lyft since the formative days and participated firsthand in the evolution of rideshare. In this article, they share stories of the early days at Lyft and their experiences since joining.
Balaji Chandrasekhar
Balaji joined Lyft in May 2015 from a B2B software company. He was looking to work on a consumer-facing product and was searching for an office located in San Francisco. Lyft fit both requirements so he decided to join this fast-growing company.
Q) What is your favorite memory or favorite fact about the early days at Lyft?
The atmosphere at the Lyft office was creative and whimsical like the emerging Lyft brand. There were pink noodles hanging everywhere, from the reception desk to the offices, and even a pink mustache decorated the elevator.
Q) How did Lyft grow and survive the competition in the early days?
It was consistent battling with the competition on ride pricing, app features, shared rides, and launching in new markets. Lyft and Uber were really neck-to-neck racing to ramp up in new markets. I remember being in a meeting discussing how Lyft would launch in a new region, and a peer announced Uber launched in that region that day. We canceled the meeting and switched to a faster launch plan.
Q) Why have you stayed at Lyft?
I cherish the fast growth of Lyft in the last 10 years. I have always been fascinated by the interesting problems Lyft has faced and continue to be motivated by them. The entire Lyft community is super supportive and friendly which makes the culture feel like family.
Q) How has our Data Science community changed at Lyft?
The Data Science team has grown a lot. Data Science and Data Analytics were about thirty people when I joined Lyft. Now, the team is a few hundred people. Even with this rapid growth, I am impressed by the diverse backgrounds of the Data Science team members. Many early members were from financial and consulting backgrounds, but now we have more specialized scientists with backgrounds in operations research, transportation, statistics, data science, computer science, etc. This diversity enables the Data Science Team to work on the most difficult problems as an innovative leader in the transportation industry.
Q) What is the best piece of advice you heard when you first started? Is this still the best piece of advice or are there any updated words of wisdom?
Find a buddy to build a strong relationship with when you first start at a new company. Building meaningful connections can make your onboarding and life a lot easier when blending into the company and team.
Q) What is your favorite project that you have worked on at Lyft?
The creation of Power Driver bonuses. In a Lyft ride home from the office, my driver talked about this bonus and expressed how they loved the bonus structure and were motivated by it. I was very moved by this candid conversation, where this work was recognized by the driver and I had made an impact in their life.
Q) If you were a Lyft mode, which one would you be?
An e-bike or scooter as they are not only a convenient city transportation solutions, but also green and clean.
Q) Pink mustache or no?
The Glowstache (this was a chargeable mustache that would light up on a driver’s dashboard) is my favorite!
Chris Sholley
Chris is a founding member of Lyft — even before Lyft got its name. Chris joined Zimride in 2011 as a summer intern after meeting Jason Rosenfeld and Logan Green at a university career fair. Zimride was Lyft’s predecessor and focused on long distance carpooling at scale. Coming from an operations research background, Chris was interested in solving matching problems and applying math to drive strategic decisions, so a small company focused on rideshare was an exciting opportunity.
Q) What is your favorite memory or favorite fact about the early days at Lyft?
Lyft’s large and open office on Clara Street in San Francisco where every Friday afternoon the whole company would gather for “Guac O’clock.” Because the office was so open, it was impossible not to participate.
Q) What change at Lyft are you most proud of?
The sheer number of incredible people who now work at Lyft. When I was an intern, the entire company consisted of a dozen people working in an office that had a garage door; now there are thousands of employees and the Data Science organization is world-class.
Q) Why have you stayed at Lyft?
As a goal-oriented person, I feel there are still ambitious goals at Lyft I am working to achieve.
Q) What is the best piece of advice you heard when you first started? Is this still the best piece of advice or are there any updated words of wisdom?
The value of diving deep, even though it might feel risky because you don’t know what you’re going to find. The process may be time consuming, but it is ultimately the only way to make progress — to continue asking “why” until you get to the root of the problem.
Q) If you were a Lyft mode, which one would you be?
Shared rides, without a doubt. I am a friendly person and I embrace serendipity and efficiency.
Q) Pink mustache or no?
Of course, life would be boring without a little whimsy.
Prachi Sharma
In June 2017, Prachi joined Lyft from economic consulting because she was familiar with and used the product, the company was fast-paced, and she could see herself making an impact. In 2017, Lyft was more physically concentrated than today — especially compared to our current remote flexibility. Prachi recalls sitting in the “PIT” — a centralized space where the analytics team worked in the San Francisco office.
Q) What is your favorite memory or favorite fact about the early days at Lyft?
My first team at Lyft was composed of four data scientists, all of whom were women, including the manager, which is rare in the tech industry. It was an incredible experience to work with such a collaborative and supportive group of women and, while I am not on this team today, we all remain friends.
Q) What change at Lyft are you most proud of?
One of my proudest moments was being the first member of the Community Safety Data Science Team. The team works on a lot of different things — measurement of safety incidents, finding ways to decrease gaps in reporting, measuring perception-related metrics like sentiment and awareness, etc. Additionally, I am proud of the data infrastructure changes that Lyft has made. In the early day, the Data Science team sometimes had to run queries at night or early in the morning due to computation limitations during peak-hours. Now the team has tools like Amundsen (data discovery tooling), Presto (SQL query engine), and better infrastructure that allows for higher efficiency.
Q) Why have you stayed at Lyft?
I enjoy diving deep into a space and I have that opportunity often at Lyft. I am also able to work on different problem spaces and I have the freedom to explore other roles on various teams and within different organizations at Lyft.
Q) How has our Data Science community changed at Lyft?
From the perspective of diversity, I have seen the birth of DIG (Lyft’s Diversity and Inclusion Group in Data Science) and its evolution. DIG was created to have a more concrete focus on diversity and inclusion in the Data Science community at Lyft. I was one of the first leads to spearhead DIG, which now includes a team of 50 volunteer scientists — you can read more about DIG’s efforts here. Another large change was the decentralization of the Data Science team. Data Scientists are now embedded in the various product teams allowing them to specialize in an area of the business, to be more productive, and drive more impact for Lyft.
Q) What is the best piece of advice you heard when you first started? Is this still the best piece of advice or are there any updated words of wisdom?
Meet as many people as you can, especially in diverse functions and on diverse teams. This is great advice because it gives you the ability to figure out who is working on what problems and to see how you fit into the bigger picture of Lyft’s mission.
Q) What is your favorite project that you have worked on at Lyft?
The Community Safety Team’s efforts to develop Safety Check-ins. When Lyft notices an anomaly with a ride such as an unexpected route, Lyft sends a message to the rider to ask if they need help or if they would like to report a safety concern.
Q) If you were a Lyft mode, which one would you be?
A Lyft Wait and Save ride as I am an introvert at heart and a bit frugal.
Q) Pink mustache or no?
I am ambivalent. Lyft AMPs, a glowing emblem for drivers, are more distinctive and useful.
Interested in having experiences like Prachi, Chris, and Balaji? Check out our careers page!
