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John Zimmer

Executive

Type
Person
Role
Executive
Updated

The profile

Lyft co-founder and president through the pandemic; Lyft's drivers were independent contractors eligible for PPP and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, and Lyft helped fund California's Proposition 22.

Identity and role

John Zimmer co-founded Lyft with Logan Green and was the company's President from founding through 2023 (Green's letter and TechCrunch). In March 2023 Lyft announced Green would move from CEO to board chair and Zimmer from president to a non-executive board role, with David Risher becoming CEO in April 2023 .

Biography / career arc

His Cornell hotel-administration degree and Lehman Brothers analyst role are cited to a Cornell alumni story; we do not have a copy. He co-founded Zimride, the carpooling service that became Lyft, with Green (Green's letter).

The company and its pandemic relief role

Lyft was too large for PPP, and its drivers were independent contractors: the Schedule-C, sole-proprietor population the CARES Act made eligible for PPP and for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. When rides collapsed in March 2020, the company's pandemic response ran through driver assistance and benefits navigation rather than payroll.

In a March 19, 2020 note to the driver community, Lyft offered supplemental funds to drivers diagnosed with COVID-19 or placed under individual quarantine by a public health agency, calculated on the rides they had given over the prior four weeks. It also walked drivers through how the new federal paid-leave and 1099 tax-credit provisions applied to them. Then, on April 1, 2020, Lyft published "How the CARES Act Can Help Drivers," steering independent-contractor drivers to Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (up to 39 weeks plus $600/week), the $1,200 stimulus payments, self-employed sick-leave tax credits, and "more small business loans, and some loan forgiveness available for self-employed individuals, through the Small Business Administration" — i.e., PPP. (Unlike Uber, Lyft built no lender partnership for drivers and named no lender; its driver page pointed only to SBA.gov.)

Lyft cut its own costs at the same time: an April 2020 SEC 8-K disclosed layoffs of about 17% of staff, furloughs and pay cuts (see the Lyft layoffs appendix). The company put a $6.5 million figure on its broader COVID relief commitment on April 20, 2020, including about $1.5 million in driver PPE and cleaning supplies and $1.5 million in LyftUp ride credits, and the release records that Green and Zimmer donated their salaries.

Lyft funded California's Proposition 22 campaign alongside Uber, DoorDash, Instacart and Postmates; the measure, which preserved the contractor model, passed November 3, 2020 (Ballotpedia, reports Lyft's contribution at about $49 million).

Their own relief

No Lyft corporate PPP loan and no PPP or EIDL loan to Zimmer personally is established in the public record.

No PPP-fraud finding or relief-fraud enforcement action against Lyft or Zimmer was identified. Lyft's pandemic-era legal exposure was worker classification.

Where they are now (2025–2026)

Zimmer moved out of day-to-day Lyft management in 2023 and, with Green, stepped off Lyft's board in August 2025 (Lyft release and his LinkedIn post). Lyft remains a public company (NASDAQ: LYFT) under CEO David Risher.

Sources held in this archive

Original source documents and archived captures

Sources

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