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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. Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, not a state fund Lyft paid into, covered them in 2020; in 2021 Lyft sent them to Bluevine for PPP loans.

John Zimmer co-founded Lyft with Logan Green and was its president from founding until 2023 (Green's letter; TechCrunch). On April 29, 2020 Lyft laid off 982 employees, about 17 percent, furloughed 288 more and cut executive pay by 30 percent (TechCrunch); Green and Zimmer donated their salaries (Lyft, April 20, 2020). No PPP-fraud finding or relief-fraud action names Lyft or Zimmer.

Career

He studied hotel administration at Cornell and worked as a real-estate-finance analyst at Lehman Brothers (Cornell alumni story). He and Green built Zimride, the carpooling service that became Lyft.

Lyft's drivers and pandemic relief

Lyft was too large for PPP. Its drivers were not. As independent contractors filing Schedule C, they were the sole-proprietor population the CARES Act made eligible for PPP and for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.

On March 19, 2020 Lyft told drivers it would pay funds to any driver diagnosed with COVID-19 or placed under individual quarantine by a public health agency, calculated on the prior four weeks of rides (driver note). CNN reported in April 2020 that drivers struggled to qualify (CNN). On April 1 Lyft's "How the CARES Act Can Help Drivers" pointed them to Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (up to 39 weeks plus $600 a week), the $1,200 stimulus payments, self-employed sick-leave credits and "more small business loans, and some loan forgiveness available for self-employed individuals, through the Small Business Administration" (driver guidance).

Because Lyft treated drivers as contractors, it paid nothing into California's unemployment fund for them. When the state routed gig drivers to federal PUA in April 2020, KQED reported, the benefits came from federal taxpayers rather than the companies (KQED, April 15, 2020).

For PPP, Lyft named no lender in 2020. By March 2021 Bluevine was offering Lyft drivers "a digital Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan application built specifically for them." Bluevine said many drivers had been eligible in the first round but "struggled or didn't apply" (Bluevine announcement). Bluevine's banking partner was Coastal Community Bank.

Lyft put its COVID relief commitment at $6.5 million on April 20, 2020. That included about $1.5 million in driver protective equipment and cleaning supplies and $1.5 million in LyftUp ride credits (Lyft, April 20, 2020).

Proposition 22 and worker classification

Lyft funded California's Proposition 22 with Uber, DoorDash, Instacart and Postmates. The measure kept drivers classified as contractors and passed on November 3, 2020; Ballotpedia puts Lyft's contribution at about $49 million (Ballotpedia).

Massachusetts sued Uber and Lyft in 2020, alleging they had misclassified drivers as contractors. The June 2024 settlement had Lyft pay $27 million and Uber $148 million, most of it restitution to drivers, and set a $32.50-an-hour minimum for time spent on rides. The settlement took no position on how drivers should be classified (WBUR, June 27, 2024).

Their own relief

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

Since 2023

In March 2023 Lyft announced that Green would move from chief executive to board chair and Zimmer from president to a non-executive board role; David Risher became CEO in April 2023. Zimmer and Green left Lyft's board in August 2025 (Lyft release; his LinkedIn post). Lyft remains a public company (NASDAQ: LYFT).

Sources

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