SEASON 1 EPISODE 1 with

episode transcript +

Ride Sharing for a Reason w/ Lyft’s Mike Masserman Season 1, episode 1

Guest: Mike Masserman, Head of Social Impact, Lyft

AARON KWITTKEN Broadcasting from the 10 Hudson Square Building, home of WNYC Radio in Soho, New York, Welcome to Brand on Purpose, the podcast dedicated to uncovering the untold stories behind the most impactful purpose-driven companies.

I’m very excited today to welcome my guest, Mike Masserman, head of Global Policy and Social Impact at Lyft, the ride sharing service. Mike joined Lyft in 2014 as senior director of International Government Relations, where he built out the company’s Federal and Policy Partnership teams. Mike, also in previous lives before joining Lyft, was with the Obama Administration. He also was Presidentially appointed by Obama as the Executive Director for Export Policy Promotion and Strategy for US Department of Commerce. And, Mike is also a former attorney or reformed attorney having practiced both in Australia, as well as in New York.

And what’s most interesting about Mike, I think, is that he is Lyft’s first ever Head of Social Impact. And Lyft has been in the news a lot lately, not just because of their public offering or the public offering by their rival Uber, but because they’ve done a lot to focus on giving back.

So recently, they committed a minimum of $50 million dollars a year, or 1% of profits, and Mike correct me if I’m wrong in saying this, whichever is greater, to continue improving city life through grass roots initiatives; things like providing free, safe and reliable transportation to victims and first responders in times of crisis, or, and this one I think is equally super cool, the Lyft Grocery Access Program which offers deeply discounted rides to low income families who live in or around food deserts. Mike Masserman, welcome to Brand on Purpose.

MIKE MASSERMAN Thank you so much for having me.

AK Well, it’s great to have you here. So, first off, let’s just talk a little bit about why Lyft decided to appoint, not just you, I can get that part, but why they decided to put together a job spec of Head of Global Policy and Social Impact.

MM Look, social impact has been at the forefront of what Lyft has been doing long before I got here, and it actually traces its roots back to the Zimride days. And social impact is embedded into the company’s mission, the mission to improve people’s lives as the world’s best transportation. And this truly comes to life in every aspect of the company. I really came on board to help coordinate these efforts, provide strategic guidance, and programmatic structure.

And I think a couple of interesting points, first, is that the social impact team here is based in the policy team. And because we believe that we should be focusing on impact and having the most authentic impact that we can have, and have it rooted in sustainable policy. So whether it’s immigration, refugees or climate: we use our platform to take unique action.

So, that means providing rides for people who need help, like a year ago when families were being separated, we provided rides for immigrants to get to legal appointments. Or taking action on climate by us being carbon neutral. We also use our voice. That means taking a stand on issues like the Muslim ban or on issues like climate. When we pulled out of Paris, we continued to be involved with the We are Still In initiative. And, it also means calling for policy change like we did with DACA and like we recently did with our mission standards.

So social impact here is really holistic. We think about our broad community of riders, passengers, partners and employees. And I can tell you that from an employee perspective, we know that a vast majority of people that come to Lyft come because of the values and because of the social impact work.

AK I think that having social impact become part of policy and really baking it into the business model and into the ethos, or more appropriately as you said, kind of bringing the ethos of the company to the fore, is very innovative and, sadly, not done in a lot of companies that are purpose driven.

How do you navigate what I would call kind of internal policy vs. external policy so the things that you do to give back, like you just mentioned, which I think are incredibly powerful and very authentic, and then also things that you do to maintain a safe environment and a fair environment for drivers and riders? Do you have to navigate those two things? I know the company does, but how do you balance and prioritize those two? I think that they’re very symbiotic but I bet sometimes there’s tension between those things.

MM Well, they are symbiotic. And what I’ll say is that we’ve always been a company that leads with values. And we have a community of riders and drivers who also care very much about those things. Let me just give you an example of how we take a lead from drivers.

Many years ago, in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, we had drivers who wanted to go out and help the community. And folks were asking us, “Hey, how can we help during this crisis?” and so what we did is we created what we then called The Relief Rides Program, now we call it a Wheels for All Program. And we geofenced areas in Texas and then Florida to provide free rides to shelters and hospitals.

These are the kinds of things that our drivers get really excited about and they’re the kinds of things that riders also see us, and they see how we live out our values and so I think it is symbiotic. I think safety is the foundation of our entire platform, and I would actually argue that safety is the foundation of the entire sharing economy. And I think you don’t have to focus on one and then not have to focus on the other. I think you really can do both.

AK What does it feel like? Just take our listeners through this journey. Let’s say we were walking through the halls of Lyft. What does that culture feel like? How do you onboard people? How do you recruit people? I would imagine that you don’t even have to recruit people because people know what Lyft is all about; that you are values first and that you are purpose driven, including drivers themselves. But just walk me through kind of the values and how you articulate them and how those get manifest throughout the halls of Lyft.

MM Absolutely.

AK And the roads, right?

MM I can tell you that when I first came to interview five years ago and I walked in, the vibe felt like the Obama ’08 campaign office, just everyone was really collaborative. It’s a really inclusive community. You’ve got three real core values.

The first one is be yourself, which I absolutely love because this is the idea that we want you to bring your authentic self to work. We don’t want you to be a different person at home and be a different person here. We are hiring people for who they are and that really comes to life in the way that we think about our LGBTQ community and in the way that we think about a whole bunch of other communities that are really important.

Because if we’re creating this culture where people get into a car with a stranger and should feel included, we absolutely have to have that here. And I think that that really starts from the founders, and they really do care about the way we treat each other, and then that stems into the way we treat riders and drivers and passengers and even how we collaborate with officials who sometimes we have heated negotiations with.

And the second value is uplifting others. And this is, again, this is something that John and Logan have focused on ever since the Zimride days. What we’re doing isn’t just getting people from point A to point B, that’s obviously really, really important. But it’s also this notion of building connections and thinking about our community and thinking about how we can make our communities greater and how we can help create a sense of respect and dignity within the car.

And the last one is make it happen. And for us, it’s not just the end goal. It’s how we make things happen, and so as you walk around the halls of Lyft, you can sense that it’s a vibe of people who really care about purpose who really care about mission and who really care about each other.

AK Tell me a little bit about what you learned from serving in the Obama administration and how you’re applying those learnings to your role now and how you go about living these three values. And, the reason why I ask is because not long ago I had the great opportunity to interview a man named Andrei Cherny.

I don’t know if you know him, but he is the CEO and founder of a very cool purpose driven financial services firm called Aspiration. And he, too, served in the Obama administration. He actually founded what is known today as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

And it struck me that people who have had some part of their career in public service and then they kind of go back into the private world have learned so much and been able to really understand the intersection between purpose and profit. I’m just wondering if there are certain things that come to mind that you may implicitly or explicitly do because of your time in the Obama administration, or just working in government in general.

MM Well look, joining the Obama campaign in ’08 was a transformative moment in my life. I’d been an international corporate lawyer in New York and Australia. I’d seen Obama speak a few times and really, in ’08, felt like we were at this crossroads in history. And when I joined the campaign, it was one of the first times in my adult life where I realized that when you’re advocating for something that’s greater than yourself, when you’re leading with values, for me that was what it was all about.

And I had the privilege of joining the administration, first off, in a role where I was running the office of advisory committees in Industry Engagement and Commerce, and so I was really learning about policy through the lens of the private sector. And then the second role, like you said, I was overseeing President Obama’s National Export Initiative. And I got to work with different foreign ministers, but also, I got to work with Mayors and Governors and folks at the sub-national level.

And so I learned the importance, I would say, of the sub-national level, that so much of the action is actually happening in the cities. And when I came to Lyft, what we realized was that as important as the federal policies were, really, we had to go state by state, city by city, to make sure that we were getting transportation network laws on the books. And so, I think one of the lessons was not just thinking about, the sort of like, flashy big picture policies, but really going in and working closely with city councilmembers.

The second thing was really about collaboration. Working on the Obama campaign and in the administration, in order to get things done, you really had to work across all these different teams. On the campaign, you’ve got to work with the comms team, the political team, the field team. And in the administration from where I sat, when we were launching initiatives like a Doing Business in Africa campaign, we had to work very closely with our colleagues at State, at Treasury, at USTR, at USAID in order to get things done and so the ethos of collaboration I thought was really important and really really valued here.

And, I think the last one is really standing up for what you think is right. Look, I come from a family of immigrants. My grandparents emigrated from Russia here to the US at the turn of the century, and my mom’s parents immigrated to Israel. And I was always brought up with this understanding that there was a right and a wrong. And that you had to stand up for what you think was right. And coming to Lyft, I really felt like the founders and the company stood for the same values that I had. And they really wanted to create policy, not just in that collaborative manor, working closely with cities, working closely with the city officials, but also to do it in a way that was in line with our values.

And so, when there were issues early on when I got here around these bathroom bills, what I found interesting was that at the same time, while we were advocating for these state laws for transportation network companies in these states, we were also standing up and saying, hey, we want to create an inclusive community. We can’t just have these rules on the books, we have to have them in a way that’s in line with our values. And I very much learned that from my time in the Obama administration and I feel like it’s really been applicable here at Lyft.

AK The immigration point is so interesting. My mom is actually a holocaust survivor and my father’s family is from Odessa. Actually, Kwittken means little flower in Ukraine. Now the world knows that, or the 10 people listening to my podcast. And, I do think I see a huge difference in people who come from first generation or have these very, and we’re all immigrants really, is the truth of it, and we should never forget that. I do think that there’s a level of work ethic and also empathy that is just, I think it’s almost genetic at this point in many of us. That makes us feel like we need to be part of this giveback and we need to understand that we’re part of a fabric that’s much bigger than us, right? That’s what I’m hearing you talk about as well.

MM Yeah, totally agree. I mean look; immigrants are an engine of ingenuity here in our country. And we have a ton of immigrants and refugees that are on our platform as riders and drivers and folks who are dreamers who are employees here. And so, having come from a background and understanding the importance of immigration in our country and the importance of immigration on our community I think has been really important for me.

AK And I know this is a shout out to the founders but be yourself, uplifting others and making it happen I think are three great kind of north stars if you’re allowed to have three north stars for any company or anybody leading any sort of life or any sort of mission or campaign and I really applaud you guys for that.

So, I’m just kind of curious and you might not want to answer this, but how did the actual idea of having someone in your role come about? Is it that you went to the founders, went to others and said, hey we need to do this? Sounds like it was also very organic because, obviously, Lyft is a very values-based social purpose driven company but, like, there had to be a moment at which you’re like, “Hey guys. You know, I’m kind of done on this policy stuff. I can find a successor and I’d really like a bigger platform. I think that there’s an opportunity to put together this larger tapestry of purpose that really brings our best selves forward.” Is that kind of how it happened?

MM Well, I think it happened organically and it happened intentionally. So, I got brought on to help Lyft Global, running International Government relations. Then, I quickly took over the Federal Team instead of the Policy Partnerships Team and in doing the policy partnerships, that’s really where I saw our values take life.

And again, it was even as simple as how we treated our partners and our regulators and officials and drivers and really this notion of infusing humanity into everything we did. And so a few years ago, I wrote a memo to John and Logan about why values matter and how we should really start talking about our values in a much more explicit way because certainly everyone here in the building, and certainly people had an understanding that Lyft were the nice guys, but it was way, way, way beyond that.

And, it wasn’t even about others in the ride sharing space. I really believe that you stack us up against any other company, not even just companies in the tech sector, and our values will measure up to theirs and even be greater. And so, the memo made its rounds within Lyft, but I ended up transferring to the strategy team. And there’s a point in time where I was working on the strategy team and helping on Federal and Policy partnerships and that’s when we had our big ACLU moment. Where we gave $1 million dollars to the ACLU in the wake of the Muslim ban and, for a lot of people, that’s the first time they had heard about Lyft leading with values.

But for a lot of us, we knew that this was something we’d been doing all along and long before any of us even got there. And so, it was a few months after that moment, where John and Logan asked me to come back and really start the social impact team.

What was really important for me was that it was rooted in policy. And while we have incredible stories to tell, and I actually do sit on the Marketing Leadership Team, the notion of having social impact rooted in policy and for us to reimagine the way that impact is built into the fabric of the business, was really, really exciting.

And that’s the kind of team that we’re looking to build and for us it’s about utilizing this superpower that I like to call around transportation. Because we know there is an immense amount of barriers when it comes to transportation for populations all across the country. And so, look, it’s really an honor of a lifetime to be able to start building this team because you’ve got founders who genuinely believe that this is important to the business and important in society.

AK So your superpower is now going to diversify, right? So you’ve got investments and things like Waymo, bikes, scooters. How is that going to help bolster the social mission for the company?

MM Well, look. First off, I firmly believe that when you lead with values it creates value. And I'm sure we'll get into it a bit more about Lyft City Works but I also believe that the more you focus on impact the more your business is going to grow. And the more your business grows the more impact you can have.

And, so when I talk about a superpower in terms of transportation, it's not just about the rides. The rides can have a huge impact. It's also about thinking about things like the environment, where we know that transportation is the second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. And sustainability is a hard thing. But John and Logan care very, very deeply about climate change and doing everything we can to combat climate change.

And that's why last year, we decided to have all the rides be carbon neutral. And now, a year later, we’ve offset over 2 million metric tons of carbon and we've now invested in electric vehicles. The future vision of Lyft is to have a network of shared electric autonomous vehicles. And we've also taken strides to integrate our app into public transit, and now we have bikes and scooters on our app. So when we think about issues like sustainability, it’s really being thought about in a holistic manner and we think that there’s going to be huge opportunities for us to grow the business like that.

AK There are so many things; it would take three hours to talk about everything. But at the end of the year, you sit down with the founders. What is it that you're going to say or what does the annual report look like in terms of impact and the KPI’s? How are you holding yourself accountable, not just to drivers and folks like me who are on the app and using the app, but also to shareholders and others out there? What are the things you're going to point to and you’re going to say, “You know what? This is why we do what we do and this is why we're so successful at it, purely through this lens of purpose.”

MM Well, look. I think that the more we focus on purpose, the more we actually do have a chance to grow. And the more we grow, the more purpose we get to have. So, I think in the wake of our IPO when we launched Lyft City Works, again this is $50 million dollars or 1% of our profits, whatever is greater.

We have these three buckets and these buckets allow us to really focus on, first and foremost, providing transportation to those who need it most. And so, when we look back, we want to look at these programs like Grocery Access and say, “Hey, we were successful in this program.” And right now, we know that there are almost 24 million Americans that live in food deserts. And we launched this as a pilot in DC in January of this year and now we're launching it all across the country. We want to be able to point to programs like that and say we really had impact on these folks who needed it.

And, the second part is this idea of developing transportation infrastructure. This is the first year that we have bikes and scooters. And as we launch bikes and scooters in city, we want to do it in a different way. Here in Oakland, we partnered with an entity called Transform to go into underserved areas in Oakland and build bike and scooter infrastructure in places where people had never done that before. We want to look back and say, “Hey, it wasn’t just about us launching bikes and scooters all across the country, it was doing it in the unique way that’s aligned with our values, having the most impact we can have.”

And that last bucket was really on that clean energy future. And look, I’ll say it again, but sustainability is not an easy issue. This is an issue that’s really hard for consumers, especially, to really get their heads wrapped around. We talked about doing carbon offsets. People said, “How are you going to tell that story of carbon offsets, Mike, it’s really hard?” Because a lot of our offsets are happening in factories in Michigan and they’re sort of these esoteric ideas. Bringing that to life for folks is really, really important. And staying true to our values and doubling down on issues like sustainability are really important to us.

And then, we also want to look back and say we were taking stances on all the right issues. When I think back on our time here, whether it’s March For Our Lives last year, where we did rides, or whether it’s the rides to the polls, focusing on specific engagement in any way we can in the most creative and authentic ways we can. I think is something that’s really, really important.

I think the last part is about cities and building connections and connectivity. And I’m really, really proud that last week we announced that we’re adding gender pronouns into the app. This is bringing our values to life. This is bringing that inclusivity that we have here at Lyft to our riders and our drivers. And it’s also, at the same time, taking a stand, at a time right now where transgender rights are being threatened, adding pronouns to the app is a bold move. And, I want us to look back at the year and really be able to say that we led with values, we had as much impact as we could and we really did make our cities more livable.

AK How many pronouns? Do you remember?

MM
Well, our line is Two is Too Few. I think there are five. What we do know is that, honestly, two is too few. It’s 2019, times need to change. And one thing I’m really, really excited about is that when we think about pride, for us, it’s not just about sponsoring the festivities, which is really fun and aligned with our values, it’s showcasing Human Rights Campaign on our app. We have a round up and donate feature so pastures can get involved. It’s about showcasing our LGBTQ drivers who we want everyone to treat with respect and dignity. And it’s about volunteering at a local level. All of our local offices can really bring their own values to life so it’s a really exciting time.

AK I love it. I think that’s super cool. One of the reasons why I ask about the number of pronouns is because a few months ago we launched a campaign with our client OKCupid and, I don’t know if you saw this, if not, I’m happy to send it to you. There are more than 20, actually, on the dating app OKCupid.

And one of the reasons why I loved working with that company is because they’re provocative, because they lean in, they’re unafraid, they’re one of the first apps, actually, to have a Trump filter. Controversial at the time. That's who they are. That's what they're known for, right? They want to be inclusive and give people options and choices and Lyft feels very much like the ride sharing, probably not the words I'm using to correctly describe Lyft because I know you're changing all the time but it’s like the equivalent of what OKCupid is in the dating app world.

So, one of the questions, and this is because my background is in reputation management and crisis and issues, are there any issues that you would steer clear from? Are there any issues or policy topics that you’d be like, “Ooph, we just can’t go there right now. Guys, we’re just not ready.” Or is everything on the table if it makes sense and if it aligns with your values?

MM Look, I think first and foremost, we’re focused on transportation. So places where we can have the biggest impact is wherever we’re going to focus and in times of natural disasters. Like, just last week there were floods in Ohio, we did rides. And, in the Midwest during the polar vortex, we did rides. And really focusing on everything through that lens of transportation is how we are going to have a focusing mechanism. And then, thinking about equity and inclusivity in the broad sense, we have a very diverse community. We will stand up when that community is threatened but we’ll always go back to thinking about how transportation can have that impact and how we’re doing it in a way that can make our cities more livable.

AK I appreciate you saying that because you think about brands, I guess Pepsi will never be on this podcast, but Pepsi thinking that they can comment on social justice, right? And I often say, do they have permission? Is it relevant to who they are and what they do? And the answer is no. Whereas, like you said, if it’s related to transportation, and you can have a meaningful impact, then it’s something that you can get behind.

MM Yeah and look, that’s why even when I think about elections and there’s debate, oh my gosh, should we get involved with the elections? And the answer is, absolutely. Because 16 million people in 2016 who were registered to vote didn’t vote because of transportation related issues. So we knew that doing rides to the polls wasn’t a political or partisan thing, this was a civic engagement. This is about making sure that all of our employees and passengers and drivers could get registered to vote, had a voting plan and then could get to the polls. And so there’s ways of really leading with your values without having to focus on the politics of it.

AK So how do you take care of your own personal purpose, your own agency? What do you do outside of work that makes you feel like you’re able to live your own values in addition to this enormous job you obviously have at Lyft?

MM Well, a few things. I mean look, having grown up in Southern California, I grew up surfing and hiking so really caring about the climate has been a big thing for me. And my brothers and I actually wrote a kids book last year. We launched a publishing company called Chasing it All Publishing.

AK Cool.

MM And we came out with a book called Chasing the Sun. It’s a story about Tiki the Turtle who goes on an adventure on the island trying to figure out where the sun goes after is sets. And it’s a book that touches upon climate but really focuses on this notion of that the journey in life is what’s most important and I’m really proud to say that we were the number one children’s book…children’s turtle book on Amazon when we first launched.

AK I like how you say Children’s Turtle book, just to be specific.

MM Super specific. But look, I actually got involved with A26 Valencia here in San Francisco and I recently joined the board of A26 National. And this is David Eggers nonprofit that’s focused on inspiring youth to be creative. And a lot of communities don’t focus on creativity. And I was lucky that my grandfather was a journalist, my aunt was a writer, my uncle was an artist and my parents really helped us think about the importance of creative writing and being really creative. And a lot of communities and a lot of families don’t necessarily have that luxury, I’d say. And so through A26 National, I get the chance to work with incredible people who are helping young people think about the importance of creativity. So I try to live my life aligned with my values and certainly the Chasing the Sun book was that.

AK Well, I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to put links to that and I really want to see a copy of Why Values Matter, even if it’s like a redacted Mueller report type thing. I’d love to see a copy of that.

MM I can neither confirm nor deny if we can get you that.

AK There you go, all right. We’ll work on that. What’s interesting, so you know, you come from a family full of storytellers but sounds to me like you’re story-doing, not just storytelling and I think that’s amazing. What’s the best way for our listeners to follow you and Lyft on social to keep up with what you’re doing? Because it sounds like you’re doing something almost every week at this point.

MM Yeah, well, look I’d say that for Lyft, we’re on Instagram, we’re on Facebook, we’re on Twitter. And on Instagram, we’ve been doing some really interesting stories on immigrants. Some of the drivers that we have on our platform have these incredible stories and I’m really excited that we’ve been able to showcase these stories on Instagram lately. And then my own social media, I have to say I’m not that active on social media. You know, back in government, we were always really careful about what we posted and I’ve carried that ethos through here at Lyft. But you can follow me at @mikemasserman. I’m starting to get a lot more active on Instagram, so look out world.

AK Yeah, exactly. Especially after your appearance on this podcast, right?

MM Absolutely.

AK Listen, man. It was awesome having you on the podcast. Keep doing what you’re doing. I love it. We’re going to keep following you as well, and I look forward to having you on again.

MM Thanks so much for having me, this was great.