Zimride by

Enterprise Holdings Enterprise Holdings is an American private holding company headquartered in Clayton, Missouri in Greater St. Louis. It is the parent company of car rental agencies Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National Car Rental, Alamo Rent a Car and also operates s ...

was an American

carpool Carpooling (also car-sharing, ride-sharing and lift-sharing) is the sharing of car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car, and prevents the need for others to have to drive to a location themselves. By having more people usi ...

program that matched inter-city drivers and passengers through

social networking service A social networking service or SNS (sometimes called a social networking site) is an online platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interests, act ...

s. It was offered to universities and businesses as a matchmaking service.Car Sharing and Pooling: Reducing Car Over-Population and Collaborative Consumption
. ''Stanford University''. April 9, 2012.Sullivan, Colin

''New York Times''. July 29, 2009.Raymond, Rose
Stop Job Costs from Sucking Up Your Salary
''Fox Business''. April 19, 2012. The company was founded in May 2007. After the launch of the

Lyft Lyft, Inc. offers mobility as a service, ride-hailing, vehicles for hire, motorized scooters, a bicycle-sharing system, rental cars, and food delivery in the United States and select cities in Canada. Lyft sets fares, which vary using a dyn ...

app in May 2012 for intra-city rides, the Lyft app rapidly grew and became the focus of the company. Zimride officially renamed as Lyft in May 2013, and the Zimride service was sold to

in July 2013. As of July 2013, the service had over 350,000 users and had partnerships with

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

and

Zipcar Zipcar is an American car-sharing company and a subsidiary of Avis Budget Group. Zipcar provides vehicle reservations to its members, billable by the minute, hour or day; members may have to pay a monthly or annual membership fee in addition to ...

.Lazlo, Luz
Zimride offers college students cheap -- and checked out -- rides
''The Washington Post''. December 30, 2011.Nelder, Chris
Bikes, Car Shares and Buses: The New Transportation Era is Here
. ''The Txchnologist''. April 17, 2012.Kessler, Sarah
Zimride Brings Carpooling to the Masses
''Mashable''. August 17, 2011. In January 2015, the service removed the public ride sharing option and was offered solely as a matching service within universities and businesses. On December 31, 2020, Zimride suspended their Service indefinitely according to an announcement on their homepage.

History

Beginnings

The company was founded by

Logan Green Logan D. Green is the co-founder and CEO of Lyft, which he founded with John Zimmer in 2012. Lyft grew out of Zimride, a ride share company previously founded by Green and Zimmer in 2007.Chima, ChikodiTicketfly partnership makes music events mor ...

John Zimmer John Zimmer is the co-founder and president of Lyft, an on-demand transportation company, which he founded with Logan Green in 2012. Early life Zimmer grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut. In 2006, Zimmer graduated at Cornell University Schoo ...

, and Rajat Suri. Green developed Zimride after sharing rides from the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...

campus to visit his girlfriend in Los Angeles. He had used

Craigslist Craigslist (stylized as craigslist) is an American classified advertisements website with sections devoted to jobs, housing, for sale, items wanted, services, community service, Gig worker, gigs, résumés, and discussion forums. Craig Newmark ...

's ride boards, but wanted to eliminate the anxiety of not knowing the passenger or driver. He began working on the app after

opened its

API An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how ...

third-party developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

s.Bell, Josh
Two Startups Harness Facebook's Power to Connect Riders to Rides
''ABC News''. September 4, 2007. Zimmer was inspired by the empty seats he had during his commute from Upstate New York to New York City while an analyst at

Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1847. Before Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Gol ...

. As a student at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

, Zimmer took classes on transportation.Shaughnessy, Haydn
How to Win Friends AND Cut your Travel Costs
''Forbes''. November 18, 2011. After learning of the progression from

canals Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or river engineering, engineered channel (geography), channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport watercraft, vehicles (e.g. ...

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

s to

highways A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-access ...

, he viewed ridesharing as the next step towards efficiency. Noting that 80% of the seats on American highways are empty, Zimmer asserted that ridesharing is "a huge opportunity to create efficiency to save a lot of money and to reduce our environmental footprint.Booking a ride in someone else's car
''Smart Planet''. April 9, 2012. Zimmer and Green were introduced through a mutual friend and met on Facebook. Green had posted details about his new company called "Zimride", which interested Zimmer, who had been keeping a journal about carpooling ideas.Shah, Semil
Why Zimride's John Zimmer Left Wall Street to Start a Company
''TechCrunch''. April 19, 2012. The company name comes from the country

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

, where Green had observed locals develop a

grassroots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at t ...

public transportation system.Cohen, Deborah
Former Lehman's banker drives startup Zimride
Reuters. September 15, 2010.

Investments

In 2007, Zimride raised $250,000 in seed money from Facebook's fbFund, expanded to six employees, and took on

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

and Dartmouth as clients.Garthwaite, Josie
With $6 million in New Financing, Zimride has some Car Seats to Fill
''New York Times''. September 21, 2011. fbFund selected Zimride, along with ten other startups, out of 1,000 applicants.Zimride mini-doc @fbFund Rev 2009
''fbFund REV''. April 13, 2010. In August 2010, Zimride announced a $1.2 million round of

seed funding Seed money, sometimes known as seed funding or seed capital, is a form of securities offering in which an investor invests capital in a startup company in exchange for an equity stake or convertible note stake in the company. The term ''seed'' su ...

from FLOODGATE, K9 Ventures,

Keith Rabois Keith Rabois (born March 17, 1969) is an American technology executive and investor. He is currently a general partner at Founders Fund. He is widely known for his early-stage startup investments and his executive roles at PayPal, LinkedIn, Slide, ...

, and Teddy Downey.Tsotsis, Alexia
Carpool Community Zimride Lands $1.2 Million In Seed Funding
''TechCrunch''. August 23, 2010. In 2011, Zimride closed a $6 million

Series A A series A round (also known as series A financing or series A investment) is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in exchan ...

round of funding from the

Mayfield Fund Mayfield, also known as Mayfield Fund, is a US-based venture capital firm that focuses on early-stage to growth-stage investments in enterprise and consumer technology companies. Founded in 1969 and based in Menlo Park, California Menlo Park ...

, FLOODGATE, and K9 Ventures, bringing their total investments to $7.5 million.

Growth

In 2007, Green and Zimmer launched the first version of the rideshare program at

; in six months, the service had signed up 20% of the student body.Schomer, Stephanie
Zimride: Carpooling for College Students
. ''Fast Company''. January 5, 2011. Green and Zimmer promoted the service through

guerrilla marketing Guerrilla marketing is an advertisement strategy in which a company uses surprise and/or unconventional interactions in order to promote a product or service. It is a type of publicity. The term was popularized by Jay Conrad Levinson's 198 ...

; in particular, the pair would dress in frog suits and hand out flyers to Cornell students. Later, while on a Lehman Brothers recruiting trip, Zimmer was recognized by a potential recruit, who had seen him wearing a frog suit on campus. By 2007, Zimride was active on both Cornell's and UCSB's campuses. Zimmer later quit his job at Lehman Brothers to work with Green full-time on Zimride.Eldridge, Andrea
Compute: Recycle electronics and make greenbacks
''East Valley Tribune''. April 6, 2012. In April 2012, Zimride had 29 employees, and had facilitated more than 26,000 carpools.Takahashi, Dean
Zimride raises $6M for ride-sharing car service
''VentureBeat''. September 21, 2011.New, Catherine

''Huffington Post''. April 3, 2012. The service is active at over 125 universities including

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

UCSF The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It condu ...

Cornell Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, and the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

.Hargarten, Jeff
UMN Morris acquires ride-sharing network
. ''Minnesota Daily''. October 7, 2011. Universities pay around $10,000 per year to use the platform.
''Business Week''. Travel between San Francisco and Los Angeles was the most popular route on Zimride. In 2012, Zimride redesigned its website for use on

smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...

web browsers.Empson, Rip
Zimride Goes Mobile
''Tech Crunch''. April 5, 2012. The new version of the site was designed by

LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...

's mobile product and design lead Frank Yoo.

Lyft and sale to Enterprise Holdings

In May 2012, Zimride announced

, which allowed users to request a driver immediately and receive a ride anywhere. After the rapid growth of Lyft, led the company Zimride was renamed to Lyft in May 2013, and ultimately Zimride the service (excluding Lyft) was sold to

on July 13, 2013.

Structure

Users first selected a network that a given corporation or university had set up. A driver could post a trip and available seats in his or her car, along with personal details like smoking and musical preferences, allowing passengers to find a match for the destination.Carpenter, Susan
Here's a (cheap, green) ticket to ride form S.F. to L.A.
''Los Angeles Times''. August 17, 2011. The service only connected people that work at the same company or go to the same school, reducing anxiety and lack of trust which according to Zimmer, was the number one reason for past carpooling failure.Kwan, Connie
Zimride's John Zimmer
''Triple Pundit''. November 1, 2010. Creating a Zimride profile is free. The site uses an

algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specificat ...

that accounts for the distance to pick someone up and the time for detouring to a passenger drop-off point. The site then ranks the options and assigns a score to the best matches. Drivers decide what to charge passengers, although Zimride offers suggested charges based on gas costs.Koskey, Andrea
Website hooks up Bay Area drivers
. ''San Francisco Examiner''. December 28, 2011. Passengers can pay with

PayPal PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper ...

or credit card, and will receive a full refund if the driver fails to pick up.Schwartz, Ariel
Ridesharing apps that could change the way you get to work
''Fast Company''. The routes between San Francisco and Los Angeles and San Francisco to

Lake Tahoe Lake Tahoe (; was, Dáʔaw, meaning "the lake") is a Fresh water, freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada of the United States. Lying at , it straddles the state line between California and Nevada, west of Carson City, Nevad ...

are both public routes, which means drivers can sell seats in their cars to buyers, who purchase the trip like a plane ticket. The majority of Zimride users are women.Logan Green – Zimride
''Founderly''. April 18, 2012.

Zipcar partnership

In 2009, Zimride partnered with

to allow customers who have rented out a Zipcar to bring passengers on trips.Nassauer, Sarah
Zipcar Plans Partnership With Zimride
''Wall Street Journal''. April 8, 2009. The plan originated years before when Zimmer reached out to Zipcar CEO

Scott Griffith Scott Griffith was the chairman and chief executive officer of Zipcar, Inc. from February 2003 until his resignation on March 15, 2013, following the acquisition of Zipcar by Avis Budget Group. As of October 2020, Griffith is the CEO of Ford Autono ...

while working at Lehman Brothers.

Results and reception

The site had over 350,000 registered users as of July 2013. Representatives at the University of Southern California note that Zimride is "a lot different than reading a blank ad. It's been received well on campus".

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

noted "The Zimride brand promise is to reduce emissions, lower the annual strain on our transportation infrastructure and help everyone involved save money. They just may have a shot at making carpooling sexy". In 2009, Zimmer and Green were named finalists in ''

Business Week ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

s list of America's Best Young Entrepreneurs. Zimride has partnered with concert company

Live Nation Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. is an American global entertainment company and monopoly that was founded in 2010 following the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster. The company promotes, operates, and manages ticket sales for live entertainme ...

and music festivals

Bonnaroo The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is an American annual four-day music festival developed and founded by Superfly Presents and AC Entertainment. Since its first year in 2002, it has been held at what is now Great Stage Park on a farm in M ...

Coachella Coachella may refer to: * Coachella, California * Coachella Canal, in California * Coachella (festival), an annual music and arts festival in California * "Coachella – Woodstock in My Mind", a 2017 song by Lana del Rey See also

* Coachell ...

, and

Lollapalooza Lollapalooza (Lolla) is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991 but several years later made Chicago the permanent location for the annual music festival. Musi ...

to hold ridesharing contests that award users with prizes.Getting Here
''Lollapalooza''. Zimride has also partnered with Jack Johnson,

Dave Matthews Band Dave Matthews Band (also known by the initials DMB) is an American rock band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1991. The band's founding members were singer-songwriter and guitarist Dave Matthews, bassist Stefan Lessard, drummer and bac ...

, and

Sheryl Crow Sheryl Suzanne Crow (born February 11, 1962) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actress. Her music incorporates elements of rock, pop, country, folk, and blues. She has released eleven studio albums, five compilations and three li ...

to provide ridesharing to their events. Zimride users sometimes become friends with their passengers or drivers. Zimmer's goal for Zimride was to bring "communities together and help people save money".

References

{{Vehicle rental brands Carsharing Companies based in Palo Alto, California Enterprise Holdings 2013 mergers and acquisitions