Transcripts
Lyft, Inc.'s management answers for the business every quarter. These are the exchanges that explain it best — verbatim, from the call transcripts preserved in Sources. Each link opens the full transcript at that page in a new tab.
Q1 FY2026 Earnings Call — Q1 FY2026
The current playbook in one call: a partnerships-driven acquisition engine, an AV rollout moving city by city, and premium-mode mix lifting margin. · Open the full transcript →
How partnerships work as a customer-acquisition engine — 27% of ride requests, tuned to each partner's user base.
David Risher (CEO); Eric Sheridan (Goldman Sachs): So to your question, we got a record number of partnershiptagged ride requests this quarter, so about 27%. And that's a big deal. I think when we first started talking about this, we were at 20%, then 22%, then 25% and now 27%. Why? Two reasons. Number one, we partner with great organizations that have huge TAMs. […] For example, DoorDash customers tend to be very heavy users. And you can understand this: people eat three times a day, and they tend to take rides relatively more often than others. […] If you look at United Airlines, United tends to be more business customers. We out-index in some of United's big hubs, Chicago being a good example where we had great growth this past year. They tend to be airport rides, not surprisingly, which means higher bookings per ride, which tends to mean higher profits.
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The honest answer to slowing U.S. rides: growth is now in low-scale cities, while the largest, oldest markets flatten.
David Risher (CEO); Nikhil Devnani (Bernstein): North America is a huge region— super diverse, a lot of geographies and segments. What we have seen is in Canada for sure, and also in low-scale markets that we've been talking about for six or seven quarters, that's where we are seeing outsized growth. […] Low-scale markets are maybe the Milwaukees or the Pittsburghs—second and third-tier cities or even more rural areas where there's a huge amount of TAM left and it's underpenetrated. In some of the largest cities where rideshare has been active the longest, the industry on average is seeing slightly lower rates of growth or at least did see that this past quarter.
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Why gross bookings outgrow rides — premium modes up 35%, plus FREENOW, ads and luxury that aren't always ride-attached.
Erin Brewer (CFO); John Blackledge (TD Cowen): Part of what you're seeing is the continuation of a shift toward higher-value modes—up over 35% year-over-year in the first quarter. Adding the FREENOW business, which carries a higher average gross bookings per ride, is also helpful. Separately, we continue to diversify the things that add to our gross bookings where there may not be a ride attached— things like ads and luxury.
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The AV rollout, city by city: Waymo in Nashville on Lyft's fleet-ops backbone, Baidu in London, a city-level deal in Hamburg.
David Risher (CEO); Rohit Kulkarni (ROTH Capital): On AVs across the cities: Nashville is exciting—Waymo is on the road now. Later this summer, we start to take over operations of that fleet. We'll open an 80,000-square-foot center, and you'll be able to order a Waymo on the Lyft app in our hybrid marketplace there. It's going great. We've had extensive experience operating fleets through our FlexDrive subsidiary—about 50,000 cars that have driven billions of miles—giving us deep expertise in maintenance and availability. […] In London, our partner is Baidu. Baidu is highly advanced: their RT6 cars are rolling out and mapping is underway. It takes time with regulators and local street physics—narrow two-way streets and signaling dynamics—so London is a bit earlier in the process but on track. […] Hamburg is a different setup: we've established a partnership at the city level to be the AV provider there; we haven't given all the details today.
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Q4 & Full-Year 2025 Earnings Call — Q4 FY2025
The full-year framing: a market Lyft calls ~5% penetrated, the AV hybrid-network cost thesis, guidance discipline, and the one-time item behind reported take rate. · Open the full transcript →
The whole strategy in one arithmetic: a ~300bn-ride TAM, ~5% penetrated, so focus on the 95% (customers), not the 5% (competitors).
David Risher (CEO); Eric Sheridan (Goldman Sachs): Customer obsession is what drives our profitable growth. And I think I feel more strongly about that than ever, and let me use that as a way to kind of pivot to the next thing. If you think of our addressable market for a second, think of the 160 billion rides in the US and the same number in Europe because, of course, now we're a European operator, very important. 300 billion rides our addressable market. Let's say, let's cut that in third, just to be super conservative, call it 100 billion, just to make the math super easy. And remember that we do maybe a billion in our competition, you in total does maybe three or four billion. So maybe that's five billion out of the 100. Okay. So that's 5% penetrated, which shows there is an enormous amount of headroom. […] What it leads you to do is to focus on your customers, not your competitors. Because if you focus on your competitors, you're just fighting over the 5%, not the 95%.
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Guidance philosophy: run to top line and bottom line, and don't chase competitors' in-quarter promotional 'gimmickry.'
David Risher (CEO); John Blackledge (TD Cowen): We are a very disciplined operator. And the reason I say this is because we nerd you know, you when you identify as discipline, it means you have to decide what you're going to focus on. And we have decided, if quarter after quarter, and I think you've seen this, that we're going to focus on our top line and our bottom line. That's how we're going to run this business for our shareholders. […] It means that when you see some, you know, kind of promotional, you know, gimmickry or whatever it is within a quarter, you sort of look at it and say, well, okay, whatever. It's going to happen. But meanwhile, what we're really focused on is making sure we can deliver on the top and the bottom, in a customer-obsessed way. You don't get jumped by the marginal ride that's maybe not profitable
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Answering the take-rate question head-on: a $210m one-time reserve change, $168m of it against revenue, distorted reported revenue margin.
Erin Brewer (CFO); Michael Morton (MoffettNathanson): In our supplemental tables, we provided an EBITDA bridge. And in that bridge, it highlights a one-time impact of totaling about $210 million under the category of certain legal tax and regulatory reserve changes. It's important to note that a $168 million of that $210 million impacted revenue. So without that, our revenue would be closer to $1.8 billion, and you'd get a revenue margin that's, you know, pretty close to what we saw in the previous quarter.
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Q1 FY2024 Earnings Call — Q1 FY2024
The turnaround made concrete: four straight profitable quarters and first free cash flow, the marketplace mechanics behind it, and the AV debate first joined. · Open the full transcript →
The inflection stated plainly: a rebuilt cost base, ~$260m of adjusted EBITDA over four quarters, and the first positive free cash flow.
Erin Brewer (CFO): We've established a strong foundation for profitable growth. Our cost structure is in the right place. We've delivered four quarters of positive adjusted EBITDA totaling nearly $260 million. We've better aligned our financial disclosures with our strategic priorities, and we've begun to generate positive free cash flow.
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How the marketplace pays off: rides up 23% on lower Primetime, and driver preference plus demand-visibility make each incentive dollar go further.
Erin Brewer (CFO): Gross bookings were approximately $3.7 billion, up 21% year-over-year. This reflects strong rides growth, partially offset by lower total prices year-over-year, reflecting lower levels of Primetime given the significant improvements in the health of our marketplace. […] In our business, the combination of increasing driver preference and increasing drivers' visibility into rider demand is incredibly valuable. It means we can be more targeted and efficient in how incentive dollars are spent, even as drivers earn more.
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Competing on product, not just price — Women+ Connect and loyalty partnerships (Chase, Delta) at ~20% of rides.
David Risher (CEO); Eric Sheridan (Goldman Sachs): We are also innovating new segments, such as Women+ Connect, which has gained traction. For instance, one story shared was about a woman who can now finally take a nap during her Lyft rides, a luxury more commonly enjoyed by men. In the past few months, we've seen a 24-26% rise in new Women+ Connect drivers, indicating a growing interest among women in our platform. […] Partnerships play a vital role in our strategy, currently contributing to around 20% of our rides, including collaborations with Chase, where Sapphire members can earn 10x points, and Delta, where we're among only two partners enabling Delta SkyMiles accumulation.
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Q2 FY2023 Earnings Call — Q2 FY2023
David Risher's first full call as CEO — where the 'customer obsession' turnaround thesis, driver-preference push, and the cost reset were first laid out. · Open the full transcript →
The mechanics of the fix: driver preference up 25% vs Uber, driver hours up 35%, and Wait & Save giving riders a reason to shop inside Lyft's app.
David Risher (CEO): Among the drivers who use both Lyft and Uber, we have seen a 25% increase in preference for Lyft since Q4 of last year. And in Q2, the number of drivers using Lyft grew by more than 20% compared to Q2 last year, and driver hours increased even faster, up by more than 35%. […] Over on the rider side, we continue to see growth, and in particular, with Wait and Save, which is our most affordable rideshare option. So Wait and Save offers riders a way to save money when they aren't in a big hurry. This lets riders price shop within our app instead of going to the other guy. In Q2, Wait and Save trips grew by more than 40% year on year on year and reached new all-time records
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The thesis, stated: customer obsession over competitor-watching, and a two-strong-player market is good for riders and drivers.
David Risher (CEO): So in summary, you all, we are executing well on our strategy of being customer obsessed, and the results suggest this strategy is working. Riders and drivers want and value choice. It's in everyone's best interest for there to be two strong players competing for their business.
By obsessing over our customers, we can continue to differentiate ourselves and grow this market and we have an incredible team that's focused on these objectives.
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The cost reset in numbers: contribution margin 42% (+10pts), opex down 24% year-over-year to 40% of revenue from 54%.
Erin Brewer (CFO): Contribution margin was 42%, in line with guidance. Relative to Q2 of last year, contribution margin increased by 10 percentage points. […] In absolute dollars, contribution in Q2 '23 was $426 million, up 35% year over year. Operating expenses were $410 million, down 24% year over year, due primarily to our cost restructuring initiatives. As a percentage of revenue, Q2 operating expenses were 40%, compared with 54% in Q2 of the prior year.
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Capital-allocation instinct on a low-margin product: 'do the right thing, then do things right' — offer Wait & Save first, optimize margin after.
David Risher (CEO): First, do the right thing and then do things right. So the right thing is for us to offer an option in our app that allows our riders to choose to pay money when they want to and everybody likes the deal. […] Now any portfolio is going to have some lower margin and some higher-margin products. And I expect this will be a lower-margin product forever. But there's a lot of work we're doing behind the scenes to improve the profitability of it
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More calls
Q3 FY2025 Earnings Call — Q3 FY2025 · 10 pages · Progress on the Waymo/Nashville AV depot and FlexDrive fleet-ops pitch, plus the record free-cash-flow and buyback cadence. · Open →
Q2 FY2025 Earnings Call — Q2 FY2025 · 9 pages · Early read on the FREENOW acquisition and the European expansion economics that reshape the growth story. · Open →
Q4 & Full-Year 2024 Earnings Call — Q4 FY2024 · 5 pages · First full year of adjusted profit and the 2027 Investor-Day targets ($25bn gross bookings, 4% margin, >$1bn FCF) recapped against results. · Open →
Q3 FY2024 Earnings Call — Q3 FY2024 · 12 pages · Lyft Media build-out, Price Lock, and the partnership pipeline as new growth and margin levers. · Open →
Q2 FY2024 Earnings Call — Q2 FY2024 · 13 pages · The first quarter of positive GAAP net income, with Price Lock and the DoorDash partnership as the headline product moves. · Open →
Q4 & Full-Year 2023 Earnings Call — Q4 FY2023 · 41 pages · The full-year turnaround scorecard for 2023 — and the call marred by the widely-covered adjusted-EBITDA-margin guidance typo. · Open →
Q3 FY2023 Earnings Call — Q3 FY2023 · 38 pages · Wait & Save at scale and continued driver-preference gains as the customer-obsession playbook compounds. · Open →
Q1 FY2023 Earnings Call — Q1 FY2023 · 29 pages · The leadership handoff — co-founders Logan Green and John Zimmer step back and David Risher takes over day-to-day. · Open →