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Comment by heavenlyblue | Hacker News Reader

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Lyft's platform choices in 2023 wasn't the driving cause of their initial funding round success in 2007.

Lyft (actually Zimride at the time) grew up when both the iPhone was new and a bunch of people lost their jobs from a stock market crash.

A tech stack decision from 16 years in the future isn't in play here.

Also we sold the company and walked away with enough zeros for me.

It's seems quite common for software to seriously rot after success. At the start, technical excellence goes a long way. At some later point, the selling point is no longer the software itself, and instead just the network of existing users.

You need groups with the courage of their convictions and a curated list of courageous convictions.

That's the motivation of a startup. Reid Hoffman talked about it in blitzscaling although that literary style is my own

Propriety software has a shelf life. Free software that people actually use does not rot.

Enshittification

>Also we sold the company

What companies are in the market to buy a ride sharing company?

I'm guessing Lyfy and Uber would (might?) buy you for your customer acquisition- but I'm not getting the feeling that is what happened.

Is there another genre of business that is interested in buying a ride-sharong business?

Many local cab companies have their own apps, even if they often also drive for Uber.

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