There are plenty of companies headed by not-so-great people that are still thriving in business (e.g. NFL teams, Uber). That's what makes the presences of Lyft's founders in a cutthroat

place like Silicon Valley awesome. 

Logan Green and John Zimmer, Lyft's co-founders, want to win. They want to create a superior product and conduct themselves as company leaders better

than rival companies. But they aren't doing this by kicking Uber while it's down. Rather, they've demonstrated an even greater commitment to their principles of community betterment in recent moves

(next item on the list). 

While they've taken some light, corny jabs at Uber's PR problems, their satisfaction with their own work, the absence of toxic masculinity and

their continued self-focus make Green and Zimmer some of the coolest leaders in Silicon Valley.

Announced in October, Lyft's partnership with the Hispanic Heritage Foundation is an example of the genuine commitment to community improvement that makes the ride-sharing company so favorable. The

partnership entails Lyft supporting HHF youth with professional development and significant job opportunities with the company once HHF youth are ready to enter the workforce. Along with diversifying its company

personnel, Lyft is making the route to higher-level employment easier for thousands of Latino-American young adults. 

Along with a generous donation to the ACLU and not taking advantage

of protestors by hitting them with insane surge pricing, Lyft's attempts at uplifting underserved American populations are admirable. 

Lyft's origin story, so colorfully captured in this Vimeo video, is full of the kind of purpose and socially-mindful thinking that all giant tech startups should be founded

upon. 

As a Los Angeles native, Lyft co-founder Logan Green jokes that most of his life was "spent in traffic." Along with the obvious problems L.A.'s stagnant highways

presented to commuters and the environment, the number of cars Green observed containing just one person drove him mad. 

Ride-sharing with vehicles that people already owned was the core solution

to the problem of too many cars and too much isolation in our daily commutes. This emphasis on making car rides more valuable in terms of fuel saved, traffic cleared,

and connections made can be traced in the company's growth and its employees' demeanors from the founders to the drivers

Getting abandoned by an Uber driver you requested because he looked at you, said, "No," and peeled off (and getting charged $5 for it). Getting locked in a

car and forced to give a driver a 5-star rating. Whatever the ride-sharing horror story is, they seem to flow freely from Uber drivers and consumers. 

Multiple sources

of aggregate research and opinion suggest Lyft's customer service is above-average on friendliness and helpfulness (here and here). The prioritization of rider satisfaction over the bottom

line is what makes Lyft's driver representatives significantly more fun to work with. Not only have I never had a complaint for a Lyft driver's behavior or driving, I've received

amenities ranging from water and personal packs of gum to mini bags of Cheetos. Cheetos!

To this day, Uber defends its surge pricing method purely as a tactic to get more drivers on the road when demand for them is high. That is the kind

of cold logic that makes sense in terms of dollars, but not to riders who might end up paying a 3-digit figure for what is usually a relatively affordable ride.

The worst part is the Uber app notified riders of surge multipliers only *after* the ride was taken until late 2016. 

Lyft has surge pricing, but it's never

been anything like the absurd multipliers Uber has been reported to slap riders with. Even drivers loathe the practice, saying it encourages them to chase the surge instead

of relying on a steady, fixed rate that makes earnings more predictable.