Shawn O’Malley and Daniel Mahncke break down the ride-sharing giant Lyft Inc. (ticker: LYFT) and discuss whether the company can regain ground against Uber, or whether it’s always destined to be #2. While Lyft has clawed back some market share, finally attained profitability, and is now growing internationally, Shawn finds Lyft most interesting as a potential acquisition target for a company like DoorDash, Amazon, or Alphabet.

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:02:18 - Why Lyft could be such an interesting acquisition target

00:11:58 - How the company has actually managed to regain market share versus Uber

00:13:36 - What Lyft did to achieve operating profitability for the first time this year

00:24:24 - How Zimbabwe became the inspiration for Lyft

00:31:30 - How Lyft’s co-founders used viral marketing to gain traction

00:32:05 - Why scrappiness is in Lyft’s DNA

00:33:14 - Why Lyft made sure to IPO before Uber

01:16:05 - How to think about modeling LYFT’s intrinsic value

01:19:00 - Whether Shawn and Daniel add LYFT to their Intrinsic Value Portfolio

*Disclaimer: Slight timestamp discrepancies may occur due to podcast platform differences.

BOOKS AND RESOURCES

The Investors Podcast Network is excited to debut a new community known as The Intrinsic Value Community for investors to learn, share ideas, network, and join calls with experts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign up for the waitlist(!)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Sign up for ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Intrinsic Value Newsletter.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Learn how to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠join us⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ in Omaha for the 2026 Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting.
Track ⁠⁠The Intrinsic Value Portfolio⁠⁠.
Shawn & Daniel use Fiscal.ai for every company they research — use their referral link to get started with a 15% discount!
Learn how to join us in Omaha for the 2026 Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting.
Acquired podcast’s coverage of the Lyft IPO.
Lyft’s CEO on the shift to robotaxis.
Value Investor’s Club pitch for Lyft.
Lyft’s S1 filing.
Check out our previous Intrinsic Value breakdowns: ⁠⁠Transdigm⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Salesforce⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Berkshire Hathaway⁠⁠, ⁠⁠FICO⁠⁠, ⁠⁠PayPal,⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Uber⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Nike⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Amazon⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Airbnb⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Alphabet⁠⁠.
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