Kristin Sverchek.
Lyft
Lyft President Kristin Sverchek is full of optimism for 2024. “I’m excited to just move — I have a bias to action,” she told Business Insider. Sverchek’s insights are part of Business Insider’s year-end leadership series, “Looking Ahead 2024.”
After 11 years at Lyft, Kristin Sverchek stepped into the president’s role earlier this year.
She was the ride-hailing company’s first general counsel, helped take Lyft public, and was named president in July.
She’s gotten more comfortable using her voice over the years, despite certain leadership muscles being “hard to develop,” Sverchek recently told Business Insider.
After all, working in male-dominated fields of tech and law isn’t easy.
“It took a lot of grit and resilience and it took me challenging myself to speak up even when I didn’t feel comfortable,” Sverchek said. “There’s a sort of thing that my husband and I say to each other, which is like ‘If I were a man, how would I handle this?’ And so sometimes it helps me to apply that rubric to a situation.”
Sverchek’s insights are part of Business Insider’s year-end leadership package, “Looking Ahead 2024,” which digs into vision, strategy, and challenges across corporate America.
The following has been edited for length and clarity.
What are you looking forward to most for 2024?
What I’m really excited about is that right now it’s feeling like we have all of these little building blocks that we’re putting into place at the company. Right now the executive team is super engaged in our annual planning process, thinking about a few of the big initiatives that we’ve got going on. So I’m excited just to get going on those things, because right now we’re talking about them and we’re making sure that we have resourcing and staffing. And I’m excited to just move — I have a bias to action.
What are you you most worried about for 2024?
The last few years, they’ve been big with a lot of change. And so, while I think change is important, and it’s good, I worry that if we have another COVID-like curveball, that would be tough. That was something that was so unpredictable in so many ways. That would be worrisome to me. That said, I don’t think that’s going to happen. So I’m really full of optimism for the new year. But, you know, I wouldn’t be a good lawyer if I didn’t worry about some things.
What’s one thing you got right in 2023?
Staying at Lyft. It was a big deal for me having our cofounders leave. I had met these guys in 2010. And, you know, we have a wonderful working relationship. We worked together for many, many years. And so, for me, it was a big decision about whether I still had a place at the company without them here but ultimately I felt so strongly about the brand, the mission, the people at the company, our new leadership that I decided to stay and you know six-plus months into that decision, I can say resoundingly it was the right one.
What’s one thing you got wrong in 2023?
Gosh, so so many things. I don’t know if the question is this broad but parenting I feel like is a constant journey where you’re getting things wrong all of the time and you’re always learning.
Work-wise, I think one thing that I got wrong was I was really worried about how quickly we were moving on our Women+ Connect launch. Were we going to be ready? And, you know, did we need to spend a little bit more time, for example, into the new year to perfect it. I’m a careful person by nature and, in fact, the product that we went out with was really wonderful. And so I was wrong to be hesitant about that.