Lyft’s Kristin Sverchek on Expanding Beyond Legal into Corporate Leadership

Introduction: 0:00

• Introducing Kristin Svercheck, President of Lyft. 
• Transitioning through roles as outside counsel, general counsel, president of business affairs before taking a company-wide leadership position.
• Leading a $2Bn+ IPO.
• Previously serving as partner at Silicon Valley Legal Strategy and associate at Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian LLP.
• Studying molecular and cell biology at UC Berkeley and realizing she preferred law to science.

Finding her way to Lyft: 3:51

• Representing investors for ZimRide, the predecessor of Lyft, as outside counsel.
• Showing leadership skills when fielding legality questions about the ride share app.
• Turning down job offers at Lyft before eventually accepting.

Taking on her first GC role at Lyft: 6:23

• Dealing with a steep learning curve between the responsibilities of outside counsel and being part of the company.
• Learning that GC is a fundamentally different job from outside counsel. 
• Using humility and acknowledging mistakes to build trust with her legal team and other departments.

Building a legal team at a rapidly growing start-up: 8:23

• Looking for hires with backgrounds different from her own, like litigation, employment, and insurance expertise.
• Searching for diverse lawyers who are better than the hiring manager.

Helping lead the IPO process: 10:48

• Going public even though it didn't feel inevitable.
• Building out legal and financial teams to handle the workload of preparing for the IPO.
• Thinking of start-up time in dog years.

Comparing work at public and private companies: 14:39

• Organizing your time around the demands of a quarterly calendar.
• Layering major projects on top of each other in order to fit them into quarters.
• Lowering your risk tolerance and understanding that the best answer is the satisfactory answer.

Dealing with the challenges of executive roles: 17:20

• Dealing with crises like being underfunded relative to your largest competitor and losing business during Covid-19.
• Hiring lawyers who possess resilience during stressful periods.
• Using the triumph of overcoming difficulties as a staff motivator.
• Knowing you’re only well-rounded if you’ve seen good and bad times.
• Managing stress, leading through transparency, and showing your work to your employees.

Transitioning into the President of Business Affairs role: 21:45

• Having a board member to motivate you to take on more work.
• Overseeing legal policy, business development, and global supply chain and expanding your team 10 times overnight.
• Recognizing that the worst way someone can respond to a question is by saying no.

Working with an executive coach during major career transitions: 26:08

• Ensuring that you can handle a shift from managing 150 employees to more than 1000.
• Guaranteeing that leaders can speak for themselves about what role they need her to play.
• Dropping in to help individual teams when necessary and bringing them together for quarterly planning.

Advice to lawyers who want to take on GC “plus” roles: 27:56

• Making sure you can take your legal hat off sometimes to maintain credibility in other fields.
• Reminding yourself that being a lawyer is no longer your only job. 
• Building trust in your CEO so they know you can lead non-legal tasks.

Defining and living her values at Lyft: 30:30

• Engaging in the political sphere and making new laws happen from day one.
• Taking political stands that directly affect your stakeholders, like the 2017 Muslim ban and Texas SB8.
• Being selective about your positions since you can’t take a stand on everything.
• Dealing with disagreements from employees and stakeholders.
• Understanding an issue from all angles before making an informed decision.

Taking on the role of President: 35:58

• Bridging the gap between a new CEO and the departments.
• Managing new and different products like Women+ Connect.
• Reflecting on whether you still consider yourself a lawyer as you work on a larger and more diverse projects.

Departing Lyft: 38:42

• Leaving after twelve years to take a break.
• Leading a long-term journey to make yourself redundant as you ensure the company can function without you.
• Leaving during a period of calm instead of a period of crisis.
• Reflecting on your proudest accomplishments at Lyft as you plan for the future.
• Professional pet peeves.

Book recommendation: 45:52

• Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

What you wish you’d known as a young lawyer: 46:58

• Viewing imposter syndrome as a gift.
• Understanding your fears through positive framing.