How Lyft's president went from taking no salary for 3 years to running a giant startup worth $11 billion

For more than five years, Uber and Lyft have been locked in a battle to become the ultimate ride-hailing service. Uber has been the leader with a war chest of billions of dollars from investors. But it has come under fire for how it treats drivers and its employees.

Then there's Lyft, which is also worth billions. One of its biggest advantages seems to be its "nice guy" reputation. But it can be hard for nice guys not to finish last.

"We had a competitor that was trying to put us out of business with capital," Lyft's cofounder and president, John Zimmer, told Business Insider's podcast, "Success! How I Did It." "There was a point three years ago where they had 30 times the amount of capital as us and were trying to use it to give incentives to passengers and drivers such that people weren't using our service. And so it was hard."

On this episode, Zimmer tells us how he got rich by not caring about money, plus how he survived early startup years by living on a couch in an 'apartfice' and eating microwave meals from Trader Joe's.

You can find the full interview transcript here. 

Subscribe to "Success! How I Did It" on Apple Podcasts, RadioPublic, or your favorite app. Check out previous episodes with:

• Lyft president John Zimmer
• Celebrity chef Jose Andres
• Life coach Tony Robbins
• Hearst Magazines CCO Joanna Coles