The biggest technology float of recent years involves a smartphone app that only Americans and Canadians can use. Lyft, which owns the taxi-hailing service of the same name, is poised to make its debut on Nasdaq on Friday, paving the way for Uber, its larger rival, to do the same.
Lyft was founded in 2012 by Logan Green, an entrepreneur, and John Zimmer, a Wall Street banker. Lyft drivers adorned their taxis with pink moustaches, cultivating a cuddly image that was anathema to Uber’s high-testosterone aggression — a ploy that would reap rewards when Uber’s sexual harassment scandal erupted in 2017. Even so, Mr Green, 35, Lyft’s chief executive, has maligned Silicon Valley companies that are “scared to get their hands dirty”.
Uber’s might