Lift is hardly the first company to discover that you have to pay your employees from the day you open up business in a new location. That's how it works for ev

Lift is hardly the first company to discover that you have to pay your employees from the day you open up business in a new location. That's how it works for everyone. What is different about Lyft is that they've structured things such that they don't have to pay their drivers much when business is really slow - they're guarantees like, "If you complete 5 rides in one day, we'll guarantee you earn at least $100 on those rides." When you consider that drivers have to pay for their own cars and fuel, that probably doesn't even come close to minimum wage where I live. Meaning that their initial labor costs are probably cheaper than McDonald's. I stand by my claim: The cost of entering a new market should be relatively low for a company like Lyft. Similarly for the rest: You're trying to think about Lyft as if it were a tech company, and that seems to be leading to a distorted view of how their business works. Lyft is not a tech company. It's a taxi company that happens to be based in San Francisco.