Employees at Lyft have watched with glee in recent months as rival Uber suffers from an endless series of dramas. Lyft’s business, meanwhile, has moved in the right direction. The company’s market share has inched up versus Uber in several major cities, while its cost of acquiring new customers has fallen. An IPO is expected as soon as next year, according to people involved in the business, if it continues to narrow its losses. (See where in the U.S. Lyft has gained on Uber here.)
But as Lyft has grown, nearly doubling its employee count to more than 1,800 from about 1,000 a year ago, it is feeling some of the ill effects of becoming a big company. Decision-making and collaboration are both becoming harder, due to communication barriers between different teams and the growing number of employees who must attend meetings.