Travis VanderZanden

Chief Executive

Bird Rides Inc.

THE LATEST: After a busy 12 months that saw the acquisition of San Francisco escooter service Scoot and a mobile payment service, as well as the expansion of its fleet, Bird Co. laid off about 30% of its staff in March, the result of pandemic-related social distancing. In a memo to company staff, VanderZanden was optimistic about the future of micromobility services, stressing the increased desire to avoid public transportation as a demand generator for more urban transport alternatives. Since April, Bird has offered free rides to health care workers in Santa Monica, Culver City and a few global locations.

BACKGROUND: Just one year after VanderZanden founded Bird in 2017, the Santa Monica-based company's shareable scooters were in more than 100 cities. He was the first chief operating officer of Lyft Inc. and was vice president of driver growth for Uber Technologies Inc. VanderZanden also founded an on-demand car-washing company, Cherry, which was acquired by Lyft. Before that, he was chief revenue officer at Yammer Inc., a business software company acquired by Microsoft Corp.

YEARS ON THE LA500: 3

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