The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: Lime's CEO on Going from Losing $3 on Every $1 to $90M in EBITDA | How Lime Built the Global Leader in Micromobility When Competitors Went Bust | Losing 90% of Revenues in COVID and The Uber Deal That Saved the Company with Wayne Ting
Thu, 30 Jan 2025
Wayne Ting is CEO of Lime. The global leader in micromobility, the first to achieve a fully profitable year (2022). Last year, Lime did over $600M in gross bookings, $90M in EBITDA. Their 4-year top-line CAGR is 30%. Before joining Lime, Wayne spent four years at Uber in various roles, including Chief of Staff to CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, and General Manager of Uber's Northern California business. Wayne previously served as a Senior Policy Advisor on the White House’s National Economic Council under President Obama. In Today’s Episode with Wayne Ting We Discuss: Is Lime Really a Good Business: How did Wayne turn Lime from losing $3 on every $1 to $90M in EBITDA? What worked? What did not work? What did Lime do that he wishes they had not done? What did they not do that he wishes they had done? The Moments that Changed Everything: COVID: Lime lost 95% of their revenues overnight. What did Wayne and Lime do to save the business in such a short space of time? Uber Deal: How did the Uber deal led by Uber CEO, Dara, save Lime as a business? Battery Innovation: How did an innovation on the transportability of batteries and replacing them change the entire Lime business? The Dangers of VC Funding and Capital Efficiency: Why does Wayne believe that VC hype cycles are so damaging for companies and sectors? How did the heat around micromobility damage Lime? What did Wayne and Lime do to increase their capital efficiency so much? What worked? What did not? AMA with the CEO of Lime: What company did Lime not acquire that Wayne wishes they had? How did having a stroke change the way that Wayne leads? Which competitor does Wayne most respect and admire? What were his biggest lessons from working with Dara @ Uber?
Full Episode
When I first joined Lime, I think we were losing $3 for every dollar of revenue. The daily decay rate was 3%. So in the course of 30 days, your entire fleet was gone. So the business was completely upside down. I would say my first four years as CEO, I was constantly worried about Lime going out of business. Lime wouldn't have survived if we did not do that deal.
This is 20VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and I've wanted to make this show happen for a long time. I live in London, and here, Lime bikes, they're everywhere. But most people think, honestly, that micromobility providing is a bad business, that these companies lose money. Well, Lime did over $600 million in gross bookings, with $90 million in EBITDA last year.
They're the global leader, and they've proved all the naysayers wrong. And so today I'm thrilled to sit down with Wayne Ting, Lime's CEO, to discuss what Lime have done and got so right that so many others bluntly have got so wrong and how they built the global leader that they have. But before we dive in today,
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