Lyft's marketing has been pretty impressive to watch. Just this morning on my MUNI train I overheard a conversation where a guy was excitedly describing the service to another passenger, describing it as "way cheaper than uber". And the mustache branding is brilliant. Once I found out what it meant, I started seeing them everywhere. All around, a brilliant launch.

I love Lyft. Sidecar feels sketchy every time I use it and Uber just seems ridiculously expensive in comparison. John, Logan and the guys have done a great job to make it feel like a friend is picking you up rather than some guy with a car to drive you from point A to point B.

Lyft has a very bright future.

There is a very real difference between Über and the other two, but why does Sidecar feel any sketchier than Lyft?

The fact that you know both founders by first name makes me suspect. Someone without a conflict of interest would likely have said "Lyft has done a great job to make it feel like a friend is picking you up rather than some guy with a car to drive you from point A to point B."

Love it.. nothing replaces or beats amazing personality that resonates with fans and leaves an impression. Kudos to Lyft for putting themselves out there. You might put off one or two people, but you'll gain many more raving fans that will spread your message and tell your story.

Great post, always love to hear about the little cool things startups do to differentiate their product/service and help people love them.

Fist pumps, t-shirts are wicked... I guess the moustache works :)

It's really neat seeing examples of how companies get word of mouth and marketing in novel ways. You don't need huge marketing budgets to raise awareness - just need to leave people with a smile.

I'm curious to know how Lyft handles insurance/liabilities with their drivers and passengers.

Looks like they just added 1M in liability insurance for drivers http://blog.lyft.me/post/30998195495/1m-lyft-protection

God dammit. Yet another cool service that uses Facebook logins. As someone who has quit the Facebook crack addiction a year ago, I'm deeply disappointed.