In IVP's Hyper-Growth Podcast series, IVP investors talk with CEOs from the fastest growing companies to understand the ins and outs of company building in the hyper-growth environment.
In our fifth episode, IVP's Louisa Xu sits down with the co-founder and CEO of Lime, Toby Sun, to talk about his inspiration behind the company's founding, the importance of growth versus profitability, how to get a hardware business right and the cause and effect of the micro-mobility generation.
As people continue to be drawn toward the urban dream and urban populations grow, new modes of transportation like the scooter have emerged to solve the last mile problem. Companies like Lime, in a little under two years, have carved out a new way to get from point A to B. Scooter sharing not only reduces the time involved in driving, parking, or taking public transit, it also reduces carbon emissions. A global win.
Founded in 2017, Lime is now the world's largest scooter sharing company, reaching over 50M trips (up from 30M+ on the recording day) across 100 markets globally. Co-founder and CEO Toby Sun, who grew up in China's fourth largest city, Shenzhen (which is often called China's Silicon Valley), started crafting the vision for Lime early in his urban childhood.
Toby's journey took him from China to the United States where he eventually met Lime's co-founder, Brad Bao, through the Berkeley MBA network. Working together initially as investors, the two recognized their shared interest in solving the last mile transportation problem and decided to partner up. Together, they created Lime, and here's what they have learned along the way.
It Doesn't Have To Be A Trade-off Between Growth and Profitability It will be hard for us to optimize anything before we have a certain scale.
In the last two years, Lime has launched products in over a hundred markets in over 20 countries, netting over 50 million trips. Their success came from a strong product-market fit demonstrated early and quickly, through tests in many locations to understand the operational sweet spot.' This rapid expansion didn't come at the expense of profitability. Instead, the learnings from rapid growth can lead to profitability if applied properly.
Learning from the company's growth in-house versus using an outsourced operations team has allowed the company to reap additional economies of scale. Once a critical scale is reached, there is a much larger playground with which to experiment. And, the longer Lime operates in more markets, the more experimentation opportunities emerge.
Invest In The Hardware Team and Supply Chain Hardware is hard.
To do hardware right and build quickly, it takes significant capital, strong partnerships and great teams to keep momentum strong. It also takes the right relationships to expedite building prototypes. Lime was able to take advantage of their connections in China's hardware ecosystem, such as the prototyping hubs like Shenzhen. Navigating these markets takes time and resources, so the more inroads, the better. Lime's bi-lingual and China/US founding team helped - and they used this advantage to quickly and efficiently build, prototype and ship.
Lime learned that more markets equal more people who provide more feedback. That feedback leads to improved products and an ongoing positive feedback loop. And that continues to propel a company like Lime above its competitors.
Think About Multiple Cases To Address Audiences. One Size Does Not Fit All. The product should serve a purpose to service the two kinds of audiences at the same time.
Local insights and approaches are important, especially for a company like Lime. And the technology that allows this to happen must be tailored appropriately to each area, so the experience makes sense on a local level. In Lime's case, each city's infrastructure, the broader IoT network, and the anonymously-collected usage data are all important variables.
As the scooter craze continues to grow globally, so too does the understanding and significance of the term micro-mobility. Lime is at the forefront of this massive trend.
The full transcript is below.
To hear more, listen on iTunes or SoundCloud.
TRANSCRIPT Narrator: Welcome to IVP's Hyper-Growth Podcast. In this series, we talk with CEOs of the fastest-growing companies and discuss the ins-and-outs of company building in the hyper-growth environment. If you like what you hear, consider following us on SoundCloud or subscribing to our podcast on iTunes. Thanks, and enjoy the show.
Louisa: Welcome everyone. I'm Louisa Xu, an investor at IVP. We're a venture firm focused on high growth later-stage tech companies and we've had the privilege of investing in some of the fastest growing tech companies of the last decade including AppDynamics, Dropbox, Twitter, GitHub and of course Lime. Today I have Toby Sun, CEO of Lime joining me. Toby founded Lime in 2017 and he's now leading the world's largest electric scooter sharing company. And one of the fastest growing companies of all time. If we rewind to just two years ago when the first wave of electric scooters started to emerge in the US, people dismissed them as a toy or a mere fad, but the data we've seen suggests there's a lot more to the story than that. In its short history, Lime has already reached over 30 million trips across 100 markets globally. I'm excited about the potential impact of Lime in the broader micro-mobility ecosystem. Today we're going to learn from Toby about how he got the company started, how he thinks about the long-term drivers of the business, and what he has learned along the way. Thanks for joining me today Toby.
Toby: Thanks for having me. Excited to be here.
Louisa: So, to set the stage, could you tell us about how you and
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
20/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
20/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
20/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
20/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
20/08/2026
IPC Expands Brazilian Presence with New Channel Partner CCATech
Industry veterans Carlos Abrah o and Bruno Lopes strengthen local support and expand IPCs prese...
20/08/2026
Zixi Enters Mauritius Market Through Strategic Deployment with MTC Jockey Club
Worlds Oldest Horse Racing Club in the Southern Hemisphere Selects Zixis Softwar...
20/08/2026
LA JOLLA, CA-Scripps Research assistant professor Tiantian Liu has received a five-year NIAID DP2 award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Di...
20/08/2026
Audiences reveal appetite for multicultural Australia on-screen 20 August 2026
Dr Georgie McClean, Dr Rebecca Huntley (L-R)
By Dr Georgie McClean and Dr Rebec...
20/08/2026
How Mavis Studio Is Expanding Live Production Teaching at Sussex
Brie Clayton August 19, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image displays a student about to mix be...
20/08/2026
Vertical Unscripted Series Legal Queens Captured with Blackmagic Design
Brie Clayton August 19, 2026
0 Comments
Reality TV veteran Eric Gardner create...
19/08/2026
As the cost of IP nears price parity with traditional SDI, Reynolds argues that ...
19/08/2026
A private 5G bubble was chosen instead of traditional broadcast RF for the race ...
19/08/2026
(L-R) Rafael Manuel and Isabel Sicat attend the Filipi ana premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival at The Ray Theatre on January 23, 2026, in Park Cit...
19/08/2026
Studio owners invited to have their say on rates cuts
The Music Producers Guild (MPG) are inviting UK-based studios to take part in an in-depth survey that ...
19/08/2026
Vintage-inspired desktop interface revealed
Harrison's latest hardware offering sees them head into the world of audio interfaces, delivering a 10-in/12...
19/08/2026
Granular effect remains locked to scale and tempo
Described as your dream granular effect , Minimal Audio's latest creation is capable of turning any s...
19/08/2026
First polyphonic SWAM instrument incoming
Audio Modeling's latest physical-modelling orchestral instrument is just around the corner, and is now availab...
19/08/2026
World Cup Games Generate 84 Billion Minutes Across FOX, Fox Sports 1 and NBCU...
19/08/2026
July brought typical peak-holiday drops in viewership, driven primarily by viewers stepping away from screens and a visible decline in reach across both traditi...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Henry joins BCE as the company accelerates its commercial strategy and expands its international presence across the media, broadcast and technology markets. He...
19/08/2026
iWedia, a leading provider of software solutions for connected TV devices, today announced a major milestone in Android platform optimization with the successfu...
19/08/2026
NTP Technology announces that ST 2110-30 audio-over-IP connectivity with AES67 and RAVENNA capabilities is now available for the brand's world-class audio i...
19/08/2026
Net Insight has been selected to provide its Nimbra platform by the service provider Big Blue Marble, formerly ORS Group, as the core media transport solution f...
19/08/2026
LiveU has supported Coventry City FC and several other top-flight UK football clubs through one of their most demanding live production challenges of the year, ...
19/08/2026
Nature Seekers Documentary Shot with Blackmagic URSA Cine 12K LF
Brie Clayton August 18, 2026
0 Comments
Filming endangered turtles required camera...
19/08/2026
Neyrinck Brings D-Control Consoles Back to Life on Apple Silicon with D-Control ...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Riedel Communications today announced that Edith Cowan University (ECU) in Perth, Australia, implemented a comprehensive communications infrastructure that brin...
19/08/2026
QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning video production and remote guest contribution solutions, will spotlight a major leap forward in remote guest con...
19/08/2026
Integrated platform melds media asset management, playout automation and newsroom workflows
EMAM, PlayBox Neo and SNEWS have officially launched Nuvex, a conne...
19/08/2026
Screen Australia releases the Private Investment Toolkit to strengthen screen in...
19/08/2026
Do Aussies truly value local content? Unpacking Screen Currency 2026 with Deirdr...
19/08/2026
There's an early Christmas gift for Bookish fans, as UKTV confirms the re-commission of the hit U&alibi drama, created by and starring Mark Gatiss. Viewers ...
19/08/2026
Wednesday 19 August 2026
Sky gives sports fans the chance to watch multiple liv...
19/08/2026
On Saturday September 5 Katie Taylor will step into the ring for the fight of her life against Flora Pili in front of 80,000 fans in Croke Park. A legendary fig...
18/08/2026
SportStream 2026, a free three-day virtual event, will take place September 15-17. One registration provides access to all three days of live programming and on...
18/08/2026
BeckTV will introduce BeckFlow to the European market at IBC2026, demonstrated on the Providius stand (10.F53).
BeckFlow is a web-based schematic documentation...
18/08/2026
Boland Communications will introduce a SMPTE ST 2110 input option for its 4K monitors at IBC2026, along with a new 55-inch super-narrow bezel display for video ...
18/08/2026
Dolby Laboratories and the Seattle Seahawks have announced a partnership integrating Dolby OptiView into the Seahawks' live streaming coverage, making the S...
18/08/2026
For BMG Executive Producer of Sports Production, Graham Taylor, producing live s...
18/08/2026
TMRW Sports has appointed Rufus Hack as President of Golf, a newly created role in which he will lead the company's golf businesses including TGL presented ...
In IVP's Hyper-Growth Podcast series, IVP investors talk with CEOs from the fastest growing companies to understand the ins and outs of company building in the hyper-growth environment.
