In 2019, San Francisco customers who ordered a car from Lyft may have found themselves with an unexpected driver – Lin Yuan, an engineering executive with the company at the time. To help her understand the driver experience, Lin spent some time getting real-world knowledge in the driver’s seat.

Her hard work and dedication to stepping into drivers’ shoes paid off – the insurance tech team that Lin built helped lower the insurance cost for Lyft significantly, assisting the company in reaching positive adjusted EBITDA for the first time in its history. Insurance cost is one of the biggest expenses at Lyft, and Lin’s transformation of how the company approached their risks showed her aptitude for applying technology to business strategy.

I’m thrilled to welcome Lin to Newfront as Vice President of Engineering. Her commitment to understanding operational challenges, technological expertise, and deep experience scaling software teams makes Lin a perfect fit for our company as we build the modern insurance experience.

I asked Lin to discuss some of her thoughts about why she joined Newfront and what she’s excited for in her new position.

Gordon

About Me

As a recent addition to Newfront, I’m excited to share a little about me and the reasons I chose to join the team. I have more than ten years of experience in the engineering world, having spent time at Facebook as a Senior Software Engineer and Tech Lead. At Facebook, I helped build the first iteration of Graph Search, making billions of pieces of social data searchable.

In 2014, I moved to Coursera, an open online course provider, and led the engineering team that built Coursera for Business. As Business became the fastest growing unit at Coursera, yielding several tens of millions of dollars, I realized my passion for leading high-performing teams.

Most recently, at Lyft, I discovered the intersection of technology and insurance as I built the insurance tech team from the ground up, and I fell in love with the work. When I learned about Newfront and its goal of building the modern insurance experience, I knew it was the place for me.

Joining Newfront

This is an exhilarating time to join Newfront. The merger of a cutting-edge technology-enabled brokerage and a recognized innovator in insurance and risk management mean that we are even more well-equipped to achieve our goal.

Having worked at Facebook, Coursera, and Lyft, I am well-versed in all stages of company development, from hyper-scaling to post-IPO. I have seen all types of challenges during growth mode, and I understand what works well and what doesn’t in a company experiencing explosive growth.

I also truly appreciate the company’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion and to elevating team members from different backgrounds. DE&I is not just a box to check at Newfront – it’s truly part of our DNA.

My Charge

Insurance impacts everyone’s life. As the leader of our Engineering team at Newfront, I will be focusing on building our platform to provide peace of mind to people and take care of their risks so they can focus on their business. We don’t want them worrying about the tools to get that work done.

To do this, we leverage technology innovations to grow and empower the business. We’re not building technology to eliminate brokers – we’re building it to enable them to do the best work of their careers. We have the opportunity to change the way they’re using technology and make it a much better experience for them and our clients.

I’m a strong believer in leveraging data and technology to innovate and disrupt the industry. Newfront is positioned to do this and I’m excited to help the team to achieve this vision!