

DoorDash (YC S13) Raises $17.3 Million From Sequoia To Expand On-Demand Delivery - stanleytang
http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/22/doordash-17-3m-sequoia/

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paul
So exciting! This is actually a surprisingly difficult business because of the
need to be so fast and efficient, and there was a lot of skepticism early on
as to whether there was actually a viable business in this space. The DoorDash
team has done a great job of proving the model and creating a playbook for
scaling and expanding the business. They are one of the startups that I most
often refer to when advising new YC companies.

Also they feed me! (that was one of the key questions I asked during
interviews: "Will you deliver to my house?" They answered correctly! :)

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_sentient
You wouldn't have a lawn, perchance? ;)

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rdoherty
I've used DoorDash 3 times in the past few months and they always underpromise
and overdeliver. Emails and texts are sent at each stage of the delivery
(order, pickup, en-route, driver is 5 mins away), they always beat their
estimates and the drivers are very friendly.

The logistics for ensuring food arrives hot when you don't have any control
over the cooking process and timing is hard, but they always managed to do it.
I'm impressed.

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rayiner
I don't get this. How often do people order-in from places that don't deliver?
Is this a Bay-area phenomenon? Or is this more of a replacement for the
restaurant owner's teenager?

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rdoherty
There's a lot of great restaurants that don't deliver in the Bay Area (and
probably elsewhere). With most startups offering catered lunches and dinners
there's a strong demand for delivery of food better than pizza.

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Nimi
Good luck!

Would you mind elaborating on that defensibility claim ("if you look at any of
these local businesses, whether they’re Yelp, or Grubhub, or whatever… once
they’re built, they’re defensible")?

Why wouldn't this be a race to the bottom where "courier as a service"
companies will be lowering prices until competition has eroded profits
completely?

(just to be sure, to clarify: I'm genuinely asking out of curiosity - I'm sure
if you have _both YC and Sequoia_ backing you, you have some excellent answers
for this question)

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cft
Yelp is a "pure play" company that does not involve a real physical component.
So are AirBnB and Uber/Lyft: they merely annotate the psychical world.
_Delivery_ and shipping is a whole another matter.

What I found interesting is how Sequoia degenerated from funding AMD/silicon
to funding food delivery and calling it "tech".

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Nimi
One could argue that Yelp, AirBnB and Uber all fall into the "marketplace"
category of defensibility rationale. At first glance, this doesn't seem (to
me) to apply to delivery, as restaurants can always opt-out and build their
own delivery operation. This is also a significant source of cost for them, so
unlike Uber, where users might be willing to pay a few dollars more for a
slick experience, they will likely try to skimp on costs.

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2pasc
Doordash brings delivery + demand (beyond technical chops). That's a lot for a
small local restaurant.

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ar7hur
Congrats to the team!

I respect what you've done so far, but I can't help wondering how investors
can base their analysis on an experiment restricted to Palo Alto, Mountain
View and San Jose. From what I see, the bulk of orders (in $) are from fellow
startups ordering lunch and dinners. Where else is the world (except SF and
maybe NYC) do so many companies, in such a small geography, order so much food
from restaurants?

I'm not saying it's not a good business. I'm wondering if there is really room
for growth (a growth big enough to justify the huge series A valuation)
outside of very specific geographies.

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jconley
Well, you are talking about over a million people in that area. I'd say that's
a reasonable sample size. Also, not sure we know who their clientele are. We
use doordash for the office, but I also use it at home. Because of their level
of service it has also become a destination site, where I go to see what they
offer first rather than choosing the restaurant I want first. I imagine I am
not alone.

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iandanforth
I've never seen a restaurant post a menu on its website with different prices
than what you would find in person, however this is exactly the business model
of DoorDash. My question is, why _don 't_ restaurants do this? Is it illegal?
Out of laziness? A tacit custom? Genuinely curious about this.

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jgoldsmith
(I work at DoorDash)

For restaurants that we haven't yet partnered with, we have a slightly
increased price in order to pay for the cost of delivery. However, many of our
restaurants pay this fee as a commission, and the price on our website is the
same as at the restaurant.

We try to be very upfront about this price difference for our customers. For
more info, see
[https://www.doordash.com/faq/#question4](https://www.doordash.com/faq/#question4).

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ajju
Impressive. Does each restaurant have a DoorDash tablet, or do the orders get
transmitted via phone/fax?

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balls187
What makes DoorDash different than all the other Delivery startups out there?

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GregorStocks
Based on the article, the fact that their customers love them. Of course, it's
not hard to have customers that love you at the early money-hemorrhaging stage
- the tough bit is continuing to be loved once you're turning a profit.

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brryant
Congrats guys! Was excited about this company from day 1. A great founding
team and an amazing service. Now go take out FedEx!

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arbuge
Something tells me their plan could be for Fedex to take them out instead...

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aelaguiz
Congrats guys!

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erichurkman
Congrats, guys!

