
DoorDash (YC S13) Delivers Food Quickly In South Bay, Hopes To Expand Beyond Food - stanleytang
http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/26/y-combinator-backed-doordash-delivers-food-quickly-in-south-bay-hopes-to-expand-beyond-food/
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unohoo
With so many startups doing things similar to this (do local tasks, fetch
food, deliver stuff, clean home, do laundry) -- I am wondering where and how
they will all be able to hire local runners (lets not forget ebay, google and
amazon also trying to get into this 'get it now' mania).

It might actually be a killer idea to employ these local runners -- and then
get jobs from all these varied companies/startups. So, doordash, instacart,
prim etc. could all contact you and use your workforce -- you essentially
remove the headache of hiring, scheduling and logistics for these startups.
But then -- what would be the point of all these startups -- you could just
offer these services yourself if you owned the runners :)

~~~
chrissnell
It's an interesting idea, actually. Your value-add is that you (the "runner"
company) blanket the area with runners. You give them RAM mounts and tablets
that run an app that predictively puts them in the most likely zone when
they're not making a run. If you have enough drivers, you could conceivably
dispatch one to any location within 5-10 minutes. Add 10-20 minutes of driving
time to the destination and you're conceivably doing sub-30 minute deliveries
like Dominos promised in the 1980s. The more customers (customers being
companies like Prim, Doordash, etc.) you have, the more you can saturate and
the shorter that time becomes.

Automate the pick-up arrangements and intelligently route them on best route
to the drop-off. No need to collect money at the drop-off site other than
tips. That's handled during the API transaction, where "RunnerCo" collects and
skims it's per-transaction fee.

The reason that so many delivery services failed in years past was that they
were doing radio dispatching with poor/minimal map and routing technology and
they were collecting cash money at the door. No wonder they couldn't make a
profit.

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pg
The first time we used DoorDash, Jessica said "This has changed my life." If
you have small children you understand.

~~~
samstave
Is this Kozmo.com version 2.0?

I LOVED Kozmo back in ~1999/2000.... and now I have small kids. So I am
interested in how Jessica found this to change her life? Can you give her/your
user story?

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jl
It's mainly changed my life on weekends, when I'm with my kids all day. I tend
not to eat very well (eat junkfood/graze - anything quick!) because I'm not
very good at finding the time to cook something for myself. When DoorDash
delivered Oren's hummus/veggie skewers to me on a Saturday, I was so excited
that I think I told Paul it changed my life.

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ssclafani
When I was at RIT in '02-'03 there were two companies doing this. Both of them
shut down a couple of months after launching. After I graduated and moved back
to Connecticut I found two services in the area that did this. They too both
eventually shut down. This model seems to have a problem making enough to pay
drivers.

~~~
hayksaakian
Don't worry there's plenty of VC to keep this thing going.

And on the off chance they make it work, everybody wins.

You don't really lose anything for other peoples failures (unless you're
investing money you're not willing to lose)

~~~
tanzam75
> _You don 't really lose anything for other peoples failures (unless you're
> investing money you're not willing to lose)_

A number of pension funds are invested in venture capital.

Thus, a lot of people are unknowingly losing money on these types of things.
Granted, they're only losing pennies each time. But it adds up.

~~~
mattmanser
That's not how it works, VCs are like record publishers, doesn't matter if
most of your companies suck as long as one is a hit.

You can't pick only hit companies. Well, if _you_ could I'd sure pg would want
a word!

~~~
tanzam75
> _That 's not how it works, VCs are like record publishers, doesn't matter if
> most of your companies suck as long as one is a hit._

I know how venture capital is supposed to work. The problem is that it hasn't
been working out the way it's supposed to.

Over the past decade, venture capital has underperformed the stock market.

Thus, pension funds have gotten their money into illiquid and risky VC
investments -- but they haven't been getting paid the liquidity and risk
premiums that they thought they were going to get.

(Incidentally, the record labels haven't done that great over the past decade,
either.)

~~~
mattmanser
If you supposedly know how it works why are you blathering on about pennies
here and there? As the post I replied to shows a glaring lack of knowledge.

Plenty of VC funds are working exactly how they're supposed to work, don't try
and wriggle out of it by claiming that 'of course you know' but somehow
dropping a few million here and there on grocery suppliers is a meaningful
loss to a VC or pension fund.

I'd have far more respect if you just said 'yeah, whoops, didn't know what the
fuck I was talking about'.

~~~
tanzam75
A million here, a million there, pretty soon you're talking about real money.

As for your personal attacks upon me, I think it evident that you just want to
pick a fight. Four sentences in your post, and all four contain more insult
than content.

As for "Plenty of VC funds are working ...", I would simply repeat what I've
already stated, and you've ignored -- that the industry as a whole isn't
delivering the promised returns.

Good luck trying to pick the VC funds that are working, rather than the ones
that aren't.

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ultimoo
I missed a beat when I read South Bay, because very few of the 'cool' apps
like instacart, lift, uber, taskrabbit, or any apps having real-life tangible
outcomes ever work in San Jose. I thought finally something is going to work
in San Jose and then I read the list of cities. Well, hopefully doordash do
well enough in Palo Alto and Mountain View and expand to San Jose soon :-)

~~~
rogerbinns
Some of us live in Santa Cruz. We don't even exist as far as all these
startups are concerned.

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spxdcz
Just ordered (from Oren's Hummus). We've used Seamless and others in the past
and suffered the sometime two-hour wait. If DoorDash can get the delivery time
down to closer to 'impulse' (as quick as going to the grocery store and
back?), these guys will kill the competition.

~~~
evancharles
How did we do? We're working on shaving off as much time as possible, that's
where partnering with the restaurants really helps.

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coolsunglasses
Been dying for this in MV since GrubHub and Seamless have terrible selection /
high delivery costs on a per restaurant basis.

Only junk food is available on a regular basis.

No kids in my case, just lots of side projects to shepherd, rather not spend
time to cook or go out.

~~~
frankdenbow
This must be a SV thing since the Seamless selection in NYC is quite good
here.

~~~
coolsunglasses
I used to live in NYC, Seamless is a lot better in NYC. In SV it's pretty lame
and overpriced.

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alaskamiller
Last year rewards programs like Five Stars were hot. This year everyone wants
to do deliveries. Sucks to be waiter.com these days.

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damian2000
Can't help thinking that this service is providing something like the cafes in
that article "The Locust Economy". [http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2013/04/03/the-
locust-economy/](http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2013/04/03/the-locust-economy/)

> To take coffee shops as an example, an unending supply of idealistic wannabe
> cafe owners enters the sector every year, operates at a loss for a few
> years, and exits. The result is that even under normal business conditions,
> without swarming locust consumers, this is a loss-making business with an
> extinction rate of around 90% at the 5 year point in the US.

~~~
Retric
Yet, Starbucks is a healthy and profitable company with an insane number of
locations. Which suggests most of those failures are a result of simple
incompetence.

~~~
AlisdairO
and presumably the lower efficiencies involved with not being a multinational?

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estsauver
I know one of the developers there and Peter's always struck me as incredibly
smart. I wish door dash the absolute best (and hope they expand to the East
Bay) as soon as feasible :) ).

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eclipxe
I wish South Bay included you know, San Jose

~~~
binarycrusader
Yeah, when I think South Bay, I think Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Campbell, Santa
Clara, San Jose. They're missing over half of the "South Bay" at the least.

I think the doordash website more accurately defines the areas they serve as
"Mountain View" and "Palo Alto".

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brianbreslin
In Miami I know of at least 5 companies doing this, none are really tech
companies, or even logistics companies. One example is
[https://www.deliverywow.com/](https://www.deliverywow.com/)

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rogerbinns
I can't wait until we have driverless delivery as that will significantly
change the economics. I suspect that delivery charges will be close to zero,
and in principle they can serve every producer in an area.

~~~
eigenvector
Gas alone can cost as much as a minimum-wage driver, to say nothing of
insurance and car upkeep.

~~~
rogerbinns
I would expect the delivery vehicles to cost a lot more, but those higher
upfront costs reduce the ongoing costs (maintenance etc). There would be an
incentive to maximize utilization as an idle vehicle earns no money. A vehicle
owner would want to deliver on behalf of many businesses, which allows
combining multiple deliveries for better utilization. Software would allow for
a lot of optimization in routing, pickups, delivery and transfers.

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nothing_new
There's a company called Mosis ([https://www.mosi.ch/](https://www.mosi.ch/))
that has been doing this since 1998 in Zurich, Switzerland. I just checked
their history. The best thing, they were apparently inspired by American and
Australian companies that had already been offering the same service for a
number of years. So, this is really nothing new.

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GoNB
I think 3rd party restaurant delivery could be disrupted in just about every
metropolitan or college town. If your town is host of awesome restaurants but
no unified delivery service, then make it happen! (Disrupted might be the
wrong word here unless you're trying to do this in the Bay Area; most cities
don't have any 3rd party delivery services so you'd be starting something new)

~~~
samstave
this model needs to be franchised out with central control, scheduling and
access infra. Let any students/underemployed sign up to be a delivery person
for quick cash...

Imagine if you could opt in for a delivery anytime you're on a non-rushed lege
between points A and B and can accept the order, and pickup and dropoff as
well.

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Cthulhu_
Pfsh.

Over here in the Netherlands - and I think it originated in the UK - we have
JustEat ([http://www.just-eat.co.uk/](http://www.just-eat.co.uk/)), a company
that connects local food restaurants behind a single web interface. If I'm
correct, the restaurants still do their own deliveries; they just get orders
in from another single source. It also seems that JustEat sponsors the
restaurants with things like insulating delivery bags, scooters, etcetera.

I for one don't see how this startup offers anything better than that
structure. Maybe a shared 'delivery guy' pool, since some restaurants /
takeaway places will be more popular than others, where the others have such a
low volume they couldn't support a delivery guy of their own.

~~~
prawn
That "maybe" aspect you list at the end is a huge advantage! You say that you
don't see an improvement on the other structure, then list the killer
improvement!

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DanielRibeiro
For company lunches/dinners, YC also has invested in ZeroCater:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3297522](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3297522)

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archivator
Back in Bulgaria someone got the idea to use the taxi fleet for food delivery
- the delivery charge is still fixed, it's just that the car is a taxi. I
always thought this was very clever.

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chourobin
Is this just a cheaper version of www.trycaviar.com?

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Fortaymedia
This is an awesome article. Liked and upvoted :)

