DoorDash

DoorDash is not just a delivery company. From its inception, co-founders Andy Fang and Stanley Tang operated it as a robotics and autonomy company. Andy and Stanley join Sarah Guo to explain how autonomous tech and AI are reshaping consumer habits, commerce, and delivery. Andy and Stanley talk about the rollout of Ask DoorDash, a natural-language interface that’s driving both restaurant discovery and larger grocery orders. They also discuss Dot, their in-house autonomous delivery robot that has operated in Phoenix for over two years, and how it highlights the operational and hardware challenges they have faced and solved in autonomous tech. Andy and Stanley also speak about the “first and last 100 feet problem” in autonomous delivery, why multimodal strategies are the key to success, scaling autonomy and operations, and why they believe that more Dashers, not fewer, are the future of DoorDash. Sign up for new podcasts every week. Email feedback to show@no-priors.com Follow us on Twitter: @NoPriorsPod | @Saranormous | @EladGil | @stanleytang | @andyfang | @DoorDash Chapters: 00:00 – Andy Fang and Stanley Tang Introduction 00:34 – Agentic Commerce and Behavioral Changes 03:52 – Next Steps for Ask DoorDash 06:54 – Investing in Robotics and Autonomy 16:31 – Building Autonomous Tech in the Physical World 21:20 – Dot: DoorDash’s Autonomous Delivery Robot 22:08 – Collecting Realistic Data 25:48 – Why Work at DoorDash 28:04 – Challenges in Scaling Up Autonomy 39:30 – Productivity Benchmarks 44:56 – Future of Agentic Commerce 49:10 – Conclusion

Andy Fang

Co-founder

DoorDash

Stanley Tang

Co-Founder

DoorDash

Gokul Rajaram is one of the greatest operators turned investors of the last 2 decades. He is trusted as the go to advisor for the greatest founders in the world. Today he serves as a Board Director at three public companies: Coinbase, Pinterest and The Trade Desk. Prior to Marathon (his firm), Gokul served on the executive team at DoorDash and Block. Before Block, he served as Product Director of Ads at Facebook. Earlier in his career, Gokul served as a Product Management Director for Google AdSense. Gokul is also a prolific angel investor, having invested in 700+ companies, including Airtable, Figma, Groq, Runway, Supabase, and Vercel. AGENDA: 03:53 — Investing Lessons from Google, Doordash and Facebook 05:32 — Why Mark Zuckerberg is the Greatest Distribution Genius Alive 07:23 — Why Every Company Today Needs to be Multi-Product 09:16 — Negative Gross Margins: Are the Best Companies Actually Built on "Shit" Economics? 10:50 — The SaaS Apocalypse: Is the Entire Sector Going to Zero? 12:15 — The 8 Moats of Enduring Software Companies: How to Analyse Companies 14:50 — Why Brand is No Longer a Strong Moat (And What Replaced It) 16:13 — Salesforce vs. Atlassian: Which Systems of Record are Dying? 18:13 — Outcome-Based Pricing: Is This the Total Death of Seat Pricing? 20:16 — The Bolt-On AI Trap: Why Rebuilding Your Entire UX is Non-Negotiable 23:44 — Are the Outcome Sizes of Vertical SaaS Large Enough for VC Today? 28:16 — The Zombie Cohort: What Happens to Private Companies with High Valuations? 32:44 — Is "King Making" Complete Bullshit? 34:21 — Durability Over Margins: What Really Matters in a 100x Growth World 35:36 — The Non-Consumption Miracle: Why Granola and Gamma are Crushing It 38:50 — The PayPal Rule: Can You Raise Prices 5 Times in 3 Years? 42:47 — My Biggest Miss: How I Misread the Shopify Billion-Dollar Mark 45:18 — The Courage to Bet: Why Instacart is the Best VC Deal Ever 46:33 — Seed vs. Growth Pricing: When Does Price Actually Destroy Returns? 50:53 — Does "Proprietary Founder Access" Even Exist? 54:33 — Double Down or Diversify? The Truth About Fund Reserves 59:44 — The Vanta Anti-Portfolio: A Mistake I'll Never Forget 01:01:21 — When to Sell: The "Sell a Third, Hold a Third, Trade a Third" Rule 01:04:12 — Why Remote Early-Stage Companies are Dying 01:07:33 — Why Mid-Level Partners are Fleeing Mega Funds 01:09:47 — The Best CEO Superpowers: Larry, Mark, Jack, and Tony 01:12:33 — The Next 10 Years: Why Dropouts are "AI Maxing" the World

Gokul Rajaram

Production Engineering Lead

SquareDoorDashMAMarathonMMMarathon Management

My guest today is ⁠Gokul Rajaram⁠, Founding Partner at Marathon Management. Gokul is one of the most prolific product builders and investors of the last twenty years. He has built the core ad and product businesses at Google, Facebook, Square, and DoorDash, working at each company during its most formative scaling periods. Alongside his operating career, Gokul has invested in more than 700 companies, giving him an unusually broad view into how products are built and scaled. This conversation is about how product building is changing with AI. We discuss the one thing Gokul believes is truly future-proof in AI, why companies like Zendesk and Slack are more exposed than Salesforce or NetSuite, and the only sources of defensibility.  We also talk about everything Gokul has learned from helping build the most important ads businesses, including the only three ways an ad business can make money, how those constraints shape product decisions, and what consumer behavior change threatens every major platform. Gokul shares lessons from working closely with Larry and Sergey, Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and Tony Xu. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.  ----- This episode is brought to you by⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠Ramp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Ramp’s mission is to help companies manage their spend in a way that reduces expenses and frees up time for teams to work on more valuable projects. Go to⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠ramp.com/invest⁠⁠ to sign up for free and get a $250 welcome bonus. ----- This episode is brought to you by⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Vanta⁠. Trusted by thousands of businesses, Vanta continuously monitors your security posture and streamlines audits so you can win enterprise deals and build customer trust without the traditional overhead. Visit ⁠vanta.com/invest⁠.  -----⁠ Rogo⁠ is the AI platform for finance. They're building agents for Wall Street that are trained to understand how bankers and investors actually do work: from diligence and modeling, to turning analysis into deliverables. To learn more, visit rogo.ai/invest. ----- This episode is brought to you by⁠ ⁠WorkOS⁠⁠. WorkOS is a developer platform that enables SaaS companies to quickly add enterprise features to their applications. Visit⁠ ⁠WorkOS.com⁠⁠ to transform your application into an enterprise-ready solution in minutes, not months. ----- ⁠Ridgeline⁠ has built a complete, real-time, modern operating system for investment managers. It handles trading, portfolio management, compliance, customer reporting, and much more through an all-in-one real-time cloud platform. Visit⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ridgeline.ai⁠. ----- Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠). Timestamps (00:00:00) Welcome to Invest Like The Best (00:00:53) Meet Gokul Rajaram (00:02:05) How Product Development is Changing with AI (00:07:32) Philosophy of Product Management (00:10:19) What is Future-Proof in AI Era (00:11:25) Building AI Applications Today (00:15:03) Systems of Record vs Agent Companies (00:16:58) Which Legacy Software Companies Are Most Exposed (00:22:15) Stickiness in the AI Era (00:24:10) Learning from Larry Page and Sergey Brin (00:28:15) Learning from Mark Zuckerberg (00:31:31) Learning from Jack Dorsey (00:35:40) The Art of Great Product Design (00:36:49) Weekly CEO Communication (00:40:27) Three Ways to Succeed in Advertising (00:44:27) What Should Scare Major Ad Platforms (00:48:24) North Star Metrics (00:50:09) Self-Serve Products (00:54:50) Careers in the AI Era (00:59:03) Stay Long Enough to Have Impact (01:00:10) Founder Authenticity and Superpowers (01:02:21) Navigating the Idea Maze (01:03:42) Role of Boards (01:06:31) Excellence in Customer Acquisition  (01:09:11) The Kindest Thing

Gokul Rajaram

Production Engineering Lead

SquareDoorDashMAMarathonMMMarathon Management

Tony Xu, founder of DoorDash, joins Guy on the Advice Line to answer questions from three early-stage entrepreneurs. Plus, Tony updates Guy on his latest ventures: expanding into grocery and retail delivery - and taking on international markets. First, we hear from Ron in Portland, who’s wondering about the right time to expand his product line - from kitchen knives to cutting boards. Then Kathryn in Raleigh, North Carolina asks if it’s time to raise outside money to expand her line of date sweetened dark Chocolate bars. Finally, Yori in Stanford, Connecticut - wants to know the best way to educate customers about the benefits of buying grass raised beef. Thanks to the founders of Steelport Knife Company, Spring and Mulberry and Route 22 Meats for being a part of our show. If you’d like to be featured on a future Advice Line episode, leave us a one-minute message that tells us about your business and a specific question you’d like answered. Send a voice memo to hibt@id.wondery.com or call 1-800-433-1298. And be sure to listen to Doordash’s founding story, as told by Tony on the show in 2018. This episode was produced by Kerry Thompson with music by Ramtin Arablouei. It was edited by Andrea Bruce. Our audio engineer was Cena Loffredo. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Tony Xu

CEO and Co-founder

DoorDash

Guest: Miki Kuusi, head of international at Doordash + CEO & co-founder of Wolt + co-founder of Slush tech conference Before Miki Kuusi launched the Finnish delivery startup Wolt, which DoorDash acquired in 2022, he wasn’t just another startup entrepreneur. From 2011 to 2015, Miki was the CEO of the hugely influential European tech conference Slush, which brings thousands of founders and VCs to Helsinki every winter.  “You could argue that Slush was my university for things leading up to Wolt, and what I do today,” Miki says. “That's where I learned most of the core lessons that I put into action.”  One thing he remembers thinking in those early days: Everything was going to be redefined by the internet. “I just wanted to get a shot at building one of these services of the next hundred years,” he says. “And that was the driving motivator for me. If the driving motivator had been money, I don't think we would be here today.” Chapters: (01:14) - Act 3 (03:36) - Unlocking local commerce (06:13) - Selling Wolt (09:27) - The competition (14:20) - DoorDash’s and Wolt’s origins (17:50) - “Maybe we’re the idiots in the room” (22:44) - Difficult years (25:13) - Startups in Europe vs. U.S. (28:56) - Learning from DoorDash (31:51) - Market correction (35:24) - Delivery around the world (39:17) - “ Glorified recruiting companies” (42:31) - Convincing restaurants (44:11) - Slush (48:21) - The next mountain (54:13) - Ambition and concentration (59:58) - Family and distractions (01:04:34) - Email overload (01:07:07) - Time as currency (01:09:25) - Priorities and onboarding (01:15:49) - The power of culture (01:19:32) - Who Wolt and DoorDash are hiring (01:20:39) - What “grit” means to Miki Mentioned in this episode: Tony Xu, Uber, Lyft, Uber Eats, Postmates, Delivery Hero, GrubHub, DeepSeek, OpenAI, Anthropic, Kees Koolen and Booking.com, 83North, Supercell, DashPass, Wolt+, Microsoft Excel, Amazon, Parker Conrad and Rippling, Andreeseen Horowitz, Fortnite, WhatsApp, Barry’s Bootcamp, and Slack. Links: Connect with Miki LinkedIn Connect with Joubin Twitter LinkedIn Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com  Learn more about Kleiner Perkins This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

Miki Kuusi

CEO

WoltDoorDash

Gokul Rajaram is an early stage technology investor. As a product leader, operator and board member, he’s helped build seven generational technology companies, including Alphabet, Block, Coinbase, DoorDash, Meta, Pinterest, and The Trade Desk. We talk about lessons learned from Zuck, Sergey Brin, and Jack Dorsey, when big acquisitions can go well, how to define your ICP, why you should always size markets bottoms-up, having a fast response time, how seed investing has changed since 2007, and Gokul’s hot takes on titles at a startup. Building an enterprise-ready SaaS app? WorkOS has got you covered with easy-to-integrate APIs for SAML, SCIM, and more. Start now at ⁠https://bit.ly/WorkOS-Turpentine-Network⁠. Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (02:14) Common thread of success between the founders of Google, DoorDash, Facebook, and Square (05:50) Gokul’s first job in Silicon Valley (07:46) How Serendipity led to PMing Adsense, one of Google’s biggest products (12:20) Lesson from Sergey Brin on reducing friction before a products magic moment (18:50) How Zuck used founder mode to beat Google Plus in 2011 (22:51) When big acquisitions can go well (24:47) How Gokul switches from startup helper to public company board member (28:09) The evolution of Seed investing since 2007 (33:27) How to have a fast response time (37:40) Lessons from Jack Dorsey always selling (39:54) How to define your ICP (42:40) Using bottoms-up to size a market (44:05) Why Director and VP titles are bad for startups   Referenced: Who’s Got the Monkey? https://hbr.org/1999/11/management-time-whos-got-the-monkey    Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0142000280    How to Size a Market in 30 Minutes https://blog.blingcap.com/2023/02/13/How-to-Size-a-Market/  Follow Gokul: Twitter: https://x.com/gokulr   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gokulrajaram1  Follow Turner: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak  Subscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/

Gokul Rajaram

Production Engineering Lead

SquareDoorDashMAMarathonMMMarathon Management

Jessica Lachs is the global head of analytics and data science at DoorDash, where she’s built one of the largest and most respected data organizations in tech. In her more than 10 years at DoorDash, she has served as the first general manager, responsible for launching new markets; the head of business ops and analytics; and the VP of analytics and data science. Previously, Jessica founded GiftSimple, a social gifting startup, and started her career at Lehman Brothers as an investment banking analyst. In our conversation, she shares: • How to structure and scale a high-impact analytics organization • Centralized vs. decentralized data teams • How to pick the right metric and aligning incentives • Advice for data people on how and when to push back • Lessons learned from building a global data team • How to foster a culture of extreme ownership • The role of AI in improving analytics team productivity • Advice for aspiring data leaders without formal training — Brought to you by: • Webflow—The web experience platform • Anvil—The fastest way to build software for documents • Attio—The powerful, flexible CRM for fast-growing startups — Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-a-world-class-data-org-jessica-lachs — Where to find Jessica Lachs: • X: https://x.com/jesslachs • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-lachs/ — Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • X: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ — In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Jessica’s background (04:59) Centralized vs. embedded analytics teams (10:52) The benefits of a centralized analytics team (15:10) Balancing proactive and reactive work (20:45) Advice on how to push back effectively (24:20) Hiring for curiosity and problem solving (28:57) Coming from a non-traditional background (34:40) The early days and culture at DoorDash (40:39) Encouraging cross-functional roles (44:39) Defining effective metrics (46:30) Simplifying metrics for better outcomes (55:28) Focusing on edge cases and fail states (01:00:12) Managing a global data organization (01:02:31) Leveraging AI for productivity (01:05:25) Building diverse and skilled data teams (01:08:40) Lightning round — Referenced: • How Netflix builds a culture of excellence | Elizabeth Stone (CTO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-netflix-builds-a-culture-of-excellence • Riley Newman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rileynewman/ • Tony Xu on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xutony/ • Imposter Syndrome: Why You May Feel Like a Fraud: https://www.verywellmind.com/imposter-syndrome-and-social-anxiety-disorder-4156469 • Stanley Tang on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stanleytang/ • Andy Fang on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fangsterr/ • Evan Moore on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evanmoore/ • How WeDash became the flagship employee program for DoorDash: https://careers.doordash.com/blog/wedash-doordash-employee-program-how-does-it-work • Leading with empathy | Keith Yandell (DoorDash, Uber): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/leading-with-empathy-keith-yandell • The Rose Code: https://www.amazon.com/Rose-Code-Novel-Kate-Quinn/dp/006305941X • Libby app: https://libbyapp.com/ • The West Wing on Prime: https://www.amazon.com/West-Wing-Complete-First-Season/dp/B000KZPG04 • Alias on Prime: https://www.amazon.com/Alias-Season-1/dp/B00748O13S • Joseon sunscreens: https://beautyofjoseon.com/ • Innisfree sunscreens: https://us.innisfree.com/ • John Steinbeck quote: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/john_steinbeck_103825 • Vanessa Roberts on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-roberts-b8a509a/ • Tia Sherringham on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiasherringham/ • Elizabeth Jarvis-Shean on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-jarvis-shean-141a7966/ • Regina (Gina) Tarone on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/regina-tarone-a565a2/overlay/about-this-profile/ • My Journey (Part 1): I have a job that I would never be hired for: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jessica-lachs_anniversary-datascience-finance-activity-7216912300056727553-mEv6/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop • Starting an Analytics Org From Scratch — Lessons From a Decade at DoorDash: https://review.firstround.com/starting-an-analytics-org-from-scratch-lessons-from-a-decade-at-doordash/ — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. — Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

Jessica Lachs

VP of Analytics and Data Science

DoorDash

This Week in Startups is presented by: Embroker. The Embroker Startup Insurance Program helps startups secure the most important types of insurance at a lower cost and with less hassle. Save up to 20% off of traditional insurance today at Embroker.com/twist. While you’re there, get an extra 10% off using offer code TWIST. LinkedIn Marketing. To redeem a $100 LinkedIn ad credit and launch your first campaign, go to [linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups](http://linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups.) Squarespace. Turn your idea into a new website! Go to Squarespace.com/TWIST for a free trial. When you’re ready to launch, use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. * Today’s show: The contents of this episode were recorded live at LAUNCH Angel Summit in Napa. DoorDash Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder Stanley Tang joined Jason live on stage at Angel Summit to discuss DoorDash’s founding story, avoiding ZIRP distractions, and the cloud kitchen movement (1:23). Then, Jason sits down with Kelli Fontaine of Cendana Capital, Sophia Amoruso of Trust Fund, and Paige Doherty of Behind Genius Ventures to chat about becoming and investing in first-time fund managers (36:49). Follow Stanley: https://twitter.com/stanleytang Check Out DoorDash: https://www.doordash.com/ Follow Kelli: https://twitter.com/kells_bells Check Out Cendana Capital: https://www.cendanacapital.com/ Follow Paige: https://twitter.com/paigefinnn Check Out Behind Genius Ventures: https://www.behindgeniusventures.com/ Follow Sophia: https://twitter.com/sophiaamoruso Check Out Trust Fund: https://www.trustfund.vc/ * Time stamps: (0:00) Nick kicks off the show (1:23) DoorDash’s founding story with Stanley Tang (11:06) Embroker - Use code TWIST to get an extra 10% off insurance at https://Embroker.com/twist (12:20) The Palo Alto delivery experiemnt (16:07) DoorDash’s first delivery (18:21) The era of excess (23:00) LinkedIn Marketing - Get a $100 LinkedIn ad credit at https://linkedin.com/thisweekinstartups (24:23) Avoiding ZIRP distractions (26:44) Navigating through the pandemic (30:59) The Cloud Kitchen movement (35:31) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://Squarespace.com/TWIST (36:49) Defining a fund of funds and selecting managers with Kelli Fontaine of Cendana Capital (44:00) Raising a private fund with Paige Doherty of Behind Genius Ventures (48:14) The origin story of Trust Fund with Sophia Amoruso (53:42) The prevalence of startup funds (59:35) Advice for first-time fund managers and having the ability to say no (1:04:36) Running a small fund in a sustainable matter * Read LAUNCH Fund 4 Deal Memo & Apply for Funding Buy ANGEL Great recent interviews: Brian Chesky, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland, PrayingForExits, Jenny Lefcourt Check out Jason’s suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis * Follow Jason: Twitter: https://twitter.com/jason Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis * Follow TWiST: Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin * Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.founder.university/podcast

Stanley Tang

Co-Founder

DoorDash

Brought to you by OneSchema—Import CSV data 10x faster: https://oneschema.co/lenny | Amplitude—Build better products: https://amplitude.com/ | Coda—Meet the evolution of docs: https://coda.io/lenny — Keith Yandell started at DoorDash as Chief Legal Officer and during his tenure has also led the HR, Customer Support, Marketing, and now Corporate Development teams. In today’s episode, we talk about leadership, and how to lead with empathy. We dig into DoorDash’s unique culture and touch on the WeDash program, which requires every employee to complete four deliveries a year in order to better understand the customer experience. Keith shares his “How to Work with Keith” document and discusses the importance of openness in the workplace. He also gives some tips for founders on hiring, engaging with legal, and how to make big decisions when teams are competing for resources. Where to find Keith Yandell: • Twitter: https://twitter.com/kdyandell • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith-yandell-2a947432/ Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ Referenced: • Gokul Rajaram on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/gokul-rajaram-on-designing-your-product-development-process-when-and-how-to-hire-your-first-pm-a-playbook-for-hiring-leaders-getting-ahead-in-you-career-how-to-get-started-angel-investing-more/ • Ryan Sokol on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-sokol-00b2333/ • Tony Xu on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xutony/ • About WeDash: https://doordash.news/culture/wedash-doordash-employee-program-how-does-it-work/ •  Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World: https://www.amazon.com/Range-Generalists-Triumph-Specialized-World/dp/0735214484 •  How to be successful working with Keith doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12yTpBZFab6SPAruSpSD6CB_qLOu5L8kpQ4CCmX9pDx4/edit?mode=html • Kofi Amoo-Gottfried on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kofi-amoo-gottfried-3802bb3/ • Tia Sherringham on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiasherringham/ • Amp It Up: Leading for Hypergrowth by Raising Expectations, Increasing Urgency, and Elevating Intensity: https://www.amazon.com/Amp-Unlocking-Hypergrowth-Expectations-Intensity/dp/1119836115 • Ted Lasso’s quote on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TedLasso/status/1426932132417576967 • Rajat Shroff on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajatshroff/ • Micah Moreau on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/micahmoreau/ In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Keith’s background (03:41) The time Keith asked a potential hire if he was an a*****e (06:39) DoorDash culture (08:40) The WeDash program (13:16) How Keith was able to lead so many different teams at DoorDash (16:08) Hiring the best experts and then getting out of their way (18:21) The “How to Work with Keith” document (21:52) How and why Keith helps his employees land new jobs (27:22) How he leverages empathy to unify board members (29:26) The importance of assigning a decision maker and a time horizon for the decision (31:15) One-on-ones with Keith, and the T3 B3 framework from Uber (33:12) How to encourage constructive criticism from employees (34:49) What it’s like to lead in tough times and why it can actually make your org stronger (37:42) How creating urgency compounds gains (39:11) IPO day at DoorDash (40:20) The characteristics of top founders (41:33) How the pandemic impacted DoorDash (44:40) Advice for new parents that is applicable in business  (45:24) The difficulty of gaining funding (46:58) Advice for founders struggling with fundraising (48:02) How Keith developed a strong relationship with the VP of Product and Design (50:27) Building an effective BD team within a product company (52:36) How to engage with legal teams Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

Keith Yandell

Head of Corporate Development

DoorDash

Miki Kuusi is the CEO of Wolt and Head of DoorDash International. In 2014 Miki founded Wolt with a mission to turn the smartphone into a remote controller for life, starting with delivering your favorite restaurant food, to you at home. Today Wolt operates in 23 countries, across several different categories, has over 4,000 employees, and last year, Doordash made the move to join forces with Wolt in a deal worth a reported $8.1BN. Previously, Miki was the CEO of Slush, one of the leading tech and investor events in the world attended by more than 25,000 people annually. In Today's Discussion with Miki Kuusi: 1.) Founding Slush and Wolt: An Entry into Startups: How did Miki come to found Wolt? What was that a-ha moment? Did Wolt have product-market-fit from Day 1? What was the turning point when they did? What does Miki know now that he wishes he had known when he started Wolt on Day 1? 2.) The Makings of a Truly Great Leader: How does Miki define "high performance" today in leadership? How does Miki think about what focus means in leadership? What is the hardest decision Miki has had to make when it comes to focusing the company? What did he learn from Ilkka @ Supercell? What does Miki believe is the KPI of success as the CEO? How does it change? What does Miki believe is the difference between good vs great leadership? What does Miki believe is the biggest sacrifice he has made as the CEO? 3.) Hiring a Team to Compete on a Global Stage: How does Miki use compensation to create a culture of ownership and accountability? Does Miki start from a position of trust and it is there to be lost or no trust and it is there to be gained? What is the difference between a team and a family in company building? What is the core difference between trust and safety in company building? Why does Miki always want to have trust but not want to have safety? What are the single biggest hiring mistakes that Miki has made? How has he learned from them? Why does Miki believe you do not want to hire people that have done it before but hire the people who have seen those people do it before? Why does Miki believe most companies are merely glorified recruiting operations? Does Miki believe that companies need to be as big as they have grown into, headcount-wise? 4.) Miki Kuusi: The Personal Journey What single day was the hardest day of the Wolt journey for Miki? How did it change him? Why does Miki believe that for their Series B, all-bar one VC turned them down? How does Miki assess his own relationship to risk and money today? Why is Miki an advocate for founders taking secondaries along the journey? What can Europe do to become a powerhouse in tech moving forward? Why did Miki decide to sell the company to Doordash? What is he most excited to learn from Tony Xu, Doordash Founder and CEO? Items Mentioned in Today's Episode: Miki's Favourite Book: The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers

Miki Kuusi

CEO

WoltDoorDash

Gokul Rajaram serves on the executive team at DoorDash, where he leads the Caviar product line. Previously he worked at Square, where he was also on the executive team and led a number of key product lines, and as a product director at Facebook, where he helped the company transition its advertising business to become mobile-first. Earlier in his career, Gokul was a product director for Google AdSense, where he helped launch the product and grow it into a substantial portion of Google’s business. Gokul also serves on the boards of Coinbase, Pinterest, and The Trade Desk and is a prolific angel investor, having invested in companies like Airtable, Khatabook, and 100+ more. In this episode, you will learn: 1. How to navigate your next career - What should you focus on in order to improve your optionality? - What should you consider as you look for your next career adventure? - Why join winners in a space? - Why should people entering the workforce join mid-stage companies? - Why there are many paths to success. 2. How to build a product development process at early-stage companies - What does the best product development process typically look like at different company stages?  - What are some common pitfalls when building these processes? 3. Hiring PMs - When should you hire your first PM? What should you look for? - When should you wait longer to hire a PM? - What’s the number one secret for hiring a product leader, regardless of industry?  - How much time should you allocate for hiring as a founder? - How might job titles impact your company’s work culture? 4. How to start angel investing  - How did Gokul start investing in startups? What would he have done differently? - What does he look for in a startup pitch?  - How much time should you spend as a part-time investor?  - How do you find deals as a new investor? Where to find Gokul: - Twitter: https://twitter.com/gokulr  References: - Gokul’s current favorite app, Coinbase Wallet: https://www.coinbase.com/wallet  - Favorite book, Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works: https://rogerlmartin.com/lets-read/playing-to-win  - TED talk: TEDxConcordia - Lenny Rachitsky - Losing Serendipity  — Thank you to our sponsors for making this episode possible: • Amplitude: https://amplitude.com/ • Flatfile: https://flatfile.com/Lenny • Productboard: https://Productboard.com/ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

Gokul Rajaram

Production Engineering Lead

SquareDoorDashMAMarathonMMMarathon Management

Brian Hale is Vice President of Consumer Product & Growth @ Doordash. Before joining Doordash, Brian spent an incredible 10 years at Facebook, most recently as VP of Product Growth working across Instagram, Messenger, Whatsapp and more. Prior to Facebook, Brian was Director of Growth @ Uptake.com and it all started for Brian in 1999 working at ACDSee in Canada where he was asked to "figure out that search engine thing". In Today's Episode with Brian Hale You Will Learn: 1.) Brian Hale: Entry into Growth: How Brian made his way into the world of growth from being a "marine ceramic engineer"? What were 1-2 of his biggest takeaways from his 10-year journey with Facebook? What are 1-2 of the biggest misconceptions about the Facebook growth team? 2.) When is the Right Time: When is the right time for startups to hire their first growth leads or reps? How should the founder allocate resources to the growth team? Hire new designers, engineers etc for the team or pluck them from existing teams within the company? What are the biggest mistakes startups make on the timing of this hire? How can startups accurately assess whether they have product-market-fit? What levels of retention suggest PMF? How does this change by industry? 3.) Who To Hire: Step by step, how does Brian structure the interview process for all new growth hires? What are the must-ask questions for growth leaders to ask candidates in interviews? What are the clear signs and answers that suggest a 10x growth hire? How do the very best interact with data? What do they really hone in on? What literal tests does Brian do to determine the quality of a hire? How do the best perform? 4.) Onboarding and Integration: What is the optimal onboarding process for all new growth hires? What can leaders do to set their new growth teams up for success? What are the biggest ways new growth hires can mess up in the first 60 days? What have been some of the biggest challenges for Brian in his onboarding at Doordash?

Brian Hale

VP of Consumer Product and Growth

DoorDash

Tony Xu is the CEO and Co-founder of DoorDash, the company empowering merchants to grow their businesses by offering on-demand delivery, data-driven insights, and better in-store efficiency. Prior to their IPO in December 2020, Tony raised over $2.5Bn for DoorDash from some of the best including Sequoia, Coatue, Softbank, Kleiner Perkins and DST, to name a few. Before co-founding the business in 2013, Tony worked in Product at Square, led special projects for the CEO and CFO at eBay, and began his career at McKinsey and Company. In Today's Episode with Tony Xu You Will Learn: 1.) How did Tony make his way into the world of startups and what was that founding a-ha moment for Tony with the founding of DoorDash? What were Tony's biggest takeaways from seeing his parents work ethic at such a young age? How did it impact his operating mentality? 2.) Leadership Style: What does great leadership mean to Tony today? In what ways has Tony's leadership style changed over the DoorDash journey? How does Tony assess his own persistence and grit? Through what framework does Tony decide what to delegate vs what to control? 3.) Decision-Making & Risk: How does Tony evaluate his decision-making process today? What does Tony mean when he says, "you have to reduce the scope"? How does Tony think about understanding the interplay of different variants in a decision? Through what framework does Tony assess risk today? How has Tony's approach to risk and decision-making changed over time? 4.) Talent Acquisition: What have been Tony's biggest lessons in acquiring the best talent? What has worked well in the past? In what ways have they not acquired talent they should have acquired? What type of talent worked in the early days? How has that changed? Through what framework does Tony decide between a stretch VP and a stretch too far? 5.) Culture & Diversity: How does Tony think through the breakpoints in the scaling of culture? At what points did Tony feel the DoorDash culture was not what he wanted it to be? How did he react to change it? Through what process has Tony measured the success of DoorDash's diversity efforts? Which initiatives have worked? Are there any that have not? Item's Mentioned In Today's Episode with Tony Xu Tony's Favourite Book: Score Takes Care Of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here!

Tony Xu

CEO and Co-founder

DoorDash

Kara and Scott talk about how CEOs in the United States wealth has surged during the pandemic as compared to their workers. Meanwhile, tensions heat up between Tim Cook at Apple and Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook, as iPhone users are given the option to opt-out of ad tracking. Then we are joined by Friend of Pivot, DoorDash COO Christopher Payne who talks about the company's new model for food delivery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Christopher Payne

COO

DoorDash

My guest today is Tony Xu, co-founder, and CEO of DoorDash. Tony started DoorDash 7.5 years ago, and today it is one of the largest food delivery and logistics platforms globally, with operations in the US, Canada, Australia. In our conversation, we discuss the initial problem that DoorDash set out to solve, DoorDash’s counterintuitive approach to building their product, and the surprising benefits of capital constraints in DoorDash’s early days. DoorDash’s business model is an equal parts logistics nightmare and a human coordination problem, or as Tony puts it, a human and math problem. After talking to Tony, I feel his personality makes him a great candidate to solve those problems.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ----- This episode is brought to you by Vanta. Vanta has built software that makes it easier to get and maintain your SOC 2 report at a fraction of the typical cost. Founder’s Field Guide listeners can redeem a $1k off coupon at vanta.com/patrick. ----- This episode is brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs. With LinkedIn, you get access to an active community of professionals with more than 722 million members worldwide. LinkedIn is the easiest place in the world to post a job and message qualified candidates. Getting started is easier than ever, and now you can do this all from your mobile device.   When your business is ready to make that next hire, find the right person with LinkedIn Jobs. And now, you can post a job for free. Just visit linkedin.com/fieldguide to post a job for free. Terms and conditions apply. ----- Founder's Field Guide is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Founder's Field Guide, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.   Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus   Show Notes [00:03:07] - [First question] - The catalytic moment that inspired Tony to build DoorDash [00:06:33] - Network density and its role in scalability [00:09:15] - Solving a math and sales problem simultaneously [00:11:33] - Becoming aware of multiple problem sets for restaurant owners [00:14:34] - Designing a team to quantify friction and turn it into useable data [00:16:49] - How to approach difficult problems and compartmentalize them in a practical way [00:18:38] - Accounting for high-level variance in long-term goals [00:21:54] - Factoring in time horizons for variance and planning for the future [00:23:08] - Slowing down an action process to minimize a high-consequence decision [00:26:48] - Generating demand after completing their software infrastructure [00:28:15] - Strategic choices between network health and unit economics [00:30:32] - Why DoorDash struggled to raise financing in their seed-stage [00:32:23] - Solving a small fraction of a larger logistics problem [00:35:00] - Differences between local commerce and distribution centers  [00:36:44] - Creating the DashPass subscription service and how premium experiences influence user behavior [00:38:34] - Advantages and potential diminishing returns in servant leadership [00:40:41] - His broader philosophy on leadership and how it’s changed over the years [00:44:55] - Creating an incentive-aligned culture of ownership at scale [00:47:02] - The most surprising lessons learned about company building [00:50:38] - Unexpected positive outcomes that may emerge in other areas due to DoorDash’s growth in the coming years  [00:53:44] - Will DoorDash’s presence change behavioral patterns in where people choose to live or start their business? [00:55:36] - What has him most excited for the future [00:56:55] - Kindest thing anyone has ever done for him

Tony Xu

CEO and Co-founder

DoorDash

Summary The team at DoorDash has a complex set of optimization challenges to deal with using data that they collect from a multi-sided marketplace. In order to handle the volume and variety of information that they use to run and improve the business the data team has to build a platform that analysts and data scientists can use in a self-service manner. In this episode the head of data platform for DoorDash, Sudhir Tonse, discusses the technologies that they are using, the approach that they take to adding new systems, and how they think about priorities for what to support for the whole company vs what to leave as a specialized concern for a single team. This is a valuable look at how to manage a large and growing data platform with that supports a variety of teams with varied and evolving needs. Announcements Hello and welcome to the Data Engineering Podcast, the show about modern data management When you’re ready to build your next pipeline, or want to test out the projects you hear about on the show, you’ll need somewhere to deploy it, so check out our friends at Linode. With their managed Kubernetes platform it’s now even easier to deploy and scale your workflows, or try out the latest Helm charts from tools like Pulsar and Pachyderm. With simple pricing, fast networking, object storage, and worldwide data centers, you’ve got everything you need to run a bulletproof data platform. Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/linode today and get a $100 credit to try out a Kubernetes cluster of your own. And don’t forget to thank them for their continued support of this show! Modern Data teams are dealing with a lot of complexity in their data pipelines and analytical code. Monitoring data quality, tracing incidents, and testing changes can be daunting and often takes hours to days. Datafold helps Data teams gain visibility and confidence in the quality of their analytical data through data profiling, column-level lineage and intelligent anomaly detection. Datafold also helps automate regression testing of ETL code with its Data Diff feature that instantly shows how a change in ETL or BI code affects the produced data, both on a statistical level and down to individual rows and values. Datafold integrates with all major data warehouses as well as frameworks such as Airflow & dbt and seamlessly plugs into CI workflows. Go to dataengineeringpodcast.com/datafold today to start a 30-day trial of Datafold. Once you sign up and create an alert in Datafold for your company data, they will send you a cool water flask. RudderStack’s smart customer data pipeline is warehouse-first. It builds your customer data warehouse and your identity graph on your data warehouse, with support for Snowflake, Google BigQuery, Amazon Redshift, and more. Their SDKs and plugins make event streaming easy, and their integrations with cloud applications like Salesforce and ZenDesk help you go beyond event streaming. With RudderStack you can use all of your customer data to answer more difficult questions and then send those insights to your whole customer data stack. Sign up free at dataengineeringpodcast.com/rudder today. Your host is Tobias Macey and today I’m interviewing Sudhir Tonse about how the team at DoorDash designed their data platform Interview Introduction How did you get involved in the area of data management? Can you start by giving a quick overview of what you do at DoorDash? What are some of the ways that data is used to power the business? How has the pandemic affected the scale and volatility of the data that you are working with? Can you describe the type(s) of data that you are working with? What are the primary sources of data that you collect? What secondary or third party sources of information do you rely on? Can you give an overview of the collection process for that data? In selecting the technologies for the various components in your data stack, what are the primary factors that you consider when evaluating the build vs. buy decision? In your recent post about how you are scaling the capabilities and capacity of your data platform you mentioned the concept of maintaining a "paved path" of supported technologies to simplify integration across teams. What are the technologies that you use and rely on for the "paved path"? How are you managing quality and consistency of your data across its lifecycle? What are some of the specific data quality solutions that you have integrated into the platform and "paved path"? What are some of the technologies that were used early on at DoorDash that failed to keep up as the business scaled? How do you manage the migration path for adopting new technologies or techniques? In the same post you mentioned the tendency to allow for building point solutions before deciding whether to generalize a given use case into a generalized platform capability. Can you give some examples of cases where a point solution remains a one-off versus when it needs to be expanded into a widely used component? How do you identify and tracking cost factors in the data platform? What do you do with that information? What is your approach for identifying and measuring useful OKRs (Objectives and Key Results)? How do you quantify potentially subjective metrics such as reliability and quality? How have you designed the organizational structure for your data teams? What are the responsibilities and organizational interfaces for data engineers within the company? How have the organizational structures/patterns shifted or changed at different levels of scale/maturity for the business? What are some of the most interesting, useful, unexpected, or challenging lessons that you have learned during your time as a data professional at DoorDash? What are some of the upcoming projects or changes that you anticipate in the near to medium future? Contact Info LinkedIn @stonse on Twitter Parting Question From your perspective, what is the biggest gap in the tooling or technology for data management today? Closing Announcements Thank you for listening! Don’t forget to check out our other show, Podcast.__init__ to learn about the Python language, its community, and the innovative ways it is being used. Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the mailing list, and read the show notes. If you’ve learned something or tried out a project from the show then tell us about it! Email hosts@dataengineeringpodcast.com) with your story. To help other people find the show please leave a review on iTunes and tell your friends and co-workers Join the community in the new Zulip chat workspace at dataengineeringpodcast.com/chat Links How DoorDash is Scaling its Data Platform to Delight Customers and Meet our Growing Demand DoorDash Uber Netscape Netflix Change Data Capture Debezium Podcast Episode SnowflakeDB Podcast Episode Airflow Podcast.__init__ Episode Kafka Flink Podcast Episode Pinot GDPR CCPA Data Governance AWS LightGBM XGBoost Big Data Landscape Kinesis Kafka Connect Cassandra PostgreSQL Podcast Episode Amundsen Podcast Episode SQS Feature Toggles BigEye Podcast Episode The intro and outro music is from The Hug by The Freak Fandango Orchestra / CC BY-SA Support Data Engineering Podcast

Sudhir Tonse

Head of Data Platform

DoorDash

Today we’re joined by Gary Ren, a machine learning engineer for the logistics team at DoorDash.  In our conversation, we explore how machine learning powers the entire logistics ecosystem. We discuss the stages of their “marketplace,” and how using ML for optimized route planning and matching affects consumers, dashers, and merchants. We also talk through how they use traditional mathematics, classical machine learning, potential use cases for reinforcement learning frameworks, and challenges to implementing these explorations.   The complete show notes for this episode can be found at twimlai.com/go/405! Check out our upcoming event at twimlai.com/twimlfest

Gary Ren

Machine Learning Engineer

DoorDash

When Tony Xu started DoorDash in 2013, he wanted to help local restaurants stay afloat by introducing them to online delivery. Today, his quest remains the same, now that DoorDash has become an essential business during the COVID-19 pandemic. Marcia Kilgore's footwear brand, FitFlop, is experiencing a downturn in sales as retail stores stay closed. However, Beauty Pie – her direct-to-consumer cosmetics brand – is thriving as the beauty industry goes digital. These conversations are excerpts from our How I Built Resilience series, where Guy talks online with founders and entrepreneurs about how they're navigating these turbulent times.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Tony Xu

CEO and Co-founder

DoorDash

Marcia Kilgore

Founder

Beauty PieSoap & GloryFitFlop

Tony Xu, the CEO and co-founder of DoorDash, and Christopher Payne, the COO, talk with Recode's Kara Swisher about how the delivery company's busy 2018 and why it's starting to think about delivering more than food. In this episode: (01:41) Where DoorDash is now and the delivery business; (05:25) Is Amazon a competitor?; (08:07) Xu and Payne's backgrounds; (11:32) Why DoorDash succeeded where Webvan failed; (15:10) Working with big restaurants and why they don't do it themselves; (21:03) How DoorDash makes money; (25:53) The gig economy and the future of work; (30:48) Where the business could go beyond food delivery; (34:09) Why Xu started DoorDash; (36:08) The current startup environment and the image of tech; (39:31) What does it take to be an entrepreneur now?; (43:05) Raising money from SoftBank's Vision Fund; (44:55) The future of DoorDash and the future of retail stores; (50:51) Trends in shopping and the delivery business Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tony Xu

CEO and Co-founder

DoorDash

Christopher Payne

COO

DoorDash

In 2013, Tony Xu was brainstorming ideas for a business school project when he identified a problem he wanted to solve: food delivery. For most restaurants, it was too costly and inefficient, leaving most of the market to pizza and Chinese. Tony and his partners believed they could use technology to connect customers to drivers, who would deliver meals in every imaginable cuisine. That idea grew into DoorDash, a company that's now delivered over 100 million orders from over 200,000 restaurants across the country. PLUS in our postscript "How You Built That," we hear from the winner of our 2018 HIBT Summit Pitch Competition: Ashlin Cook. She combined her love for dogs with an entrepreneurial itch to create Winnie Lou: a Colorado business that sells healthy dog treats in independent pet stores and from a food truck. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Tony Xu

CEO and Co-founder

DoorDash

Hiring a VP of Product -- especially as the founder of the company -- can almost feel like handing over your baby to someone else to hold, observes a16z executive talent team partner Caroline Horn, who hosted an event on this topic earlier this year (which this podcast is based on). Featuring Vijay Balasubramaniyan, founder/CEO of Pindrop; Shishir Mehrotra, founder and CEO of Coda; Gokul Rajaram, Production Engineering Lead at Square; and Alan Schaaf, founder/CEO of Imgur -- and moderated by general partner Martin Casado -- the discussion covers everything from what the VP of Product role really is to how to hire and integrate it into your company. Because if you're going to be handing your "baby" over... how can you avoid common pitfalls? And know that you pick the right person for the job? Stay Updated: Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube Find a16z on X Find a16z on LinkedIn Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts Follow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Vijay Balasubramaniyan

Co-founder and CEO

Pindrop

Shishir Mehrotra

Founder and CEO

CodaSuperhumanGrammarly

Gokul Rajaram

Production Engineering Lead

SquareDoorDashMAMarathonMMMarathon Management

Alan Schaaf

Founder and CEO

Imgur