Another example of tech "disruption", which typically just means siphoning money from an established system and adding little in return.
DoorDash from Application to IPO
21–30 of 277 posts
Re: DoorDash from Application to IPO
#22> I really wanted them to make refrigerator magnets. They wisely ignored that bit of advice.
Fun to hear about tidbits like this. I often have “genius” marketing gimmicks for other people. Turns out while all successful startups will have external marketing successes that people will think were key to their success, their internal qualities are the real causative and what ends up being their famous marketing tricks are just symptoms and arbitrary.
Re: DoorDash from Application to IPO
#23Love it! It's great to see initial skepticism from YC about how this wasn't working. I feel like you see IPO write-ups like these and it's always implied that everyone around them always knew they were going to make it. That said, I searched the entire article for the words "luck" and "lucky" and see none. No doubt the pandemic and WFH life helped them, and that's something even YC couldn't have predicted.
Yeah, it's so easy to convince yourself that you knew all along that a company would succeed, which is one reason why it's helpful to keep actual notes. It's also a great example of a company that was not popular on Demo Day. This kind of success is so hard to predict.
> that a company would succeed
has it succeeded?
What happens if their cost of capital goes positive?
What happens if people start going to restaurants again?
Re: DoorDash from Application to IPO
#24As a customer, DoorDash is just consistently a terrible experience. I have the DashPass, which was advertised as free delivery for many restaurants. Turns out it only works if you spend $12, and even then sometimes it doesn’t apply. If you check prices between the app and the actual restaurants’ websites, there’s often an extra $2-3 added on for each item on DoorDash (I don’t blame the restaurants). When it’s all sai…
I consistently get late orders, missing items, or the app is just completely down after I order and I can't access anything. Literally the only reason I keep using it is because of the lax refund/credits policy which results in me getting free food.
Re: DoorDash from Application to IPO
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
A company that would allow that in the first place should not be trusted later on, claiming they "fixed it". It's such a clear violation of ethics and morals. I don't get how a corporation can literally steal money from it's employees, say it's "sorry" and it "fixed the problem" and get off freely.
Well spending millions of dollars on Prop 22 ensured that they're technically not "employees"
The "technically" in that sentence is the evil part of their argument, IMO.
Re: DoorDash from Application to IPO
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, it's so easy to convince yourself that you knew all along that a company would succeed, which is one reason why it's helpful to keep actual notes. It's also a great example of a company that was not popular on Demo Day. This kind of success is so hard to predict.
> that a company would succeed has it succeeded? What happens if their cost of capital goes positive? What happens if people start going to restaurants again?
They just IPOed to the tune of $70B market cap...
This comment really comes across as out of touch... The company just went public and based on their S-1 has been massively growing even pre-pandemic! (both huge measures of success)
Re: DoorDash from Application to IPO
#27Congrats to Doordash! The pandemic certainly helped accelerate this process, but I will add that within the bay-area, anecdotally, my first circle were all Dashpass subscribers for a while before 2020 too. Their partnerships with Chase, amongst others were smart, big moves.
I do want to link here a super insightful/funny article that calls out how Doordash acquires new restaurants( amongst other ways of course) , and the resulting loopholes.
https://themargins.substack.com/p/doordash-and-pizza-arbitra...
HN discussion - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23216852
Re: DoorDash from Application to IPO
#28So many companies cashing in on IPOs this year, good for them. I still cannot support a company that pockets tips intended for their drivers, it's pure greed.
They stopped messing with driver tips. As for questionable business practices in general, I don't see that as any different than a hundred other questionable-but-still-legal practices, many of which cause vastly greater social and environmental harm that Doordash could ever hope to achieve.
Re: DoorDash from Application to IPO
#29Another example of tech "disruption", which typically just means siphoning money from an established system and adding little in return.
The users apparently feel they are getting something in return. Otherwise why download and use the app (and pay extra for the food)?
Re: DoorDash from Application to IPO
#30As a customer, DoorDash is just consistently a terrible experience. I have the DashPass, which was advertised as free delivery for many restaurants. Turns out it only works if you spend $12, and even then sometimes it doesn’t apply. If you check prices between the app and the actual restaurants’ websites, there’s often an extra $2-3 added on for each item on DoorDash (I don’t blame the restaurants). When it’s all sai…
My order from a restaurant that's a 5 minute drive away (raising a puppy, I can't really leave him alone right now) arrived almost 40 minutes after it was picked up.
I was given a credit that didn't even cover the delivery and service fees, let alone the tip that they don't let you edit after the order.