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DoorDash from Application to IPO

blog.ycombinator.com

101–110 of 277 posts

Re: DoorDash from Application to IPO

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This +1000 My food is regularly delivered incorrectly or missing and they refuse to refund the fees. What is beyond fucked up to me; is that they increase the fees based on what I buy. So they charge me for something and then refuse to refund it. I just don't know how it's even legal to bill me for something and then not provide it. I need to write my congressman again and state senators about this shit again. Oh the…

I have many complaints about DoorDash, mainly that the platform has degraded a lot as they've grown (customer service used to be top notch), and that their tipping policy was not clear for years. But I've used it for 5-6 years, and for a chunk of that almost daily (I'm lazy), and they've never refused to refund anything that was incorrect/missing.

Re: DoorDash from Application to IPO

#103
Just eyeballing this, but trading at $180 gives DoorDash a market cap of $60 billion. The IPO priced it at $30 billion.

Uber's market cap is $95 billion.

Lyft's market cap is $14 billion.

UPS's market cap is $120 billion.

Delta's market cap is $40 billion.

So with this naive analysis, I assume there is a lot of potential in last mile delivery. And moving things is more profitable than moving people. Or moving things is stickier than moving people.

In general, curious to wonder how durable this trend is. Or their proprietary gifts. And the pivots they take in the future. They are capturing a lot of taste and preference data on top of logistics.

Re: DoorDash from Application to IPO

#104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> raising a puppy, I can't really leave him alone right now Off topic, but why not take the puppy to pick up the food? Might even be a decent walk, if there are sidewalks along the way.

It's my first week with him; he hasn't had all his shots and I don't want to stress him out with too many new things all at once.

Right now it takes around 5-10 minutes to just get him comfortable with a car ride to begin with, so even that's not a fantastic option.

In the future that's definitely the plan but it's just not practical right now.

Re: DoorDash from Application to IPO

#105
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least in DoorDash's YC application, they pitched that delivery drivers wanted to make more money. When the drivers worked for one restaurant only, they would be sitting around most of the time waiting for an order. By delivering for many restaurants at once on DoorDash, they would be able to make more money and have less idle time. I'd love to see data, but I can intuitively imagine this being true, and the common…

> I'd love to see data, but I can intuitively imagine this being true, and the common view of "underpaid" being a view that isn't consistent with the history of the space. Except, you know, the history of the space is consistent with delivery drivers being consistently underpaid, cheated out of tips and hazard pay etc. etc. With Doordash alone multiple lawsuits against it for payments alone. So far Doordash has been…

> the history of the space is consistent with delivery drivers being consistently underpaid

If that's the case, how can one say that, for all of history, they have been underpaid? What is the standard that defines underpaid? If we agree that this is an issue that DoorDash has done better on than historical alternatives, should they receive as much flak as they do?

> With Doordash alone multiple lawsuits against it for payments alone

I would never argue that DoorDash isn't acting in its own self-interest and has been quite misleading when it comes to tips, to the point where they should be losing lawsuits. When we talk about delivery people being underpaid, though, that seems directly against the initial pitch of DoorDash, and it seems to have instead fulfilled its pitch to help drivers make more money than they did previously.

Re: DoorDash from Application to IPO

#106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> raising a puppy, I can't really leave him alone right now Off topic, but why not take the puppy to pick up the food? Might even be a decent walk, if there are sidewalks along the way.

If puppy is really small (under 18 weeks) and didn't have all the vaccines yet, you should avoid putting them directly on the ground if don't know the environment. If they come into contact with leftover feces of other dog that cary disease, they can some deadly ones, like Lepto.

Which is also tricky, as at the same time it's when you have to socialize the puppy. Things they haven't been exposed to under 18 weeks, they're more likely to be scared of/aggressive towards.

Re: DoorDash from Application to IPO

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> raising a puppy, I can't really leave him alone right now Off topic, but why not take the puppy to pick up the food? Might even be a decent walk, if there are sidewalks along the way.

It's my first week with him; he hasn't had all his shots and I don't want to stress him out with too many new things all at once. Right now it takes around 5-10 minutes to just get him comfortable with a car ride to begin with, so even that's not a fantastic option. In the future that's definitely the plan but it's just not practical right now.

Thanks for the answer. Still sounds like a lot of fun raising a puppy! Please give him some pets from me :-)

Re: DoorDash from Application to IPO

#108
post #100

I just don't get it. Who's buying this stock and why do they think that a company that is not profitable during a pandemic, with people locked in their homes and in-person dining outlawed, is going to be worth billions of dollars? There's no loyalty in food delivery. Everybody is chasing the same promos. There's no moat. Just VC funded revenue.

We're in a bubble, every IPO is being bought, we're in the manic state, "stocks only go up" they say, people FOMO into all kinds of stocks. I think we're in the peak time of scams, grifters and conmen. Heck, even the president is one. BTC at all time valuation again. Everything is amazing in the stock market right now. But look at the food lines, look at the covid cases and deaths, unemployment. We're heading to an insolvency event.

Re: DoorDash from Application to IPO

#109
post #42

They also created a "chicago tax" to make customers believe that it was a tax from the city when it is something entirely created by them ($1.5 per order). Just because they were asked to stop overcharging orders (sometimes 15% overcharge). Yet another dishonest and poorly functioning company. Experience has been worse with time, that and the fake restaurant pages...

They did something similar to where I live. When I found out just how much of the cost goes to them rather than the business I stopped using them. It is better to support local businesses by just ordering pick up and and tipping them directly.

IIUC you can't really tip the restaurant on doordash either just the delivery person.

Re: DoorDash from Application to IPO

#110

Another example of tech "disruption", which typically just means siphoning money from an established system and adding little in return.

You were able to get sushi, dim sum, boba, bagels, or even steaks promptly delivered in a few clicks before 2013? DoorDash is an easy example of a startup that has made my life better, especially during a pandemic.
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