Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

DoorDash (YC S13) Raises $17.3 Million From Sequoia To Expand On-Demand Delivery

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 28 posts

Re: DoorDash (YC S13) Raises $17.3 Million From Sequoia To Expand On-Demand Delivery

#4

Post by 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)

Re: DoorDash (YC S13) Raises $17.3 Million From Sequoia To Expand On-Demand Delivery

#5

Post by cft »

Nimi wrote: post #4

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 curio…

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".

Re: DoorDash (YC S13) Raises $17.3 Million From Sequoia To Expand On-Demand Delivery

#7

Post by Nimi »

cft wrote: post #5
Nimi wrote: post #4

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 curio…

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".

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.

Re: DoorDash (YC S13) Raises $17.3 Million From Sequoia To Expand On-Demand Delivery

#8

Post by 2pasc »

cft wrote: post #5
Nimi wrote: post #4

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 curio…

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".

Sequoia, like all VCs, is funding startups, and startups are defined by growth.

If these guys are growing at such a speed that they are selling $10M worth of food in 10 months, they are growing freaking fast.

Re: DoorDash (YC S13) Raises $17.3 Million From Sequoia To Expand On-Demand Delivery

#9

Post by 2pasc »

Nimi wrote: post #7
cft wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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".

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 t…

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

Re: DoorDash (YC S13) Raises $17.3 Million From Sequoia To Expand On-Demand Delivery

#10

Post by 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.

Post reply on HN