Building the DoorDash Playbook

Live from the scene of its blockbuster IPO, we recount the crazy, roller coaster journey of this "Palo Alto delivery company". From Sand Hill darling during their Series A and B fundraises to all but left-for-dead during the great unicorn massacre of 2015/16, DoorDash has clawed their way back from the brink and emerged as America's dominant meal delivery service, and its only unit-economic positive standalone logistics player. Is this the dawn of the next great Amazon-like story, or is the company simply benefiting from temporary tailwinds due to the pandemic? As always, we dive DEEP to find out. 

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Playbook Themes from this episode are available on our website at https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/doordash

Carve Outs:

David:

• Hades on the Nintendo Switch: https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/hades-switch/

Ben:

• Watchmen on HBO: https://www.hbo.com/watchmen
• Succession on HBO: https://www.hbo.com/succession
• Palm Springs: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9484998/