DoorDash CEO and Founder Tony Xu joined Startup Grind Silicon Valley to talk about the rapid growth of their delivery empire, crafting the perfect customer experience, and the things that haunt him at night: "how are we keeping the ice cream cold, and the pizza warm?"
Delivering the World
DoorDash is an online food delivery service, bringing restaurant takeout directly to customers quickly through a vast network of couriers, creating a delivery infrastructure for even the most elusive hole-in-the-wall restaurants. DoorDash's couriers have blanketed 16 metro areas with iconic red DD shirts, now covering 110 cities.
The future won't all be edible. Xu hopes to deliver items beyond food in the future, including B2B delivery. He notes that DoorDash has grown quickly, but their goals and to-do list keep growing at lightning speed, too. Of course, he’s also competing with big companies like Google—still, he’s managed to keep pace.
The most important aspect for DoorDash is the customer experience. Knowing what the product is (delivery -- the service itself) is key. Delivery is nothing new and has likely been around since humans first roamed the earth. However, “product” is complicated. Over 100 individual services need to work in tandem to make a successful delivery happen. Focusing on customers and “Dashers” has been a big part of the DoorDash success.
Focused at the Core
Keeping the focus, especially with all the noise about delivery in the news, helps Xu to see where the cracks are. That’s where his personal focus is, and he says he wakes up thinking, “What are the core parts of DoorDash?” When delivering anything, from hot pizza to cold ice cream, it’s important to think from the customer’s point of view. What are they going through? Whenever Xu builds a product, he figures out what the question to ask is first.
The biggest question for Xu has always been, “Is this something customers really want?” Organic growth stemmed from this, and this is where Xu is staying.
Watch the full video to find out more about Xu’s DoorDash!