In August 2013, Tony Xu, CEO and co-founder at DoorDash, presented to a room full of investors at YC S13 Demo Day.
In this episode of How To Build The Future, Garry sits down with Tony Xu, Co-founder and CEO of DoorDash, to discuss their origin story, how the company survived several near death experiences, and what it takes to transform an entire industry. Apply for a YC Summer Fellows Grant: https://events.ycombinator.com/summer-fellows Apply to Y Combinator: https://ycombinator.com/apply Chapters (Powered by https://bit.ly/chapterme-yc) - 00:00 - Intro 02:45 - How they landed on the idea of DoorDash 05:16 - Doing things that don't scale 07:08 - Figuring out what matters in the early days 09:01 - Answering the biggest questions about demand 10:30 - Demographics of the Dashers 12:03 - DoorDash almost goes out of business (the first time) 14:00 - DoorDash almost dies a second time 16:00 - All you need is one investor to say yes 17:00 - Price war 21:34 - Scaling up 24:32 - The ups and downs of the COVID era 28:00 - Long-term vision 30:00 - Advice for founders today
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Keith Yandell started at DoorDash as Chief Legal Officer and during his tenure has also led the HR, Customer Support, Marketing, and now Corporate Development teams. In today’s episode, we talk about leadership, and how to lead with empathy. We dig into DoorDash’s unique culture and touch on the WeDash program, which requires every employee to complete four deliveries a year in order to better understand the customer experience. Keith shares his “How to Work with Keith” document and discusses the importance of openness in the workplace. He also gives some tips for founders on hiring, engaging with legal, and how to make big decisions when teams are competing for resources. — Brought to you by OneSchema—Import CSV data 10x faster: https://oneschema.co/lenny | Amplitude—Build better products: https://amplitude.com/ | Coda—Meet the evolution of docs: https://coda.io/lenny Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/leading-with-empathy-keith-yandell-doordash-uber/#transcript Where to find Keith Yandell: • Twitter: https://twitter.com/kdyandell • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith-yandell-2a947432/ Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ Referenced: • Gokul Rajaram on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/gokul-rajaram-on-designing-your-product-development-process-when-and-how-to-hire-your-first-pm-a-playbook-for-hiring-leaders-getting-ahead-in-you-career-how-to-get-started-angel-investing-more/ • Ryan Sokol on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-sokol-00b2333/ • Tony Xu on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xutony/ • About WeDash: https://doordash.news/culture/wedash-doordash-employee-program-how-does-it-work/ • Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World: https://www.amazon.com/Range-Generalists-Triumph-Specialized-World/dp/0735214484 • How to be successful working with Keith doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12yTpBZFab6SPAruSpSD6CB_qLOu5L8kpQ4CCmX9pDx4/edit?mode=html • Kofi Amoo-Gottfried on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kofi-amoo-gottfried-3802bb3/ • Tia Sherringham on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiasherringham/ • Amp It Up: Leading for Hypergrowth by Raising Expectations, Increasing Urgency, and Elevating Intensity: https://www.amazon.com/Amp-Unlocking-Hypergrowth-Expectations-Intensity/dp/1119836115 • Ted Lasso’s quote on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TedLasso/status/1426932132417576967 • Rajat Shroff on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajatshroff/ • Micah Moreau on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/micahmoreau/ In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Keith’s background (03:41) The time Keith asked a potential hire if he was an asshole (06:39) DoorDash culture (08:40) The WeDash program (13:16) How Keith was able to lead so many different teams at DoorDash (16:08) Hiring the best experts and then getting out of their way (18:21) The “How to Work with Keith” document (21:52) How and why Keith helps his employees land new jobs (27:22) How he leverages empathy to unify board members (29:26) The importance of assigning a decision maker and a time horizon for the decision (31:15) One-on-ones with Keith, and the T3 B3 framework from Uber (33:12) How to encourage constructive criticism from employees (34:49) What it’s like to lead in tough times and why it can actually make your org stronger (37:42) How creating urgency compounds gains (39:11) IPO day at DoorDash (40:20) The characteristics of top founders (41:33) How the pandemic impacted DoorDash (44:40) Advice for new parents that is applicable in business (45:24) The difficulty of gaining funding (46:58) Advice for founders struggling with fundraising (48:02) How Keith developed a strong relationship with the VP of Product and Design (50:27) Building an effective BD team within a product company (52:36) How to engage with legal teams Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
Tony Xu, MBA ’13, is the cofounder and CEO of DoorDash. He was interviewed by Joy Huang, MBA ’21, on February 9, 2021 as part of the View From The Top speaker series. In the interview, Xu talks about how his experience at Stanford GSB helped him prepare to lead DoorDash, what you can to prepare to combat the obstacles of being an entrepreneur, and how to be a leader in uncertain times.
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