Do you keep asking the same question every day to understand a problem? Tony Xu does. His business, Door Dash is a foodie’s dream – to allow you to get food delivered to your home or office. Think Uber meets restaurants. He worries how to keep the ice cream cold and the pizza hot.
Started from Y Combinator in Silicon Valley, Xu and his colleagues wanted to see if they could use math to solve an incredibly complex set of problems that occur in delivering food to consumers. What happens when the food isn’t ready, there is terrible traffic or not enough drivers? How can you understand and manage all the possible permutation and problems and still focus on giving customers an incredible experience? Can software feed the world?
Tony and his team use sophisticated algorithms to anticipate and predict problems before they occur and to have backup solutions in place to ensure a smooth customer experience.
Door Dash- Delivering a Solution
Watch this interview from Google’s Startup Grind to learn about the trials and tribulations of delivering along the last mile.
Three important lessons to take away from this video:
- IS THIS A REAL PROBLEM? – They kept probing in the early years to learn if delivery were a real problem consumer had and to understand why it didn’t exist. Xu kept trying to learn if the demand was real.
- CUSTOMER CARE ABOUT SOLUTIONS NOT PROCESS. The back office stuff doesn’t matter to the customer. All they care about is how the experience works. They push a button, place an order and do they get what they want when they want it.
- FOCUS ON SHORT-TERM. The market for delivery beyond food is enormous when you consider it on a local not an international scale like Fed Ex and UPS. They are laser focused on food delivery today – but see the horizon that has the exponential opportunity too.
Enjoy the video and bring a snack, you’ll be hungry for takeout.
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Image: Screen Grab from Door Dash, all rights reserved
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