Liz Alarcon’s Post

The Very First Pitch Deck of Doordash (Now Valued at $47 Billion): Dive into the entrepreneurial spirit with a look back at DoorDash’s first pitch deck—an illuminating snapshot of their early ambitions that paved the way to becoming a delivery giant valued at $47 billion. This initial presentation laid the groundwork for what has become a cornerstone of urban food delivery. Key Highlights from the Deck: 1) Clear Vision: From day one, DoorDash aimed to establish a real-time delivery network for local commerce, focusing initially on restaurants—a sector where 85% did not offer delivery services. 2) Innovative Model: Highlighting the inefficiencies of traditional delivery, DoorDash presented a transformative approach using mobile technology to reduce delivery costs from over $50 to just $7. 3) Market Opportunity: The deck identified a significant gap in the market—most restaurants' inability to handle delivery due to high costs and logistical complexities. 4) Strong Unit Economics: DoorDash differentiated itself with a model boasting 3.5 times more efficiency, faster service, and lower customer acquisition costs compared to competitors. Impactful Results: -Growth Metrics: Within just eight months of operations, they achieved a $10.2M gross sales run rate, demonstrating rapid adoption and a compelling value proposition. -Network Effects: Their pitch emphasized the creation of a three-sided network (consumers, drivers, merchants) that enhances scalability and defensibility. This pitch deck was more than just a fundraising tool; it was a declaration of intent and innovation that has since revolutionized how we think about food delivery. PS. check out 🔔 for a winning pitch deck the template created by Silicon Valley legend, Peter Thiel https://lnkd.in/d7YNAK2Z

#DoorDash #NASDAQ #DASH #EarningsReport #Profit Hey everyone! 🎉 Did you hear the exciting news? DoorDash (NASDAQ: DASH) has just posted its first-ever profit since its IPO! 🚀 Not only that, but they also managed to beat revenue estimates. Isn't that amazing? Here’s a quick breakdown: First Profit: This marks a significant milestone for the company! It's great to see a delivery service finally turning a profit after such a turbulent time in the industry. Beating Estimates: It’s impressive when companies not only hit expectations but exceed them. This is a strong indicator that DoorDash is on the right track. Industry Impact: With the competition in the food delivery space heating up, DoorDash stepping into profitability could shake things up. What do you think this means for other delivery services? 💭 Personally, I think this could be a turning point for the company and the industry at large. They have shown resilience in their business model, and it’s exciting to see where they... Is DoorDash's First-Ever Profit a Sign of Future Growth? Answers: https://lnkd.in/gHHRd2J4

#DoorDash #NASDAQ #DASH #EarningsReport #Profit Hey everyone! 🎉 Did you hear the exciting news? DoorDash (NASDAQ: DASH) has just posted its first-ever profit since its IPO! 🚀 Not only that, but they also managed to beat revenue estimates. Isn't that amazing? Here’s a quick breakdown: First Profit: This marks a significant milestone for the company! It's great to see a delivery service finally turning a profit after such a turbulent time in the industry. Beating Estimates: It’s impressive when companies not only hit expectations but exceed them. This is a strong indicator that DoorDash is on the right track. Industry Impact: With the competition in the food delivery space heating up, DoorDash stepping into profitability could shake things up. What do you think this means for other delivery services? 💭 Personally, I think this could be a turning point for the company and the industry at large. They have shown resilience in their business model, and it’s exciting to see where they... Is DoorDash's First-Ever Profit a Sign of Future Growth? Answers: https://lnkd.in/gWFKStSG

Oddle evens out revenue for 2023, losses narrow 👉 Read more: https://buff.ly/4hmEnG6 - 📉 Oddle, dubbed "Shopify for restaurants," faced challenges adapting post-pandemic, with a modest annual revenue growth of 2% in 2023. - ⚙️ Despite revenue slowdowns, Oddle improved operational results by cutting expenses and expanding into reservations and payments. - 🤝 Competition with giants like Grab is intense, raising potential M&A prospects for smaller food delivery platforms like Oddle.

How to Make Money on DoorDash With a Low Acceptance Rate The #Doordash Rewards program only #rewards low or non-tippers #business #sidehustle #money https://lnkd.in/dABV6t6s

THE ONLY MOAT THAT MATTERS Every founder dreams of building an invincible business—unbreakable, untouchable, unstoppable. But here’s the truth: no moat exists at the start. Given enough time and money, almost anything can be copied. Features you launch today might appear in a competitor’s product tomorrow. So what’s the real differentiator? Relentless execution. Take DoorDash. From day one, we faced giants with more money, resources, and attention. There was no obvious moat. Others could have caught on (and many tried). But we had one edge they couldn’t match: relentless execution. Every day, every order—we obsessed over delivering value. We weren’t just delivering food—we were solving problems. Drivers wanted more efficient routes. Customers wanted more accurate ETAs. Restaurants wanted more orders with no operational disruptions. Competitors could copy our app, but they couldn’t match how fast we adapted to challenges. The real moats only became clear at scale. Every order strengthened the network, making it harder for competitors. The complexity and capital required became barriers to entry. These moats emerged because of relentless execution over time. Relentless execution isn’t glamorous, but it wins. Every day, ask yourself: what can I improve that competitors won’t notice until it’s too late? That’s how you build a moat no one can break.

... what a journey it has been for the past 2.5 years at Droppe, working amongst a pool of some the most talented people I've had the pleasure of associating with. And we're just getting started. 🙏 I'm delighted to share that we’ve raised €3.9M in funding, led by OpenOcean, with participation from Lifeline Ventures and Illusian Family Office. This funding helps Droppe create the most efficient way for businesses to source and order the supplies their operations rely on. The round was joined by leading operators and founders, including Miki Kuusi, Co-Founder of Wolt; Ilkka Paananen, Co-Founder of Supercell; Robert Gentz, Co-Founder of Zalando; and Marianne Vikkula, COO of Wolt; and Mikko Silventola, among others. Today, over 1,500 businesses, ranging from operators in local companies to Europe’s largest light manufacturing enterprises, source and manage their supplies via Droppe. Additionally, more than 200 brands have chosen Droppe as part of their core distribution strategy to expand their market share and enter new markets. While we’re excited about how far we’ve come, there is still much to be done to bring the B2B distribution online. #Droppe #sourceToOrderPlatform #b2b 💡

The business school version of how Doordash gained market share so rapidly is through clever strategy: targeting the suburbs where others weren't operating, acquiring untapped supply. That is not wrong, but it is also not all (or even most) of the real story. The actual story is that the team executed relentlessly. They made deliveries just a little faster and more reliable every week. They scrutinized the quality of every one of their restaurants and dashers. They optimized cost out of the system and gave it back to customers in the form of Dashpass (which launched in 2018 at the start of this chart). Over time, there was just better selection and faster, cheaper, more reliable delivery on Doordash, and consumers stuck. Virtually every startup is like this. There is a neat version of the strategy that fits into a 5-minute case study. But get under the hood and you'll realize that a lot of success is just showing up with grit and attention to detail every day.

Ideas are cheap. Building the right team and executing is everything.

Nice work here by Camilla Hodgson on one of the dot com bubble busts that made a return appearance in the most recent giant bubble across all asset classes. I'll attempt to describe this phenomenon as I've had significant exposure to it--I reviewed quite a few pitch decks and BPs for delivery ventures. Perhaps more importantly, I reviewed thousands of me-too pitches in VC and studied the underlying contributing factors. To provide some perspective, when I was in VC it was not unusual to see dozens or more nearly identical me-too pitch decks. Large numbers of entrepreneurs can obviously understand how to deliver groceries, and it's relatively easy to find initial customers at significant losses, so then it's primarily a matter of finding a greater fool. As we can see, no shortage of fools. Many VC firms have mandates on revenue but not cash flow... Today of course the giant me-too ventures are LLM firms, which are even higher risk than delivery ventures, and face even tougher break-even challenges. Sometimes they are driven by the perception of consumer markets -- like cleaning robots, coworking space, free bicycles, etc. (take your pick), sometimes the perceived needs of businesses, and sometimes both. The largest driver of this phenom is social herding in the relatively small, insular practice of VC that has become a giant industry due to excess capital in too few hands in too few zip codes -- university endowments, individuals with tens of billions or more, Big Tech, etc. We see the pattern manifest over and over again where "the market" - as in VC market, becomes convinced that a category is a must-have in their portfolio. It's a dysfunction in the market -- the relationship between VCs and LPs. Excess capital favors predatory capital behavior, so it becomes more of a game of who is willing to invest more at greater losses, provided of course they can figure out a way to become sustainable. That obviously doesn't require a lot of brains, so if you've noticed a reduction of IQ in VC, it's accurate. Scaling of any specialty to this size results in mediocrity. What's one thing many VCs and their LPs have in common? They don't like shopping for groceries. It's not always my favorite activity either, but I learn things about the interaction with people and the observations in the experience. Some of the sector bubbles provide clear evidence on the disconnect between investors and the rest of society. It's also evident in some corporations as execs who fly private jets, don't shop, don't clean, don't fix things, etc. lose touch with market reality. I think it's super important for decision makers to remain grounded in the real world, and the best way I've experienced in so doing is to walk a mile (or a thousand) in the shoes of customers and employees.