Episode #6
In this Foundercast episode, DoorDash Co-Founder & CEO Tony Xu has a fireside chat with Vicky Howell during our SCET Newton Lecture series in the Fall of 2018. Tony shares his journey from student at Berkeley to starting DoorDash, along with thoughts on cofounder strengths, keys to validate his business, and more. DoorDash is the restaurant industry’s “last-mile” solution and has grown into a more than $4 billion leader in the on-demand space. Today, the company is also focusing efforts on an issue particularly important to Xu, using that same logistical expertise to reduce food waste with the recent launch of Project DASH. In just five years, DoorDash has become the industry standard for restaurant delivery, and recently expanded to grocery through its newest partnership with Walmart.
00:55 - Tony introduction
03:17 - Growing up in Illinois
05:49 - Family immigrant story
06:57 - Major at Berkeley
07:42 - On entrepreneurship
09:27 - Keeping sane in school
11:38 - Going to McKinsey
14:41 - Business School
18:42 - Soft skills
19:28 - What you can't fake
20:18 - DoorDash - what was not obvious
24:38 - Cofounders and backgrounds
21:23 - The first city
29:21 - Competition
31:22 - Stickler for detail
35:19 - Delivering good
39:10 - Q&A