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Tony Xu

12 statements across 5 episodes · 2 bullish · 1 bearish · 5 people on the record · first statement Jan 27, 2021 by Alfred Lin · said 69 times in 17 episodes since 2021 · across every show →

On the record as a speaker too: Tony Xu's record, appearances and statements → this page counts the times other people say the name.

Mentions by year

brought up most by Alfred Lin (36), Alexis Ohanian (6), Harry Stebbings (4), Gokul Rajaram (4), Peter Singlehurst (3), Dominik Richter (3), Jeff Jordan (2), Andrew Dudum (2)

tap a year for its mentions
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024202120222023202420252026episodes it came up in
0052104202120222023202420252026episodesmentions per episode
2026 8 mentions in 4 episodes 2 per episode
2025 1 mention in 1 episode
2024 7 mentions in 2 episodes 4 per episode
2023 6 mentions in 3 episodes 2 per episode
2022 8 mentions in 3 episodes 3 per episode
2021 39 mentions in 4 episodes 10 per episode

every mention, scene by scene, with the transcript →

Everything said about Tony Xu, oldest first

Jan 27, 2021 positive
Assertion Supported
DoorDash Cut Over $100 Million in Restaurant Commissions During COVID-19
“He slashed commissions for a period of time that totaled over a hundred million dollars during that time.”
Alfred Lin Jan 27, 2021 ▶ 37:10 20VC: The Memo: Sequoia's Alfred Lin on Why Chasing GMV Leads To Bad Behaviours, How To Approach Competition and Capital Efficiency & The Core Importance of Understanding the Difference Between Input and Output Metrics
Jan 27, 2021
Assertion Supported
Tony Xu's DoorDash Seed Pitch Was the 'FedEx of Local'
“Tony's whole notion was not just food delivery, right? He wanted to build the FedEx, his initial pitch was the FedEx of local, and he wanted to deliver almost everything, but he was going to start out in food, because if you can deliver a pizza before it gets …”
Alfred Lin Jan 27, 2021 ▶ 10:19 20VC: The Memo: Sequoia's Alfred Lin on Why Chasing GMV Leads To Bad Behaviours, How To Approach Competition and Capital Efficiency & The Core Importance of Understanding the Difference Between Input and Output Metrics
Jan 27, 2021
Assertion Not checkable as stated
DoorDash Received Five Term Sheets During Its Series A Raise
“He had a fairly easy series A raise in my opinion, because he had five term sheets and we were competing with five term sheets and I had a jump on the competition, but it happened fairly quickly.”
Alfred Lin Jan 27, 2021 ▶ 34:13 20VC: The Memo: Sequoia's Alfred Lin on Why Chasing GMV Leads To Bad Behaviours, How To Approach Competition and Capital Efficiency & The Core Importance of Understanding the Difference Between Input and Output Metrics
Jun 7, 2021
Disclosure
DoorDash tested job candidates by having them acquire 100 customers for $20
“We would ask candidates to acquire a hundred new customers in eight hours with 20 dollars. And that was the entire interview.”
Tony Xu Jun 7, 2021 ▶ 21:42 20VC: DoorDash CEO Tony Xu on The Art of Great Leadership Today, Why The Best Give All of the Credit and Take All of the Blame & How DoorDash Have Won The Best Talent Against the Toughest Competition
Jun 7, 2021
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Tony Xu's mother worked three jobs daily for 12 years post-immigration
“My parents' journey into this country, it kind of is that classic immigrant story where dad was getting his graduate degree, mom was putting food on the table because we had a couple hundred bucks in the bank, and so she worked three jobs a day for 12 years to…”
Tony Xu Jun 7, 2021 ▶ 4:43 20VC: DoorDash CEO Tony Xu on The Art of Great Leadership Today, Why The Best Give All of the Credit and Take All of the Blame & How DoorDash Have Won The Best Talent Against the Toughest Competition
Jun 7, 2021
Insight
High-potential hires need multiple role trials to find their superpower
“But especially with folks who have maybe more talent or hustle than experience, you may not know what that superpower is. They may not know what that superpower is. And so you may have to trial a couple of different assignments before you can kind of lock on t…”
Tony Xu Jun 7, 2021 ▶ 17:30 20VC: DoorDash CEO Tony Xu on The Art of Great Leadership Today, Why The Best Give All of the Credit and Take All of the Blame & How DoorDash Have Won The Best Talent Against the Toughest Competition
Jun 7, 2021
Insight
Tony Xu says the best recruiters only succeed 70% of the time
“If you're the Michael Jordan of recruiting, you're probably going to be right, 65 to 70% of the time, and this is coming from someone who's hired tens of thousands of people”
Tony Xu Jun 7, 2021 ▶ 21:02 20VC: DoorDash CEO Tony Xu on The Art of Great Leadership Today, Why The Best Give All of the Credit and Take All of the Blame & How DoorDash Have Won The Best Talent Against the Toughest Competition
Jun 7, 2021 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
DoorDash originated from a store manager turning down hundreds of orders
“If there was one, it really happened inside of a local macaroon store in Palo Alto where the founding team met a store manager who had to turn down hundreds of deliveries. She literally showed us a notebook with payment information of customers and how she had…”
Tony Xu Jun 7, 2021 ▶ 3:09 20VC: DoorDash CEO Tony Xu on The Art of Great Leadership Today, Why The Best Give All of the Credit and Take All of the Blame & How DoorDash Have Won The Best Talent Against the Toughest Competition
Jun 7, 2021
Insight
Tony Xu says scope reduction decreases complexity when solving hard problems
“The hard part is you may not be right in defining the problem at each stage or in between each mile marker, and so when you reduce the scope, you're actually reducing the complexity and the variance of outcomes, and that way, hopefully, you have a better chanc…”
Tony Xu Jun 7, 2021 ▶ 15:24 20VC: DoorDash CEO Tony Xu on The Art of Great Leadership Today, Why The Best Give All of the Credit and Take All of the Blame & How DoorDash Have Won The Best Talent Against the Toughest Competition
Jul 15, 2022
Insight
Singlehurst: Founder zeal matters more in growth investing than competitive analysis
“The thing that I should have placed a much greater weight on. Was the founder of DoorDash and, you know, why he'd started the business and the level of commitment that he had to these small businesses that he was wanting to help and kind of bring online and he…”
Peter Singlehurst Jul 15, 2022 ▶ 46:24 Peter Singlehurst: The Most Powerful Investor You've Never Heard of | 20VC #907 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 16, 2023 negative
Disclosure
Jeff Jordan passed on early DoorDash investment over defensibility concerns
“The biggest miss I think was I had an opportunity to do DoorDash early and I loved Tony as a founder. I had the theory, a thesis on the food delivery market that you shouldn't, there's no defensible barrier to entry”
Jeff Jordan Jan 16, 2023 ▶ 51:24 a16z GP Jeff Jordan: The Ultimate Guide to Two-Sided Marketplaces | 20VC #966 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 16, 2026 positive
Opinion
Rajaram ranks Page, Zuckerberg, Dorsey, and Xu as top CEOs
“I would say the best technical CEO, Larry Page, the best growth-centric CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, The best design-centric CEO, Jack Dorsey, and the best physical world operational CEO, the most likely to be Jeff Bezos next, Tony Xu.”
Gokul Rajaram Mar 16, 2026 ▶ 1:14:03 Gokul Rajaram: How to Analyse for Durability and Defensibility in a World of AI · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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