The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 14 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Eagerness to Expand Often Signals Founders Dislike Their Core Business
“The sort of desire to expand into other categories is sometimes a sign that you don't love your core business. I mean, if you think about great companies, they've scaled with their core business for a long, long period of time. And it's always much better that…”
Suburban Focus and Merchant Selection Drove DoorDash's Market Victory
“DoorDash won because they did have a differentiated strategy, which is focused on the suburbs. They were, had a differentiated strategy on focusing on the merchants as well and on selection. So those were two prong on the strategy that were quite different. An…”
Platforms With the Largest Selection Always Win at Population Scale
“The paradox of choice is an individual issue, not a population issue. And on the population level, you and I Both love sushi, but our favorite sushi restaurants could be very different, and that's multiplied across all of your customers. So some people fail to…”
Sequoia Passed on Grubhub, Caviar, Postmates, and TaskRabbit
“And actually, between 20 11 and 20 13, we evaluated opportunities to invest in Grubhub, in Caviar, in Postmates, in TaskRabbit, because I was fascinated with this space. We passed on each of those opportunities, not partly because we're somewhat concerned abou…”
Operational Efficiency Allows Market Leaders to Sustainably Outspend Competitors
“The other thing that is quite interesting to me is that the best companies also know that if they run the business more efficiently, they can actually outspend their competitors. I mean, so if you are more efficient, then I can outspend my competitors because …”
Sequoia Led DoorDash's Series C as a Flat or Down Round
“The Series C that Sequoia decided to lead was quite hard. I think the company had thought that because it had doubled or tripled GMV, and the unit economics was getting better, that the valuation from the B to the C would be double or triple, and in fact, it e…”
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.”
Sequoia Passed on DoorDash Seed Before Leading Series A
“We missed the seed, but we made it up by leading the Series A, and we invested in every single round after that.”
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 …”
Market Expansion Must Come From Customer Pull, Not Empire Building
“If you're being pulled by the customer or pulled by the market, that is a great sign. If you're pushing because you have aspirations of building an empire, that is less good of a sign.”
Excess Kitchen Capacity Makes Restaurant Delivery Highly Leverageable
“The unit economics, not of his business, but also of a restaurant, and the issues at a restaurant where they have more capacity in the kitchen than they have capacity in the front of the house to seat people. You can only turn a restaurant maybe two times for …”
Operators Must Focus on Controllable Input Metrics Rather Than GMV
“GMV is an output metric. As an operator, you want to focus on the input metrics, things that you can control.”