14 Comments

if it seems like we are barreling to a future where everyone is essentially a "gig" worker, we should start pushing to decouple healthcare from employment ASAP

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I don't get why pizza delivery has been a viable industry for decades, but delivering other food or goods is considered "pie in the sky"? If you can tip a server 20% for delivering your food 20 feet... it follows that you can pay up to 40% to have said server actually drive through traffic, poor weather, darkness, expend gas, wear and tear, and insurance to bring it to your house. It seems like a solvable problem with a market... and whoever wins the market share wins the eventual driverless car bonanza at the end.

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short $DASH (after the lockup expires)

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I have been waiting on my pay from door dash for a week now.door dash said thete is a glitch and the certain app will not let me get pain

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GOD? My 55th Bday is In a week-ish. If you really Wanted to you could give me World Peace!?! Win the Lottery??! Find me ANY vehicle, I still have $800? Am terrified I will trust the wrong person, ughain!

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I have two questions. 1. How big is the moat for a business that in an uncapped market takes close to 30% from the operator, while also up-charging the customer with higher priced menu items and service fees? 2. Why aren't they more transparent in saying that as they grow, they will upend hundreds of thousands of single unit operators (a pretty sizable portion of the US economy). When one of the premier operators in the space was talking about delivery expense headwinds three weeks ago, why isn't there more said about independents (which 3P platforms were basically built on). An operator can mitigate the impact of an increased component of sales coming from 3P channels by cost pass throughs, but the reality is, they tighten margins more than the incremental business they bring (it's not even close to the 80% DASH claims in the S-1). As the 3P mix for an operator becomes too large, they eventually go out of business. Most are not financially sophisticated enough to understand what's happening until it's too late, as they trade increased sales for lower profits, building up liabilities along the way. We'll inevitably make the same mistake here that we did with Grubhub, and not realize that the machine is driven by the restaurants.

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Thanks for writing such thought provoking content. What are the odds we can get Congressional agreement to update SOX :-\

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Great read. Regarding Note 2: the screenshot reads to me that DoorDash will remain an emerging growth company until the last day of this fiscal year (since it crossed the nice and round $1.07 billion threshold in FY20)

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Once again, one of the best articles I’ve read about the subject. Brilliantly written and witty, but also sheds a light on the grim future of where that industry is headed. Thoroughly enjoyed reading this and can’t wait for part 3 ;)

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