[pb]

Yeah, it's so easy to convince yourself that you knew all along that a company would succeed, which is one reason why it's helpful to keep actual notes.

It's also a great example of a company that was not popular on Demo Day. This kind of success is so hard to predict.

[jgalt212]

> that a company would succeed

has it succeeded?

What happens if their cost of capital goes positive?

What happens if people start going to restaurants again?

[darkwizard42]

They just IPOed to the tune of $70B market cap...

This comment really comes across as out of touch... The company just went public and based on their S-1 has been massively growing even pre-pandemic! (both huge measures of success)

[toomuchtodo]

It's not out of touch to question metrics when it appears a company was dumped on public investors with no profitability in sight. Growth is not success; profit is, growth is simply the mechanism by which you're supposed to reach profitability.

If we define success as cashing out, sure, success. It feels like the delta in journey between building a sustainable, profitable business that handsomely rewards you at your exit and "congrats on your lottery ticket" is growing by the day. Let's not kid ourselves, investor dollars chasing after your equity when you go public and with no evidence profitability is possible is a rare lottery ticket that has paid out (or maybe not so rare! See: Adam Neumann/WeWork).

EDIT: I want to really stress that this isn't "sour grapes" but more echo chamber fatigue. If you are founders at a startup, who grow it into a unicorn, are delivering value, your employees and customers are happy and delighted, and you're profitable, those are the folks who deserve to be congratulated when they IPO and become billionaires and are who you can learn the most from on your own startup journey.

[koolba]

> If we define success as cashing out, sure, success.

That's the only definition of success that matters to VCs.

Even if the company is not around in a year, if they were able to dump their stock to investors^Wspeculators^Wsuckers before the meltdown then it's bagged as a win.

[darkwizard42]

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1792789/000119312520...

F-4 they are clearly on a path to profitability...

It seems silly to even focus on profitability at IPO when credit is so cheap. Growth trajectory is rewarded and based on the S-1 they are growing in a healthy enough fashion. This is VERY different than WeWork which had massive amounts of debt on their books and didn't have a plan out.

Again, if you keep getting hung up on profitability you aren't really realizing what stage Doordash is at or the maturity level by which companies are expected to be profitable

[jgalt212]

> has been massively growing even pre-pandemic

Well, anyone can massively grow (pandemic or not) when you're selling dimes at the price of a nickel.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-05-18/the-un...

[gowld]

"I don't think you understand what the product is... The product is its stock." https://www.youtube.com/embed/YZFTaEenaHM

[mbesto]

> They just IPOed to the tune of $70B market cap...

You must not be aware of what happened around the year 2000.

[darkwizard42]

If you look at their S-1 there isn't a chance of this looking like what happened in year 2000. Way too much capital, way too low interest rates, and a real path to profitability

[mbesto]

> real path to profitability

You had me up until here. This is WIDELY debatable.

[darkwizard42]

Sure, but their S-1 shows REAL TRENDS not handwavy private loss sheets and leaked financials.

Widely debatable is now up to the common investor to determine.

By the way, with such faith, I assume you will short the stock.

[daniellarusso]

Succeeded as an exit strategy for the founders, yes, but according to the filing, I do not see them expecting to be profitable.