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Vishu Bheda
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Medial • 1d
Stanley Tang shares three lessons from the founding story of DoorDash Most people overcomplicate startups. They think they need an app, a team, and advanced tech. But DoorDash started with a simple website, a phone number, and raw hustle. 1. Test the Hypothesis At Stanford, Stanley Tang and his co-founders spotted a problem—small restaurants couldn’t handle deliveries. But was it a real market gap? To find out, they talked to 150+ restaurant owners. The response was clear: demand existed, but no solution worked. So, they ran a test. They launched Palo Alto Delivery—a basic website with PDF menus and their phone number. No app. No drivers. No logistics. The result? Calls started coming in. First one. Then two. Then ten. Demand was real. 2. Launch Fast They built the entire business in one afternoon. No complex systems. No six-month roadmap. Just action. “At the beginning, it’s all about testing your idea and figuring out if people even want it.” — Stanley Tang 3. Do Things That Don’t Scale The founders delivered orders themselves. They used Find My Friends to track drivers, Google Docs for orders, and Square for payments. This hands-on approach gave them deep insight. They learned what worked, what didn’t, and what needed fixing. Before scaling, prove demand. Launch fast. Do the work manually. That’s how great startups begin. Follow Vishu Bheda for more valuable startup insights from the world's best founders!
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