Your food delivery driver? He's the company's co-founder

🎥 Jul 03, 2023 📺 AP Archive ⏱ 5m 👁 155 views

(28 Jun 2023) DOORDASH EMPLOYEE DELIVERY SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS RESTRICTIONS: LENGTH: 05:48 ...

About Andy Fang

Andy Fang, co-founder and chief technology officer of DoorDash, has continued to make front-line deliveries as a "Dasher" more than a decade after starting the company. Fang said he tries to dash monthly, describing it as a habit and an opportunity to experience the Dasher app and identify operational issues, such as incorrect restaurant addresses. He noted that the practice originated when he and co-founders Tony Xu and Stanley Tang delivered orders themselves as Stanford students in 2013, and said the company formalized the program in 2015. Fang has also discussed DoorDash's approach to growth and profitability, stating that the company focused on both during periods when it struggled to raise funding. He said DoorDash did not raise prices for merchants or customers during a period of high inflation, and that the company has worked with Dasher Advisory Councils to offer cash rewards for gas. Fang has described the food-delivery industry as hyper-local, noting that success in the U.S. does not fully translate to other markets, and highlighted partnerships such as a grocery delivery deal with Loblaw in Canada.

Source: AI-verified profile updated from Andy Fang's recent appearances. Browse all interviews →

Transcript (13 segments)

Andy Fang0:08

BonChon, let's do it.

The directions.

Alrighty.

This program actually originated all the way back when we started the company 10 years ago, where Tony, Stanley, and myself, when we were students at Stanford, we actually did all the deliveries ourselves. One of the reasons is because we had to, because there's nobody else to do them. But what we quickly found out was that by doing these deliveries ourselves, we learned a ton of insights into what it took to actually get these deliveries fulfilled as a Dasher.

I'm gonna have to deliver this one hand, deliver this one.

We also saw that when we were picking up these orders at merchants, that there's operational complexities that we had to solve for. And even dropping things off at the customer address, you know, at office complexes or apartment buildings, there's logistical challenges that we observe directly by doing these. And we felt like we just learned so much by doing it ourselves. And that's why we constantly encourage people to do it, and we formalized WeDash officially in 2015.

Thank you.

What did you learn from that? There's a mistake in the restaurant address, so we had to kind of walk a block and a half to get the app. And then, yeah, I mean, I think figuring out how to just get to the customer. I think we're fortunate to be able to walk instead of drive there.

You know, it happens with one restaurant, it might actually be happening with a lot of other restaurants as well. So I think if we can see why that happened, maybe we can fix other issues too.

1550, 51 minutes.

Okay, I made it.

I'm gonna do two deliveries today.

It's kind of a habit in some ways, you know. I try to do it monthly, and I think you just enjoy doing it. And if Stanley and Tony are available, sometimes we'll do it together. But you know, really it's just an opportunity for me to get to know the products.