DoorDash’s Post

🚀 From Sales to Leadership: My Journey at DoorDash In 2016, I joined DoorDash as one of the first 10 Account Executives, tasked with bringing restaurant owners onboard via cold calls—a challenge given our limited footprint in many regions. By the end of my tenure in 2022, I had earned six promotions and learned invaluable lessons about advancing from an individual contributor to a sales leader. Here are three key takeaways: Embrace Continuous Learning: From day one, I immersed myself in learning. I visited HQ to engage with our sales trainer, listened to top performers, and avoided pitfalls by observing common mistakes. Networking with regional managers and understanding market dynamics were crucial in tailoring our approach and improving our offerings. Commit to Outworking Everyone: Success in sales often comes down to effort and strategy. I was the first to arrive and the last to leave, pushing through days when motivation was low. I focused on maintaining a balanced pipeline—equally prioritizing new prospects and follow-ups to maximize closure rates. Declare and Chase Your Goals: I always communicated my career aspirations to my managers and seized every challenging opportunity, especially those that pushed me out of my comfort zone. By training peers and embodying DoorDash's core values, I showcased my leadership potential. These strategies not only fueled my career growth but also helped me support and elevate my team. I'd love to hear from others—what strategies have helped you transition from sales to leadership? Let’s inspire and learn from each other! #SalesLeadership #CareerGrowth #DoorDash #SalesStrategy #ProfessionalDevelopment

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Marianne Vikkula joined Wolt when it was a small startup with fewer than 100 employees. Today she’s the COO, overseeing a global operation with 10,000+ people across 27 countries.   We talked about operational excellence, how to hire well, lessons learned from DoorDash, and how leaders can increase speed, raise the bar for quality, and narrow the focus. Link to full episode in the comments!

Our latest episode in the Growth pod. If you are into operational excellence, I highly recommend this episode with Marianne Vikkula from Wolt!

Lever alumni reunion! Spread far & wide, coast to coast, so some awesome Brooklyn pizza brings you back to good ol' times 🍕💜 "Not all those who wander are lost"(credit: Tolkien, reframed by Jeff Bezos) - captures the journeys Andrew Shapiro and I have gone on post-Lever. Andrew has been advising early-stage startups, and now channeled his Sales & Customer Success experiences into building something incredible valuable for the community - both job seekers & hiring managers. With a closely followed newsletter sharing the latest job opportunities with the community, sharp timely insights from hiring managers and talent pros, and advice everyone can use. Super exciting to see his labor of love and how it continues growing. We chatted at length about - Career journeys: It's fascinating how every role in your career is an expected or unplanned stepping stone toward your next opportunity or opening a new door. Think long-term and you'll outperform your own expectations. Grow & enjoy yourself along the way. Shoutout to all the Leveroos (haven't said that in awhile) wherever you are forging your new paths 👋 - Partnerships (of course 🤠): How this is a key part of any startup's growth. Especially when tightly coordinated with other channels like Outbound, Events, and Marketing. We are in a Nearbound era where working with the ecosystem absolutely matters. - Ambassadors: Many of us are remote or working in distributed teams. You couple that with the constant current of job changes, the interest in solo-preneurship & fractional leadership - we are highly networked individuals so tapping on that collective power opens up many more promising conversations. I'm most grateful for such friendships. While last night's food was good, our conversation & reconnecting without rushing was the best thing. Appreciate you my friend 🤝 Sales & Customer Success friends: You gotta follow Andrew and get in on the good work happening with .Community - you'll be glad you did 🙌 #alumni #networks #talent #partnerships #pizza #catchups #flipcx

Most companies die in between product market fit and scale. As hiring ramps and goals get more aggressive, teams will break without proper infrastructure. Organizational design becomes critical. I was fortunate enough to see successful (and unsuccessful) org designs while growing DoorDash from $20m to $8b+ revenue. Here’s the process I’d follow to reorganize a team/company for scale: (1) Always get thorough alignment on North Star objectives. If one thing needs to be true, what is it? Layer in subsequent priorities. Your decisions will be anchored on their impact on these priorities. (2) Ideate on at least 3 options, carefully weighing key considerations against those, including all benefits and risks. This will lead you to a calculated decision quickly. (3) Consider key players/teams and their role in the changes. Who will you bet on to take the business to this next level? Do you have these leaders internally, or do you need to hire someone who has “been there, done that”? (4) Don’t forget about those who might not be benefitting from the changes. How will you mitigate any risks associated with those teams? (5) Write the communication and change management plan. First, consider if this can be tested before full implementation (assuming it’s not too sensitive). Second, detail exactly how you will communicate and ensure you have plans in place for all system changes. (6) Implement quickly. Don’t wait to implement your plans for long because you don’t want the word to leak. Rumors can be detrimental. Solid organizational design and implementation can dramatically improve a team’s performance. We led an organizational redesign at DoorDash that improved sales productivity by 39% QoQ. Failure, on the other hand, can push teams in the opposite direction, crushing productivity and causing key players to leave.

"Think of this job like you're building a startup inside a big company" 👆 This is what the COO told me in my first week at HelloFresh. I ❤️ed it. When I look at some of my favourite customers, they're smaller teams that are building a startup, despite being part of a huge company. - They move faster than the rest of the org is able to. - The org supports their pace and puts resources behind them. - People want to move teams to be part of the action. - They take risks, but they’re not bets. They’re opinions based on a vision they and their board shares. (e.g. putting the product front-and-centre with HowdyGo) - The product isn’t an unchangeable juggernaut, it’s a part of their growth. If I wasn't building HowdyGo, these are the roles I'd look for. They challenge you, but they give you opportunities you can't get elsewhere. Does this sound like your ideal role?

Here is 3 learnings from DoorDash's application to YC. 👇 (P.S. DoorDash is now valued $45B) 1️⃣ 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀' 𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 The founding team conducted 100+ interviews. They listened closely to customers. They understood their problems. And they built a solution around it. This is probably the fastest way to PMF. 2️⃣ 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝘆 𝗰𝗮𝗻 2 formers engineers at Facebook. 1 former founder at Vivo. 1 product editor at Square. They worked on real projects. They had different jobs. They were strong! 3️⃣ 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁 𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗼 Starts ➤ PaloAltoDelivery.com Scaled ➤ DoorDash worldwide They became good at their craft. They understood it by doing it (they were all drivers). And then they conquered the world. 🔔 Follow me (Hugo Rauch) for more startup content 📰 Subscribe to my newsletter at the link below my name

🍔Ever wondered how Jeff Bezos transformed from flipping burgers at McDonald's to becoming the $100 billion man and the richest person on the planet? 💰 📅 Jeff's journey began in 1964, evolving through various roles from a summer gig at McDonald's to graduating and eventually working for D.E. Shaw & Co. By 30, he took a leap of faith, leaving a cushy 6-figure job to start an online bookstore called Cadabra, later known as the e-commerce giant Amazon. 📚 🧠 One key lesson we can draw from Bezos's playbook is his mastery in effective resource distribution. In the early days, his desk was a humble door propped up by four-by-fours – a testament to his philosophy of delayed gratification. He still used that same desk-door even as a billionaire! 🚪 🚀 What's the lesson here? It's not about frugality for its own sake, but about allocating resources wisely and embracing delayed gratification. Bezos understood this, and it's evident in his journey from a desk-door to a $500 million yacht. 🛥️ 🛑 Before splurging on that fancy desk or any other luxury, ask yourself: Does it improve your life? Make it easier? Save time? If not, perhaps it can wait. Bezos channeled his early earnings into building Amazon, later diversifying into strategic investments in companies like Google, Uber, Airbnb, and Twitter(X). 🌐 🔄 Delayed gratification, the art of resisting immediate rewards for a greater future gain, is a principle that propelled Bezos to unimaginable heights. 💪 #entrepreneurship #work #success #successmindset #ceo #ceoinsights #ceomindset #insights #learnings #inspiration #management #lifestories

Since joining the MSTC program at UT Austin, I have had the pleasure to connect with interesting individuals. One such person from our cohort is Justin Dobson. The skill I have learnt the most from Justin is communicating effectively. And it really makes sense if you understand his journey. A few weeks ago, I asked him to join me on my podcast to talk about his story. Thankfully, he said yes. Justin's backstory: Justin joined DoorDash in 2017 when it was still an underdog startup. Since then, DoorDash has scaled into an industry leader with millions of users and 20,000 employees globally. In addition to his work at DoorDash, Justin co-founded a travel startup called, Embark Together, participated in and mentored at Seth Godin's altMBA leadership program, spent several years as an investment banker, and holds the CA/CPA designation in Canada. Originally from Calgary, Canada, Justin is an immigrant and now lives in Austin, Texas with his family. We discussed: 1) Tim Knight's fav story of Justin (Seth Godin’s altMBA program) 2) How does one decrease judgement towards people? 3) His experience at Seth Godin’s altMBA 4) Being a Mentor and Participant for altMBA 5) What are the Ingredients for a good mentor-mentee relationship 6) Story of a mentor in Justin’s life 7) Keeping in touch with people through life 8) Chase Gardner's story of Justin: Torchy’s Taco deal 9) Business insights in the restaurant business 10) Building the DoorDash brand 11) Skills needed to move from IC to management And more.... Please check out our podcast . Share, comment and like if you find our conversation insightful! https://lnkd.in/gCtPWSxr