Ok Rocketship Captains, it’s multiple choice time…
How much venture capital will your start up raise in total?
a) $2.5B
b) $50M
c) Closer to $0
How much of the total U.S. market will you own in 8 years?
a) More than 50%
b) More than 10%
c) Closer to $0
How many customers will you have in 8 years?
a) Tens of Millions
b) Thousands
c) Closer to zero
How much will you raise in your IPO?
a) $3.5B
b) $100M
c) Probably won’t go public
How much will your company be worth in 8 years time?
a) $50B
b) $1B
c) Closer to zero
b)’s right? No doubt b)’s would be good, there would be applause! But what about them a)’s?
Building a startup is a mental game. One of the challenges is that the billionaire founding team ringing the bell at Nasdaq seems to have little to do with our daily ‘product market fit’ grind.
What would be much more helpful would be to see that same founding team on the beginning of their journey that we somehow knew were going to make it all the way to IPO. That would be more relatable, more useful and super interesting.
What about a young team kicking off their accelerator application who later went on to answer all a)’s?
A team that…
- Raise $2.5B in venture capital
- Own 50% of the U.S. food delivery market
- Have over 20M customers
- Raise $3.5B in an IPO
- And have a company valued at over $50B
Interested? I was! This YouTube clip shows the DoorDash team applying to Y Combinator back in 2013. If you’re thinking they look like four founders swinging and hoping to hit, that’s what I thought too! I’m betting they would have answered all b)’s also, but guess what, they were wrong. Maybe you’re wrong too! 🙂