DoorDash

Ghost-kitchen 'Edible Arrangements' built on top of DoorDash for last-minute gifts

Shaan's idea: build a ghost kitchen that lists on DoorDash/Uber Eats specifically as a gifting brand, like an Edible Arrangements that arrives same-day. It rides on apps that already have the user's payment info, so you skip customer-acquisition cost and serve the 'desire path' of last-minute gift-givers.

“why doesn't somebody make the version of like Edible Arrangements or like one of these like gift basket products on top of Uber Eats and Postmates and all these companies that we all already use. So if you're on top of DoorDash, it already has my credit card. I'm already opening the app every day. Why doesn't somebody make the best way to just send a gift product to somebody else as a ghost kitchen on top of this? I think this is a no-brainer, successful idea.”

Steal thisLaunch a ghost-kitchen gifting brand on existing delivery apps to inherit their payments and demand for $0 CAC.

Testing a low-carb ghost kitchen: $3K in month one on an $8K bet

Sam's friend Andrew tested a low-carb bakery idea cheaply: he paid a chef a few hundred dollars to develop monk-fruit-sweetened recipes, built a Shopify site, listed it on DoorDash/Uber Eats with local delivery only, and did $3,000 in month-one sales against $8,000 invested. It lost money but proved the idea fast.

“Dude, he sold like $3,000 in month 1 worth of stuff and he's like invested $8,000 into it. So it didn't make a profit, but it kind of sick. He was able to test this idea very easily.”

Steal thisValidate a food brand for ~$8K: hire a chef for recipes, list on Shopify plus a delivery app, local-only.

Every app needs one of the seven deadly sins

Balaji relays Michael Moritz's framework that every breakout consumer app maps to a deadly sin: Tinder is lust, Twitter is wrath, Google is sloth, DoorDash is gluttony. The lesson: deliver a visceral, instantly explainable benefit ('a newsletter that pays you').

“you know, Moritz talks about this half-jokingly as, you know, every app needs one of the seven deadly sins, you know, like lust, greed, sloth, gluttony, wrath, pride, uh, I forget the other ones, right? Um, but it's things close, right? Tinder is lust, right? And Twitter is wrath.”

Steal thisHook users with one visceral, instantly explainable benefit (a deadly sin), not a long-term abstract promise.

An early DoorDash investor turned $200K into ~$150M (700x)

Shaan cites DoorDash to illustrate angel upside: an early investor put $200,000 into an early round and the stake appreciated roughly 700x, worth about $150 million in the public markets.

“One of the early investors of DoorDash put in $200,000 $200,000 into the early round. And, uh, that appreciated like, uh, 700x. So they put in $200,000 and it, the, that stake is worth like $150 million right now in the public markets. And so, you know, a 700x return is so crazy.”

Clout Kitchens: celebrity-branded virtual restaurants on delivery apps

Guest Stu Iverson's idea, ranked among Shaan's favorites: instead of celebrity brick-and-mortar restaurants, influencers and celebrities launch branded virtual restaurants on DoorDash and Uber Eats, fulfilled by cloud kitchens or existing restaurants behind the scenes.

“And he's like, you know, these celebrities create their own restaurant chains. I think people are gonna do this as cloud kitchens on top of Uber Eats, DoorDash, et cetera. So I thought it was a great idea. I put it in my newsletter, 'cause I started ranking in my newsletter some of our best ideas, right?”

Steal thisPartner an influencer with a cloud-kitchen operator to launch a branded delivery-only restaurant overnight in dozens of cities.

Roll up Rite Aid with a dead retailer's real estate

Shaan pitches buying Rite Aid (the 'poor man's CVS' at a ~$500M market cap) and merging it with the real-estate footprint of a brand that died during COVID, then bolting on DoorDash-style mobile delivery of prescriptions to modernize it.

“We're going to take Rite Aid the brand, and then we're going to pick up real estate, uh, footprint of some brand that just died during COVID And they, like, you know, some dollar store, or like, you know, Sears. I don't know who— somebody's going out of business but has the same— Sears too big. You need somebody with the same footprint as a Rite Aid. We're gonna do a roll-up of those two, and we're gonna offer the, um, sort of mobile ordering delivery DoorDash-style service for prescriptions and, uh, and products from Rite Aid.”

Steal thisAcquire a brand with a wide real-estate footprint in a sector you care about, absorb a dying competitor's locations cheaply, and layer modern delivery on top.