Optimizing Food Delivery One Byte at a Time

Join us as we talk to Jessica Lachs, VP, Analytics and Data Science at DoorDash, everyone's favorite food delivery app. In this episode, we dive into how data and technology are transforming the food delivery and restaurant industry, the role of data in solving optimization problems that arise from three-sided marketplaces, the steps involved in scaling operations at a startup, data-driven decision making, data analytics, data science, how to switch careers or enter a new industry and more! DoorDash was founded in 2013 by Tony Xu, Andy Fang, Stanley Tang and Evan Moore with a simple mission: to enable every merchant to deliver. The group of Stanford grads emerged triumphant from an industry that continues to become more competitive with a successful IPO last year. So, to what do they owe their success? Was it an industry analysis of the century using Porter’s Five Forces or an exquisite blue ocean strategy? But seriously...what are they teaching over there? Asking for a friend *cough, Wharton, cough*. While there’s no sole answer as to why companies succeed or fail, could the key to DoorDash’s success be data? DoorDash’s three-sided marketplace brings consumers, restaurants and dashers together on one platform to gather enough data to make Zuckerberg reel with excitement and jealousy at the same time. But when you’re knee deep in data, how do you interpret it, action it and use it to help differentiate from the competition? Well, that’s where data experts like Jessica come in! So come join the data revolution and tune in to learn more about what it really means to have a data-driven mindset. Read more about Jessica here: https://whartontechtoks.medium.com/