Lenny Rachitsky: belief

Transcript context

…It actually reminds me of the best advice I got when we were having our first kid. And everyone thinks they're going to give you the insight that's really going to be transformative. But one that stuck with me is, "For better and for worse, everything's temporary. So the highs, you can't get too high. The lows, you can't get too low." That really resonated with me during that period of time, as well as this general idea that you have to try to find opportunities to reach the potential for the business. And decisions sometimes have to be made in very short time horizons, and being able to seize those moments, I think, is really important. I have a few questions about product that I want to get to. But one bigger question about DoorDash is, you've been involved in a lot of the bigger fundraising moments, DoorDash. I think you've worked probably with every major firm out there, raised large dollar amounts for DoorDash. Are there any memories or lessons that you can share from that experience? We've definitely tried to raise from everyone, been told no many, many times. I mean, raising the Series D was really difficult. Tony and I worked together very closely on that one. And there was a lull in the tech market publicly, and it translated pretty quickly to the private markets. And people didn't believe in either the TAM or the profitability of the business model. And it was difficult. I think one thing that process taught me is after we raised the D, almost every round, or I think every round ended up being led by someone who had passed in a previous round. And that was because we put up numbers we were highly confident we were going to hit. I'm an operating partner at a venture firm on the side, and I see that most people put up stretch plans, but they [inaudible 00:46:31]. But that was just not in our DNA. We wanted to make sure that we put forth numbers that we knew were going to hit, and that cost us some dilution upfront in the form of lower valuations, I think. And there's just a trust that builds from that, where when we tell people we're going to do something, that they have conviction that we're going to do it. And I would trade a couple of points of dilution for that level of trust with the right investor base over time.…

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