Hi! I’m glad you’re here. You’ve made it to issue #97 of VC Demystified🪄.

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A few months ago I had the chance to moderate a panel with Mar Hershenson, co-founder and Managing Partner at Pear VC and a Midas List investor. Pear led DoorDash's seed round in 2013. Pear invested a total of $1.9M that was worth north of $400M by IPO in 2020!

I asked her the question I always want someone at her level to answer:

What do you look for in a founder in a first meeting to know they have what it takes to go the distance?

Her answer wasn't what I expected.

When Mar first met Tony Xu (Co-founder & CEO), DoorDash didn't exist yet. Food delivery as a concept barely existed - you could order pizza or Chinese takeout, but the broader idea of "takeout from anywhere" wasn't part of the cultural conversation.

Mar told me she always asks founders one specific question in a first meeting: What's your long-term vision?

She kept pushing back on Tony, framing what he was building the way anyone in 2013 would have: "You're building a food delivery company."

Every time, Tony pushed back harder.

At the time, this probably sounded like founder bravado. In retrospect, it was a blueprint.

DoorDash today delivers groceries, flowers, household supplies, essentially anything. The food vertical was the wedge. Last mile was always the destination. And according to Mar, Tony knew that from day one and made every single decision with that end goal in mind, even a decade before the company got there.