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I think it's pretty obvious that Instacart's exit strategy is to make some great technology that either Amazon or Google will buy-out. There is no way they wil

by steven2012 12y ago

I think it's pretty obvious that Instacart's exit strategy is to make some great technology that either Amazon or Google will buy-out. There is no way they will survive as a company long-term trying to compete against either of those two. It's a low-margin business with expensive, labor-intensive components that won't scale efficiently over time. They just need enough money to last long enough to convince Amazon or Google to buy them at a premium so that the investors make their 10x.

free2rhyme214 12y ago
Not the best strategy in my opinion.
calbear81 12y ago
"I think it's pretty obvious that Instacart's exit strategy is to make some great technology that either Amazon or Google will buy-out." I think they will make a play to open up their shop and delivery service via API to eventually allow stores to use them as a full end-to-end delivery service and sales channel. The other play is to do what DoorDash is doing with focusing on the core logistics/driver infrastructure and route/scheduling optimization software. Doordash is generic enough to go beyond restaurant delivery and become an open alternative to last-mile courier services in the market today. It's basically Uber cargo but I think they could do so much more by making it an open service that any business could use to handle on-demand delivery to their end users. If Trader Joes wants to provide delivery, they just need to be able to ping DoorDash with an address and have a box ready when a driver arrives. This offloads the liability and capital costs associated with having your own drivers and delivery trucks, etc.
shiftb 12y ago
That's not our exit strategy. We're building a long term business here.