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YC

Y Combinator Cast

11/18/22

@ Y Combinator

A proxy is a large company that operates similarly to your startup but isn't a direct competitor, like DoorDash for food delivery in Latin America, which indicates that the idea could work there.

Video

How to Get and Evaluate Startup Ideas | Startup School

@ Y Combinator

How to Get and Evaluate Startup Ideas | Startup School

11/18/22

Related Takeaways

Y Combinator Cast

06/07/24

@ Y Combinator

Companies like Instacart and DoorDash found success in markets that larger tech firms like Google were not interested in pursuing.

Tony Xu

03/26/25

@ Y Combinator

Our initial idea for DoorDash came from observing a macaroon store owner who had turned down numerous delivery orders, which highlighted a significant market opportunity.

Jared Friedman

11/18/22

@ Y Combinator

An example of a company that capitalized on a new opportunity is Checker, which provides background checks via an API, addressing the needs of delivery services that require rapid hiring.

Dan Hockenmaier

06/27/19

@ Y Combinator

At Thumbtack, we focused on optimizing for real-world hires, which required us to look for upstream proxies to predict when a consumer would hire a professional.

Tony Xu

03/26/25

@ Y Combinator

Investors were hesitant to back DoorDash because, although we had strong numbers, it wasn't clear that we would emerge as the largest player in the market.

Y Combinator Cast

03/09/18

@ Y Combinator

The best companies often have a total addressable market that isn't obvious at first, as seen with Uber's expansion beyond just the taxi market.

Paul Buchheit

08/10/24

@ Y Combinator

The reason startups like OpenAI succeed is often because they compete against larger companies that have slower internal processes and misaligned incentives.

Tony Xu

12/10/20

@ Y Combinator

DoorDash is the only company that manages its own logistics while partnering with merchants, allowing for efficient consumer deliveries.

Tony Xu

12/10/20

@ Y Combinator

We're building a delivery service that operates on demand, rather than overnight or same-day, similar to what FedEx would look like today.