Quote of the day: "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts." - Winston Churchill

Apoorva Mehta From Multiple Startup Failures to Building a $17.7 Billion App, Instacart

Apoorva Mehta is the person who came up with the idea for the food delivery app Instacart, which has made more than a billion dollars. But it wasn't easy for him to get where he is now. Mehta had to fail not once, not twice, but twenty times before he made a billion dollars. This article tells the story of how he went from a determined entrepreneur to the founder and CEO of a tech giant.

The Early Years and the search for passion

Apoorva Mehta was born in India in 1986. He lived in Libya until he was 14 years old, when he moved to Canada. Here, he followed his interest in technology by going to the University of Waterloo to study electrical engineering. After he graduated, he worked for companies like BlackBerry, Qualcomm, and Amazon. But his desire to make something important made him quit his job at Amazon and start his journey as an entrepreneur.

From 2010 to 2012, Mehta started about 20 businesses, and almost all of them failed. These businesses ranged from a social networking app for lawyers to an advertising network for game companies. Even though Mehta failed many times, he never gave up. He quickly understood that his business ideas were missing one important thing: passion.

The Birth of Instacart

When Mehta thought about his life in San Francisco and his love of cooking, he realized that it was hard for him to get certain specialty foods because of where he lived in the city. This gave him the idea for Instacart, a tool that would not only solve his problem but also help a lot of other people with the same problem.

Mehta made the slogan "Add an hour back to your week" for Instacart because he knew that people buy results, not services. The idea of a service that brings you groceries wasn't new. But Mehta was lucky because time and science were on his side. Mehta saw how successful app-based deals like Uber were and knew that smartphones were becoming more common and that customers were getting used to doing business through apps.

The Instacart app and its Unique way of Doing Business

Mehta built the first version of Instacart in a month and brought the first rounds of groceries himself to test the service. The way Instacart worked was unique. It was different from other online grocery shops because it didn't keep warehouses or basements full of fresh food. Instead, Instacart sent a personal shopper to the customer's home, who would go to different stores to get fresh food.

Overcoming Challenges and Achieving Success

Even though things looked good at first, the trip had its fair share of problems. One of the biggest problems was that Amazon got into the food delivery business in 2017 when it bought Whole Foods. But this didn't stop Instacart. Instead, it made other stores, like Costco and Kroger, want to work with Instacart.

Instacart's Growth and Current Status

Instacart used to be a copy of Webvan, but now it is the biggest grocery delivery service in the US. Every year, the company handles millions of orders and delivers more than 500 million goods to about 5,500 cities in the US and Canada. As of 2021, $39 billion was how much Instacart was worth.

Instacart's Journey to IPO

In 2022, the company said it would go public for the first time. Fidji Simo, who used to work for Meta Platforms Inc. and is now the CEO, is in charge of the company's move from private to public. On September 19, 2023, Instacart had its initial public offering (IPO). Each share cost $30, which gave the company a value of about $10 billion.

The Path Forward

Mehta's choice to leave Instacart is not the end of a trip, but the start of a new one. He is getting into the healthcare business with a new company called Cloud Health Systems. In 2022, Cloud Health Systems was able to raise $30 million in venture capital. Mehta compares the grocery and health care industries, pointing out how complicated they are and how much open potential they have in the world of e-commerce.

🧠 Lessons Learned:

🙋‍♂️ Frequently Asked Questions:

1. Who is Apoorva Mehta, and how did he start his own business?

Apoorva Mehta started and is the CEO of the food delivery app Instacart. Before he was successful with Instacart, he tried and failed with many different business ideas.

2. Apoorva Mehta started how many businesses before he started Instacart?

Before making Instacart, Apoorva Mehta started about 20 companies.

3. What made Apoorva Mehta decide to start Instacart?

Mehta created Instacart because he loves to cook and it was hard for him to get unique foods in San Francisco.

4. What does Instacart's motto say, and why was it chosen?

The company's motto is "Add an hour back to your week." It focuses on how easy and time-saving the service is, since people value results more than services.

5. How is Instacart's way of doing business different from other online food stores?

Instead of having warehouses full of fresh food, Instacart has personal shoppers go to different stores to get fresh food for customers.

6. What problems did Instacart have to deal with, especially since Amazon was also in the market?

After Amazon bought Whole Foods, it got into the food delivery business and competed with Instacart. But because of this competition, shops like Costco and Kroger decided to work with Instacart.

7. Where is Instacart right now in terms of how it works and how much it is worth?

Instacart is the biggest food delivery service in the US. It helps people in 5,500 cities in the US and Canada get their groceries. It was worth $39 billion as of 2021.

8. When did Instacart go public, and what was the price of its IPO (first public offering)?

On September 19, 2023, Instacart went public at a price of $30 per share. This gave the company a value of about $10 billion.

In the end,

Apoorva Mehta's story shows how important it is to be persistent and know when to act as an entrepreneur. It's a story that shows how loss can sometimes lead to success. Even though he failed many times, he never stopped looking for a worthwhile business. This led to the creation of a billion-dollar company. As Instacart continues to grow and change the future of food shopping, Mehta's story is a great example of how failure can often lead to success.

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