https://www.wired.com/story/covid-is-pushing-startups-execute-long-term-plans-asap/

At the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, food delivery services found themselves in an interesting predicament: They were fielding more orders than ever, even as restaurants struggled to get by. For Tony Xu, CEO of DoorDash, adapting to this rapid shift has hinged on building tools that make it easier for cooks, drivers, and delivery people to do their jobs. Local businesses have produced 60 percent of the GDP in cities for every decade that the government has been keeping track, he pointed out, arguing that services like DoorDash can help restaurants with existing robust delivery field a spate of new orders and put those launching new takeout options on the map. “This moment is really much bigger than just one company or one platform,” he said. “It’s really making sure that an entire industry can survive.”

Last Monday, Xu spoke with Nicholas Thompson, WIRED’s editor in chief, during a Facebook Live. The topic was how food delivery and pickup services are adapting to the coronavirus pandemic, and from switching to contactless deliveries to making sure merchants get paid within the day, the last six weeks have brought a flurry of new changes to DoorDash. “I recognize that we’re among a handful of companies that are lucky enough to be able to work 24/7 during this period of time,” Xu told Thompson. As such, DoorDash has to make sure that the developments it had planned over the next few years “can be compressed and executed and prioritized in the right sequence over a matter of weeks, sometimes days.”