How did you come up with the idea for DoorDash? originally appeared on Quora, the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus.

The founding story for DoorDash is an unlikely one. I didn’t grow up wanting to start a company, and my cofounders and I didn’t have any interest in delivery. Instead, we shared a passion for helping local businesses. For me, my inspiration came at a young age when I worked at my mom’s restaurant in the Midwest.

The idea for delivery came organically. While my co-founders and I were speaking with a group of local businesses we’d frequent (e.g., coffee shops, restaurants), we noticed that many of them were refusing delivery orders. This was bizarre. Why would you refuse business? In their defense, few small businesses outside of New York delivered.

To figure out why this was the case, we delivered pizzas and took part-time jobs at traditional courier services and learned two things:

* First, it’s very hard for a single store to flex their workforce to meet changes in demand (e.g., if it rained or there was a football game, wait times for delivery at pizzerias would spike).

* Second, delivery hasn’t changed in the past 4 decades.

Today, more than four and a half years after we first launched the company, we’re still passionate about transforming local businesses helping them thrive in this digital and convenience economy.

This question originally appeared on Quora. More questions on Quora:

* Autonomous Driving: How far away are we from self-driving delivery vehicles?

* Delivery Services: How does DoorDash differentiate itself from other on-demand/delivery services?

* DoorDash: What is DoorDash doing to help others and give back to the communities it delivers in?

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