Before DoorDash became a household name, it was a handful of students delivering food by hand around Palo Alto, testing, iterating, and learning one delivery at a time. What began as a class project became a proving ground: chaos, speed, and conviction forged into something unstoppable.
In Episode 4 of The Library of Minds, DoorDash co-founder Stanley Tang shares how conviction, speed, and operational grit turned uncertainty into an advantage.
He explains why the best insights often come from the messiest moments, and how DoorDash learned to outlast competitors not with better technology, but with better habits.
This is the story of learning to move fast without losing your head.
Of spending 40% of your cash to do what’s right.
Of finding calm inside the chaos.
Step Inside Stanley’s Mind
For the first time, you can explore Stanley’s thinking directly through his Digital Mind on Delphi.
Ask him how he built conviction, balanced speed with quality, and stayed focused when everything was breaking.
Try asking:
How do you stay calm in chaos?
When should you slow down vs. push harder?
What do most builders get wrong about speed?
Highlights from the Episode
The class project that became DoorDash
Doing things that don’t scale — to the extreme
Competing against entrenched consumer behavior
Balancing speed and quality through growth
The darkest moment — and why conviction mattered more than cash
What robotics and automation mean for the future of delivery
Why chaos never ends (and why that’s a good thing)
🎧 Watch the full episode: The Library of Minds: Stanley Tang on Building DoorDash with Speed, Conviction & Chaos
And when it ends, don’t just listen, keep the conversation going with Stanley himself.
Delphi
Open your mind.
