A ‘Crucible’ Moment: Inside Instacart CEO’s COVID-19 Playbook

As Instacart founder and CEO Apoorva Mehta sat down to write an email to his management team on February 24, it wasn’t about his previous rallying cry for the year: getting closer to profitability ahead of an eventual IPO. Something bigger was looming. 

The grocery delivery company’s investors and board members, including Jeff Jordan of Andreessen Horowitz and Michael Moritz of Sequoia— were seeing, through their other investments and connections, how rapidly COVID-19 was upending business in China. In particular, consumers were flocking to food delivery as the virus was spreading faster than expected. It was time to get prepared.