Apoorva Mehta

Apoorva Mehta recounts how he left Amazon, tried many startup ideas, and eventually founded Instacart to solve a grocery shopping problem he personally experienced. He explains how early failures, direct customer feedback, and doing work manually helped him find product demand and improve the service. His story includes winning a late entry to Y Combinator, handling early operational problems, and persuading investors despite the history of failed grocery delivery companies. The talk teaches founders to solve problems they care about, stay resilient through failure, and scale only after finding demand.