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Comment by jpdoctor | Hacker News Reader

In case you need reminding: The reason this is funny is that Sequoia pissed away $200M over WebVan.

There were also many video startups before YouTube, but the web wasn't ready for them (infrastructure, speed, etc.). Webvan was a long time ago and the failure of it is well-documented in Four Steps to the Epiphany, which said they built before reaching product market fit. Now I don't know much about Instacart, so I can't speak to how they're doing, but that doesn't mean the world isn't ready for this generation's Webvan.

One could also argue that Sequoia now knows the difference between a doomed-to-fail grocery delivery services and a successful one after experiencing it first-hand. :)

> One could also argue that Sequoia now knows the difference between a doomed-to-fail grocery delivery services and a successful one after experiencing it first-hand.

When did they experience a successful one?

Groceries are incredibly low-margin businesses that don't engender a lot of interest from the end users (mutual funds for the IPO stock), not usually the purview of VCs. But perhaps this $200M grocery investment will be the $200M grocery investment that pays off.

Larger grocery store chains (i.e. Safeway) have a tremendous price markup, often times reaching 50%. This markup contributes to their profits, of course; but it also helps offset losses from the inefficient process of distributing perishable goods to consumers. If they could improve that efficiency while keeping prices constant, then grocery store chain profits could benefit substantially.

I think its more appropriate to say instead of "a doomed to fail and a successful" is "a doomed to fail and a less likely doomed to fail."

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