For some teams, even the term “persistent execution” can feel like a dull rhetoric. Today, I’m going to talk about Doit and its CEO, Lee Yoon-seok, the only startup that came into the base and invested in through persuasion rather than pressure.
First meeting, January 2023
In January 2023, I first met CEO Lee Yoon-seok through an acquaintance’s introduction. At the time, the Doit team was working on a ‘delivery app without delivery fees’ centered around Gwanak-gu. I was curious whether this was a viable business model in the delivery app market monopolized by large corporations, so I asked him a lot of questions from the first meeting.
I could sense the depth of the CEO's concerns and strong passion as he answered, but I don't think I could really understand the current business plan at the time. More than anything, I thought that it would be really painful and difficult to execute it well. But in fact, all problems that startups solve are like that. After talking with the CEO, I went home, but I don't know why, but I think I had a thought, 'If it's a team led by this person, it seems like they can do it.'
It means that a happy day is not something that just happens, but something that each person actively creates.
At that time, I was invited to Doit's weekly meeting and Slack(!) held every Sunday. I was quite surprised that they would disclose the key indicators that the company considered important and the communication and execution results of each squad without any filtering. It was a very impressive moment to this day because it made me realize how serious they were about recruiting talent and how confident they were in their work methods.
Doit's weekly meeting started with CEO Lee Yoon-seok sharing his vision and mission, and proceeded by sharing the OKRs and progress of the week for each squad. Even though it was still an early stage team, it was very performance-oriented and data-driven, and the reflection on actions and results was easy to understand and clear even for outsiders, which was impressive. But more than anything, the boiling enthusiasm and immersion of all members was particularly memorable.
Doit, we meet again, August 2024
Spring 2024, Baemin and Coupang Eats Declare Free Delivery
In August 2024, I met Doit again as an investment review officer at BASS Ventures. As you may remember, in early 2024, Coupang Eats and Baedal Minjok announced free delivery. There were rumors that Doit, the 'delivery app without delivery fees', was hit hard by the aftermath. I thought the team would be in a difficult situation, but CEO Lee Yoon-seok spoke with the same confident expression and tone as when we first met. "Oh, we've already found our new growth model. Let me explain."
New Business Model: “Do It Today” Curation for Single-Person Households
The new business model that Doit has found is 'curating high-quality menus that people eat on a daily basis and providing them at a reasonable price . '
“How do you eat when you don’t use Doit?” After the delivery services announced free delivery, Doit met with the 2030 single-person household customers again and redefined the problem. Surprisingly, most of them answered that they would rather starve or solve meals at convenience stores or Kimbap Heaven. This is because most delivery foods are basically too expensive and burdensome to eat every day because there is a minimum order amount even without a delivery fee.
I also realize that as a single-person household, solving daily meals is quite a headache. When I was a student, I could eat nutritious meals at a low price at school/school cafeterias, but once I go out into society, it’s really hard to have a decent meal. It’s burdensome to buy a lot of ingredients, and if I work a job that requires a lot of overtime, I don’t have the energy to cook, and if I eat out or order delivery, it’s expensive, and if I eat poorly, I worry about my health.
Early appearance of Doit777 (now “Doit Today”)
The team realized that existing options were not solving the fundamental problem of 'everyday meals' for single-person households . So they approached it by first determining a price range that customers could afford to wow, and then coming up with a way to provide attractive meals that could somehow fit into that price range. They first found restaurants with idle production capacity, and while experimenting with customer responses, they created an attractive menu that could be eaten every day. They also optimized the process to quickly and mass-produce food without compromising quality.
There were also changes in UX. Instead of listing the menu by store like existing delivery apps, we curated a limited number of menus and showed them to users every day. It's like the daily menu that changes every day when you go to a cafeteria. As a result, customers can solve a meal for less than 10,000 won while spending less time thinking about what to eat. Restaurants were able to efficiently utilize idle capacity by receiving large orders, and since orders were concentrated on a single menu, they were able to improve efficiency in costs and cooking time, which in turn increased profits.
Monthly Transaction User
GMV Retention—smile curve!
The response from users and restaurant owners was explosive. Transaction volume and the number of purchasing users stopped declining and began to rebound sharply, and GMV retention began to raise its head and rise. It was the moment when the Doit team discovered the second growth spurt .
Are you betting the house?
A growing startup makes everyone happy, but when growth stops, problems start to appear one by one. Especially when the entire team realized how easily large companies could copy and overwhelm our service, the frustration must have been even greater for the team that had been running harder than anyone else. Nevertheless, the Doit team held on to the team’s core values of ‘customer obsession’ and ‘ferocious speed’ and created a new breakthrough in just a few months.
Many members of Base, who saw the persistence felt in the history of execution so far and the results achieved through this as indicators, also felt that CEO Lee Yoon-seok was the 'crazy entrepreneur that Base is looking for'. There was even a saying that "If it was a seed, it would have been a team that we would have invested in just by looking at the people." However, at the same time, there were reasonable concerns about the business model, such as the competitive environment where we have to face large companies, the operation-intensive nature, and the profitability that has not yet been verified. Since these were all valid concerns, I thought deeply while preparing my investment. If it were joining a startup, I would have jumped in and said let's solve it together, but an investment company cannot dream the founder's dream or execute it on his behalf.
The weekend before the investment, I went to CEO Lee Yoon-seok’s neighborhood. We spent a few hours together eating, taking walks, drinking coffee, and even went to CEO Lee Yoon-seok’s house for a while. We talked about not only business but also life stories. While doing so, I vaguely felt that this person truly wanted to change the daily lives of 2030 single-person households, and that this ultimately connected to the issue of increasing the happiness of the lives of the CEO himself, a 2030 single-person household in Korea.
Of course, as an investor, you have to do various necessary analyses and considerations such as analyzing key indicators, benchmarking global companies, and interviewing customers and teams. But in the end, if you have a service that customers love, a difficult but feasible path can be drawn, and the founding team that carries it out is armed with seething ambition and ferocious execution power, then you can eventually achieve it — that's what I thought.
Excerpt from the beginning of a lengthy argument document
The base is that even if the majority of the judges are against and only a few are in favor, if the judges are very confident, the deal can be made. It is a system that the company created to trust the judges' judgment, but I think I thought about it a lot until the end. Of course, I discussed my opinions logically during the judgement, but looking back, I think what I wanted to do for a long time was to insist that we should invest in this crazy founder despite all the concerns . And after insisting like that, I ended up committing as the first institutional investor for that round.
Doit's present and future
Doit is no longer just a simple 'delivery app without delivery fees'. Doit is innovating across the value chain of the F&B industry to change all meals for single-person households for the better .
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“Do It Today”, a hearty meal curated for the daily meals of single-person households
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“Do It Special” delivers a special menu for special days
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“Do It Green” provides healthy food
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“Do It Amazing”, a selection of meals offered at our own PB stores
With the addition of the paid membership service 'Doit Club' , Doit is now going beyond simple food delivery and becoming an essential subscription service that takes responsibility for the eating habits of single-person households . More than 50% of users are signing up for paid membership, and features that add value to membership, such as fast delivery, exclusive menus, and additional benefits, are continuously being developed.
Wow, right away, Gamdasal do it amazing
“People in Gwanak-gu talk about Do-it when they get together.”
Doit's vision
Doit's shareholder letters always start with vision
From its founding to the present, the vision of solving people’s consumption and loneliness problems by connecting neighbors has remained the same, but the business model has changed a lot. Despite the crisis that caused the company to collapse and countless trials and errors, the Doit team has overcome all of these and continues to carry out desperate and tenacious execution every day.
A team with such burning ambition and ferocious persistence in execution is the type of team that __T13202_____ wants to invest in, and we definitely want to be the first investor.
It's hard to imagine Do-it's crazy dream of losing ambition or tenacity , and bass accompanies him to greatness!
Job Posting: We are looking for colleagues to work with Doit to change the lives of single-person households!
We are looking for colleagues from various positions, including PO, DA, Engineer, and General Manager of Large F&B Store Operations .
We are waiting for those who are excited by the work that changes the world and every word, “Wow, you made this?” If you are looking for an extraordinary immersion and an experience that allows you to accomplish anything, definitely meet the Doit team. Doit’s coffee chat is always open!
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