Bastian Lehmann, the CEO and co-founder of Postmates, the 6-year-old company that will deliver almost anything you want, is a big proponent of making sure that nascent ideas get their chance to thrive.
Postmates works with about 40,000 deliverers who carry out some 1.5 million transactions a month across 44 American metropolitan markets. But the inspiration for the company started 16 years ago, with a stressful move from Germany to England and a misplaced snowboard. It wasn’t until 2011 when smartphones became so ubiquitous that the technological infrastructure necessary for the company’s success snapped into focus.
This fall, the company closed a funding round of $140 million led by Founders Fund, putting the total amount of money raised at about $278 million. This summer, the fast-growing business also launched Plus Unlimited, a subscription feature that for $9.99 a month gives users unlimited free deliveries for orders $25 and over.
We caught up with Lehmann to talk about learning where to focus your efforts as your company grows and the importance of asking the hard questions when bringing on new hires.
1. Knowing what you know now, what would you have done differently from when you were first starting out?
There were times when we raised funding and we had offers to take more money and we were too worried about dilution. But I think retrospectively, I would advise, especially when you start a company, never to leave any money on the table. Take the opportunity to raise when you can.
And even though I spent a large amount of my time on recruiting, and we understood how important it is to have the right people do the right jobs, I think we underestimated how a couple of extra people can change the outcome…