DoorDash filed its S-1 prospectus on November 13, 2020 (Links to an external site.), in anticipation of listing its shares on NASDAQ via an initial public offering (IPO). The S-1 prospectus discloses important information for shareholders when a company converts from privately held to being publicly traded. The document contains financial statements as well as a thorough discussion of strategy, operations, and risk factors. These documents are very long but contain valuable information.

The DoorDash S-1 filing includes 267 pages followed by an extensive set of financial statements. You are not expected to read all of this! Instead, you should find a topic that interests you and that applies a concept from this class. You are encouraged to analyze the financial statements summarized on pages 19-21; more extensive financial reports follow page 267.

For this discussion, you can either respond to one of the following questions or post a new topic that draws on information from the DoorDash filing. If you are the first person to post on the topic, begin a new thread; otherwise, respond to and build upon another students post. Potential topics include:

• Analyze the profit potential of this business. They are not currently profitable, but use evidence from their financial disclosures to evaluate their ability to generate profits in the future.
• Analyze the cost structure of this business and discuss implications for scaling the business and achieving profitability.
• Analyze DoorDash's use non-GAAP measures of financial performance including Adjusted EBITDA. Review the section entitled Non-GAAP Financial Measures and evaluate whether these measures are appropriate and useful.
• How does DoorDash define its non-GAAP measures of Contribution Profit and Contribution Margin? What should potential shareholder think of their approach?
• DoorDash uses "gross order value on our Marketplace, or Marketplace GOV" to measure its performance. What is "Marketplace GOV" and how useful and appropriate is this measure for investors to know how well the company is doing?
• Discuss how DoorDash describes its strategy, mission and/or competitive positioning in the S-1 document. Analyze its potential for sustainable competitive advantage.
• Discuss risk factors that DoorDash identifies in the S-1 disclosure. Which of these risk factors is most important and why?
• How does DoorDash define and measure its total addressable market? (hint-they use the term addressable opportunity) Assess whether this is an appropriate way of estimating the market.
• Evaluate the DoorDash business model using evidence from the S-1 document.
• Evaluate DoorDash and their business model using the Responsible Business framework (profits, people, planet, equity, ethics), using evidence from the S-1.
• Select another topic addressed in the DoorDash S-1 that interests you and relates to this course.

It may be helpful to read media reports regarding the DoorDash IPO, but you are not required to cite sources beyond the S-1. Your post should directly address information contained within the S-1. You are only required to post once--you can either post an original topic (adding a new thread) or build upon an existing thread in the discussion.