Fidji Simo - Creating Delightful Consumer Experiences - [Invest Like the Best, EP.328]

My guest this week is Fidji Simo, the CEO of Instacart. Fidji grew up in a small town in the South of France and was the first person in her family to graduate from high school. Since then, she has had a dazzling career with stops at France’s leading university, eBay, and Facebook. Fidji spent the better part of a decade at Facebook where she led the Facebook App before joining the online grocery platform, Instacart, in mid 2021. We talk about Fidji’s consumer product experiences, Instacart’s role within the grocery ecosystem, and delve into her personal philosophy on leadership. Please enjoy this wide-ranging discussion with Fidji Simo.

Apply for the Investigative Research Analyst position at Positive Sum.

Listen to Founders Podcast

Founders Episode 136 - Estee Lauder

Founders Episode 288 - Ralph Lauren

For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.

-----

This episode is brought to you by Tegus, the modern research platform for leading investors. Stretch your research budget with flexible expert calls you can trust. At a fraction of the cost of traditional expert networks, Tegus customers pay only what an expert charges – with zero markups and no confusing call credits – netting an average 70% savings. Don’t want to conduct a full hour call? Tegus offers the ability to schedule 30-minutes, an offer you won’t find anywhere else. And they don’t stop there. With white-glove custom sourcing for every project and robust compliance measures, including a dedicated 50+ analyst team that vets every call transcript, Tegus ensures your privacy and protection. As the industry innovator for qualitative insights, Tegus helps you find the right experts you need at a quality and speed that can’t be matched. For a limited time, as a listener, you can trial Tegus for free by visiting tegus.co/patrick.

-----

Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. 

Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.

Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus

Show Notes

(00:03:51) - (First question) - Comparing her experiences with Facebook and Instacart

(00:06:22) - The dimensionality of creating great consumer products online

(00:07:50) - How Instacart uses AI now and her advice to other companies who are ready to incorporate AI into their business

(00:15:41) - What being a pragmatic technologist means to her

(00:18:02) - Influences in younger years that led to her career path in technology

(00:21:00) - The landscape Instacart seeks to build and how major key players within the industry are involved

(00:27:09) - Data algorithms and their role in helping consumers

(00:29:24) - Scale around the original core business

(00:32:12) - The functional difference between Instacart shoppers and delivery drivers 

(00:34:59) - Issues with fully automated grocery store facilities

(00:37:32) - Insight into working with brands and consumer brand loyalty 

(00:43:16) - Her vision for the future of Instacart

(00:49:34) - Her principles for capital allocation

(00:52:34) - Common misperceptions about Instacart from prospective investors

(00:54:21) - Her philosophy of seeing the magic in team members

(00:56:46) - Expanding knowledge while managing a complex business environment  

(01:01:01) - When she felt the most helpless in her career

(01:03:46) - Insight into generative AI and how it could shape the online grocery experience

(01:08:00) - The role of content and its importance for businesses like Instacart

(01:12:35) - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for her