Tony Xu: Daily Routine

Tony Xu started as a dishwasher helping his mom — now he’s a billionaire CEO who still works without an office and carves out time every day to support customers.

Back in the early days, when DoorDash was founded in 2013 by Stanford students Tony Xu, Stanley Tang, Andy Fang and Evan Moore, they were often responsible for picking up the food from restaurants and delivering it to customers themselves. At the time, the food delivery company was just another startup in the Silicon Valley ecosystem trying to make a name for itself.

Now, as CEO of a company which recently held its initial public offering, giving him an estimate net worth of over $3.1 billion, Xu doesn’t have to do deliveries himself anymore, although his connection to the restaurant industry remains intimate, having worked as a dishwasher at a Chinese restaurant alongside his mother.

“My mom, you know, she worked three jobs a day for 12 years because that was the only way we could put food on the table,” Xu told Fast Company. “Her story is true in so many of the businesses we serve, and in the Dasher community. For me, it’s personal.”