Early Life
Apoorva Mehta was born in Jodhpur, India, in 1986. His family moved to Libya shortly after, where his father worked. In 2000, when he was 14, he and his family moved to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Growing up, Mehta developed a strong aversion to grocery shopping which later sparked the idea for Instacart. He graduated from the University of Waterloo with an electrical engineering degree.
Rise to Success
After graduating, Mehta worked as a design engineer at Blackberry and Qualcomm, followed by a supply-chain engineer role at Amazon. In 2010, he left Amazon to pursue entrepreneurship in San Francisco. Between 2010 and 2012, Mehta launched 20 different startups, all of which failed. In 2012, Mehta founded Instacart after being inspired by his dislike for grocery shopping. He started coding the first version of the Instacart App. He secured funding through Y Combinator and was able to meet his co-founders, Max Mullen and Brandon Leonardo. Instacart's value peaked at $39 billion in 2021. In September 2023, the company went public through an initial public offering, raising $660 million, and valuing the company at about $10 billion.
Key Business Strategies
Mehta's success was partly attributed to unconventional strategies. He and his team implemented "ninja shopping." This allowed Instacart to quickly scale and offer a compelling selection to customers. In 2020, Instacart saw an increase in demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to the hiring of 300,000 new shoppers. He was known for a customer-centric approach.
Philanthropy
Specific details about Mehta's philanthropic contributions are not widely available in the search results. However, his focus on community is mentioned in the search results, indicating his interest in balance, continuous learning, and giving back to the community.
