Instacart Co-founder Apoorva Mehta set to exit stage left

Instacart Co-founder Apoorva Mehta will step down as Executive Chairman and transition off the board of directors once the grocery delivery unicorn goes public.

“Since I transitioned from CEO to Executive Chairman a year ago, I realised that I want to pursue a new mission and I want to do it with the same singular focus that I had while building Instacart,” Mehta said on Twitter.

“Stepping off the board will allow me to do just that.”

He added: “Instacart has an enormous opportunity ahead and I have confidence in the team’s ability to achieve its full potential. Onwards!”

Mehta had previously left the role of Chief Executive to take on the Executive Chairman position.

In a press release, Instacart said that Fidji Simo, a former Facebook executive who took over from Mehta as CEO of Instacart, will be the future Executive Chairman of the board.

On Twitter, Simo thanked Mehta “for all he has done for Instacart over the last decade.”

In a press release, she said that “as CEO and future Chair, I look forward to working alongside our retail partners to shape the next decade of grocery’s evolution.”

“Murdered in cold blood”

In April, Ryan Breslow, Founder of online checkout technology startup, Bolt, launched an extraordinary attack on Instacart investor Sequoia Capital.

In a series of Twitter posts, Breslow claimed that “Sequoia murdered Mehta in cold blood”.

He said: “As far as the mob goes, Sequoia is the Don. As vicious as they come. Their violence is done in silence. Experts at pressure & power.”

Mehta, he stated, “built one of the most transformational companies of the last decade. He made online grocery shopping go from zero to everyone. Covid helped, although it was already well on the rise.”

“Apoorva absolutely crushed it. He’s a lights out visionary and entrepreneur. No one is perfect, but Apoorva is as good as it gets. Instacart is a tough as nails business to build that no one had ever pulled off prior.”

Breslow added: “But in 2019, a dark plan began to form. Sequoia saw blood….an easy way to return money to their LPs via an IPO. Up to 100X from their 2013 investment. Apoorva, fearless and not known for compromise, was unlikely to be onboard with this plan. They needed him out.”

“So they made one of the sneakiest moves of all time. Hiring Instacart’s CFO in 2019. Ravi Gupta joined Sequoia as a Partner Gupta knew every mistake the company had made. If you’re going to murder a founder, hire their CFO.”

“One day they held a meeting. Then out of nowhere, called a vote to kick Apoorva out as CEO. It passed immediately; and Apoorva had NO CLUE what hit him. He went into shock.”

“Sequoia and the Instacart board then: Put in a CEO who knows literally nothing about logistics; Hired Facebook’s former global ad chief, who departs within four months; Appoint President/CEO of The NYTimes and the co-founder of Home Care Assistance to the board. What??”

Breslow concluded: “Last month, Instacart slashed its valuation by almost 40% to $24 billion. They did it to attract talent at a more reasonable valuation. The reality: to prepare for an up-round IPO, a nice narrative of success, and LP cashflow.”

Instacart and Sequoia Capital did not respond to our request for comment.

Grocery deliveryStaff WriterInstacart, Apoorva Mehta, Bolt, Ryan Breslow, Grocery delivery, Unincorns, Sequoia Capital, Twitter, Fidji Simo, Social mediaComment