Small Partners Before Large

A breakdown of Instacart's strategy for building partnerships, starting small and scaling to larger partners.

Initial Partnership Strategy

• Started with local grocery stores instead of large chains
  • Targeted stores with 1-2 locations
  • Examples: Rainbow Grocery and Buy Right Market in San Francisco
• Pitch focused on business expansion opportunities
  • Presented clear value proposition to store owners
  • Demonstrated how partnership could grow their business

Scaling Process

• Built credibility through small successes
  • Proved model worked with smaller stores
  • Larger stores began noticing their success
  • Eventually, bigger stores started reaching out to them

Evolution of Partnership Development

• Grew from manual outreach to sophisticated BD team
  • Started with founders doing direct outreach
  • Hired Neilam as Chief Business Officer
  • Developed full business development team across country
  • Team now manages all partnership relationships

Key Success Factors

• Patient, methodical approach
  • Built credibility gradually
  • Let success speak for itself
  • Focused on proving value at each stage
• Demonstrated value through results
  • Showed concrete benefits to early partners
  • Created success stories to attract larger partners
• Strategic scaling
  • Used small wins to build momentum
  • Leveraged early success to attract bigger partners

This approach allowed Instacart to overcome the initial credibility challenge of being a small, unknown company and eventually secure partnerships with major grocery chains.