Apoorva Mehta: From 20 Failed Startup Ideas to Building Instacart, a Global Online Grocery Marketplace

Imagine opening your refrigerator after a long day and discovering that the only thing inside is a bottle of hot sauce.

For most people, this is simply an inconvenience. For Apoorva Mehta, it became the starting point of a business idea that would transform how millions of people shop for groceries.

Born in India, raised partly in Libya and Canada, and eventually based in the United States, Mehta's journey was not an overnight success. Before creating Instacart, he experimented with approximately 20 startup ideas. None of them worked.

But those failures helped him understand technology, customers and the process of building a business.

In 2012, together with co-founders Max Mullen and Brandon Leonardo, he launched Instacart, an online grocery marketplace that connected customers with local grocery stores and delivery shoppers.

What started as an attempt to solve an everyday problem became one of North America's most recognised grocery technology businesses.

This is the story of how an immigrant entrepreneur turned an empty refrigerator into a billion-dollar business opportunity.

Founder: Apoorva Mehta
Company: Instacart (legally Maplebear Inc.)
Founded: 2012
Headquarters: San Francisco, California, USA
Industry: E-commerce, Online Grocery & Technology
Category: NRI Entrepreneurs & Online Business

1. From India to Canada: The Early Journey

Apoorva Mehta was born in India. His family later moved to Libya, where he spent part of his early childhood, before immigrating to Canada when he was 14.

Growing up in Canada, he developed a strong interest in understanding how technology worked. He was curious about computers, engineering and the systems that connected everyday life with technology.

He eventually enrolled at the University of Waterloo, where he studied electrical engineering.

His education gave him a technical foundation, but it also exposed him to the possibilities of building products and solving practical problems.

Like many young graduates, Mehta initially explored professional opportunities before discovering that he wanted something different from a conventional engineering career.

His journey would eventually take him from Canada to Silicon Valley, where he began exploring entrepreneurship.

2. Working at Blackberry, Qualcomm and Amazon

Before founding Instacart, Mehta gained experience at established technology companies.

He worked at BlackBerry and Qualcomm before joining Amazon as a supply-chain engineer.

At Amazon, he worked on systems that helped move products through warehouses and deliver orders to customers.

This experience became particularly valuable later.

Online grocery delivery is not simply about creating an attractive website or mobile application. It involves inventory, order processing, logistics, delivery coordination and customer experience.

His experience with Amazon helped him understand how technology and physical operations could work together.

However, despite having a professional career in a major technology company, Mehta wanted to build something independently.

In 2010, he left Amazon and moved to San Francisco to pursue entrepreneurship.

3. Twenty Startup Ideas That Did Not Work

The road to Instacart was filled with unsuccessful experiments.

Mehta has explained that he spent approximately two years trying to build around 20 different products and startup ideas.

Some focused on advertising for social gaming companies. Others explored consumer products, business software and online services.

One idea involved creating a social network specifically for lawyers.

The projects did not develop into successful businesses.

But each attempt taught him something about customers, product development and the difficulties of finding a problem worth solving.

In an interview with Y Combinator in 2018, Mehta described how he built around 20 minimum viable products before arriving at the Instacart idea.

Rather than treating these experiments as wasted time, he viewed them as an important part of his entrepreneurial education.

The experience helped him understand a crucial principle: a startup should not exist simply because someone wants to become an entrepreneur. It should exist because it solves a problem people genuinely have.

4. The Empty Refrigerator That Inspired Instacart

The idea for Instacart came from an ordinary problem.

In 2012, Mehta was living in San Francisco and found that his refrigerator was almost empty. He had a bottle of hot sauce but little else.

He realised that buying almost everything online had become convenient, yet grocery shopping still required visiting a physical store.

This seemed like an opportunity.

Why couldn't customers order groceries online and have someone purchase and deliver them?

At the time, online shopping was already changing several industries. Books, electronics, clothing and household products were becoming easier to purchase through the internet.

Mehta saw that grocery shopping could also become more convenient through technology.

He began building the first version of an application designed to connect customers with local grocery stores and delivery shoppers.

The idea was simple: customers could select products from nearby stores, place an order online and receive their groceries at home.

It was a familiar shopping experience delivered through a different business model.

5. Building Instacart in 2012

Apoorva Mehta founded Instacart in 2012 with Max Mullen and Brandon Leonardo.

The company initially launched in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Instead of building a traditional grocery retailer with its own supermarkets and inventory, Instacart developed a technology platform that connected customers with existing grocery stores.

This model allowed customers to shop from local retailers through an application.

The business brought together three important groups:

• Customers: People who wanted groceries delivered conveniently.

• Retailers: Grocery stores that wanted to reach customers online.

• Shoppers: Independent workers who picked and delivered the ordered products.

This marketplace model became central to Instacart's growth.

It also required solving complicated operational challenges. Grocery products have different availability, storage requirements and substitution needs. Orders must be picked accurately and delivered within a suitable time.

The company therefore needed much more than an online ordering interface. It needed technology that could coordinate the entire shopping and delivery process.

Instacart's official company history records its launch in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2012.

6. The Unusual Y Combinator Opportunity

Getting early support from investors and startup networks can make a significant difference to a young company.

Mehta's route to Y Combinator, one of Silicon Valley's best-known startup accelerators, was not straightforward.

According to a 2023 Forbes interview, he missed the application deadline for the 2012 programme by approximately two months.

Instead of giving up, he contacted people associated with the accelerator and eventually received an opportunity to apply.

One particularly memorable detail from the story involved sending a case of beer through Instacart to Y Combinator partner Garry Tan.

The gesture helped demonstrate the product itself rather than simply describing the idea.

Instacart was subsequently accepted into Y Combinator's 2012 Summer batch.

The experience provided access to mentorship, a startup network and early support as the company developed.

For aspiring online entrepreneurs, the lesson is not to copy the unusual gesture. It is to demonstrate a product's value through something tangible and keep pursuing relevant opportunities even when the conventional route has closed.

7. Expanding from a Local Service to a Major Online Marketplace

Instacart began with a limited geographic focus, but the business gradually expanded.

In 2014, it entered additional major metropolitan markets, including New York, Los Angeles and Portland.

In 2017, the company expanded nationally in the United States through partnerships with grocery retailers and also expanded into Canada.

Its business model evolved beyond connecting customers with shoppers.

Instacart increasingly developed technology for retailers, helping them bring inventory online, improve digital shopping experiences and manage fulfilment.

The company also developed advertising and retail technology services.

This was an important change in its business strategy.

Rather than being only a grocery delivery application, Instacart became a broader technology partner for retailers seeking to compete in online commerce.

Its official company history documents these stages of expansion and the development of its retail technology business.

8. From Startup to Publicly Listed Company

Instacart's development eventually brought it to the public markets.

In September 2023, the company completed its initial public offering on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol CART. Its legal corporate name is Maplebear Inc.

The IPO marked a major milestone for the business that Mehta and his co-founders had started in 2012.

By this stage, Instacart had become a significant part of the North American online grocery ecosystem.

Its platform connected customers with grocery retailers and provided technology services that supported digital commerce and retail operations.

Mehta stepped down as CEO in 2021 and later left the role of chairman in 2023.

His journey illustrates how the role of a founder can change as a company grows. Starting a business, scaling its operations and preparing it for its next stage of leadership are different responsibilities.

The public listing was not the end of the broader online grocery opportunity, but it represented an important chapter in Instacart's development.

9. What Entrepreneurs Can Learn from Apoorva Mehta

Apoorva Mehta's journey offers practical lessons for anyone planning to build an online business.

Failure can be part of product discovery.

His approximately 20 unsuccessful startup experiments helped him understand what building a business actually requires.

Look for problems in everyday life.

Instacart did not begin with an entirely new human need. It addressed an existing problem: making grocery shopping more convenient.

Technology must solve a real problem.

A mobile application alone does not create a successful business. The technology must improve a customer's experience and support the underlying operations.

Understand the industry you want to disrupt.

Mehta's supply-chain experience at Amazon gave him useful knowledge of logistics and fulfilment.

Start small and learn from customers.

Instacart began in one geographic market before expanding into other cities and regions.

Build partnerships.

The company depended on relationships with retailers, customers and shoppers. Its marketplace model required all three groups to find value in participating.

Keep experimenting.

The early failures demonstrate the importance of testing ideas, learning from results and adjusting direction rather than becoming attached to an idea that customers do not need.

From an Empty Refrigerator to a New Way of Shopping

Apoorva Mehta's story is a powerful example of how an ordinary inconvenience can become the foundation of an online business.

He did not discover Instacart immediately. He spent years experimenting, learning and building products that did not succeed.

His engineering education, experience at technology companies and understanding of supply chains helped him recognise an opportunity that went beyond a simple grocery delivery application.

With Max Mullen and Brandon Leonardo, he built a company that changed how customers could access local grocery stores through technology.

For aspiring entrepreneurs, particularly Indians building businesses overseas, his journey carries an important message.

You do not always need an entirely new invention to create a meaningful business. Sometimes you need to look at an existing problem, understand why it remains unsolved and build a better way to address it.

Twenty unsuccessful startup experiments did not stop Apoorva Mehta. They helped him discover the idea that became Instacart.