Day 19: Pandemic Pivots: The Unexpected Surge of Zoom, Peloton, and DoorDash

Welcome to the 19th blog in our From the Unexpected to the Unstoppable – How Bold Pivots Built Business Legends series! As we approach the culmination of our journey this week, we turn our attention to a truly unique chapter in corporate history: the sudden, dramatic acceleration of certain companies during a global crisis.

Stories of Pandemic Pivots

Today, we delve into the extraordinary stories of Zoom, Peloton, and DoorDash. While not new companies, these organizations epitomize how robust, adaptable business models can meet unprecedented surges in demand during crises, driving phenomenal pivots in scale and societal reliance. The COVID-19 pandemic was a massive, unforeseen catalyst that transformed them from promising ventures into household names and essential services nearly overnight. Theirs are stories of pandemic pivots.

Zoom: From Startup to Global Video Communication Leader

Zoom’s story begins in 2011 when Eric Yuan, a former corporate vice president of engineering at Cisco, left the company and, with a team of 40 engineers, launched a new video conferencing startup originally named Saasbee, Inc. Despite Yuan’s strong vision for a simpler, more reliable, and scalable video communication platform, early fundraising was challenging. Investors were skeptical, viewing the videotelephony market as crowded and saturated. Nevertheless, with $3 million in seed funding from notable backers including WebEx founder Subrah Iyar and other venture capitalists, Yuan persevered.

By mid-2012, the company rebranded itself as Zoom, inspired by the children’s book Zoom City. Shortly after, it launched a beta version supporting up to 15 video participants, securing Stanford University as its first major customer. Officially launching in January 2013 with $6 million in Series A funding, Zoom quickly gained traction. Its user-friendly design and reliable performance helped it attract 400,000 users in the first month, growing to 1 million users by May 2013.

Zoom’s growth accelerated through strategic partnerships and continuous product enhancements. By 2013, it had integrated with collaboration software like Redbooth and established relationships with hardware providers such as Logitech and Polycom. Series B funding of $6.5 million fueled this expansion as Zoom’s daily meeting participants surged to 3 million. Subsequent funding rounds, including a $30 million Series C in 2015, underscored investor confidence. Zoom expanded its user base to 40 million and penetrated more than 65,000 organizations, offering integrations with platforms like Slack, Salesforce, and Skype for Business.

Innovation continued with Zoom increasing participant capacity from 25 to 50, and eventually up to 1,000 for enterprise customers. The appointment of industry veterans, such as former RingCentral president David Berman as Zoom’s president in 2015, added leadership depth. The company went public in 2019, pricing shares at $36 and rapidly gaining investor interest, with its share price jumping over 70% on the first day of trading. This IPO followed years of steady growth, as Zoom had established itself as a reliable and scalable communication platform.

The true turning point came in early 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic forced an unprecedented global shift to remote work, education, and virtual social interactions.

Zoom transformed from a niche enterprise tool into a household name almost overnight, experiencing 30X growth between December 2019 and April 2020. Its robust cloud infrastructure handled a massive surge in users, while the company quickly rolled out new features like breakout rooms and virtual backgrounds.

Zoom has faced several controversies throughout its rapid rise, many centered on privacy and security concerns. Early in the pandemic, the platform experienced “Zoom bombing,” where uninvited guests disrupted meetings, highlighting vulnerabilities in its default security settings. Critics also raised alarms over Zoom’s data encryption practices, questioning whether the company truly provided end-to-end encryption for all calls.

Additionally, Zoom was scrutinized for routing some calls through servers in China, raising geopolitical and privacy concerns. The company responded by enhancing its security protocols, introducing stronger encryption, enabling waiting rooms, and regularly updating its privacy policies. Despite these efforts, Zoom continues to navigate challenges related to user trust, regulatory compliance, and balancing rapid growth with robust cybersecurity. Zoom’s rapid adaptation under intense pressure demonstrated exceptional leadership and operational resilience.

Post-pandemic, Zoom remains a dominant force in video communications but now faces new challenges. These include fierce competition from tech giants like Microsoft Teams and Google Meet, the complexities of hybrid work environments, and ongoing demands for innovation in AI-powered collaboration tools.

With approximately 7,400 employees and annual revenues exceeding $4.7 billion, Zoom continues to invest heavily in platform enhancements, security, and AI integration, signaling its ambition to evolve from a video conferencing app into a comprehensive communication ecosystem. Its product portfolio includes Zoom Meetings, Zoom Rooms, Zoom Phone, and Zoom Webinars.

In late 2024, Zoom officially rebranded from Zoom Video Communications, Inc. to Zoom Communications, Inc., signaling a strategic shift beyond video conferencing to become an "AI-first work platform." This change highlights Zoom’s ongoing transformation and focus on embedding artificial intelligence throughout its suite of products to maintain relevance in a rapidly evolving digital workplace.

Peloton: From Niche Fitness to Home Wellness Phenomenon

Peloton Interactive, Inc. is an American exercise equipment and media company. Its products include stationary bicycles, treadmills, and indoor rowers equipped with Internet-connected touch screens that stream live and on-demand fitness classes through a subscription service. The equipment includes built-in sensors that track metrics such as power output, providing users with real-time feedback on their performance and leaderboard rankings to compete with other users.

In 2011, John Foley, then an executive at Barnes & Noble in New York City, shared with his colleague Tom Cortese the vision of using technology to bring the full experience of a high-end studio cycling class into people’s homes, especially for those with limited time. This idea led to the founding of Peloton Interactive in January 2012. The name “Peloton” comes from cycling terminology, referring to a tightly grouped pack of riders.

Peloton entered the boutique fitness market with a high-end stationary bike and cultivated a dedicated community with its immersive hardware-software-content model, expanding to include the Peloton Tread treadmill by 2018 and going public in 2019. However, its transformation from niche player to household name came as the pandemic shuttered gyms globally. Suddenly, Peloton was not just an alternative but a fitness lifeline for millions.

Peloton responded by rapidly expanding content offerings, enhancing social engagement features, and growing its user base. Despite supply chain challenges during peak demand, the company’s integrated ecosystem—combining hardware, software, and community—positioned it perfectly for this shift. Peloton’s story highlights how timing, integrated product experiences, and community building can drive a massive market pivot.

Peloton has faced several challenges and controversies throughout its growth. The company struggled with supply chain disruptions and product shortages, especially during the pandemic-driven surge in demand, which led to significant delivery delays. In 2021, Peloton faced a major setback with the recall of its Tread+ treadmill following reports of injuries and a child’s death, which triggered regulatory scrutiny and damaged consumer trust.

Additionally, Peloton has grappled with intense competition from both traditional gyms reopening post-pandemic and emerging at-home fitness brands, forcing it to constantly innovate and adapt its offerings. Leadership changes and efforts to shift from rapid growth to sustainable profitability have also tested the company’s strategic direction and market positioning.

Peloton now generated over $2.5 billion in the last twelve months, primarily serving North America, the UK, and Germany. Headquartered in New York City, it employed about 2,900 people in 2024. Its current product offerings include stationary bicycles, treadmills, rowers, accessories, and apparel.

DoorDash: From Local Deliveries to Essential Service

DoorDash’s origins trace back to January 2013, when Stanford University students Tony Xu, Stanley Tang, and Andy Fang launched PaloAltoDelivery.com, a localized food delivery service in Palo Alto, California. Their vision was to solve a simple but pressing logistical challenge for local restaurants and customers alike. Shortly thereafter, in the summer of 2013, the company secured $120,000 in seed funding. By June 2013, the business had officially incorporated as DoorDash, setting the stage for rapid expansion.

The company’s early years were marked by strategic growth and market penetration. By December 2018, DoorDash had overtaken Uber Eats to become the second-largest player in the U.S. food delivery market, trailing only GrubHub. This momentum continued swiftly, and by March 2019, DoorDash surpassed GrubHub, capturing 27.6% of the on-demand delivery market share. This shift reflected DoorDash’s successful emphasis on suburban and less urbanized markets, where its logistical model excelled, helping it to establish itself as the largest food delivery provider in the United States by consumer spending in early 2019.

Innovation has been a core pillar of DoorDash’s strategy. In October 2019, it opened its first ghost kitchen—DoorDash Kitchen—in Redwood City, California. This innovative concept allowed multiple restaurants to operate in a shared, delivery-only facility, optimizing operational costs and expanding delivery options for customers. DoorDash continued to push boundaries with new service models, including the opening of its first physical restaurant location in partnership with Burma Bites in November 2020, offering both delivery and pick-up services.

Financially, DoorDash has attracted significant investor interest. By June 2020, it had raised more than $2.5 billion across multiple funding rounds from high-profile investors such as Sequoia Capital, SoftBank Group, Kleiner Perkins, and Y Combinator. This capital injection helped fuel rapid scale and technological investment, positioning DoorDash to weather the unprecedented surge in demand triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

December 2020 marked a milestone as DoorDash went public, raising $3.37 billion in its initial public offering. The IPO validated the company’s meteoric rise and cemented its status as a major player in the rapidly evolving on-demand economy. Post-IPO, DoorDash continued refining its business model, though it faced challenges such as ending its partnership with Walmart in 2022, which highlighted the complexities of maintaining diverse strategic alliances.

In late 2022, DoorDash undertook a significant restructuring by laying off 1,250 corporate employees—about 6% of its workforce—to control expenses amid a shifting economic environment. In 2023, the company introduced a new payment model for its drivers, offering them the option to earn an hourly minimum wage instead of the traditional per-delivery pay, though only while actively completing deliveries. This shift reflected ongoing debates about gig worker compensation and regulatory pressures facing the industry.

Stock market developments have continued to shape DoorDash’s trajectory. In September 2023, the company moved its stock listing from the New York Stock Exchange to Nasdaq, and by December, it was added to the Nasdaq-100 index, further solidifying its presence among the leading U.S. technology companies.

Looking ahead, DoorDash continues its aggressive expansion plans. In March 2025, it partnered with Klarna to introduce Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) payment options—a move that sparked controversy given broader concerns about household debt.

Additionally, the company announced its intention to acquire the UK-based delivery platform Deliveroo for $3.88 billion, a deal that will extend DoorDash’s reach to operate in 40 countries and serve 50 million monthly users, making it a truly global on-demand commerce powerhouse.

DoorDash’s journey from a modest Stanford startup to a global delivery giant underscores the power of agility, technology, and strategic expansion in capturing emergent market opportunities within the fast-changing landscape of consumer demand and digital commerce.

Headquartered in San Francisco, DoorDash is now the largest food delivery and local commerce platform in the U.S., with revenues exceeding $11 billion in the last twelve months. It operates across thousands of cities in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Japan, and Germany, connecting millions of consumers to businesses. It manages hundreds of thousands of gig economy drivers.

Recent challenges include intense competition, rising costs, regulatory scrutiny over worker classification, and efforts to diversify beyond restaurant delivery.

Lessons from Crisis: The Power of Preparedness

These three companies exemplify how crises accelerate existing trends, forcing rapid pivots of scale that cement new behaviors. Their successes stem from robust infrastructure, adaptable models, and leadership that anticipates and embraces change. They demonstrate that while crises cannot be predicted, organizations can be built to prepare, adapt, and thrive amid uncertainty.

Preview Tomorrow

Join us tomorrow for the final installment of From the Unexpected to the Unstoppable, where we will distill key leadership lessons learned from the 29 remarkable companies featured in this series. This culmination will provide a powerful synthesis of bold pivots, strategic agility, and visionary leadership that defines unstoppable organizations.

Inspiring Insights for Your Leadership Journey

“Crises are opportunities to do things we could not do before.” ~ Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father of the United States

“Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.” ~ Coco Chanel, Fashion Designer and Businesswoman

“In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” ~ Eric Hoffer, Philosopher and Author

“Success is not in what you have, but who you are.” ~ Bo Bennett, Author and Philosopher

Forge Your Path Forward

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