Pershing Square Challenge 2026 winners on DoorDash $DASH

The winning team from Columbia Business School's Pershing Square Challenge 2026, known as Team DoorDash, presents a compelling case for DoorDash ($DASH) as a high-conviction long investment, arguing that the stock is deeply misunderstood by the market. They challenge the widespread narrative that U.S. food delivery growth has peaked, citing powerful demographic tailwinds—4 million new 18-year-olds entering the market annually—and evidence that younger users order more frequently and prefer DoorDash’s superior product quality over Uber Eats or Grubhub. Their research, based on nearly 100 primary interviews with former employees, merchants, investors, and competitors, reveals that DoorDash’s operational excellence and disciplined capital allocation are underappreciated. They project sustained growth in monthly active users (8% CAGR) and order frequency (3% CAGR), with new verticals and international markets—especially post-acquisition of Deliveroo—driving future profitability. Despite a current valuation of 25–30x EBITDA, they argue that adjusted free cash flow multiples of 18x are reasonable given the company’s long-term compounding potential and massive reinvestment in a unified tech stack. The team also defends DoorDash against AI disruption, asserting that the physical logistics layer—couriers, handoffs, real-time coordination—creates an insurmountable barrier to entry for AI agents.