The CEO of $2 billion food start-up Deliveroo still helps out with deliveries

[cyclone]

The CEO of $2 billion food start-up Deliveroo still helps out with deliveries

Karen Gilchrist
April 24, 2018

Next time you order take out, take a moment to register the delivery driver — they could just be kind of a big deal.

At least, that's the case at Deliveroo, where co-founder and CEO Will Shu still regularly delivers food to customers near his home in Notting Hill, London.

What started out as necessity for the former Morgan Stanley investment banker-turned-entrepreneur has now become an important part of his strategy, Shu told CNBC Make It in Singapore.

"At first, I didn't really have a choice; it wasn't like I decided to do it," Shu said, referring to the eight months he spent as a delivery driver when he and childhood friend, Greg Orlowski, first launched Deliveroo back in 2013.

"I funded it with my own money in the beginning, so you just do everything."

But, five years on, Shu still delivers once every two weeks despite sitting at the helm of the $2 billion company.

More details in https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/23/delivero...weeks.html

[dreamybear]

Interesting article on the workings of the food delivery business model

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Deliveroo and the profitability problem
November 12 2019 By: Jamie Powell

....The fundamental issue with any food delivery service, as many have pointed out, is that it’s a business with low barriers to entry and high fixed costs....To set up a food delivery business in the modern age requires a few things: an app that can link supply (restaurants) and demand (customers), gameable labour laws and urban density....

Arguably the only competitive edge in the space comes from locking-in popular restaurant chains exclusively, as Deliveroo have done with Pret A Manger and UberEats with MacDonalds. Yet these relationships are often on fixed-length terms, allowing suppliers to pick a new delivery service when the agreement expires, and likely one with a lower split of revenues going to the delivery company (also known as the “take rate”).....

But, we didn’t then, and still don't believe now, that a company can generate significant profits on just the logistics component of the business. It is a commodity and there are significant variable costs that are hard to leverage even with technology and scale. Extremely large delivery/logistics companies can generate slim margins, but only because of the hub and spoke efficiencies they gain at substantial scale....  

https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2019/11/11/1...y-problem/

[brattzz]

amazon...alibaba.... economy of scale and scope sir.... + carbotage...

efficiency game...vicious cycle...

wonder how long will the easy/free money last, or run out??? :O :O :O