Why did we choose Deliveroo as one of the Startups 20?
Rarely does a company go from zero to unicorn in the space of eight years. In fact, thanks to the latest £450m investment from Amazon, the value of Deliveroo has rocketed past the minimum needed for unicorn status to an impressive $4bn.
Something that crops up time and time again in interviews with Shu is the fact that not only did he create a company to rival Just Eat – the market leaders at the time – but he left them still doing the prep work as he took Deliveroo straight to the pass.
And how did he do that? In an interview featured on Startups.co.uk two years ago, Shu recognised two of Just Eat’s fundamental flaws at the time:
“One, I didn’t recognise any of the restaurants that were listed; they were places like Chang’s Express or House of Kebabs, so obviously culinary masters. Secondly, I had no idea when the food was going to show up except that it generally took a long time. Although the ordering process was much easier, it was not a great customer experience.”
What we admire here is Shu’s ability to really understand the problem that his product needed to solve. Instead of hiding himself up in an office, Shu got himself a bike and started delivering orders himself – he wanted to know exactly what he needed to do to ensure his business would be a success.
When Shu isn’t gunning for his next big investment, he’s harnessing the power of his fleet in a charity partnership that sees more than 30,000 riders help to reunite missing people with their families. Indeed, Deliveroo’s partnership with charity Missing People saw five missing people reunited with their families in 2018.
Further collaboration with the charity in February 2020 saw 500 Deliveroo riders adorn the faces of missing people on their backpacks. In addition, drivers can sign up to receive a text notifying them when a child in their local area disappears.
via https://www.AiUpNow.com
October 25, 2020 at 08:16PM by Aimee Bradshaw, Khareem Sudlow
