20VC: Deliveroo Founder Will Shu on The IPO This Year, The Rise of Quick Commerce and The Fierce Competition with Uber Eats
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 693 Ratings
🗓️ 25 October 2021
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Will Shu is the Founder & CEO @ Deliveroo, the company that provides your favorite restaurants and takeaways, delivered to your door. Prior to their IPO earlier this year, Will raised over $1.7BN for the company from some of the best including Accel, Index, General Catalyst, Greenoaks, and more. Before Deliveroo, Will worked in finance as an analyst with SAC Capital, ESO Capital, and Morgan Stanley in New York and London. Fun fact, Will still enjoys regularly delivering food orders on his bike.
In Today's Episode with Will Shu You Will Learn:
1.) How Will made his way from hedge funds and Morgan Stanley to changing the world of food and delivery with Deliveroo? Why did Deliveroo not work the first time Will started it?
2.) Restaurant + Customer Acquisition: How did Will acquire the first restaurants to the platform? What did that education process look like for them? What do the restaurants care about? How did Will acquire the first customers? How has that changed over time? What matters to customers; speed, selection or price? How does this change by geography and country?
3.) New Markets: How do Deliveroo select new markets to enter? What makes one more attractive than another? From a resource perspective, what does it take to open a new market? What have been some of the biggest lessons on zone maturity and time to breakeven? Why does Deliveroo not track driver efficiency on a number of drops basis? What is the right mechanism to measure driver efficiency?
4.) Competition: How did Deliveroo come late to markets like France and end up winning them? What was it like competing against Uber with Eats? How important is restaurant exclusivity to Deliveroo retaining its position? What would Will have done differently with regards to competition, with the benefit of hindsight?
5.) Quick commerce: What does Will make of the unprecedented rise of quick commerce? Will we see many winners on a per market basis or will this be a consolidatory environment? What do many of the new entrants mistake or not understand? Why is the vertical ownership of the supply chain such a superior model to working with grocery partners?
Item's Mentioned In Today's Episode with Will Shu
Will's Favourite Book: From Third World to First: Singapore and the Asian Economic Boom
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back. This is 20VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and I was so excited to do this episode today. |
| 0:04.4 | Now, I'm not the world's greatest cook, but I do still love food. |
| 0:07.8 | And this company has largely kept me fed in London for the last five years. |
| 0:11.2 | And so with that, I'm so thrilled to welcome Will Shute, found and CEO at Deliveroo, |
| 0:15.2 | the company that provides your favorite restaurants and takeaways delivered to your door. Prior to their IPO earlier this year, |
| 0:25.4 | Will raised over $1.7 billion for the company from some of the best in the business, including Excel, Index, General Catalyst, Green Oaks, and more. Before Deliveroo, Will worked in finance |
| 0:30.7 | with different firms, including Morgan Stanley, across both London and New York, and fun facts, |
| 0:35.4 | and I love this one, Will still enjoy his regularly delivering food orders |
| 0:38.6 | on his own bike. |
| 0:39.7 | I love that. |
| 0:40.5 | But I'd also want to say again, a huge thank you to Luciano, at Sequoia, Fred Destin at Stride, |
| 0:44.7 | Adam Valkin at General Catalyst, and Neil Mater at Greenos. |
| 0:47.7 | Some amazing question and suggestions today, and a real team effort on the schedule. |
| 0:51.5 | But before we dive into the show today, Mercury is building |
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| 1:21.3 | connect you to Silicon Valley's top investors, head over to Mercury.com forward slash sign up to |
| 1:26.2 | apply today. And speaking of crucial infrastructure |
... |
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