E1058: Slice CEO & Founder Ilir Sela helps local pizzerias compete with chains by digitizing orders & small fees, shares insights on raising $40M+ Series C during pandemic, “reverse franchise model”, viral GrubHub invoice, helping front-line workers & local pizzerias with Pizza vs. Pandemic

This Week in Startups

Jason Calacanis

Technology

4.4 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2020

⏱️ 78 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

0:36 Jason shares thoughts on his portfolio activity, getting back to work, leadership & more
4:20 Jason intros Slice Founder Ilir Sela
7:14 How has Slice been helping local pizzerias and front-line workers during the pandemic? https://sliceouthunger.org/pandemicpizza
9:12 What are the economics of an average privately-owned local pizzeria? How are the majority fairing during COVID-19?
13:24 What is Ilir building at Slice? What is their "reverse-franchise model" that helps local pizzerias compete with Dominos & other large chains?
15:32 What is the user-experience on Slice?
18:49 Who is Slice's average customer & how are their pizzerias handling the virus in 3 segments
29:10 Raising a $40M+ Series C during COVID pandemic & leaning on long-term relationships
32:49 Viral GrubHub invoice response - valid or overblown? Unit economics of delivery apps & how Slice's fees compare to GrubHub, DoorDash, UberEats & more
40:12 Huge delivery fees creating the need for two different menus (with higher prices on third-party platforms), how Dominos digitizing their order volume created maximum efficiency & allowed them to keep the same prices for over a decade
45:28 What is Ilir planning on doing with Slice's excess office space, how will the pandemic effect in-person work going forward?
50:10 Which groups of employees perform better under isolation? How is Slice helping employees deal with working remotely? How is New York responding to the crisis, and what will reopening look like (hybrid offices)?
1:06:53 Do business leaders have a responsibility to go through the testing process to understand how to help employees get tested efficiently?

Transcript

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0:37.0	Hey everybody, welcome to this weekend. Startups, we're in the middle of the global coronavirus pandemic. We're taping this a little bit before
0:45.8	its release date on May 12th and hoping that you and everybody you love are
0:51.4	safe and sound and it's very interesting as an
0:56.7	angel investor to look at our portfolio here at launch that's the name of our
1:00.9	investment company launch and. is the website.
1:04.0	And when we look across our portfolio,
1:08.0	it is feast or famine, and it is scary at times and inspiring at others. It's something to take in and something
1:15.5	that is quite notable when you're an investor in these companies to watch everybody's
1:20.0	fate flip on a dime in an instance from companies that are used by people when they're
1:28.9	looking for something to do spike in usage, trial, subscriptions, and to have record months and then to watch
1:36.6	other companies who work just as hard. Have revenue go to literally zero, to
1:41.6	furloughing all their employees. It's shocking, it's disheartening, and it's my days feel sometimes like I'm working in a hospice and then other times like I'm still an investor.
1:56.7	And obviously it's not life and death like we're dealing with.
2:01.0	But right after life comes livelihood and there is an ongoing debate
2:06.0	about when we go back in people's livelihoods, people's freedom, to do so to make
2:11.2	their own decisions. I'm feeling optimistic because all the numbers
2:15.7	that we see are going down and it feels like you can control the pandemic if you take certain steps. I hope you are
	...

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