Several friends have asked how I feel about DoorDash’s offer to acquire Deliveroo.1 Honestly, I have mixed feelings. When I joined in 2014 as employee circa 15 (we didn’t keep count), we operated in small pockets of Zone 1 London and knew every rider personally. When I left 5 years later, we’d scaled the business more than 500x and expanded across 13 countries. I’d describe that growth less as a hockey stick and more as a rollercoaster! I feel privileged to have been part of the journey, and at the same time it feels like the end of an era. I’ll save my best anecdotes for the book…

For now, I have a few thoughts about the journey. The offer has stoked a lot of articles and opinions about Deliveroo. While most are neutral2 or positive3 in tone, the haters want to have their say too4, which is fine – as long as they have their facts straight.

The History of Food Delivery

Whether you love to hate Deliveroo, hate to love it, or maybe even just love it, cast your mind back before the advent of food delivery apps. How did takeaways work?

I remember shouting back and forth down the phone into a noisy kitchen, unsure what I’d be getting. It would come an hour late, if I was lucky, in a carrier bag leaking tepid sauce, delivered in an uninsured banger by a random bloke paid cash-in-hand.

• No quality control, no allergen info, no status updates, no refunds, no recourse.

• No legal safeguards for customers, no protections or benefits for riders.

• No innovation, no technology, no traceability, no visibility, no data.

Unless you wanted Domino’s, where I began my food delivery career in Manchester, or you were lucky to live near a more professional restaurant delivering their own food, or you were prepared to collect it yourself, that was the norm across most of the UK. JustEat tried to solve the problem with a marketplace, but they didn’t take control of the order process; you could order online but the end result was often still poor.

Then along came Deliveroo with an end-to-end tech-enabled approach, enhancing the customer experience and with it compliance. Not only that but the focus wasn’t typical takeaways, it was dine-in restaurants. This was a novel idea, early adopters loved it, and slowly but surely it started to catch on: proper food, proper delivery.

Deliveroo quickly expanded from London to Brighton and other UK cities, then across the Channel to Paris and so on. The rate of growth and the pace of innovation were intense. But as with any disruptive new venture, there were growing pains. Before long Deliveroo was branded a tech ‘Goliath’5 by a left-wing faction of the press.

Deliveroo’s Achievements

I’ll speak to the criticism, but first I think it’s worth highlighting that Deliveroo has:

• Employed thousands of highly skilled staff, more than 50 of whom have gone on to found companies of their own employing hundreds more highly skilled staff.6

• Offered flexible work to tens of thousands of delivery riders, and helped create thousands more roles in ‘dark kitchens’, restaurants and supply chains.7

• Invested millions to set new industry standards for rider benefits, such as accident insurance, earnings support in case of sickness, and child payments.8

• Transformed food delivery, adding enormous value to the economy.9

All through a period of unprecedented social, economic and political instability.

I know from experience that building a business of that size and impact on a hope and a prayer is testing at every turn, even in less competitive industries in more favourable circumstances. Think how few British startups have ever made it big, how many have gone bust trying, and how many ideas don’t even make it off the pitch deck.10

Gig Economy – Don’t Believe Everything You Read

I understand concerns about the gig economy, because I spent 5 years doing my best to make Deliveroo’s small part of it operationally sound, commercially viable and fair for riders. It’s not nearly as straightforward as some commentators make out, but I can see the situation from their perspective, and we didn’t always get the balance right. That said, I think it’s regrettable that the bombardment of sensational headlines about alleged exploitation has skewed many people’s perception of Deliveroo.

Contrary to some media depictions of Deliveroo riders as hapless illegal immigrants forced into bonded labour, riders I met in my time included: students, breadwinners, solo parents, carers, empty-nesters and pensioners; an artist, a lawyer, a violin maker, an actor, an athlete, a security guard, a coach, an explorer, and a solar engineer. They were a diverse mix of Brits and perfectly legal migrants, many of whom worked part-time, and most of whom didn’t want the commitment of being employed.

Tens of thousands of riders consistently choose Deliveroo, and often other delivery apps in parallel, over traditional employment. Unofficial union ‘representatives’ claim riders would all be better off as hourly wage workers, but riders disagree. When last surveyed, only 9% said they’d give up flexibility for a fixed hourly wage.11 The vast majority said they’d prefer to remain self-employed; most of those said they’d also like at least the option of benefits, some of which Deliveroo has already rolled out. What’s the sense then in radically overhauling the system, when what riders want is the status quo with improvements?

The employment status framework arguably needs modernising to reflect the realities of non-traditional work, and to allow companies like Deliveroo to offer more benefits, but government alone has the power to change that. Lawyers could spend years debating this, so I’ll only touch on it, but just imagine the complexity of codifying a fair and practical policy for gig economy platforms to calculate and pay accruing benefits, for people who don’t work by the hour and can literally simultaneously do gigs for multiple competitors. As it stands, Deliveroo is compliant with the law and has surpassed its obligations. Keep in mind it’s also under more scrutiny than ever as a public company, yet the UK’s highest courts have only ever validated its model.12 Numerous other companies have actually broken employment law since Deliveroo was founded, yet most face only a fraction of the vitriol. Why do you think that is?

We Brits Do Love to Hate Startups

The love-to-hate attitude towards disruptive startups, I believe, is part of the reason the UK doesn’t see as much entrepreneurial success as it should. Debate is healthy, skepticism is welcome, but characterising one company as the cause of complex societal issues is absurd. It’s interesting how many people have a strong moral objection to Deliveroo and what they see as the gig economy, yet they don’t think twice about using: parcel delivery, grocery delivery, taxis; babysitters, barbers, beauticians, car detailers, cleaners, dog walkers, gardeners, hairdressers, massage therapists, nail technicians, personal trainers, phone fixers, taskers, tutors, window cleaners, etc., even though those industries increasingly run on similar models.

I believe Deliveroo has faced disproportionately harsh criticism largely because it’s visible, relatable and front of mind; the branding is everywhere and people eat three times a day. A lot of businesses do a lot more harm but they’re behind the curtain. I’m thinking of corporates that are too boring for a juicy news story, and digital tech companies with no real-world footprint. For all the controversy, Deliveroo’s just delivering meals to people who need to eat anyway. How harmful can that be?

NIMBYs Want to Have Their Takeaway and Eat It

There’s definitely an element of NIMBYism at play, based on the number of complaints I got back in the day from well-to-do Londoners about riders parking mopeds or riding bikes on “our [public] street”. NIMBYs do order takeaway, of course, but they prefer that riders use the servant’s entrance then make themselves scarce.

The Restaurant Biz Is Tough – Innovate or Die

Regarding the perhaps related accusation that Deliveroo is harming restaurants, it’s not my area of expertise. What I do know is the restaurant business has been tough for longer than Deliveroo’s been around, due to rising rents, costs and overheads. Food delivery has created incremental revenue for many of them. The pandemic lockdowns were tough and Deliveroo actually helped a lot of restaurants survive. Costs have since increased and consumer habits have shifted. The increased competition has forced restaurants to up their game, and those that don’t adapt may sadly fall by the wayside. That said plenty of restaurants have made a fortune out of Deliveroo, even after fees, and plenty of dine-in only restaurants are thriving. Restaurants that can’t make delivery orders profitable likely need to improve their efficiency and cost control. Restaurants whose customers are cannibalised by delivery likely need to enhance and differentiate their dine-in experience.

Whatever your view, the reality is that food delivery is growing and here to stay, like all on-demand services.13 Deliveroo’s become so ingrained in British culture it’s both a noun and a verb. Regardless of one’s convictions, I think it’s a shame to say “good riddance” to the only homegrown player left in the market. An acquisition may be the best outcome for Deliveroo, but should we entrust all of our innovation and commerce to US tech giants? Might it be wise to give more support to British businesses?

The IPO – Hindsight Is 20/20

As to whether the the IPO was overpriced14, wouldn’t a crystal ball be nice. Consider this comparison though: Deliveroo was valued at ~5x revenue15, while DoorDash across the pond, also pre-profit with the same business model, was valued at ~15x revenue16, skyrocketed, and is now prepared to buy Deliveroo for £2.9 billion in cash. LSE (London Stock Exchange) listings dropped ~25% in the past 10 years17 and last year a record ~5% of companies de-listed and moved abroad, mostly to the US, including Just Eat Takeaway to Europe.18 The total return of the FTSE 100 over that period was less than ⅓ that of the US’s equivalent S&P 500 index19. Meanwhile thousands of promising British startups have gone under for want of funding. Is all that not suggestive of systemic economic issues and failings in UK capital markets?

The End of an Era

Has Deliveroo made mistakes? Of course. Taking risks is how you learn and develop. Could it do better? I’m sure, and its approach has always been to iterate and improve. I learnt a lot from my 5-year stint, it gave me great exposure to the realities of the future of work, and it eventually led me to my portfolio career. More significantly, I believe, Deliveroo has dramatically raised the bar for the food delivery industry, brought long unaddressed issues into the public debate, and offer consumers a greatly elevated choice of food with a much enhanced quality of service.

For my part, that’s well worth celebrating, and I’m proud of my small contribution to Deliveroo’s journey. I wish Will, the staff and the riders all the best for the future.