Live data from Hacker News

Deliveroo raises $385M in new funding

techcrunch.com

131–140 of 147 posts

Re: Deliveroo raises $385M in new funding

#131
post #9
post #6

What have Deliveroo done differently to be more successful than the food delivery startups that came before?

They beat everyone else, including UberEats, to the AU market. I think them and Foodora were the first two, but they won and UberEats just relied on their brand to muscle in. Both share the market pretty evenly ehre, from what I can tell. I wonder if they did this for many 'secondary' markets to try to beat the big players or if AU is just a weird case.

In SA, I've really not had any luck with Deliveroo outside of the CBD - it only seems to work if you're right on top of the restaurants. UberEats seems a little better, but it still really restricts how far away from a restaurant you can be, I moved one suburb over (3km?) and lost access to about 10 restaurants that were in my old suburb.

I tend to prefer apps where the restaurants themselves look after the delivery, EatNow is a good example. They can charge a little more for delivery, and therefore seem to be willing to deliver further away. And presumably, it's probably a little fairer on the delivery guys as they got an actual job rather than just an app.

Re: Deliveroo raises $385M in new funding

#132
post #107

Currently there is a £2.50 fee for deliveries in London with Deliveroo. Even with extreme optimization a Deliveroo rider can't possibly make more than 3-4 "proper" deliveries in an hour (food gets cold fast! And when it gets returned deliveroo & the restaurant suffers) so maybe they can generate around £10/hour in revenue for Deliveroo. Then you need to take out costs for the driver, development, marketing, integrati…

Do people really return their food? I usually vote with my feet. I walked away from just eat precisely because this sort of experience.

For deliveroo I just call them and they resend the food and give a credit on your account.

Kind of ruins the moment though.

Re: Deliveroo raises $385M in new funding

#133
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their logistics solution is just not as advanced as it can be. That's just common startup logic, the hardest problem will be solved with more money and good people and SV network has good people. They need combinatorial search and some travel time data, live re-search when new orders come in. For this to work well they need to predict new orders in advance, this means they need data on the spatial distributions of or…

Your dismissal of a non SV company's innovation is embarrassing for you. The tech here is as good or better as anyone in the Valley.

When I left there a year ago there was not much innovation going on, just kowtowing to marketing/design.

Re: Deliveroo raises $385M in new funding

#134

I had better pay when I was delivering newspapers as a teenager. This was many decades ago (when people bought their news on dead tree) and a lot of inflation as happened since. I didn't see my paper round as a 'proper job', but I think the inflation adjusted rate comes out to at least double the £8 per hour that Deliveroo riders claim to make on Glassdoor. I didn't have to pay rent since I was living with my parents…

[deleted]

Re: Deliveroo raises $385M in new funding

#135
post #20
post #10

For those wondering about these numbers, Deliveroo has a great concept, solid execution and huge brand recognition. Just-eat (worth 4.6B) connects people to shitty takeaways and has a terrible website. Deliveroo connects people to restaurants and provides the delivery service themselves, through bikers (here in London). They have taken this and spread throughout Europe. They are going to (and are) completely canablis…

What makes you think Just-Eat ran out of steam "years ago"? Stock price is higher than ever: http://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/prices-and-marke... They are reporting good growth: http://www.cityam.com/256734/just-eat-reported-order-growth-... I see lots of Deliveroo bikes around where I live in the centre of London, but they are basically non-existant when I go to other towns and cities. Also, Deliveroo sta…

While I've never heard of either of these companies (maybe because I'm american?), it seems like wider selection is better than "up-scale" food. Delivery on top of expensive food is a once a month prospect; cheap food delivered cheaply is a daily prospect. To put this another way, I've spent the vast majority of money on uber on uner x, not uber black cars.

Low margins are harder to pull off but are much more stable and easier to scale.

Why don't they just offer all restaurants, sort of like postmates did (does?).

Re: Deliveroo raises $385M in new funding

#136
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the crux of this whole gig economy debate - for some people, these kinds of jobs are ideal: zero hours contracts, with the ability to work more or less depending on what else is going on in your life. That being said, some people take these jobs because they're the only ones they can get. I don't know your circumstances, so I'm going to guess here, but from what you write it sounds like you have the safety net…

That's true, I have my parents if things go wrong; the thing is that before I started university last year my parents convinced me not to get a student maintenance loan (i.e what pays for my living expenses and rent). Instead I get a sum of money at the start of each month and that's supposed to subsist for the utilities in the house where I live and any other expenses I have, except rent which my parents pay. I have…

Seems like you are interested in programming. Why don't you try some job in that lines, like an internship or if that's too early, some freelancing like in upwork?

If you feel you aren't ready for programming professionally, you can try taking up SEO, content writing etc..

I don't know which subject you are pursuing but it might give more weight to your CV.

Btw, if you think of doing your own startup at some time in the future, then try to gather as much of sales experience as possible, even doing a door to door sales. I really wished I had done that in my student days..

Re: Deliveroo raises $385M in new funding

#137
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends what you think the lifetime value of a customer is, plus what the ongoing cost to retain them is. I ordered off Deliveroo in Sydney Australia, and they advertise on AdWords against individual restaurant names. If the Diliveroo brand is strong, and that AdWords click made me a Deliveroo customer, that is a win. If I always search and they always pay, this may prove problematic long term. That's the equation -…

I mean the core delivery service assuming 0 marketing, tech, customer service costs is not really profitable according to their last accounts.

How is that possible? What is the maths there?

Re: Deliveroo raises $385M in new funding

#138

I find it funny they're claiming some sort of AI system will help them make better margins. In my city, Nottingham. all the deliveroo people gather in Trinity Square waiting for jobs. There's obviously no special AI needed. I do think though that it raises the issue that they should be paying for their own business premises and stop using our public spaces as their company waiting spots.

Their logistics solution is just not as advanced as it can be. That's just common startup logic, the hardest problem will be solved with more money and good people and SV network has good people. They need combinatorial search and some travel time data, live re-search when new orders come in. For this to work well they need to predict new orders in advance, this means they need data on the spatial distributions of or…

> For this to work well they need to predict new orders in advance

Calls for deep learning! Or using data from last week…

Re: Deliveroo raises $385M in new funding

#139

Currently there is a £2.50 fee for deliveries in London with Deliveroo. Even with extreme optimization a Deliveroo rider can't possibly make more than 3-4 "proper" deliveries in an hour (food gets cold fast! And when it gets returned deliveroo & the restaurant suffers) so maybe they can generate around £10/hour in revenue for Deliveroo. Then you need to take out costs for the driver, development, marketing, integrati…

Delivery start-ups appear to be built to race to IPO, much like music start-ups. There is no intent to make profit.

Re: Deliveroo raises $385M in new funding

#140
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the crux of this whole gig economy debate - for some people, these kinds of jobs are ideal: zero hours contracts, with the ability to work more or less depending on what else is going on in your life. That being said, some people take these jobs because they're the only ones they can get. I don't know your circumstances, so I'm going to guess here, but from what you write it sounds like you have the safety net…

That's true, I have my parents if things go wrong; the thing is that before I started university last year my parents convinced me not to get a student maintenance loan (i.e what pays for my living expenses and rent). Instead I get a sum of money at the start of each month and that's supposed to subsist for the utilities in the house where I live and any other expenses I have, except rent which my parents pay. I have…

I was in a very similar situation to you a few years ago when I went to university. I had a summer job working in PC World before I started, and I was lucky enough to transfer to the shop in my university city. I worked Wednesday evenings for 4 hours (16:00 to 20:00) and Saturdays (09:00 to 18:00) which gave me 12 hours income a week at a little above minimum wage at the time, or about £300/month. Essentially, it paid my rent and my student loan could cover everything else. Later when I entered my honours year I dropped down to just Saturdays.

The job was shitty in the sense that you had to try to sell junk computers and software and insurance to unsuspecting people for what felt like long hours and not much money, but I feel like the experience was ultimately worth it in many ways. I gained a work ethic, having to get up and be on time, wash and iron a uniform and take responsibility. I learned what it was like to be someone working there full time (and how it can destroy your soul). Again, for some people these jobs are all they can get. I also learned about the attitude of the average member of the public, which I think has given me some small insight into recent election results. I've got 5 years experience in retail sales in a complicated field (not just selling coffee or clothes) to put on my CV, which shows to employers in my profession that I have actually had what some call a "real" job, and all the life experience that goes with it.

I think it's worth judging a sales/delivery/misc job at such an early stage in your career as beneficial life experience, instead of only trying to find something relevant to your future career (if you can find a job that has both, though, then great!).

Post reply on HN