Deliveroo Founder - From £0 to £5 Billion: Will Shu

Jul 12, 2021

Will Shu, the founder and CEO of Deliveroo, shares his inspiring journey from a modest upbringing to creating a billion-dollar food delivery empire. He discusses the early challenges of starting the company, including navigating the pandemic's impact and maintaining the well-being of riders. Shu emphasizes the emotional aspects of entrepreneurship, including resilience and the struggle to balance personal relationships with career ambitions. He also sheds light on the importance of empathy in the delivery industry, drawing from his personal experiences with prejudice.

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ANECDOTE

A Normal Guy

Despite Deliveroo's success, Will Shu considers himself a normal guy.
He grew up in a small city with immigrant parents.

ANECDOTE

Moving to London

Will Shu worked on Wall Street before moving to London in 2004 at age 24.
He emphasizes the importance of living abroad to gain a new perspective.

ANECDOTE

Starbucks Incident

In Deliveroo's early days, Will Shu and the riders would wait for orders in a Starbucks.
The manager frequently kicked them out, leading Shu to reflect on how riders are often perceived.

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Deliveroo, wow this company is HUGE! I’m sure most of you would have used it but do you know anything about the guy behind it? My guest this week is Will Shu, founder and CEO of Deliveroo. Born in 1979, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, Shu grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, USA. His mother, a scientist, and father, who worked in insurance.

He founded Deliveroo in 2013 with childhood friend and software engineer Greg Orlowski. Deliveroo operated in London for the first two years, growing via word of mouth. It now operates in 12 countries and more than 200 cities. Deliveroo is worth £5 billion, becoming Europes fastest growing company with 2,000+ employees.

In mid-June 2016, Will and Greg received an award for the Best Startup Founders as part of The Europas Startup Conference and Awards, mainly given to technology companies. The company also received Fastest Rising Startup of the Year and the Europas Grand Prix award. In December 2017, a study by macroeconomic consultancy Capital Economics revealed that Deliveroo had helped create 7,200 jobs across the restaurant sector since it launched in 2013. It also boosted the industry's revenue by £460 million in the year to June 2017. The report also found that Deliveroo had helped add £372 million in value to the UK economy in the same 12-month period, a figure which Capital Economics projects to rise to £1.5 billion in the year to June 2019. By mid 2020, Deliveroo had not benefited from the COVID-19 pandemic, when demand for food delivery from restaurants and takeaways surged. Deliveroo reported to be cutting 367 jobs (and furloughing 50 more) from its workforce of 2,500. Will talks about how hard this decision was at the time in today's podcast.

Will is an incredible entrepreneur, one thats a far cry from the usual braggadocios CEO of a multi billion dollar company. He’s a humble person and lives a very modest lifestyle saying his life hasn’t change much at all since the early days of Deliveroo. This is conversation proved to me that you don’t have to be born an entrepreneur.