Deliveroo Founder: From £0 to £5 Billion: Will Shu | E88

Shu never set out to “start a company”; he was a hungry banker in Canary Wharf shocked that late-working professionals were eating Tesco microwave meals in a world‑class food city. His obsession was fixing his own consumer problem—great restaurant food reliably delivered—not chasing a generic startup opportunity. He contrasts this with friends who created businesses around financial models (like “Etsy for pets”) and later quit because they didn’t actually care about the domain.

He tried to start Deliveroo in 2008 but abandoned it because it would have required bespoke hardware in restaurants and for riders. Only after the iPhone and app ecosystem matured did the idea become operationally feasible. He likens this to Spotify and other ideas that only work once infrastructure (smartphones, broadband, payments) has caught up—highlighting that many “impossible” ideas are simply early.

In the early days Shu was self‑funding, hiring via Gumtree, and working out of an illegal, windowless £1,000/month office. With no marketing budget, he hacked awareness through word-of-mouth, door‑hanger “Do Not Disturb” style flyers, and a kangaroo costume instead of paid campaigns. He argues that too much money early can be harmful; constraint forces focus on the most important levers and creative growth tactics.

Shu refused to run multiple side projects or treat Deliveroo as a part‑time experiment. When the business was tiny and he was delivering food five hours a night, he faced friends’ concern and perceived embarrassment (including delivering to a former hedge-fund colleague who thought something had gone wrong in his life). He pushed through by not caring what others thought and by feeling a strong responsibility to riders, restaurants, and customers.

Deliveroo lost a roughly £600–700m round from the world’s largest fund just days before close, forcing Shu to blitz 25 investor meetings to re‑raise elsewhere. Later, Amazon’s minority investment was blocked from funding the company for ~16–18 months by the UK CMA, leaving Deliveroo cash‑constrained just as COVID hit and restaurants shut. With growth plummeting, Shu made the “hardest decision” of his career: significant layoffs during a global crisis, describing helplessness when outcomes depend on regulators rather than operational problem‑solving.