Disrupting the Commission Based On-Demand Delivery Sector in the UK
Dear Friends, Supporters and Others
We are continuing our Journey of Disrupting and Innovating the On-demand delivery sector with GOGETNOW!
Here is an update on our progress toward launching the next-generation on-demand shopping delivery app in a 25 million user market in the UK and 150 million plus users across the UK, Europe and other international locations.
Our Journey from a Hotel Room
We have been on a typical startup and idea creation journey since we started with the idea whilst stuck in a COVID quarantine hotel at Heathrow back in 2021. We have conceived, designed, raised angel funding, built, tested, piloted, rebuilt, retested, re-piloted and so on. We now have the apps, the tech, the payment cards and 2 repeat customers, and now ready to take the next step and launch the next-generation on-demand delivery app. What do we mean by “next generation”, well we ditch store choking and job-killing commission business model that the incumbents use and we open up the on-demand delivery possible to all stores-types and low-density areas, not just food or grocery or just cities
What are we solving?
The need we are solving: providing people with the ability to get anything delivered on demand from any shop near them, not just takeaways or groceries.
It’s the liberation from store-choking commission models. Unlike the incumbents, GOGETNOW opens up on-demand delivery to all store types and low-density areas, beyond the realms of food and groceries. We’re not just disrupting the game; we’re rewriting the rules.
Let me start by defining the on-demand delivery sector in our context. On-demand delivery, aka as instant delivery, refers to food delivery apps (like Deliveroo) and grocery delivery apps (like Getir). Other related services that can be used as substitutions are Amazon Prime for next-day delivery or courier services for same-day delivery like DHL, TNT and Stuarts. For shorthand, on-demand delivery mainly refers to the instant food or food delivery apps, and now too which is the shopping instant delivery app
How do we do it?
We’ve built a Rider-Buyer and Payment ability that completely disrupts the current on-demand delivery business model and limitations.
- A shop does not need to be signed up with us for you to buy from them.
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https://www.statista.com/forecasts/891085/online-food-delivery-users-by-segment-in-the-united-kingdom
There are 3 categories of incumbent players in our space: “Platform-to-Customer delivery” like Deliveroo and UberEats (they make money by charging the stores +/- 25% commission on each transaction) , “Grocery delivery dark stores” like Getir (they make money through grocery sales) and Same Day Delivery Services like DHL, TNT and Stuarts (they make money through country delivery fees).
- Consumers – You can now send us to any shop locally to buy you anything (as long as it is fits into a shopping bag). From pharmacies to hardware stores to stationery stores to local butchers
- Under (or Not) Serviced Businesses – This gives non-food and grocery stores now access to the ultra-fast-growing on-demand delivery sales channel to which they have been excluded or squeezed out by Amazon next-day delivery. Customers can buy from them using our Rider-Buyer feature OR These stores can fulfil orders through the online click and order channels and use us to delivery the shopping using our Send/Pick Up anything on demand feature in the app
- Riders – we create more riding and delivery job opportunities as our services will be in demand during most of the day not just at peak times around lunch and dinner like the current food and groceries
2. Our Business model completely disrupts the current prevailing “commission” and “margin models”, so we save shops and customers money from day 1
- Ah, the incumbent big boys are going to hate us for this! Stores can now use the Click/Call and Collect channels to receive and prepare orders and then use us to send the purchase or get the customer to collect their order. So the store no longer has a list and receives orders via the current players and then pays an eye-watering 25% “commission” to the transaction. Imagine, you order a £20 Sainsbury order or India takes it away and Deliveroo or Uber Eats take £5 of that for them themselves, excluding the delivery fee. With GOGETNOW you just pay a delivery fee and a 99p service fee to us and the store gets their full amount.
- Our model enables on-demand delivery in the suburbs where there may be one local grocery store, pharmacy butcher or cigar shop. No need for high-density cities to make it via as we don’t need to carry stock or a minimum amount of stores to sign up
Long story short: we give customers complete freedom and choice; we enable stores to sell more and release them from the 25% commission they have to pay the incumbent and we give riders more work opportunities in non-peak times!
And then there is the added benefit that we take the benefit of online ordering to suburbs and serve areas. Just imagine, an Old age care home can now use us to pick up medicine and shop for any local shop in any suburb around the UK
OK, enough about that now.
Where to from here?
So over the last 2 and a bit of years have raised £180k designed the Rider-Buyer payment capability, built the tech and did a few dry runs on Edinburgh, Putney and central London. We got to a point where we had repeat customers learn tons about Riders, Stores, Customers and our Tech.
We operate with the iterate, and never give up with a pushing forward mindset
Next: Get the right scaling talent for the next phase and correct capital for our go-to-market strategy and execution
1. Talent
We have built the MVP and proven it with some customers. Next week we need to bring on board the right talent for the next phase, which is scaling. We are looking to invite and onboard one or two execs or co-founders appropriate core team members in the UK who have either on-demand delivery venture experience and /or post-Series A growth experience. Someone comfortable with pitching to VCs and strategic GTM planning but also with jumping in and doing a delivery if needs be. Someone with “an MBA-via-experience and connections ” basically. We have a “happy, healthy and collaborative” team culture to being a team place and not an asshole is key. We are also keen to add 2 more advisers to our board with on-demand or venue-scaling experience.
2. Capital
This sector continues to be exciting. Everyone was expecting the on-demand online ordering and delivery sector to grow strongly with and after the COVID lockdown and it has. The growth year on year from 2021 to 2023 has exceeded expectations and the estimates up to 2027 The great thing about our offering is we don’t intend to replace or compete with Deliveroo, UberEats or Getir in the food and grocery delivery sector, but rather we look to service the under-serviced stores and look after unmet consumer needs.
The market is of a decent size so we don’t need to shoot for the moon, as a 1% market share can earn us £2.2mil in ARR 5% market share £14m in ARR. We will look at a 10 – 25% market share after a Series A phase. Now we are focused on raising our seed capital to conquer the London market.
We have not started discussions to raise and complete our seed cap raise of £500k by Q1 2024. We still have £100k in SEIS and our full EIS allowed available. We are open to investors who want to join the team (see Talent section above)
That is it for now.
3. Keeping GOGETNOW live in Proof of Concept mode in central London
In the meantime, we will keep the business in “proof of concept” mode from 1 Dec 2023, with a rider live in central London so we can demo and show the product to anyone interested and service a few customers.
Do you know anyone who might be keen to join as a Co-founder, Board Advisor or Exec level management?
If you know of anyone who is experienced in delivery mgt, venture capital or scaling such companies, looking to vest in this sector, or might just be interesting to speak to, please could you put us in touch with them!
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I don’t mean people with MBAs. I mean instead we are looking for people who have worked in a startup then scaled up and/or working in the on demand or gig economy sector. The key thing here is skills and experience.
Online Food Delivery Services Global Market Report 2021:
Number of users forecast for the Online Food Delivery market in the United Kingdom from 2020 to 2027
The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) and the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) are two of a number of UK government initiatives designed to encourage innovation.
The SEIS and EIS schemes offer private investors a significant tax break as a reward for investing in early-stage, ‘high-risk’ companies
The SEIS is designed for very early-stage companies that have been trading for less than three years, while the EIS is designed for medium-sized startups that have been trading for less than seven years
Under the SEIS, an individual investor can invest up to £200,000 per tax year and receive a 50% tax break in return.
The investor will also benefit from a Capital Gains Tax exemption on any profits that arise from the sale of shares after three years
Under the EIS, an individual can invest up to £1 million per tax year and receive a 30% tax break in return
I also want to do a special shout-out and BIG THANK YOU to our amazing team members past and current who got us from zero to first customers! Same to our investors, partners and Riders! Thank you so much! Hold onto your hats for the next phase!
Thank you,
Ludré Stevens
ludre.stevens@gogetnow.xyz
22 Nov 2023