Top takeaways on entrepreneurship from Just Eat’s ex CEO

We're over halfway through my first podcast series “Bold[t] Flavours” and this week I had the pleasure of speaking to David Buttress, ex Just Eat CEO (episode coming live tomorrow). David co-founded a tiny start-up from Denmark in 2006. Less than 10 years later in 2014 that startup - Just Eat - was publicly listed, and currently has a market cap of ￡12 billion having recently merged with Takeaway.com.

David is an amazing podcast guest who talks honestly about his journey, achievements and setbacks. I got some fascinating insights into David’s entrepreneurship journey which all started when he was a paperboy aged 11. Read on for four of David’s top takeaways that begin from his early days, through to launching and scaling Just Eat UK and ultimately his reflections on it all. 

Put the customer first 

At the age of 11 David got a paper round job at the local newsagents. He quickly realised that at ￡3 per week for 150 papers he was severely underpaid, and so he pitched to his granddad the idea of buying newspapers direct from the local WH Smith. He took time to talk to his customers and found out that unpredictable delivery times was their biggest pain point - this was something he knew he could do better.

Just by crunching numbers and having conversations with customers, David disrupted his local paper round at the age of 11. He successfully converted 175 houses and earned ￡20-25 each week until he reached 18 and went away to university. 

Customer obsession is something David and I have in common. Just like him, we are completely obsessed with customers at Gousto.

The “not-so-glamorous” early days

One of the greatest misconceptions about entrepreneurship is that entrepreneurs are financially driven. The truth is for most entrepreneurs, the first few years of building a company don’t look glamorous at all. 

On 1 March 2006 Jesper Buch and David launched Just Eat UK. The first day of work David put on his nice suit and was super excited to try and win new business … just to get thrown out of an independent takeaway store for being mistaken as a VAT man. Starting then he made a promise to himself that he wouldn’t go home any day until he had one sign-up, so for years on end David would get home at 1am smelling of takeaway, much to his wife’s dismay.

At the end of the first month the net turnover of Just Eat UK was ￡36. Growth didn’t come easily as revenue tracked at ￡250 in Month 2, ￡700 Month 3 and ￡2,000 Month 5. Around Month 6 or 9 they ran out of cash. In Year 2 there was a big platform failure. 

David’s story resonates a lot with me personally having been on a similar journey. Building a business requires hard work and complete belief in your vision. What kept David going was his single-mindedness and drive to succeed. It took until 2009 for a significant breakthrough: Just Eat UK’s Series A round.

Identify success patterns and models 

David figured out the “golden sales ratio” in the door-knocking days: he needed 12 calls and five presentations for one sign-up. He adopted this as a model to effectively build and scale his sales team over the first year.

Looking out for success patterns helps manoeuvre noise and uncertainty when you are starting and building your business. David and his team noticed early on that the same pattern kept emerging when they launched in a new city: if they signed on five restaurants from each major cuisine category in each postcode, the customers came, stayed and never left. Finding product-market fit and what works is incredibly powerful.

Reflections on it all

Striking a balance between short- and long-term goals is a recurring theme on David’s personal and professional journey. As a young entrepreneur, David was so keen on hitting short-term results that it could have come at the cost of long-term goals instrumental to business sustainability. It is crucial to not lose sight of the true north over chasing immediate results. At the end of the day this true north should always be the customer.

Adding to the challenge is having to deliver this in the public market. Public markets are often focused on short-term results and which David had to tackle aged 36 as a FTSE250 CEO. This really brings to the light the importance of having a supportive and empathetic board and advisers. People who’ve done it before, who can provide advice and guidance to navigate the difficult times.

My podcast with David is released here tomorrow

David and his team built Just Eat into one of the UK’s most successful companies. While 30 years ago leaders like that would be sitting in the ivory tower, David is a super nice guy you would want to have a drink with. This is what leadership is increasingly about in today’s world: empathy, EQ, empowering others, active listening. David is a great example of this new type of leader emerging everywhere. I learned a lot and hope you enjoy the podcast too!

Where are you on your journey? In retrospect, what would you have done differently? What hurdles are you facing right now, and what do you think you need to help you overcome them? Share your thoughts in the comments! Also appreciate any feedback on the podcasts!