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This white-label service would be B2B rather than B2C (like doordash), which wouldn't get the same buzz or VC valuation. Great idea though. If I'm buying from

This white-label service would be B2B rather than B2C (like doordash), which wouldn't get the same buzz or VC valuation. Great idea though. If I'm buying from a restaurant, I want them in control of the experience. Even for pizza.

Apocryphon 6y ago
It almost reminds me of how Flywheel is an attempt to compete with ridesharing by providing a better UX frontend for traditional taxi cab companies. I wonder how they're doing.
- umeshunni 6y ago
  Well, here’s their incredible journey blog post: https://www.flywheel.com/single-post/2017/04/11/Hello-from-the-Flywheel-Team https://www.flywheel.com/single-post/2017/04/11/Hello-from-t...
luckylion 6y ago
On a per-restaurant-basis, it'll likely not work. The attractive part of an aggregator is that you don't need to keep a few people per restaurant to make deliveries. And you need to have them available whether people order or not, because predicting demand is hard, and if you disappoint once, you might not get another chance. If you have the drivers work for an aggregator, it gets much easier. That doesn't have to be a for-profit corporation though, it could be restaurants getting together and cooperating.
- jeffdavis 6y ago
  Why can't you aggregate? It's just whether the aggregator is making the deal with the restaurant or the customer. Making the deal with the restaurant has a lot of advantages.
  - luckylion 6y ago
    Oh, you mean have it separated where the aggregator basically just works as a delivery service for the restaurant? The user orders from the restaurant, they dispatch to the aggregator who handles pickup & delivery? That could work, and would certainly shift the power towards restaurants.
greenyoda 6y ago
> which wouldn't get the same buzz or VC valuation. But a local, profitable delivery service wouldn't need to be a VC-funded business. It could start out very small, serving just a handful of restaurants in a single neighborhood. If it caught on, other restaurants could join in and it would grow. It wouldn't need "buzz" either, since it would only need to market itself to restaurants, not to consumers (who would deal directly with the restaurant in the proposed scenario).
- poulsbohemian 6y ago
  >But a local, profitable delivery service wouldn't need to be a VC-funded business. It could start out very small, Which might not be sexy, might not make you rich overnight if ever, but gosh darn it might send the next X generations of your family to college debt free and put a pool in the backyard. We spend so much time in this world chasing financial engineering rather than focusing on business fundamentals.
  - greenyoda 6y ago
    Most VC-funded businesses won't make you rich either, since most of them fail.

Apocryphon 6y ago

It almost reminds me of how Flywheel is an attempt to compete with ridesharing by providing a better UX frontend for traditional taxi cab companies. I wonder how they're doing.

umeshunni 6y ago
Well, here’s their incredible journey blog post: https://www.flywheel.com/single-post/2017/04/11/Hello-from-the-Flywheel-Team https://www.flywheel.com/single-post/2017/04/11/Hello-from-t...

luckylion 6y ago

On a per-restaurant-basis, it'll likely not work. The attractive part of an aggregator is that you don't need to keep a few people per restaurant to make deliveries. And you need to have them available whether people order or not, because predicting demand is hard, and if you disappoint once, you might not get another chance. If you have the drivers work for an aggregator, it gets much easier. That doesn't have to be a for-profit corporation though, it could be restaurants getting together and cooperating.

jeffdavis 6y ago
Why can't you aggregate? It's just whether the aggregator is making the deal with the restaurant or the customer. Making the deal with the restaurant has a lot of advantages.
- luckylion 6y ago
  Oh, you mean have it separated where the aggregator basically just works as a delivery service for the restaurant? The user orders from the restaurant, they dispatch to the aggregator who handles pickup & delivery? That could work, and would certainly shift the power towards restaurants.

greenyoda 6y ago

> which wouldn't get the same buzz or VC valuation. But a local, profitable delivery service wouldn't need to be a VC-funded business. It could start out very small, serving just a handful of restaurants in a single neighborhood. If it caught on, other restaurants could join in and it would grow. It wouldn't need "buzz" either, since it would only need to market itself to restaurants, not to consumers (who would deal directly with the restaurant in the proposed scenario).

poulsbohemian 6y ago
>But a local, profitable delivery service wouldn't need to be a VC-funded business. It could start out very small, Which might not be sexy, might not make you rich overnight if ever, but gosh darn it might send the next X generations of your family to college debt free and put a pool in the backyard. We spend so much time in this world chasing financial engineering rather than focusing on business fundamentals.
- greenyoda 6y ago
  Most VC-funded businesses won't make you rich either, since most of them fail.