Danilo Tauro, PhD

Trust and transparency is key to business growth and one must play by the book always 👍

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Dominos recently announced a 5.6% increase in same-store sales, citing their partnership with UberEats as the primary driver. In their unique partnership, they’re able to aggregate customers who are used to purchasing from the 3PD app into their loyalty program. They’re not alone – nowadays, many brands see a higher percentage of users purchasing from 3PD apps than their own online ordering channels. However, this integration presents a challenge for many brands. Unlike giants like Domino's, most restaurants struggle to identify who their 3PD customers are due to the lack of data shared by these platforms. All they see is an order coming through their POS, but they don’t know who it is or anything about them. Imagine if all restaurants, regardless of size, could pinpoint exactly who is ordering through platforms like UberEats or DoorDash and attribute those orders to existing customer data. With this knowledge, they could personalize rewards and promotions, making them more effective and targeted rather than relying on generic discounts. With Hang, restaurants of all sizes can truly speak to all of their customers, not just those who shop from them directly. If they want to provide incentives for directing traditional 3PD app orderers to their own platform, they easily can do that with mechanisms like points multipliers for owned channel purchases. In today's landscape, having access to and control over customer data is a complete game changer. Hang is here to democratize access to that data, giving smaller players the same competitive edge as the big ones. Interested in learning how Hang can transform your brand’s approach to customer loyalty and data insights? DM me and let’s chat! https://lnkd.in/eUCrrZ7j

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During my 4.5 years at Uber I got to: 1. Manage the NC markets 2. Launch Uber Eats in Miami 3. Launch Uber Eats in Milan, and support the launch in Madrid 4. Launch Uber Freight from scratch and run the Automations team for ~2 years 3 things I did that helped me get these opportunities: 1. I networked within the company. I talked to GMs doing different things, introduced myself, and found out what they were up to 2. I advocated hard for myself. When I wanted to do something, I asked. But I learned to position it in a way that would meet the company's objectives, not mine 3. I had a high-risk tolerance for failure. If I failed at any of these endeavors, I likely would've been fired. I had to be okay with that and advocate for them anyway And a bonus: I was incredibly okay with uncertainty. I didn't know what my title, salary, or specific role would be when I said "yes" to many of these opportunities. I just said "yes" and trusted that it would work out. I had a few missteps along the way (like getting rejected for the Miami GM role after I launched the city) but the opportunities I got far outweighed those missteps, and my ability to ask for what I wanted and accept the risks along the way resulted in an incredibly rewarding and varied experience across a relatively short period of time at an incredibly impactful company in our lives.

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🍔 🍎This partnership announced today between Uber Eats & Instacart ( #Eatstacart ??) is incredibly smart on so many levels… 1/ 👌🏼The perfect delivery app would have best-in-class product design, merchant assortment & ops for BOTH grocery delivery AND restaurant delivery. However, both need very different solutions at all levels and no one player has nailed both. This gives IC the best of both worlds in one app for its members. 2/ 🥋For Uber, it’s been stuck in a multi-year market share stalemate with Doordash and in need of new distribution at efficient CACs. This move was competitive Judo Strategy - https://lnkd.in/eFYMqqUg - rather than a neverending tit-for-tat with DD, it changed the rules of the game. It brings IC’s 10M+ users (incl 5M+ IC+ members) directly to Eats. Though there’s likely heavy Uber-IC account overlap this doesn’t mean they are active users on Eats. Statistically chances are at least 2:1 that any existing restaurant app user on IC is more regular on DD than Eats (Uber’s mkt share in the low-30s vs. DD ~60%) 3/ 🎯Uber will not just gain customers from DD, but be gaining from among its *best* customers. Three reasons: 🤑 1/ IC skews affluent, as seen by very high shopping baskets and annual spend/user in the thousands. 💳 2/ Both DD & IC have free memberships tied to Chase Sapphire cards (and Uber’s affiliations are with Amex and Capital One) — Uber stands to gain orders from Chase cardholder IC+ members who also have free Dashpass… ⬆️ 3/ This deal is structured to encourage baskets >$35 to get the $0 delivery fee. 4/ 👩🏻‍⚖️ In a totally free market, these two players would likely merge, with IC’s $8B EV at ~5% of Uber’s… but this would likely be a lengthy & uncertain FTC/DOJ regulatory process. Like we’ve seen recently with MSFT-OpenAI, a deeply strategic partnership can often gain many of the upsides of M&A without many of the downsides. We could see an UBER<>CART merger eventually, if this partnership works while also proving it didn’t eliminate competition or cause higher prices. But for now, this deal trumps M&A with nimble speed (see again, Judo strategy) 5/ 📲 More technical, but Uber already had many of the building blocks in place to essentially embed its Eats app into the IC app without complex tech integrations or sharing code… this is how the Uber Rides app works in “super app” mode when you load Eats within it. 6/ ♟️IC has no peers in NorthAm so DD can’t copy this. Nor can Grubhub (or Skip in Canada). This is a brilliant chess move. 7/ 👀 Uber & IC have huge ads businesses that are quite margin-accretive. More reach & stickiness will help grow ad sales on both sides. 8/ 🙌🏻 Leverages the deep knowledge & relationships of ex-Uber talent at key senior levels of IC including Daniel Danker, Laura Jones, & Thomas Maguire. 👏🏼Kudos to the teams on both sides of this deal! Excited to try it in the app and to see how this plays out. DD, your move…😉 https://lnkd.in/eemNQjKD #ubereats #instacart

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Quick-commerce startup Flink raises another $150M at a valuation of nearly $1B Flink, a quick-commerce startup out of Berlin that was an acquisition target of Gorillas, Getir, Amazon, and Gopuff, is spelling out how it plans to go forth on its own. TechCrunch has exclusively learned that the company has raised $150 million, which it will use to double down on business in Germany and the Netherlands in partnership with Just Eat Takeaway. The funding, $115 million in equity and $35 million in debt, is coming from a mix of new and existing investors. BOND, Mubadala, Northzone, and supermarket giant REWE are all backing Flink, along with two unnamed investors. When interest in quick commerce was at its peak, Flink was valued at nearly $3 billion after an investment from DoorDash in December 2021 and just months later, it raised more funding that put its valuation close to $5 billion, according to sources. And in April this year, it was rumored that Flink raised $106 million while exploring a sale to either Getir or Just Eat Takeaway. From what we understand, that capital was a mixture of bridge financing and other commitments that dated as far back as 2022. Since then, the erstwhile aggressive Getir has seriously retreated. However, some of those rumors were accurate, as Just Eat Takeaway indeed is in the mix. Today’s funding round, we are told, is a fresh deal. The news of the new capital for Flink comes at the tail end of a tumultuous time in the instant-delivery market. https://lnkd.in/ehT99wbU

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New Capitaliply Acquisitions: RecurrinGO! and Split Payment. $1.72M to Buy, $2M to Grow 🥳 Capitaliply - RollUp Fund in Shopify market is making big moves with the acquisition of two powerful Shopify apps, RecurrinGO! and Split Payment, for $1.72M. With an additional $2M planned for future investments, this strategic expansion is set to redefine what's possible in the e-commerce space. Check out the full story on Benzinga, the leading financial platform with over 25 million monthly readers, to see how Capitaliply is gearing up to make a major impact 📈 https://lnkd.in/dyYu7bki #Shopify #ShopifyApps #PrivateEquity #Investments #SaaS #Aquisitions

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The above is all true, and I'd like to add a really important point. In the Bay Area, I observed that startups collaborate, partner, meet, etc - all in the spirit of the best possible user experience as an end in itself. The startups work together more. It's easy to get a meeting, you can basically show up to someone's office, just walk in, and you're welcomed. Founders work on "cool" experiences or tech first, and worry about financials second. In NYC I found the reverse to be true. It's harder to get a meeting with a founder. When you get one, it's like going to the dentist; the EA schedules a meeting with you 6 weeks in advance, upon arriving you sit in lobby and you wait until you are called. The meeting is transactional, a "novel" user experience or excitement around a technical breakthrough is rarely a main topic. It's much more transactional. This isn't a criticism in any way, it's just an observation that I believe explains why there are less household tech names coming out of NYC. Because if you look at the household tech names in the world - they always put the user first.

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A really interesting and powerful performance management practice. "Use the “30-day test” to maintain a high-performance team. Create a reminder to ask yourself this question 30 days after someone joins the team: “Knowing what I know today, would I hire this person?” If the answer is yes, tell the person you’re excited about them and give them more equity—you’ll gain a lot of loyalty. If the answer is no, you need to fire them immediately, to avoid the inevitable damage they will cause to you, your team, and themselves." from Uri Levine Founder of Waze, via Lenny's podcast. https://lnkd.in/gyS2HzZP

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Delivery Hero currently has a market cap of about $6.5 billion with a revenue multiple hovering around 0.5. If we compare this with its direct competitors or international players in the same space, Delivery Hero seems extremely undervalued right now. They made nearly $11 billion in total revenue in 2023, up 20 percent YoY from $9.2 billion in 2022. Here are some examples. 1/ Jahez, which Delivery Hero directly competes with, in Saudi, made $476 million in revenue in 2023, up 11.4 percent YoY. It currently has a market cap of $1.3 billion with the revenue multiple at ~2.8. (It has btw lost almost 50 percent of its value from its peak in March earlier this year, more on that soon). 2/ Doordash brought $8.36 billion in revenue in 2023, growing 27 percent YoY. It currently has a market cap of ~$46 billion. Revenue multiple is around 5.5. 3/ Zomato which has become the biggest internet company of India made $1.45 billion revenue in 2023 (calendar year), up 54 percent YoY. Its market cap is at $23 billion, with revenue multiple at 17. Doordash and Zomato are obv. in different geographies with so many other things at play. Jahez has been profitable for years now. Zomato also turned its first quarterly profit last year. Delivery Hero, on the other hand, has been making huge losses at the group level. It made a net loss of over $2.5 billion in 2023. Adjusted EBITDA was about $280 million and expected to grow three times in 2024. The company has been profitable in some of its markets with with the Middle East & North Africa (including) Turkey as one of its best-performing regions. Both in terms of profits and growth. There's also another way to look at it. Instead of comparing DH with international players or local competitors, we ungroup it. For example, if Delivery Hero Saudi (which is basically HungerStation) was an independent firm, it could have a market cap of $2.3 billion, based on 2023 revenue and using Jahez's revenue multiple (as a proxy). Let's take this a step further. Delivery Hero MENA made nearly $3 billion in revenue in 2023 (excluding dark store sales), up 26 percent YoY. If we use the same Jahez multiple as a proxy, Delivery Hero MENA alone should be worth $8.4 billion (which is more than the group's actual current market cap). The biggest risk it faces though is increasing competition from the local players. Jahez, for example, has been eating its share in Saudi, and could do the same in the rest of the region. The local players in other markets could also replicate that and there are also threats of other international large players like Meituan entering DH markets. But even with all those risks, Delivery Hero, with the track record it has, seems extremely undervalued. PS. This is not investment advice. PPS/Update. Yadgar has added a lot more context on what's going on with Delivery Hero in different markets in the comments below.

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Excited to share something we’ve been building over the last few months. Today, we launched the new DoorDash Commerce Platform which consists of five core products and services to help merchants grow, run, and operate their business on their own channels, both in-store and online. Merchants can explore each of the products to integrate one or all of them into their business, customizing them to suit their needs and operate on their own channels - whether that’s in-store, or online.  The products include: Drive On-Demand - The ability to offer delivery through your own app or website. Online Ordering - A way to provide commission-free, digital sales and branding on their website or own branded app. Phone Ordering - An AI-powered call-in ordering system, with menu recommendations. Tableside Order & Pay - An option for customers to scan a QR code with their phone for increased order efficiency. Customer Support Solutions - A white label dedicated support platform for customer inquiries. A huge thanks to the entire team for their hard work and support on these products. It’s great to see them in action and making a real difference to help support our merchants. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gUypEZ5u

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Learn how to build an AI startup with insights on harnessing unstructured data, engaging fringe markets, and solidifying your market position 👇 Actionable insights from: ➡ Pete Flint, General Partner at NFX ✏ “The Startup Advantage in AI with Pete Flint (Live from Stanford GSB)” ⭐ 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗔𝗜 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗯𝗲 𝗮 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗿𝘂𝗽𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗮 𝘀𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 "One of the core questions that we have as investors and you should have as as startup founders is who is going to really benefit from AI — is it going to be the incumbents or is it going to be the startups… Clearly AI is is going to be both a sustaining innovation for a bunch of areas but also disruptive innovation as well…" ⭐ 𝗠𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝗳𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗮 𝗱𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗻𝘁 "There's a bunch of these traditional industries here which often don't have a big digital incumbent… Within these industries you can start to turn a huge amount of these offline activities into online activities just by moving fast." ⭐ 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘂𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗶𝗻 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵-𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝘅𝘁𝘀 "There's this large amount of unstructured data in quite a valuable context. You can take this data and build out really novel user experiences…" ⭐ 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗯𝘆 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝗲𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗹𝘆 𝗳𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗼𝗹𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀 "Disruptive innovation often serves the underserved niches in the market. You've got the incumbent which is likely focusing on the money and going after the big customers in the enterprise [...] whereas the disruptors often focus on these underserved niches [...] which the incumbents are ignoring because they just seem to be that profitable." ⭐ 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴-𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗺 𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗻𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗱𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗳𝗹𝗼𝘄𝘀 "Within AI there's probably two areas that we look at. One is network effects [...] how does it get better as more people use that product and service. The second is around embedding [...] the workflow is much easier to use so you start to embed yourself in the experience or embed yourself in other ways across the organization." ───── 👉 Follow me, Alexander Small, for tactics and strategies for building startups from industry-leading Founders, Operators and Investors

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