EP19 - Turning a Pick-Up Culture Into a Delivery Culture

SkipTheDishes is growing, and FAST! In the third quarter of this year the number of orders rose by 98% to 23.5 million when compared to the same period in 2019. Canadians have long had a legacy of picking up food but pushed by the Covid restrictions and cooling weather, things are changing. 

SkipTheDishes was founded in 2012 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and eventually moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba to set up the tech company’s head office. During their first few years of existence, the company was bootstrapped and raised a small round of seed capital from angel investors. They then raised additional capital from private investors, as well as four prominent venture capital firms - Golden Venture Partners (Toronto, Ontario), Founder Collective (New York, New York), Felicis Ventures (Menlo Park, California), and FJ Labs (Cambridge, Massachusetts).

In December 2016, they were acquired by Just Eat for $200M becoming one of Canada's best technology startup success stories. SkipTheDishes remained a subsidiary and separate brand from Just Eat, with its Canadian headquarters remaining in Winnipeg.  Soon after, in 2018 the company brought on Kevin Edwards as their CMO. Within that same year, Kevin was promoted to CEO, a role he still holds today.

In this episode, Kevin and I discuss a number of topics including the natural shift of consumer behaviour to include more self-serve and digital experiences. We also talk about growing a company in a smaller market (Winnipeg) and how culture and trust in your team can go a long way to help your success. Did you know that SkipTheDishes has 2,500 employees in a city of 750,000?  Neither did I. Listen in as Kevin and I discuss these and many other interesting topics that are sure to make you want to open the app and order some food.