We bring you a podcast full of inspiration! We interviewed Sacha Michaud, co-founder of one of the 4-5 Spanish unicorns (startups valued at more than one billion euros) and winner of the best transactional mobile app.
We get closer to your project and take the opportunity to get to know in depth: how it was born, how large it is both globally and in Spain, employees, distributors, partners, active users, estimated turnover for 2020… And we are left with the key idea that Glovo is in a constant escape forward and that in 2021 launches them to look for deliveries in less than half an hour, hence they are talking a lot about the concept of Quick Commerce or Fast Commerce.
Interview with Sacha Michaud (Glovo)
6:37 In 2014 Glovo begins to take shape. It is one of those stories to explain to every new entrepreneur. Óscar Pierre enters with an idea that follows in the footsteps of Postmates, you were a mentor… How was that process of associating you to launch it?
In the summer of 2014 I saw the opportunity to start my own business and I looked at Uber and how it was revolutionizing the market. I thought it would be really handy to have an Uber of things, so I met with two potential funders, I told them the idea and they recommended a guy who had a similar idea, Óscar Pierre. I spoke with him and he was very advanced in his project, with investment rounds almost closed, as our idea was similar, I proposed to invest and work with him. We closed the deal and the round in two weeks, In March 2015 we launched the first test of the app with orders in Barcelona.
12:23 We published what Jaime Novoa (Dealflow, KFund) did to you in 2015. From the beginning it was clear that one of Glovo’s keys was the speed of growth: grow in the markets where it was, conquer new markets. How was that rate of growth, to become what you are now?
Yes, we were clear. We both have a lot of ambition that it was not a project to lead the Spanish market and consolidate ourselves, but an opportunity if we are fast. The values of the company are to take risks quickly and reward the speed of rectification if you make a mistake.
The reality is that it was a text button where you write what you wanted with the collection and delivery address, we would look for them and bring it to you, anything. But what they asked us for the most was food and it became our biggest competition. It was necessary to bet on this category, since we managed to retain customers who in the long term will ask for other products.
Without having a showcase of products or stores, the user did not know what to ask for, so we made version 2.6 where we created a marketplace where we locate all the shops and categories with their list of products and prices making a more favorable UX.
18:25 How many markets is Glovo in today?
We are in 22 countries and 700 cities, each with its complexity and culture. We will operate in 5 Latin American countries until March 2021. We are entering Eastern Europe strongly and where we have the most mature market is in Spain, Italy and Portugal. We are in Spain and where they give us the opportunity to operate, we go.
20:35 There is a general idea of how difficult it is to enter the US and Asian markets, because there is a lot of competition. Is it difficult to compete?
We have defined two very important points with which we decide where we continue to operate or where we are going to operate: have a clear opportunity to be market leaders and have a clear tendency to be a sustainable business. In these countries we have stronger competitors with more funds than us. Creating a sustainable business in countries like Asia or the US is very difficult, these are very competitive countries where it is very difficult to be a leader. The investment cost is far and expensive, with the same investment we will be more successful in other places.
25:10 How many make up the Glovo team?
We have 1800 employees, operating in the business. We have an engineering team where they manage all the algorithms and the platform, a Growth team that manages the marketing and growth part of the company’s metrics, and a large operations team to be able to manage all the orders. to older we have about 60,000 active glovers who are couriers and connect the platform, a flexible source of income for them. We have 50,000 partners, shops and restaurants, 90% are SMEs, although we do have chains. Our goal is for the customer to find what they are looking for without fail.
32:42 What is the photo in Spain and cHow many users do you have?
In Spain we are 1,000 employees, 12,000 glovers and we are close to 20,000 partners. Globally we have 8 million active usersin Spain we do not have the figures but it must be close to 2 million.
34:09 How big is Glovo at the business level?
what i can tell you is that we have 100% growth. We have had difficult times in Covid, markets have been closed to us. We had to face the crisis first hand and before many, adapt as quickly as possible by changing the platform and shipping methods. In addition to many markets that were digitized by the needs of the market at that time. I am left with the change in consumer habits, the food delivery part we were already used to but not everything else, less than 2% of supermarkets are online.
We have two main sources of income, one is the commission that we charge our partner for our services and what the user pays, which is for the work of the glover plus add-ons, which can be the technological part or if there is fraud. 2021 will be a year of growth, we are operationally profitable. The more volume of orders come in, the more we compensate and grow.
46:36 You invested about 100,000 euros at the beginning, first round in 2015 of 140k; in 2016 5 million, in 2018 115 million euros of investment and in 2019 two rounds, each. Was it clear to you from the beginning that this was the way to go?
They are big figures for but the truth is very little if you consider everything that our competition has achieved. We are very small in volume and investment. Being born in Spain harms us in investments, because the countries where you come from have references. We have an advantage it forces us to be efficient we have to do more with less and they have put us in a position, in a more operational and profitable place.
50:00 in the end, what most reaches people about your activity through the general media is whether the delivery men should be self-employed or employed by someone else. How are you handling this topic? Do you already have a clear path to follow in this regard?
We operate in 22 countries and this media noise and persecution is in 1. We will adapt to what the regulations say, we are always in the dialogue looking for ways. For us looking for decent income and flexibility, if we are able to find a solution. I think the shots The current government does not go along the line of protecting the rights of the worker and guaranteeing their social rights, I cannot explain how a flexible and autonomous person cannot be protected with labor rights. We want to continue generating more work and social guarantees, assuming these costs.
56:39 How do you manage to generate demand?
We work with a concept of playbooks that are how we replicate the processes. When we launch in a new city we have the steps learned: attracting partners, local talent, defining communication channels...Things that work. The marketing team has this playbook established knowing that each city has its lifestyle and culture but they are able to adapt and detect when something is not working. We’ve done a lot of polishing and improving on this through trial and error. We have a lot of data, which is what matters for decision making.
1:07:43 What is your vision of Glovo in 5 years?
Be one of the pioneers in this world. Evolve, not only be a company that picks up and delivers, but reach services where you can contact people who can repair your house or get you tickets to a game or concert. Services beyond the delivery of products. There is still so much to evolve in the market, they are the ones that still they have not been digitized and have the advantage of being very close to the consumer. Convert proximity commerce to digital and as quickly as possible.
1:10:20 Any idea of a possible interviewee?
Nacho González, has set up several startups such as Hireflix.
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