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When you're going up against one of the most capitalized companies in the world, you need to probably work smarter, not harder.
Would put two grand in the business had no money. I've had a pretty sharking website and personal lag probably and chattered with an understatement.
When somebody like your friends with your family tell you that you probably should give this thing up that actually puts a fire in your belly, that it's pretty hard to describe Currakoto.
I'm Garth Bray. This is More than Money makes special mini series brought to you by Cheers Eas to help kickstart twenty twenty five. We're speaking with some Kiwis who've been through the mill and understand a few things about how to make wealth work for them. And today we're joined by a couple of young Kiwi entrepreneurs who run a successful nationwide takeaway delivery business that started nearly ten years ago in a garage in Mount vic and Wellington.
Nick and Tim from deliver Easy, but first some important information you always need to consider.
The experience is shared in this episode.
Are not advice or a recommendation or opinion by guests to invest or act in the manner they have.
An appearance on the series.
Is not an endorsement by Sharesy's of the views of the presenters or guests. They're not financial experts and their views of their own.
Let's explain a little bit for people what Deliver Easy is, maybe because most of the time people just are ordering food, they're looking at an app and they're just going that whatever, what is it that you guys do that's different? And how did you get started?
Twenty fifteen was sort of where it all began. There were sort of a few things that happened concurrently back then that sort of helped the idea come to life. Our flatmate Blair and I is flat mate at the time, Bless his Soul, would would order takeaways every single Sunday morning without fail, and she would only ever order this one pizza place. And we just somehow were confused by this thing. How do you how do you do this
every single Sunday? And she sort of replied, well, if there was something better I could get delivered, then then I would.
And we thought that was a pretty fair comic.
At the same time, a friend of Blair and Eyes had come back from the UK and living in London at the time, and we sort of naturally got talking about that over a few beers and different business ideas and hopefully not having to work for the man.
For the rest of our lives.
And yeah, he naturally brought up that this on demand delivery industry that was really taking off.
The UK, and that also got us thinking.
And so there's these multiple things happening at the same time, and yeah, I guess I was lucky enough to be working with my friend Timbo here at the same time at power Shop, as I mentioned. And again, over a few beers we've got talking about this idea and the fact that this industry didn't exist in New Zealand at the time, and Wellington felt like the perfect spot to maybe give it a crack, And Timbo bravely told.
Me that he could build this thing with his eyes closed. But it looks like I said, it was nice close. I loved that all I did a great job.
And yeah, sort of, yeah, Tim Blair and myself got together again over a refreshment.
I'm sensing a theme here there.
There's a little bit of a theme there.
I came in trying not to talk too much about the beers, but I think naturally it helps the conversation flow in and now our case, it's definitely paid off.
So for nearly ten years, you guys have been going up against some pretty stiff competition. I would have thought more recently, so were you there from the start? You feel like you had that early advantage and that helped.
Yes, definitely, Different bike regions started on until we had a really good crack here and got pretty stuck in.
Yeah.
I think a key factor was that no one was actually doing it at the time that we started. But yeah, when you're going up against one of the most capitalized companies in the world, you need to probably work smarter, not harder, or both at the same time. In our case, probably with not a lot of money behind us, but a lot of determination and.
Sweat, tears and all of that.
So it's the execution as much as having a great idea.
Probably more. Yeah, and pimbing definitely as well. I think of the big player you mentioned before was already here. I don't think we probably would have had the balls to dive head first. Probably fair, Yeah, pretty fair.
Yeah, you mentioned wealth before and maybe not having the wealth that one of those big players has. Can I get each of you to tell me what does wealth mean to you?
I think freedom and ability to be happy and life is probably wealth.
And if you can work hard to get yourself in a position where you can you can apply those things to your life.
I think that's probably a good place to start. Yeah.
OK, I think it's the freedom and the independence of what you wanted and sort of follow your passions that what we actually want to be doing is it's kind of it's I don't think it's a cash thing.
Because you mentioned before you both were working for another company, good company, you said. But it's that ability to make your own decisions maybe rather than having to toe the line and follow someone else's plan. Is that what you're driving at?
I think so. Yeah, having the.
Having a will and a purpose I think is really important in life. And if you can chase that and if you can make a little bit of money along the way, then that's obviously a help.
But that's never been the goal for us.
Really.
It's probably to make something of ourselves and not have to work for the man forever.
I mean, there's a beautiful.
Feeling about working for yourself and growing a business and giving people opportunities and seeing something grow and trying to foster a culture that's you know, that people believe in and want to work hard.
It's a beautiful thing.
If I'm trying to think about great financial decisions, some people can just hit on that straight away and go, yeah, this was the moment where it all turned or this was the great piece of fortune that I had, or
this was the call I made that was great. Is it too soon to tell whether setting this company up was and chipping into it was the best financial decision you ever made, or is there something else you'd break down from that to try and help understand how you've been able to get where you are.
I think in retrospect, it probably was like at the time, we all quit our jobs for a business that was losing money and to a lot of peop pri didn't have great prospects. So like, in a lot of ways, it's a stupid decision. But I think putting itself on a spot, we've got to make something of it as actually and the Lauren became a really good decision because if we had it made such a lousy financial decision, we wouldn't be so driven to make it come good.
Yeah, I think age and stage and all of that carry on. We were mid twenties at the time with no other responsibilities, and once we were in head first, we kind of had no alternative. We had to make this thing work. And if you ask a mid earl year old that same question, I think there'd be a little bit more apprehension. But yeah, for a long time
it was pretty touch and go financially there. And that's not to say we've we've made it now, but the business is obviously looking at a much better position now, So yeah, I think it was probably a pretty good decision enough in hindsight, right.
Yeah, I don't think a financial plane would have endorsed it at the time.
Hindsight is the beautiful thing you mentioned.
It's in a better position. Now. What do you mean by.
That, I mean early days, probably for the first three or so four years.
Like to say we.
Bootstrap this thing is probably a massive understatement. We started this thing, I think we put in about seven hundred dollars each between between us which doesn't go very far. Yes, the three broken scooters, Yeah, three broken scooters and three
broken men. I think looking back, like we just hit milestones and the goalpost kept moving, and so we just kept following this path of chasing, chasing the next thing, and then before we knew it, I think we were, you know, delivering enough volume that we're supporting ourselves from a financial perspective, Like we did a few rounds of investment along the way, friends and family largely speaking, but
apart from that, we've been largely self funded. So we've always been call us old school, but we've always considered that you should be able to fund yourself for the for the most part, a lot of businesses these days, as you'll know, I tend to go down this ultra growth, large investment upfront sort of approach, whereas we.
Were probably a little bit more old school in that fact. I think it made us be really focus and what we did, which was really helpful. So like you had to be really clear about what you could Actually you've got no reasonce it's going to be pretty clear up
when you put it. But over time, I think it helps the bins a lot that can move quickly in that because you've kept the control and you've kept the I guess, keep the power of the business, which is something that if we're diluted massively early, for example, trying to raise money, it probably could have been pretty detrimental long term for that business.
And what's something I think I read some were something like six million meals delivered? Is it about right?
Ten?
Yeah, we just got ten million last month.
Ten million.
Yeah, went way off.
Turn about three million, just over three million a year now. Yes, it's grown quite a bit from a garage in the Mount of verk here.
You would say that probably the first first ten orders were probably the most exciting though oh really what the hardest and the most excited.
Can you still remember any of them?
Yeah, it's a bit of a blur.
But we we were doing deliveries, so we would build these boxes for the back of the scooter out of pellets, so wooden pellets. Yeah, we would go down to liquor stores and ask and if we could have a few of the pellets. And this is an example of the extreme boots.
Trapping I was talking about.
And yeah, we'd literally build these boxes that were far too heavy and probably not the safest things to have on the back of a scooter, but they seem to work. I held together by a few nails and a few cable ties, and we were running on red Ball.
So I think we've always.
Sort of had that mancher that this business is the foundation of the business is built on cable ties and red Bull.
And a few beers along the way.
Outstanding, that sounds like you've encapsulated some of the hard times. I mean, what was there a really really tough moment there where you thought we can't carry on with this and you know, or were you always of the belief that you could sort of still stick it out.
Oh, it was pretty I think it was pretty scary when whenever the first came to the country, We've been here for eighteen months, We'd put two grand in the business, had no money, I had a pretty shrinky website, and there was a few failing relationships as well. Probably yeah, the personal lives are probably and tattered would be an understatement, and so to have that coming it was pretty Yeah,
that was the moment. It was probably pretty daunting in the long run, Like I obviously got through and looked at really well, But I.
Think that's as a drive that comes from I think to myself and Blair probably all have the same approach to when somebody like your friends with your family tell you that you probably should give this thing up or maybe think about something else or a different business venture that actually puts the fire in your and your belly that it's pretty hard to describe. So in some ways I think the impossible made it more exciting and more Yeah, have us more drive to people wrong.
Maybe rippling anxiety is a great motivator.
Well, so actually Uber turning up was possibly one of the best things that happened because it gave you that extra challenge.
I wouldn't say the best mat I'd love they bug it off, But in a lot of ways, like it obviously set the industry, So like I put a lot of awareness. When someone from most of these comes in and sort of established it, it's a lot easier to sell that model.
And competition breeds, you know, As I said, that kind of created this fire to prove people wrong and maybe allowed us to think of it harder at our strategy moving forward and where we wanted to go and if we're going to be first to market, do we then try and beat these bigger players to parts of New Zealand where they're not going to go first of all, Like if they're concentrating on Auckland, do we concentrate on Napier and Hastings for example.
So yeah, I think with it's negly to have competition, but in.
Some ways it forces you to work harder and to think smarter or think outside the box and worked your advantage, which is I guess being the local player, having the local knowledge and having that face to face relationship with your clients.
I think it's been pretty pretty powerful.
You've been on a bit of a journey. Then, how has this changed your understanding of money?
There's a hell of a question. Money is there, whether you like it or not.
Right, it's this thing that keeps society moving and countries moving and all of that stuff. And I know it's just pretty cliche to say, but the money side of things was never the main driver. I think it was to work for ourselves and.
To have a purpose that's wildly.
Different than if you're working for someone someone else.
Yeah, I think it's probably more just realized something like that's not what makes you happy, like you like when you haven't got it, like you work really hard to get it, and then I think you kind of realize, you know, but the journey you kind of go that's actually like not having money's really painful. We've been there some pretty broke, pretty tough times. But then on the cover is that like not being sure I was taxing problems away, but like the more you've got doesn't make
it happier. I think definitely in the latest ages too, trying to find out what actually you know, you're learned that it's not the solution to your problems in life, and it's yeah, it doesn't fact things a lot of things.
All right, Thanks very much, guys, it's been really fascinating hearing your journey, and thank you all for listening. If you're listening, you're listening to Apple or Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts. If you're watching us, you're watching us on YouTube. And if you're liking what you're seeing, let us know and let us know what you'd like to see next. For now, that's us quima to