#interview Deliway, online restaurant in Geneva, sold 12,800 dishes in 6 months

In just 6 months, Deliway has sold 12,800 dishes, gained around 1,000 registrations and a customer retention rate of 35% per week. Just under a year old, this startup delivers well-balanced, chef-cooked meals, delivered hot by bike in 30 minutes around Geneva. Intrigued by the success of this innovative model, we interviewed co-founder Nathan Gilson, 24. 

Alp ICT: What is Deliway?

Nathan Gilson: We're a start-up based in Geneva. At the outset, there were just two of us with my brother, but today there are 12 of us. Deliway is an online restaurant platform that offers a daily selection of chef-prepared dishes at reasonable prices (between CHF 15 and 17). The idea is to deliver these dishes by bike to active people in Geneva at lunchtime. 

Alp ICT: A typical day at Deliway?

Nathan Gilson: At 8/9 a.m. the chef starts preparing the new dishes, and we take photos of them and put them online as soon as possible; until 11 a.m. the chef prepares and packages them; between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. we receive the orders, and the couriers deliver them between 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. within a 30-minute window. We use a tool called "Intelligent Despatch" to automatically organize and optimize the couriers' routes. In reality, a day at Deliway is a very busy one, with a whole host of administrative tasks. 

Alp ICT: Main objectives?

Nathan Gilson: To develop as much as possible the delivery service for the 70% of the population who consider meal preparation a constraint. We offer this service for them, so that they can eat hot and balanced meals during their lunch break. What's more, we're seeing strong demand from companies.  

Alp ICT: The biggest challenges?

Nathan Gilson: The hardest part is getting the brand known, because it's a long and difficult process. You have to fight every day to have a product that people like, and that will keep customers coming back. At Deliway, the product is both the quality of the food and the platform, which has to be as instinctive as possible for the user. There are a lot of factors to take into account, which is why we use a lot of tools. The aim is to enable a 7-year-old child to place an order. Finally, we have technical constraints, which we can only meet through technology, which is why we have hired 3 engineers. We were surprised to see how technically difficult it was to launch a startup with a relatively simple concept. 

Alp ICT: Distinctions from the competition?

Nathan Gilson: What sets us apart is the price and speed of delivery, the variety and quality of our dishes, and the real-time tracking of our delivery drivers.

We offer delivery at a third of the cost of our competitors. We use a model called online restaurant, which means that instead of having a delivery driver going back and forth between restaurants and customers, the delivery driver will make rounds, i.e. he'll go to one customer after another. This is the best model for optimizing deliveries, because it breaks down delivery costs.

Delivery is also particularly fast, for 3 reasons: the dishes are prepared in advance, despatch (the intelligent algorithm) allows delivery drivers to follow each errand, and delivery is made by bike so Geneva's midday traffic jams are avoided.

Finally, what sets our service apart is the variety and quality of the dishes on offer: the selection changes daily and all dishes are prepared by a chef using quality produce. 

Alp ICT: What's next?

Nathan Gilson: We have a number of projects in the pipeline, but we already want to be optimal for lunch and for our current delivery zone, Geneva and Carouge. That said, we're working on a relatively scalable model, so it would also be possible to create partnerships with caterers to open up other areas around Geneva that have potential, other towns, other time slots and so on. 

Alp ICT: And in 5 years' time?

Nathan Gilson: Within 5 years, technology will have evolved sufficiently to see the emergence of delivery robots, small machines on three wheels. They already exist, developed by the Swiss company TeleRetail, and I think that in a few years' time this technology will be mature enough to replace delivery drivers. I'm not sure when!