Interview, Fireside Chat
Miki Kuusi: How I Scaled Wolt to $8B; Why I Sold to DoorDash | 20VC #953
- Anticipates a future economic cleanup and technology sector layoffs, followed by a renewal phase that presents opportunities for new startups.
- Projects consumer expectations will continuously rise over the next five to ten years, necessitating constant service improvements to maintain viability.
- Plans to redefine delivery as a five-second experience and expand beyond restaurant food into grocery, movie tickets, and local services to become an "everything app."
- Aims to digitize the entire restaurant and food industry, centralizing orders, transactions, reservations, and discovery into a single platform accessible via phone.
- Envisions a future where the restaurant sector functions as a single button on a phone, with plans to expand into underpenetrated markets like Japan.
- Operates with a workforce of approximately 7,000 people, leveraging scale to execute a strategy that includes handling transactions and pickups via app and iPad.
- Targets the creation of a "Spotify for dishes" platform that identifies popular local food options and connects users with similar preferences.
- Focuses on achieving great, quick, consistent customer experiences and positive unit economics in food delivery before diversifying into other verticals.
- Seeks to build a scalable organization capable of succeeding without the founder's constant presence by hiring for potential rather than specific past logos.
- Implements a hiring strategy that includes bringing on senior recruiters from growth companies, expanding to new countries, and recruiting individuals who have never heard of the organization.
- Utilizes a low-profile approach regarding press and funding announcements to avoid distractions and prevent competitor attention.
- Adopts a philosophy of generous compensation and fair treatment, including stock options for all employees ranging from customer support to leadership.
- Maintains a high-performance environment where success depends on the collective strength of the team, including willingness to make difficult hiring and firing decisions.
- Employs a strategy of trading people fairly with months of salary support when employees seek better opportunities, while assuming good intentions with new hires.
- Default to sharing information broadly within the organization and aims to make stock option terms as vanilla and fair as possible regarding vesting.
- Acknowledges past operational resilience, having operated with bare minimums following the layoff of one-third of its staff in the summer of 2017.
- Expects to remain agile by optimizing for each moment of growth and adapting hiring profiles as the company evolves.
- Maintains confidence in its ability to raise growth funding and build a sustainable business even after early investor setbacks or periods without recent funding rounds.