If anyone knows about the trials and tribulations of entrepreneurship it is David Buttress, the ex-CEO and co-founder of Just Eat in the UK, the multi-billion-dollar valued takeaway order and delivery platform.

Many people think of Just Eat as an overnight success. On the contrary, David shared with us the reality of the 12 years of hard graft it took to get to that point.

David, now a partner at 83North, started his professional life with eight years in a corporate role at Coca Cola. He went on to join Jesper Buch in launching Just Eat in the UK in 2006. He was named Entrepreneur of the Year at the Investor All Star Awards as well as one of Britain’s most influential people in the Debrett’s 500 2015, 2016 and 2017.

But his success story was born from humble beginnings. He discusses his biggest influences, and the variety of obstacles he faced when starting out.

Advice from my mother

David credits his entrepreneurial spirit to his upbringing. Growing up in a single-parent family in South Wales, he shares how the lessons from his mother have stuck with him through life.

“I had this 80/20 rule my mum taught me. She said if you get 80% of your decisions right, whether that be at school or when you go into work, you’ll be pretty good at what you do.”

This rule helped David throughout his 13 years at Just Eat. He would assess his own performance every six months, reviewing the key decisions he had to make.

“I never once did 80%,” he says, “the best I ever did was 75% in 2012. But the one thing I tried to do as a CEO, was be wrong quickly and be very honest about it and ask for help”.

His mother also taught him the value of learning to contribute and get things done from a young age. He and his brothers had to get paper rounds to help cover the weekly food shop. At twelve years old he helped foot £15 of a £45 bill.

“She [mum] was really great at making us feel super valued about the difference that made to her and us as a family”, he said.

But as well as acknowledging success and value where it’s due, David describes how important it is not to become complacent.

He said, as well as offering positive feedback, “whenever I started feeling a bit cocky she was brilliant at saying you’re not so clever mate”. In business terms, this led to David always striving for an increase in performance.

My favourite quote

David describes how quotes from successful entrepreneurs and builders of businesses that really endured served as big motivators for him in the early days of Just Eat.

“Paying attention to the simple little things that most men neglect makes a few men rich.”

– Henry Ford

These days, the sentiment behind this quote seems to be particularly relevant to the success of Just Eat. The idea behind the platform was not the first of its kind. Similar companies, like hungryhouse (later acquired by Just Eat), were on the scene first but didn’t achieve the same lasting success.

“We weren’t the first mover but I do think we were the best executer”, David explains, “and I think that was about the simple little things that we did over and over again”.

Always reflect the customer

One of these ‘simple things’ that Just Eat did, and something that many young businesses fail to do, was to make an effort to reflect the customer. It was a lesson that was learnt early on and has helped set them apart from their competitors.

David recounts walking into a takeaway pizza restaurant to pitch Just Eat in a full suit and tie. And shortly after being asked to leave.

“I couldn’t understand why. I had a really nice presentation deck. But he threw me out after 15 minutes, pretty demoralised”, he recalls.

It was only when he started reflecting his clientele that they started signing up to the platform.

“Of course all my buyers were in polo shirts and jeans, often unshaven,” he said. “So from then on, I wore jeans and polo shirts.”

The same pizza restaurant later signed up to Just Eat. They later revealed to David they had initially thrown him out “because they thought I was the VAT man”.

Highly Targetted

Just Eat stuck by this principle and used data analysis to help them target different people.

For example, they might offer 10% or 20% discount to busy parents in lower income areas. “If you give them that they order more frequently.” On the other side, Just Eat might completely avoid offering discounts in more affluent areas. “If you give them a discount voucher they don’t order because they see it as being cheap or not the same quality.”

From all the customer data they collected over time, they were able to create an 85% accurate predictability model. In other words, this meant that 8/10 Just Eat became able to correctly predict when their customers would be hungry and what they would choose.

This allowed the company to tell their restaurants what food to prepare on any given night, and what orders to expect which helped the main supply chain.

The importance of branding

David discussed the important role played by branding to help set Just Eat apart from the crowd.

“None of our competitors bothered to brand takeaways”, he said.“Even to this day I laugh and smile at the amount of restaurants I see with competitive products that don’t have their restaurants branded.”

In the early days, Just Eat invested in stickers for 30 pence which they placed in their partner restaurants. To implement this type of branding comes at a fraction of the cost of paying for highstreet advertising, billboards etc.. However, David speculates that if you valued the branding Just Eat has today in the 28,000 restaurants they work with, it would add up to tens of millions of pounds.

It seems that from the off, branding created a “network effect of customer awareness”. Just Eat acquired a quarter of their customers for free via restaurant networks, giving them a competitive edge. It would, in turn, mean that a restaurant got more orders, thus deepening it’s affiliation to the brand. They would then be more likely to recommend Just Eat to other restaurants, and so on.

Even today around 25% of Just Eat’s customers come from local restaurant branding.

The key ingredients to a successful business

Finally, what are the key qualities that David highlights as making Just Eat the authentic success it was? What does a business need to be truly great?

“Passion is a key ingredient. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. At Just Eat we all cared massively about what we did and we didn’t stop until the job got done.”

This was combined with a shared sense of purpose. In the case of Just Eat, that goal was “to build the world’s great food community. Everyone that worked there, even if you had woken them up at three in the morning, would have been able to tell you that. And that’s the most important thing for me”.

So, even with all the struggles and hardships, David’s overall message is a positive one. “There’s nothing better than being an entrepreneur. I know it’s tough. I know it’s hard. But it is without question the best and most rewarding thing.”