🤘🤘 Tony Delivers: The Underdog's Triumph Over UberEats & DoorDash... at least in Seattle

Howdy!

In this week’s newsletter, I am looking into:

• How this one dude cuts the umbilical cord and goes against the food delivery apps - Tony Delivers

• Why is Reacher TV series so popular even though it’s so bad

Lezzgo!

Dejan - @dgajsek

Tony Delivers

I’m stealing this one from Shaan Puri’s Small Boy newsletter that made me smile. But this is the exact reason why I consume so much content — there are SO MANY things you can transfer from one business to another.

• Great hook - “absurd Uber Eats fees?”

• Clear offer (“I’ll deliver for $5”) 

• Catchy Name (“Tony Delivers”) 

• Competitive comparison vs door dash/uber eats prices  

• Clear CTA - scan this code with your phone

There are two things that Shaan forgot

1) Tony is running his own lil’ small business and because everyone loves an underdog, I bet his tips are greater than if he’d run it through Uber/Dash/SkipTheDishes

2) He decides which area to cover, making sure he doesn’t lose profitability by spending it on gas. Actually, by the look of him - he’s wearing a helmet, and he’s probably using a scooter/bicycle/moped which eliminates operating fees (apart from Chipotle bowl or La Croix here and there).

BUT I NEEDED TO KNOW MORE!

Here’s the full story about Tony Illes.

At the Seattle City Council, the bright heads decided to bring a new rule into effect - raising the minimum wage to workers like Tony based on the miles they travel and minutes they spend on the job.

The minimum wage got to $26 an hour and delivery companies like UberEats and DoorDash responded by adding $5 extra feed to every order.

This resulted in a heavy drop in order volume - which also hurt delivery drivers. Tony found himself waiting for 6 hours for an order.

Tony thought to himself - why need apps anyway?

He printed up signs with QR codes directing people to quirky bare-bones website made with GoDaddy Website Builder with his phone number, promising that he would deliver food by bike in Uptown, South Lake Union, Belltown, and downtown core for $5 a pop from 11 am to 2 pm and 5 pm to 8 pm daily.

Soon, he became a local mini-celebrity. He was featured on the Seattle Restaurant Podcast, did an AMA on Reddit, and recorded himself on Instagram trying to get a sponsorship e-bike (smart).

He’s the market response to rising costs and dehumanizing relationships

When the pain is big enough, the market responds. This time it was the combined pain of restaurant food costs combined with the dehumanizing effects of the gig worker economy.

And this economy equally sucks for restaurants which are known to be the most risky business to start with and have to work with razor-thin margins.

If you ever watched Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares or Marcus Lemonis’ The Profit (my guilty pleasures) you’ll know how they break down every meal down to cents to create profitable margins.

Companies like UberEats charge restaurants commission to be on their platforms which cuts into their already thin margins.

Anti-Silicon Valley

What Tony is doing is the opposite of what business heads are being paid millions for — instead of eliminating human interactions and reducing friction to a minimum, Tony is bringing back the human element.

He requires his clients to meet him in person so he can hand over turkey subway sandwiches face-to-face.

TV series Reacher