When Brian Lo agreed to set up the Hong Kong arm of Deliveroo, the UK-based food delivery firm, in late 2015 there was absolutely no time to lose. As the operation’s very first employee, he had been given just one month to get everything in place for the launch of services in November that year, and no one higher up the chain of command wanted to hear about delays or problems.
“It was a non-negotiable launch date,” says Lo, now the company’s general manager in Hong Kong and Taiwan. “I was told to just make it happen.”
So, he threw himself into a frenzied few weeks of opening bank accounts, finding office space, hiring staff, devising marketing plans, signing up the first couple of restaurants, and lining up contractors to work as delivery riders.
“Starting a business, you’ve always got a million tasks, from signing a lease and buying a laptop to marketing plans and telling restaurants about the benefits of the app. It came together relatively quickly, though. I hired 15 people in a month mainly to do sales and operations, but everyone was ready to take on any role, as customer service staff, to get more restaurants on to the platform, or even dressing up in kangaroo costumes distributing flyers to customers to establish the brand and make a splash.”
What initially attracted Lo was the opportunity to build something from zero, along with the great market potential. To that point, food delivery in Hong Kong was based on phoning in choices from weighty menu books, with selections often taking 60 to 90 minutes to arrive. The new concept made food options available via an easy-to-use app neatly linking customers, the restaurants’ POS (point of sales) systems, and riders, enabling an average delivery time of just 32 minutes.
Adopting the successful UK business model, some modifications were needed to suit local conditions. For instance, a Chinese-language version was added to the app, and “runners and walkers” were introduced, in addition to riders, to do short-distance deliveries by backpack in what is a very vertical city.
“In Hong Kong, anything that brings convenience attracts customers, and I believe we have a compelling product,” Lo says. “Early on, people saw that we could offer efficiency and accuracy in our delivery system. When pitching to restaurant owners, we would do a live demonstration at their place so they could see how quickly food would get to them [from another outlet on the platform]. It was basic selling, the personal touch. You had to win them over with the app experience and your energy. Seeing it first hand gave them confidence and changed attitudes. And, after getting the first bunch of customers to try the service, we were very successful in building the brand out from Central.”
The firm now has 150 employees, partnerships with around 4,500 restaurants, 3,000-plus contractors making deliveries and earning a regular income, and big plans for further growth. Those include having up to 10,000 restaurants on the platform, fixing delivery time to a maximum 10-12 minutes from leaving the kitchen, achieving 100 per cent geographical coverage in Hong Kong, and introducing breakfast options.
“This is a very exciting space because customer preferences are changing and 15 to 20 per cent of restaurant revenue now comes from food delivery,” he says. “It has been a fun ride so far.”
Lo took his first real shot at running a business while studying economics, finance and management at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. In a bid to make extra pocket money and discover how things worked in practice, he set up two campus-based ventures, which both found success.
For the first, he bought outdated textbooks and sold them back to the publishers, who saw sense in the proposal because they then had a better market for selling the latest editions.
“That was my idea,” he says. “I tested it, then did it for a couple of semesters and made quite a lot of money.”
The second involved online bulk buying of cut-price groceries and daily necessities from Walmart and Sam’s Club, collecting them in a rental truck, and making door-to-door deliveries to fellow students around campus.
“It was a low-tech version of what I’m doing today. It was fun; the money was a motivator, but it was also a good way to learn about the practicalities of starting a business and building it up.”
Lo grew up in Hong Kong, where his mother was a homemaker and his father worked in financial services, and was determined to make the most of the college experience in the United States.
“I really enjoyed it; the classes were super interesting. I learned about marketing, management, supply chains, and that prepared me for the real world.”
On graduating in 2011, he was hired by consultancy firm McKinsey & Company and, as an engagement manager, was assigned to projects in New York and with the mining industry in Australia. The goal there was to improve output and cost efficiency per tonne at sites variously producing gold, coal, copper and iron ore. And every day on the job presented a new challenge.
“It was a good place for a first job, but I didn’t really have a career plan,” Lo says. “Then the opportunity with Deliveroo came up and I jumped at it.”
The introduction came via a college friend who heard the company was exploring the Hong Kong market. And after a couple of interview calls and a meeting, Lo moved back from New York in August 2015 and hit the ground running.
“I feel the best way to learn is by doing, and I’ve certainly learned a lot in the last four years,” he says. “In the next two, I definitely see the market growing. One in 10 people in Hong Kong have already tried our service, so I expect our team to keep expanding.”
