GrubHub founder Mike Evans reveals the inside story of how he grew a
multibillion-dollar behemoth that changed the way we eat.
Hungry and tired one night, Mike wanted a pizza, but getting a pizza
delivered was a pain in the neck. He didn't want to call a million
restaurants to see what was open. So, as an avid coder, he created
GrubHub in his spare bedroom to figure out who delivered to his
apartment. Then, armed with a $140 check from his first customer and
ignoring his crushing college debt, he quit his job. Over the next
decade, Mike grew his little delivery guide into the world's premier
online ordering website. In doing so, he entered the company of an elite
few entrepreneurs to take a startup from an idea all the way to an IPO.
GrubHub's journey from Mike's bedroom to Wall Street doesn't fit into
how business schools teach entrepreneurship. In Hangry, he details
step-by-step the grind of building an innovative business, with each
chapter including sharp lessons for entrepreneurs and startups that Mike
learned on the fly as he piloted GrubHub by the seat of his pants.
Hangry reveals a decade of eighty-hour work weeks, detailed steps of how
Mike garnered his first customers, his hunt for financing dollars,
cliffhanger acquisitions, the near collapse of his marriage, a brutally
difficult merger, and a pair of tumultuous quit/unquit moments, all to
steer the company to become one of the most successful startups in the
world. With a razor-sharp wit, Mike reveals hard-won truths about how
startups succeed--and even harder-won truths about how startups fail.
Shocking everyone, at the pinnacle of startup success, Mike leaves it
all behind, quitting the company he started to bike across the United
States in search of balance. But eventually, the grand vistas of America
bring the lessons of the past into focus, driving the realization that
for entrepreneurs a hunger for success doesn't end, and he starts
another company, even more ambitious than the first.
