GoPuff the time savers

It will take about two minutes to read this, so I’ll save you time also. This week our offices are celebrating the news that SoftBank-backed Gopuff gained another mega investment, boosting the company’s valuation to $15 billion.

In addition, YipitData just published Gopuff’s analysis showing the company leading the U.S. 1P convenience market, with share levels fluctuating between 70 and 85 percent in the last two years. The term 1P means “first party relationship” and that’s when the marketplace (like Amazon, for example) acts as the retailer, and the brand is the wholesale supplier.

The humble beginnings of GoPuff is a great story. If you visit the “About” page on the company website, GoPuff says they will be brief to save you time because that’s what they are all about.

In a nutshell, co-founders Rafael Ilishayev and Yakir Gola were sophomores in 2013 at Drexel University in Philadelphia when they drafted the first mock-ups of the app that later expanded to delivering food and goods typically sold in convenience stores. Today Gopuff has hundreds of locations and 10,000 employees, delivering to customers in over 1,000 cities in the U.S. and Europe. GoPuff operates in a handful of cities in the UK, following the 2021 take over of ‘Fancy, a similar service formerly headquartered in Newcastle upon Tyne.

According to Wiki, Gola and Ilishayev were included in a 2017 Forbes 30 Under 30 list for retail and ecommerce and later in the year, were together named Target Magazine’s target marketer of the year.

What challenges have you noticed around you this week that could turn into a business startup? Join the conversation with me on Twitter @shervin.