Feb 26, 2025 · 1h 9m · news
Oscar Pierre, Glovo CEO & Founder: Selling 30% for €100K |The McDonald's Deal That Saved Them |E1263 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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In this comprehensive interview, Glovo CEO and Founder Oscar Pierre shares the turbulent journey of building one of Europe's largest on-demand delivery platforms, detailing high-stakes funding battles, critical strategic pivots, operational challenges, and the evolution of his leadership philosophy.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Harry holds 22% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Harry as informed peer 3.4 Guest teaching 3.4 Guest disagreement 0.8 Harry pushing back 2.3
speaking balance: gold is Harry, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 22:48 Defending hyper-frequent fundraising cycles
Oscar forcefully rejects Harry's assertion that raising every 9 months was far too fast, explaining that competitor irrationality left Glovo no choice but to overspend or die.
Hardest push from Harry ▶ 39:54 Directly probing culture softening causesHarry bluntly challenges Oscar on whether Glovo's cultural standards dropped due to poor work ethic or wokeness, forcing Oscar to clarify leadership communication errors.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 28:11 Explaining emerging market unit economicsOscar corrects Harry's belief that low average order values in markets like Kenya ruin unit economics, explaining that the ratio of labor costs to AOV is what dictates margin feasibility.
Harry holds his own ▶ 54:14 Exposing venture capital backchannel gossipHarry demonstrates deep insider knowledge by explaining how junior VC associate WhatsApp groups share rejection intel, starting damaging rumors for fundraising founders.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Harry as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Harry pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hook and Key Highlights | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Harry opens with standard welcoming remarks and asks about the origin story of Glovo. Oscar explains his background in aerospace engineering and the initial lightbulb moment of food delivery through McDonald's orders. | |
| Building the First App on a Budget | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | Harry interrupts his own schedule to probe into the early budget execution and pre-seed valuation structure. Oscar shares how he outsourced the first app to Eastern Russia for 8,000 euros and raised 100k at a 280k pre-money valuation. | |
| Defining Product-Market Fit & Network Effects | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | Harry questions when product-market fit was achieved and whether being a number two player works. Oscar reframes product-market fit, explaining that serving happy customers with negative unit economics is not true PMF until network effects kick in. | |
| Profitability Horizons: The Cost of Launching New Markets | 4 | 3 | 1 | 3 | Harry probes the limits of algorithmic data models in predicting ambiguous real-world externalities like weather or new chefs. Oscar clarifies how real-time inputs from merchant tools compensate for external variables. | |
| Stacking Orders: Balancing Efficiency and Customer Experience | 4 | 4 | 1 | 3 | Harry challenges the wisdom of bending product strategy to satisfy dominant customers like McDonald's. Oscar explains why high customer concentration early on was acceptable because it served as an efficient customer acquisition funnel. | |
| The Frankenstein Cap Table and the Brutal Series B Battle | 5 | 3 | 1 | 3 | Harry provides expert context on VC firm dynamics, contrasting fund owners with pressured associates when deals sour. Oscar recounts pitching 120 European VCs who almost all passed due to skepticism about young founders. | |
| Are European Founders Aggressive Enough? | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Harry asks if European founders lack the sales aggressiveness seen in US or Israeli entrepreneurs. Oscar agrees that on average Europeans think smaller, but highlights execution and relentless hard work as Glovo's real edge. | |
| The 9-Month Fundraising Cycle in a Hyper-Competitive Market | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | Harry forcefully challenges Glovo's 9-month fundraising cadence, calling it far too fast compared to standard 18-month runways. Oscar explains that intense market dynamics and heavily funded rivals forced overspending as an existential necessity. | |
| Courier vs. Customer Acquisition Playbook | 4 | 4 | 1 | 3 | Harry questions whether low average order values in emerging markets like Kenya destroy unit economics. Oscar educates him that unit economic feasibility depends on the ratio between labor costs and AOV rather than absolute AOV alone. | |
| The Brazilian Market Failure and Founder Ego | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | Harry asks direct questions about the 30-40 million euro loss in Brazil and founder ego in shutting down markets. Oscar candidly details how incumbent network effects and voucher traps made competition unviable. | |
| Fundraising Challenges, Burn Rates, and Competitor Scale | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | Harry probes why investors hesitated despite Glovo scaling rapidly. Oscar explains that burning a million dollars a day against competitors 15 to 20 times larger made investors view Glovo as not yet too big to fail. | |
| Company Culture, Leadership Intensity, and Reclaiming High Standards | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | Harry asks a blunt question regarding whether company culture softened due to a lack of work ethic or wokeness. Oscar reframes the issue away from political labels, attributing it to leadership relaxing standards and communication as team size hit 1,000. | |
| CEO Evolution and Handling Layoffs Professionally | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | Harry asks for practical advice on executing layoffs professionally. Oscar outlines the necessity of generous severance packages to preserve trust among remaining employees. | |
| The Pitfalls of Mergers and Acquisitions | 3 | 4 | 1 | 3 | Harry expresses skepticism over whether 5 million euro bolt-on acquisitions were large enough to distract a company. Oscar admits his excessive optimism underappreciated tech integration complexity and leadership distraction. | |
| The €2.3 Billion Acquisition by Delivery Hero | 3 | 4 | 0 | 2 | Harry asks about earlier buyout offers and the final 2.3 billion euro Delivery Hero sale. Oscar explains that burning 1 million euros per day made an IPO unviable and fundraising exhaustion prompted the sale. | |
| Post-Acquisition Wealth, Happiness, and Founding Yellow VC | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | Harry demonstrates deep venture industry expertise by describing how associate WhatsApp groups spread pass decisions across firms. Oscar shares his experience founding Yellow VC and his preference for operating over full-time investing. | |
| Glovo's Profitable Milestone, Ad Strategy, and Future Growth | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | Harry discusses ad margins as a key profitability lever in quick commerce. Oscar explains how high-intent user searches allow high-margin ad revenue to grow from 2 to 5 euros per 100 euros GMV. | |
| Regulation and Legal Battles in Spain | 3 | 4 | 1 | 3 | Harry asks if regulation is applied fairly and probes potential political lobbying. Oscar reveals he faces criminal prosecution and potential 6-year prison time in Spain over contractor classification that foreign competitors were not targeted for. | |
| Building in Europe and the Power of Ambition | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Harry raises the common advice that tech founders must relocate to Silicon Valley. Oscar strongly disagrees, asserting European engineering talent is fully capable of building global scale companies. |
Statements from this episode (69)
Glovo Raised €100K at a €280K Pre-Money Valuation in Pre-Seed Round
“The first round was valued at 280 K free money, and we raised a hundred K.”
Glovo Secured the Largest Delivery Deal in History With McDonald's
“We unlocked the biggest deal of all history for delivery, which was McDonald's.”
Early Glovo Customers Unexpectedly Used the Errand App to Order McDonald's
“And then when we launched it, the first aha moment now that really, you know, made our ambitions a lot bigger was that we started seeing people. Ordering McDonald's. They order Big Macs.”
First-Generation Food Delivery Platforms Left Massive City Supply Unlocked
“There was the generation one of food delivery in, in the case of Spain, Barcelona, where we started the business, it was Just Eat that basically had a marketplace where they aggregated restaurants that did the delivery themselves, but there wasn't a marketplac…”
Oscar Pierre Paid a Russian Agency €8,000 for Glovo's First App
“I Googled, built an X for Uber. App, and I found a developing company in Russia, in Eastern Russia, that was the cheapest provider I found, and they promised me that they would deliver a first version of the app for like, 8000 euros.”
Glovo Raised €1.5 Million in Its Second Funding Round
“It took a while, took a year, and that took us to the next round, which was like a million and a half.”
Subsidized Service Traction Does Not Equal True Product-Market Fit
“So that's not really product market fit because you're delivering a service that people like, but at the price that people don't want to pay.”
Food Delivery Network Effects Stop at National Borders
“When you cross the border, it doesn't matter how big and how well-known your brand is in Spain. You go to Portugal and you start from zero.”
Glovo's Paris Expansion Failed Due to Launching Years Behind Competitors
“Milan worked really well. Paris didn't work well. And the main reason was because in Paris we were late. No, we were launching maybe like two or three years after Deliveroo and Uber Eats launched. So we never gained the scale and the leadership to be a sustain…”
Glovo Is Profitable in Very Few Markets as the Number Two Player
“It can work, and we have out of the three markets we have very few where we are number two and are profitable, but it's tough. You need to be a very relevant number two.”
Glovo's Expansion Into Tunisia Took Two to Three Years to Reach Profitability
“And Tunisia has taken maybe like two, between two and three years to turn into profit.”
Launching Glovo's Operations in Tunisia Cost Between €5M and €10M
“So in the case of Tunisia, maybe I'd say between five and ten million.”
Glovo's GMV Reached Nearly 1% of National GDP in Certain Markets
“Like we were in some markets where our GMV, our gross merchandise value is getting too close to one percent of the GDP of the country, right?”
On-Demand Delivery Was the Bloodiest VC Battle in Consumer Tech History
“And that's why the 2018 to 2022. I think it was probably the bloodiest VC bat battle of maybe of all consumer history.”
Glovo Achieves Lowest Cost to Serve by Building the Largest City Fleet
“We very fast, we become the largest logistics fleet in any city where we operate. That means that we have the cheapest cost to serve to move something from point A to point B.”
Delivery Delay Trade-Offs Must Be Calculated Against Customer Lifetime Value
“Yeah, it's an optimization game. Like it's all about lifetime value and understanding very well how every minute of delay is going to impact the lifetime value or the retention of that customer for the next order. We try to measure this all the time. It's the …”
McDonald's Mandated Global Uber Eats Exclusivity for Delivery in 2018
“The CEO of McDonald's in Chicago sends a message to all the countries and says, Hey, we have to go into delivery and we have one exclusive partner, which is Uber Eats. That was in 2018.”
McDonald's Once Accounted for 70% of Glovo's Order Volume in Spain
“At some point it was very scary because 70% of our volume in Spain was McDonald's, but I was okay because I knew this was just, it was just part of the customer flow.”
McDonald's Share of Glovo Orders Declined to 10-20% Across Most Markets
“So it was just a matter of time that that 70% decreased to what is some, to, I don't know, the today levels, which is between 10 and 20 in most countries.”
Most European VCs Passed on Glovo, Doubting It Could Beat Uber Eats
“All the European VCs or most of them passed on us. Nobody believed in our story, you know, a bunch of kids from Barcelona beating the Deliveros and the Uber Eats of the world who were always like one step ahead in fundraising, right?”
Oscar Pierre Pitched 120 VCs for Glovo's Series B, and All Passed
“I still have the list, a 120 VCs. And that passed not, not, not an email, but an actual call or a meeting.”
Oscar Pierre Claims Glovo Is the Market Leader in All Operating Markets
“I don't think any large competitor is now bigger than us in, in any of the markets where we operate.”
Early-Stage European VCs Lack Founder Experience and Add Unproductive Pressure
“Most of the people that I found had never built things. Right. So it was really hard to connect. Even the ones that invested in us. Building a company is such a rollercoaster, right? That if you don't have people that are used to this rollercoaster they add so…”
European Founders Project Less Ambition Than US Peers, but Businesses Compete Equally
“I'd say an average. Yes. When you speak to not only Americans also, I know you go to Tel Aviv, you also feel that that, that, that just feel smaller. And then you look at the business you have and they have not nothing to envy.”
Oscar Pierre Never Turned Down an Investor During Seven Years of Fundraising
“We, in the seven years of fundraising, I could never choose. I never said no to an investor. That's how little optionality I have.”
Rakuten's Hiroshi Mikitani Led Glovo's Series A After Chance FC Barcelona Meeting
“When there were no VCs left to pitch to, Glovo was saved because I was in a, I was in an event of the FCB, Football Club Barcelona, whose sponsor back then was Rakuten. Rakuten is the Amazon of Japan. And Mikitani was, which is the founder, he was there in the…”
Rakuten Founder Hiroshi Mikitani Invested Roughly $15M Into Glovo's Series A
“I think he did like fifteen million.”
Glovo Had Only Three Weeks of Cash Left During McDonald's Deal Negotiations
“Like these contracts take time and I have three weeks left of cash.”
Glovo Raised a New Funding Round Every Nine Months for Seven Years
“So for seven years, we raised a round every nine months.”
Spanish Startups Have a Natural Competitive Advantage Expanding Into Latin America
“I think Spaniards entrepreneurs, it's a small secret we have there, but it's actually pretty natural for us to expand into LATAM, which is a massive market, right? There's a cultural and language thing there, right?”
Courier Acquisition Is a Small Expense for Food Delivery Compared to Ride-Hailing
“Courier acquisition is, is it's not a huge line in the P&L in our business compared to ride hailing. It's fairly cheap.”
Traditional TV Advertising Drives Significant Customer Acquisition and Downloads for Glovo
“We use a lot, believe it or not, we use a lot of TV on top of online media, but TV has worked very well for us to drive a lot of downloads and new customers.”
Oscar Pierre Launched Glovo in Kenya and Kazakhstan Without Investor Approval
“I had to really convince them or even launch without their approval in countries like Kenya or I don't know, or Kazakhstan, because from the European point of view was like, who's going to order food delivery in Kenya?”
Labor-to-AOV Ratio Matters More Than Absolute AOV in Food Delivery Economics
“More than the AOVs is the ratio between cost of labor and AOVs, which matters a lot.”
High Labor-to-AOV Ratio in Morocco Enables Glovo to Offer Cheaper Delivery
“In some cases, yeah. For example we see markets like Morocco where that ratio is, is very large and this allows us to offer the service much more affordable to the end customer.”
Glovo Lost €30M to €40M on Its Failed Market Expansion Into Brazil
“It was like a black hole, like probably we lost like 30, forty million euros.”
Customer Discount Vouchers Push Food Delivery Orders Into Negative Unit Economics
“And vouchering in our business is, is horrible because you don't have, the margins are really thin. Anytime you go into a voucher, you go into negative economics.”
Shutting Down Failed Initiatives Requires Founders to Overcome Ego and Admit Mistakes
“I think shutting down things is a super important skill for a founder because at the end it's a, it's an ego thing. Because you have to go against what you have previously told the board, the investors, the employees, right?”
Glovo's Monthly Burn Rate Reached €30 Million During Its Rapid Expansion Phase
“The burn was really scary, and it kept going up, no? 1520, 30.”
Glovo Targets a Three to Four-Year Payback Period on Restaurant Exclusivity Deals
“We usually invest that three, four years payback.”
Delivery Giants Can Crush Local Rivals With a €20M to €30M Investment
“Because they have so much scale that they can just go into your home market and destroy your business with maybe like 20, thirty million investment.”
Oscar Pierre Says Softening His Communication at 1,000 Employees Ruined Glovo's Culture
“And that coincided when we got to around a thousand people. And I think I ruined it because I started getting scared of some part of our team reacting to how I said certain things. No, and I started being a bit of a politician.”
Leaders Must Constantly Challenge Team Outputs to Maintain High Company Standards
“When I walk into a meeting, I try to remind myself, okay, my mission here is just to add more velocity and to raise the standards. No, nothing that they will present is going to be fine. No, this is the mentality that any leader has to go into, because if you …”
Moderate Growth Requires CEOs to Inject Energy, Unlike During Hyperscaling Phases
“I think in hyperscaling, things can work with the CEO being away fundraising, because there's just so much energy. Into the business that, that is transmitted. And it, you know, and actually that's what I had to do. I was all day fundraising. No, I was almost …”
Generous Layoff Severance Is a Vital Investment for Remaining Employee Morale
“It's not only about the people that will be leaving, which they deserve it. It's not their fault that you have to lay off or do a big layoff, but it's even more important for the people that stay because those people that you lay off are their friends and the …”
Optimistic Entrepreneurs Consistently Underestimate the Complexity of M&A Integration
“I was just too optimistic about the upside, but not looking at how complex it is to integrate different tech stacks, different cultures, different teams.”
Acquired Founders Will Usually Stop Building and Leave the Organization
“Of course, when you buy a company, that founder will most probably stop thinking about building and leave.”
Glovo Acquired Spanish and Portuguese Grocery Marketplaces for Approximately €5M Each
“Maybe, like, five million each, I don't remember.”
Spain's Offline Grocery Market Is €120B With Only 2% Online Penetration
“The groceries offline market is a hundred and twenty billion out of which only two percent is online. Two percent of groceries industries online.”
Online Grocery Penetration in Spain Will Grow to Between 20% and 30%
“Two percent of groceries industries online. We're fully convinced that this two percent will turn into 20, 30%.”
Glovo Aims to Capture at Least 50% of Spain's Online Grocery Market
“We know that when this two percent of online penetration turns into 20, we can capture at least half of it.”
Glovo Rejected a €100M Acquisition Offer Despite Half the Board Favoring It
“I think a hundred million. And we had half of the board was in favor of taking it.”
Glovo Was Burning Nearly €1 Million Per Day Prior to Its Acquisition
“And we started looking at both options IPO-ing with we were still burning almost a million a year, a day, a million a day.”
Delivery Hero Acquired Glovo in an All-Stock Transaction Valued at €2.3B
“It was an all stock acquisition for 2.3 billion.”
Exited Entrepreneurs Who Stop Working for Wealth Management Lifestyles Are the Unhappiest
“I think one thing I realized very fast is a correlation between unhappiness and people that had stopped working. So those entrepreneurs that had made a big exit and moved into a wealth management lifestyle were the unhappiest.”
Oscar Pierre Co-Founded Yellow VC, a €30M Early-Stage European Fund
“On one end, I co-founded a small VC in, in Europe called Yellow. So it's a thirty million fund we invest in, in young entrepreneurs, and it's a bit of a hobby.”
Founders Should Never Assume Pitch Conversations With Venture Capitalists Are Confidential
“I think one thing I realized as a first time founder, when I spoke to VCs back then, I thought I was having a one-on-one conversation. And in reality is like, if you are broadcasting to the entire VC community now, so the amount of chit chatting that happens a…”
Glovo Is Approaching a Top-Line Run Rate of Seven Billion Euros
“We're at getting to seven billion top line.”
Glovo Achieved Its First Profitable Semester on Its Tenth Anniversary
“Yeah, we just turned profitable. We just turned 10 years, and the last, last semester was our first profitable semester.”
Glovo Aims to Generate 5% of Its GMV From High-Margin Advertising Revenue
“We believe in our business out of every 100 euros of GMV, we will be able to generate at least five euros of advertising money, which of course are almost Full margin, right?”
Glovo Currently Generates Between 2% and 2.5% of GMV From Advertising
“We're now at two, no? So we're getting we're halfway more or less between two and three.”
Glovo and Wolt Previously Held Merger Discussions to Build a European Giant
“And we always had conversations of teaming up and joining forces and building a very large European new delivery company, but you know, we, our paths. Never joined.”
Oscar Pierre Faces a Potential Six-Year Prison Sentence Over Glovo's Labor Model
“And unfortunately, the, yeah, the country where we suffer from regulation the most is Spain. I'm not going to go into the details, but it's so extreme that I'm now in a criminal process for so the, yeah, the prosecutor, the general attorney accused me with six…”
Oscar Pierre Predicts EU Regulatory Burdens Will Not Ease for Future Entrepreneurs
“Generally, I'm very optimistic in life, but I just don't see the incentives so that this trend changes. So in, now, in, in EU and regulations getting easier for the next wave of entrepreneurs, I'm not super optimistic.”
European Founders Do Not Need to Relocate to Silicon Valley to Compete
“No, I strongly disagree. Look, I think from Barcelona where there was very, a very small ecosystem of tech and tech talent, we were able to build top notch technology. I don't think our technology had anything to envy our American competitors. So I fully disag…”
Building a Hard-Working Culture Requires Finding Thousands, Not Millions, of Dedicated Talent
“If you sustain a hardworking culture, you will keep finding the talent is there. Young talent that wants to work hard. I mean, you don't need to convince a, you know, a million people. That's what I told the team, like when they told me, no, because now, you k…”
Oscar Pierre Predicts All E-Commerce Will Eventually Feature 30-Minute On-Demand Delivery
“I think that's going to be the future, so everything will be on demand, and everything will be delivered in, in 30 minutes.”
Shorts cut from this episode
▶ How Glovo Built Their First App · 20VC with Harry Stebbings (@3:19)
▶ “We lost our company culture” 📉 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings (@37:57)
▶ Glovo was saved by funding at a FC Barcelona party 🎉 · 20VC (@20:45)
▶ Glovo founder could go to PRISON 👮 · 20VC with Harry Stebbi (@59:33)
▶ The deal with McDonald’s saved this €2.2BN company 🍟 · 20VC (@13:11)
▶ The €2.2BN company everyone passed on 😱 · 20VC with Harry S (@0:00)