Sep 16, 2021 · 42m · 20vc
20VC: Getir Founder, Nazim Salur on The Future of Last Mile Convenience, Who Will Win? Lessons on Driver Acquisition and Efficiency, Zone Maturity and Time To Profitability and Scaling to 300 Cities in the US in 2022
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In this episode of 20VC, Getir founder and CEO Nazim Salur discusses the vertically integrated model behind 10-minute grocery delivery, detailing the company's global expansion, unit economics, and competitive moat. Salur shares strategic insights on warehouse operations, courier working conditions, and the long-term consolidation of the quick-commerce industry.
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 24.7% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Harry as informed peer 3.1 Guest teaching 4.3 Guest disagreement 2.7 Harry pushing back 2.0
speaking balance: gold is Harry, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 32:51 Rejecting US market exclusion
Nazim directly counters Harry's assertion that GoPuff will win the US market, telling him 'don't discount us on the U.S. market' and asking him to evaluate performance after six months before passing judgment.
Hardest push from Harry ▶ 32:16 Asserting market consolidation predictionHarry forcefully asserts a broad market forecast that GoPuff will dominate the US while Getir takes Europe, explicitly pushing Nazim to defend Getir's expansion strategy against established regional players.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 26:59 400-question suitability frameworkWhen Harry attempts to narrow market selection down to two factors (labor cost and AOV), Nazim corrects the premise by revealing Getir evaluates new cities using an exhaustive 400-question index.
Harry holds his own ▶ 16:48 Citing GoPuff operational benchmarkHarry demonstrates strong industry knowledge by referencing an interview with GoPuff's founder to benchmark courier drops per hour, pushing Nazim to compare operational efficiency metrics.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Harry as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Harry pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Founding Story and Aha Moment of Getir | 2 | 4 | 5 | 1 | Nazim explicitly sets boundaries early in the interview, stating he may choose not to answer specific detailed operational questions to avoid helping competitors cloning Getir. Harry accepts the boundary and allows Nazim to answer at a high level. | |
| Dark Store Location Criteria and Proprietary Technology | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | Harry asks about warehouse selection and WMS tech, citing GoPuff. Nazim polite but firm in withholding details, explaining the difference between GoPuff's 30-minute target and Getir's 10-minute promise. | |
| Optimizing SKU Counts for 10-Minute Delivery | 3 | 5 | 2 | 3 | Harry presses why 1,500 SKUs is optimal compared to 2,000. Nazim educates Harry on fast-moving consumer goods mechanics, using a sports car vs truck metaphor to explain inventory drag. | |
| Courier Acquisition Strategy and Working Conditions | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Nazim outlines courier acquisition and contrasts Getir's employment standards with standard gig-economy practices, noting basic amenities like tea and restrooms are treated as luxuries elsewhere. | |
| Courier Efficiency Metrics and Dark Store Maturity | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | Harry demonstrates domain research by bringing up GoPuff's KPI of 4 drops per hour. Nazim explains why achieving multiple drops per hour under a 10-minute promise requires far harder algorithmic efficiency than 30-minute batched orders. | |
| Growth Priority vs. Short-Term Profitability | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | Harry asks if heavy spending and rising CAC in crowded markets worry Nazim. Nazim provides broader market context, explaining VC funding in the sector is modest relative to total addressable grocery spend. | |
| Customer Loyalty and Retention in Quick Commerce | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | Harry probes whether quick commerce consumers lack brand loyalty. Nazim reframes loyalty as a spectrum similar to offline retail and personal relationships, predicting habituation leads to retention. | |
| Order Frequency, Basket Size, and International Economics | 3 | 5 | 3 | 2 | Harry asks for exact frequency numbers and cross-geography AOV comparisons. Nazim declines specific metrics but explains the core economic metric: delivery labor cost divided by basket size. | |
| City Suitability Index and Expansion Criteria | 3 | 5 | 2 | 2 | Harry asks if labor cost and AOV are the two primary expansion criteria. Nazim corrects this simplification, revealing Getir uses a complex 400-question city suitability index. | |
| Monetization: Search Ads vs. Private Label Products | 4 | 5 | 3 | 2 | Harry suggests monetizing via search advertising and private label margins. Nazim playfully contrasts the short-term focus of a VC with the long-term customer trust focus of a founder. | |
| The Long-Term Landscape of Rapid Grocery Delivery | 6 | 5 | 6 | 5 | Harry puts forward a strong market prediction that GoPuff will dominate the US and Getir Europe. Nazim directly challenges the premise, telling Harry not to discount Getir in the US and challenging him to revisit the call in six months. | |
| Quickfire Round: Leadership, Mike Moritz, and Hiring | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | A friendly quickfire segment covering reading habits, working with Mike Moritz, and hiring talent. Nazim notes entering tech at age 50 as a unique founder journey. |
Statements from this episode (29)
Salur: Getir pioneered 10-minute instant delivery globally six years ago
“We are the first company in the world to come up with the idea six years ago.”
Salur: Over 20 companies are currently cloning Getir's 10-minute delivery model
“At the moment, there's more than 20 different companies cloning us, and every day we see some more adding to it”
Salur: 10-minute delivery is impossible using third-party supermarket pickup models
“If you depend on a third party, 10 minutes doesn't happen. If you go pick up stuff from a supermarket, then, you know, it doesn't work. And then half hour, one hour game you're playing, ok?”
Salur: 10-minute delivery requires hyper-local dark stores over central warehouses
“To do 10 minutes, you have to have those products at hand in the time of ordering, and somewhere close to the consumer. So you cannot have one or two major warehouses in the city and then do 10 minutes. That's not possible.”
Salur: Consumer proximity matters more than real estate cost for dark stores
“The cost of warehouse, of course, is important, but not the most important. The most important is being close to your consumer.”
Getir tracks app download locations to map demand for new dark stores
“When you download us, we know exactly where the download takes place. So we know how many customers potentially are there, and so it's just basic technology.”
Salur: Getir targets 10-minute delivery compared to GoPuff's 30-minute model
“Their model is slightly different. They aim for about 30 minutes. We aim for 10 minutes.”
Salur: 1,500 SKUs is the optimal inventory size for 10-minute delivery
“And so now we know the optimal Optimum number is around 1500. So here's from me to all the competition. 1500 is the right number.”
Salur: Over 80% of consumers buy the top eight shampoo brands
“I can give you eight different kinds of shampoo, and you should be fine with that, because more than 80% of the people buy those first eight brands.”
Salur: Delivery companies cannot offer both full selection and 10-minute speed
“You cannot play both, ok? You cannot say, I'm A to Z, I will sell everything, and also, I'll be in 10 minutes. That's not the case.”
Salur: Getir builds courier break rooms first in every new warehouse
“First of all, when we do a warehouse, these small fulfillment centers, the first thing we do, we spare a room for the couriers to sit and have a cup of coffee or tea while they're not working, and the bathroom they're going to use. That's the first thing we bu…”
Salur: Gig food delivery companies neglect basic courier working conditions
“The food delivery industry doesn't give this because they use gig economy, and they don't really care where these guys use as bathrooms or what they do under the sun or under the rain. It's just the way they built their industry.”
Salur: Courier drops per hour is the main driver of quick-commerce costs
“Drops per hour is the main indicator of cost, okay? Let's say, You're paying this person 20 dollars or pounds an hour, let's say, or whatever. The cost is, let's say, 20, whatever the money is, and if he does four, your cost is five. If he does two, your cost …”
Salur: Getir dark stores reach operational maturity six months post-launch
“Let's say old market is actually a market we're in after six months. When we open a warehouse in a new neighborhood, six months later, it's probably a mature warehouse. So after six months, the efficiencies come up really good.”
Salur: Getir's core delivery business is profitable today excluding growth spending
“The thing is, if we don't need to grow fast, this business is a profitable business today. It's just that we spend more money on growth than we make margins on.”
Salur: Quick-commerce will consolidate to two or three players per city
“I don't think in one big city market, there'll be 10 players. There may be now, but in the long run, this is probably a two, three player game in each market.”
Salur: Regional quick-commerce champions will emerge where Getir cannot expand
“So there's gonna be some regional champions here, because look, I can't do 200 countries within the next two years. It's not humanly possible. So there's gonna be some other companies doing some regions that we don't go.”
Salur: Getir Turkey cohorts steadily increased order frequency over six years
“In Getir, Turkey, in six years, we have scored very well in all these aspects. We saw them buying more from us, buying more frequently, and all the time these numbers are increasing.”
Salur: Delivery viability depends on labor-to-basket size ratio, not absolute costs
“What matters is this, your per hour cost of the delivery versus the basket, the ratio there. So let's say if my labor costs in the UK is twice as much, and my basket size is 2.2 times as much, my labor, although I pay twice, is less in the UK than Turkey. It's…”
Getir evaluates expansion markets using a 400-question city suitability index
“When we look at a new market, there's this 400 question questionnaire we fill in about that market. Once we put the answers to that, it gives us a getter suitability index about that city we're going to operate.”
Salur: 10-minute grocery delivery will exist wherever pizza delivery exists by 2031
“But in the long run, let me tell you this, Harry. The long run, if there's pizza delivery in any small town, there'll be a service like Getir, whether Getir will be there or something similar, will be there. Next five to 10 years, everywhere there's pizza deli…”
Salur: Getir will launch in NY, Chicago, and Boston by late 2021
“We start with three cities. Those are going to be New York, Chicago, and Boston. Before the end of the year, we'll be operational in all three, and then we'll take it from there.”
Salur: Getir aims to expand to at least 300 US cities
“So if you look at U.S., there's at least 300 cities with a population of 100,000 or more. That's the first year. We should be at least in 300 cities. ASAP in the U.S. I don't know how long it will take.”
Salur: Getir will defer private labels until growth normalizes
“But in the high growth era of this business, one shouldn't take his eye off the ball, and the ball is high growth. At least for the next few years. When growth normalizes, these things should come more into the picture then.”
Salur: Over 50% of grocery shopping will be digital by 2031
“10 years later, whether it's 10 minutes, 30 minutes, same day, it will be more than 50% of grocery shopping, I think, will be done digitally in most countries, and it'll be within the same day, most of it within under an hour, ok?”
Salur: Regulators will prevent single-company monopolies in digital grocery
“Governments around the world will not let one player, when most of this thing is digital, dominate the grocery market. It'll be several players.”
Salur: At least 10 quick-commerce companies will succeed globally by 2031
“I think there'll be at least three players in the more prominent markets. Smaller market, it can be one or two players, still at least two. And in the world total, there'll be at least 10 successful players. 10 years later, because no two companies can do the …”