Adamson: Secondary markets have massive pent-up demand for tier-one services
Jeff Adamson · He sold SkipTheDishes for $200M—then grew Neo Financial to a $1B valuation. | Jeff Adamson, Co-Fo... · PMF Show · Mar 24, 2025 · at 12:37
Jeff Adamson, co-founder of SkipTheDishes, explains why the food delivery startup targeted secondary Canadian cities before launching in major hubs like Toronto and Vancouver.
0:00 / 0:49exact quote · 49.3s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“I think we're just a big believer in secondary markets. You know, like we believe that there's a huge amount of pent up demand for Services that you can get in these tier one markets, like London, England. And so I think that the idea of launching Canada and focusing on tier two cities first appeal to us because people were like we built a product that was better than what you'd use in downtown London. And you're getting that in Saskatoon. You're getting that in Calgary. You're getting that in like, you know, Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Winnipeg. And then eventually, you know, Calgary, Alberta, and then Edmonton and, you know, the outskirts kind of focused on the outskirts of the major centers like Vancouver and Toronto, and then kind of went outwards in. And so I think that was kind of one part of the strategy is that they're underserved, but there was a huge amount of demand.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Jeff Adamson
DoorDash Offered Canadian Restaurants 0% Commission to Undercut SkipTheDishes
“Once they started focusing on Canada, they would go and offer restaurants to have what we were doing for 25% commission. They would just do for free.”
Adamson: Canadians Pay Over Double for Banking Products Compared to Other Nations
“Right now Canadians are paying over double for the same products and services that you can get in other countries.”
Adamson: Incremental delivery business is high-margin because restaurant overhead is fixed
“When you look at the economics of a restaurant, when you look at the fixed costs, the variable costs, The margin on getting incremental business is very, very high because you're already paying the staff and their overhead.”
SkipTheDishes Maintained 20% Month-Over-Month Growth for Seven Years
“The crazy thing about skip is that when you actually look over the course of the business, like we grew on average over 20% month on month for like. Seven years.”