

Get in the KNOW
on LA Startups & Tech
X
Photo by Paolo Feser on Unsplash
Rapid Delivery Apps in Los Angeles Are Facing a Reckoning
Samson Amore
Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College and previously covered technology and entertainment for TheWrap and reported on the SoCal startup scene for the Los Angeles Business Journal. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.
After a couple of years where pandemic lockdowns made lightning-fast, app-based delivery essential, the industry is facing a shakeout—and apps that promise delivery under 30 minutes are facing an existential crisis.
The so-called “dark store” model – which forgoes the traditional corner store for a sprawling warehouse that delivers through mobile apps – exploded during the pandemic. But many of those companies are now struggling to become profitable, largely because of rising overhead costs.
The Industry and the Challenges
At stake is a multi-billion industry aiming to deliver everything from groceries to convenience items and hot food, through bikes, cars, drones and even robots. Operating from a number of competing platforms, those companies saw sales more than double during the pandemic. Few experts see the industry disappearing entirely, but the sector is widely expected to shrink. The coming months and years will determine which model wins out.
Celia Van Wickel, senior director of digital commerce for analytics and brand consulting firm Kantar Group, told dot.LA she expects the bubble to burst—and soon, as venture firms become more discerning about their investments.
“Valuations are declining [and] money is not being forthcoming to rapid delivery companies,” Van Wickel said. Even as the economic climate becomes more challenging, some companies do have the chance to rise above the fray and gain market share – and satisfy investors – while others could be destined to go bust.
“[Investors] really want to see a profitable model, kind of akin to what we've seen in the dot-com era, where the bubble burst on ecommerce,” Van Wickel said. A lot of money was thrown into these new companies, they weren’t really profitable and then all of a sudden a lot of them collapsed.”
Some venture capital firms were “just investing to invest,” Van Wickel added, to see how the delivery market fared. She predicts they’ll soon become more judicious about who they fund. Burning cash without turning a profit isn’t going to be acceptable in the long term, she added.
Along with slackening consumer demand and less VC investment in the space, nearly every fast delivery company that relies on fulfillment centers, even Amazon, is going to face steep real estate, upkeep and staffing costs. Rapid delivery firms will need to spend big on real estate to operate fulfillment centers across cities that enable them to get to consumers fast.
Local startups Serve Robotics, URB-E, Kwibot and Duffl are trying to rise above the fray by delivering fast, to specific areas, with scooters or drones, but there’s no guarantee of success.
Image courtesy of Duffl.
Philadelphia-based GoPuff, one of the largest new rapid delivery services to enter in Los Angeles alongside DoorDash, Instacart and Uber (which also offer convenience delivery in addition to food) depends on having quick access to warehouses throughout the region. It bought liquor store chain BevMo in a bid to gain access to lucrative (and hard- to- get) liquor licenses and warehouses. It aims to save money by installing micro-fulfillment centers “within almost every” BevMo store that can service deliveries, its CEO told the L.A.Times. Still, it laid off 10% of its workforce in July after cutting about 3% in March, and shut 76 warehouses. GoPuff originally had plans to go public in mid-2022 at a $15 million valuation, but shelved them.
But GoPuff is not alone. Instacart cut its valuation forecast by 38% in March citing “poor market conditions,” and international rapid delivery startups like Gorillas, Getir and Zapp have also cut staff recently.
The layoffs suggest that rapid growth may no longer be enough.
“The GoPuff CEO basically said, ‘hey, we were getting a lot of investments by just showing top line incremental growth,’ they were growing customers and growing markets and that was okay enough for investors in 2021,” Van Wickel told dot.LA. “But now they're being pressured to really look at how their company is profitable [and] they're being asked to do this very quickly, or their investment will not be forthcoming.”
GoPuff pointed dot.LA to a recent shareholder letter that said it is “already driving 76% [year-over-year] sales growth for the core business.”
“GoPuff is the only company in this space that has proven it can be profitable at a city and regional level,” co-founders Yakir Gola and Rafael Ilishayev wrote. “We are now targeting full company profitability in 2024 while maintaining a strong cash balance throughout.”
An URB-E rider hauls deliveries in Santa Monica.
Image courtesy of URB-E
The Opportunity
Despite the headwinds, the rapid delivery industry “feels like it's here to stay,” said Alex Vasilkin, co-founder and CEO of Cartwheel, a Hollywood-based startup that makes delivery management software and recently raised a $3 million seed round in April.
“There’s all these dark kitchens opening, there are all these different startups popping up with drone delivery, and scooters delivery and hyperlocal, 15-minute delivery so I feel like there’s more options for customers and so far, we've seen it getting bigger and bigger,” Vasilkin said. Cartwheel works mainly with restaurants, but is looking to find “very big partners in mostly the alcohol space,” its co-founder Magdim Metshin told dot.LA.
The need for rapid delivery isn’t likely to disappear so long as people decide they need items fast and can’t make the trip themselves. The question is now “which companies can iron out their paths to profitability before they’re forced to go bankrupt?,” Van Wickel said.
“I think there's a balance between what the consumer wants and what behavior’s going to change,” she added. “To me, it's all about on-demand. So we're changing the model to an on-demand model… it’s changing the trip occasions out there from stocking up to more grab-and-go convenience models.”
Startups that seem poised to weather the storm are the ones that can control every aspect of the business – including supply, warehousing, distribution and, crucially, their apps. Usually, they’re seeking buyouts from larger companies that have existing infrastructure in place for this exact reason.
“I don’t think we have quite a winner yet; I think there’s [companies] that are more set up to win,” Van Wickel said, adding that it’s mostly “the companies that do have some cash on hand today to continue to iterate their business models.”
From Your Site Articles
- Los Angeles Delivery Apps News - dot.LA ›
- Duffl Delivery Service Brings Short Wait For Food - dot.LA ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Samson Amore
Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College and previously covered technology and entertainment for TheWrap and reported on the SoCal startup scene for the Los Angeles Business Journal. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.
https://twitter.com/samsonamore
samsonamore@dot.la
What Hailey Bieber’s Skincare Company Reveals About Influencer-Led Brands
08:58 AM | March 06, 2023
When Hailey Bieber launched Rhode skincare last June, the release was coupled with YouTube videos detailingeachproduct. Bieber has since fully integrated the skincare line into her content, bringing on other beauty influencers to discuss it and highlighting it in get ready with me videos on her channel.
Bieber’s efforts paid off—Rhode has since become one of the most talked about skincare brands online, and the products often sell out. At The Upfront Summit last week, Bieber joined OBB Media CEO and founder Michael Ratner, who produces her YouTube series “What’s In My Bathroom” and “What’s In My Kitchen,” to discuss how she has merged her content creation with her business endeavors.
“YouTube is a great home because, most importantly, we’re able to reach Hailey’s audience,” Ratner said, adding that they can “cut out the middleman” of a traditional streaming service.
Bieber isn’t alone in utilizing her online platforms to start a beauty company. Kylie Jenner launched Kylie Cosmetics in 2014, and the line consistently receives high social media engagement thanks to intentional influencer marketing. But even influencers without the celebrity status of Jenner and Bieber have become entrepreneurs. Beauty YouTubers like Michelle Phan and NikkieTutorials have turned their expertise into makeup companies, while TikToker Hyram Yarbro did the same with skincare.
So how does the content creator to skincare mogul pipeline work?
Oftentimes, outside companies approach influencers about launching their own brands. Beauty and makeup brand incubator Madeby Collective, for example, was seeking a Gen Z star to be the face of a new line in 2020, and TikTok darling Addison Rae was the obvious choice. After approaching the influencer, they gave her the title of co-founder and Chief Innovation Office before launching Item Beauty later that year.
Bieber is trying to shove Rhode to the front of a field that even she admitted is incredibly crowded. Despite this, Bieber didn’t have a compelling answer when moderator Kobie Fuller asked how Rhode can stand out.
“To me, Rhode is a whole world. It’s a world of me, essentially” Bieber said. “In order for people to understand my vision for the brand, they would have to understand me.”
Bieber has become known for her various “glazed donut” looks, which range from nail designs to her skincare line. Multiple TikTok and YouTube tutorials re-created these looks as the trends swept through online beauty communities. And it doesn’t hurt when the person manufacturing these trends can use these platforms to show exactly how she gets these results—and promote her brand along the way.
Still, closely tying one’s company to one’s public perception is risky. On the extreme end is influencer Jeffree Star, who launched his cosmetics company in 2014 and often used elaborate YouTube videos to promote products. His items sold out quickly. But accusations of racism and sexual assault caused sales to decline. The fallout extended beyond him—beauty company Morphe, which rose to popularity through collaborations with Star, recently closed all of its U.S. locations due to low sales. Dragon Beauty, a company launched by YouTuber Nikita Dragon, was put on hiatus last month following the influencer’s arrest.
To that end, Bieber is currently embroiled in her own internet drama, having lost over one million Instagram followers after seemingly re-igniting her feud with Selena Gomez. Obviously, this is not comparable to the situations with Star and Dragon. But it does point to how even a slight misstep can have ripple effects on an influencer’s business and the fragility of someone’s online reputation.
The panel didn’t touch on this topic, and it’s unclear how the scandal has impacted Rhode’s sales—but the brand has become tangled with it. When Bieber re-posted someone’s Instagram story about Rhode that included a song featuring Gomez, fans noted that she changed the song to the version without Gomez. In turn, Gomez fans are urging people to stop buying Rhode products.
Even without pushback from vitriolic fan communities, influencer-led brands have struggled in recent months. In January, Sephora stopped carrying both Rae and Yarbro’s products after sales slowed down. Now, expertsare wondering if this is the beginning of the end for influencer-backed brands. Some have managed to produce products that can stand on their own—ironically, Gomez’s makeup line Rare Beauty has become the gold standard in this area. But Bieber’s philosophy of creating “aesthetically pleasing products that work” isn’t all that different from her competitors.
Still, it’s unlikely that influencer-led brands will die out considering 92% of Gen Z adults make their purchasing decisions based on influencer recommendations. But influencers are finding that getting people to spend money is a more difficult task than getting them to watch a video. And when influencer-entrepreneurs like Bieber are unable to quickly articulate what makes their brands stand out, it’s understandable why viewers aren’t buying what they’re selling.Read moreShow less
Kristin Snyder
Kristin Snyder is dot.LA's 2022/23 Editorial Fellow. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
https://twitter.com/ksnyder_db
Upfront Ventures Summit: The Chainsmokers Journey From Music to Venture
02:16 PM | March 02, 2023
Clark Studio
On Thursday, Upfront Ventures hosted its 2023 Summit and music icons Alex Pall and Drew Taggart of The Chainsmokers hit the stage, not to perform, but instead to discuss their venture journey.
The duo launched MantisVC, a Marina Del Rey-based early stage tech venture fund in 2019.
Pall and Taggart shared the stage with WndrCo’s managing partner Jeffrey Katzenberg to dive deeper into what their music career has taught them and how it translated over to their venture firm.
Here are some of the most important takeaways:
The duo believes hustle is more important than talent to achieve success.
“There's just so much content out there that's just happening all the time for no reason,” Taggart said. “There's just so much to pay attention to and if you have to wake up every day, and think out what your angle is going to be, try stuff, have it not work. You have to accept defeat so frequently and still get up and do it.”
Creating music was their foray into building communities.
“I think we have some real insight into how to build that community and tell that story because essentially, that's all we're trying to do,” Pall said. “No matter what your business is, you're telling the story about something that you think is important that someone else needs and will enjoy.”
Building connections and having conversations with pioneers in the space helped them launch MantisVC.
“Humility and being self aware are two of our strengths,” Taggart said. “I think knowing what we don't know is a big part of how we've gotten to where we are, and with the support of people around us, and the relationships we built, we understood that we were going to have to go out and prove to the world that we were serious about this and we respected the people that have come before us and the people that are doing it right now.”
VCs should offer all their founders support.
“When you're building something early on, you want that support, that hands-on feeling and the purpose of Mantis isn't necessarily right now to replace the incredible institutional investors that exist out there and have been around for a while,” Pall continued.
“But we want to be the Robin to their Batman, and we think there's a way that we can kind of partner with everybody in the space and provide our founders that holistic support they need. It's inspiring to work alongside people that share that same energy and we're constantly working on ourselves and I feel like it takes a really special type of human being to be successful in this world. Level of grit and determination and something that's continually fueled us and we want to invest in people like that.”
Feedback is necessary and essential to create successful products and businesses.
“Similar to products or services that you're building, it's important to get real life feedback out there and iterate on those things,” Taggart said. “And there's really just no substitute for that.”
Pall added, “I think for some reason in our culture, it's become an issue for people just to be straightforward and say no, about things and give honest feedback and, and move on. I think we can all learn a lot from just having more honest conversations with each other.”
Never lose sight of your core audience and mission as a company.
“Never forget what your core product is and what people love about that and make sure that every piece of innovation is derivative of that,” Taggart said. “I see a lot of friends of ours that have had really successful companies start to build ancillary projects that don't really feed their core audience that they're just making to compete with their competition. We do the same thing in songwriting, and you can never lose sight of what people love about you.”
From Your Site Articles
- Office Hours Podcast: How the Chainsmokers Grew Into Venture Capitalists ›
- Upfront Summit Postponed to March Over Omicron Fears ›
- Here Are the VCs and Angels Currently Cutting Checks in Southern California ›
- Upfront Ventures Raises $650M for Three New Funds ›
- Larry Summers' Advice to Founders: Raise Early, Raise Often - dot.LA ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read moreShow less
Decerry Donato
Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.
RELATEDTRENDING
LA TECH JOBS