Selling Foody

What I can say about the sale

Foody announced its acquisition by Delivery Hero in 2019. The public facts are straightforward: the company joined a global group, and the existing team continued to operate and develop the product. The private path to that announcement should remain private unless everyone involved is comfortable telling it.

The decision was about more than valuation. Foody would gain knowledge, capital, systems and a much larger network. It would also have more stakeholders involved in decisions that had once been local.

We had to decide whether that trade gave Foody a better chance to serve its market and treated the team fairly. There was no universal answer hiding behind the deal.

The first hundred days mattered

The first hundred days need a plan, not only the transaction. Customers still expect the product to work. Colleagues need to know what has changed and what has not. New partners need context that may live in the heads of a few people.

Integration begins with translation. The acquiring company has its language, planning cycles and controls. The local company has its shortcuts, instincts and market knowledge. Neither vocabulary is complete. Progress depends on people who can explain one to the other without dismissing either.

If I were preparing another founder for the same point, I would tell them to spend less time rehearsing the announcement and more time designing those first hundred days. Decide what must remain local, what the larger organisation can genuinely improve, and what the team can be told before every answer is available.

After the announcement

The acquisition did not erase the years before it, and the years after it did not happen automatically. The announcement took a day. The integration was work.