WILL SHU

Born in 1979 in the United States. Grew up in Connecticut.

Studied at Northwestern University, then worked in finance at Morgan Stanley in New York before transferring to the London office. In London, he noticed a gap: unlike Manhattan, London had almost no food delivery options from quality restaurants.

In 2013, Shu co-founded Deliveroo with Greg Orlowski. For the first eight months, Shu personally delivered food on his bicycle around Chelsea and Fulham to understand the logistics firsthand.

The company grew across the UK, then expanded to 11 countries across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

Deliveroo went public on the London Stock Exchange in March 2021. It was supposed to be a triumph for London's tech scene.

Instead, the stock fell 26% on day one — one of the worst IPO debuts in LSE history. Major investors boycotted over concerns about gig worker treatment.

Despite the rocky start, Shu pushed Deliveroo to profitability by 2023, proving the business model works.

Founder and CEO of Deliveroo (2013-present). IPO'd on London Stock Exchange in 2021.

Previously at Morgan Stanley. Deliveroo operates in 11 countries with 180,000+ restaurant partners.

Amazon is a major investor.

Operator-builder. Shu is not an investor — he is a founder who built a company from zero by personally doing the work.

His approach is relentlessly operational: he delivered food himself, hired riders personally, and made sure the product worked before scaling. He invests his time and equity in Deliveroo.

Deliveroo's path to profitability. After the IPO disaster, most observers wrote Deliveroo off.

Shu cut unprofitable markets, focused on the UK and core European markets, and turned Deliveroo profitable by 2023. Proving that a food delivery company can make money — not just burn investor capital — was a significant achievement.

The IPO. Deliveroo's London listing was supposed to be a crown jewel for British tech.

Instead, the stock crashed 26% on day one, and several major institutional investors publicly boycotted the offering over gig worker concerns. It was the most embarrassing debut in recent LSE history.

Do the work yourself first. Shu has said that delivering food for eight months was the most important thing he did — it taught him every bottleneck in the system before he tried to scale.

His philosophy is that founders who do not understand the ground-level operations of their business will fail.

American-born, now based permanently in London. Married with children.

Has become a significant figure in the UK tech ecosystem despite being American — the irony of an American building one of Britain's most important tech companies is not lost on the London business community.

Northwestern University (BA). Worked at Morgan Stanley in both New York and London.

His finance background gave him the analytical skills to understand unit economics, which eventually helped Deliveroo achieve profitability.

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