Hungry and tired one night, Mike wanted a pizza, but getting a pizza delivered was a pain in the neck. He didn’t want to call a million restaurants to see what was open. So, as an avid coder, he created GrubHub in his spare bedroom to figure out who delivered to his apartment. Then, armed with a $140 check from his first customer and ignoring his crushing college debt he quit his job. Over the next decade, Mike grew his little delivery guide into the world’s premier online ordering website. In doing so, he entered the company of an elite few entrepreneurs to take a startup from an idea all the way to an IPO.

But it wasn’t as easy as pie. GrubHub’s journey from Mike’s bedroom to Wall Street doesn’t fit into how business schools teach entrepreneurship. In Hangry, he details step-by-step the grind of building an innovative business, with each chapter including sharp lessons for entrepreneurs and startups, that Mike learned on the fly as he piloted GrubHub’s meteoric rise by the seat of his pants. Hangry reveals a decade of 80-hour work weeks, detailed steps of how Mike garnered his first customers, his intense hunt for financing dollars, cliffhanger acquisitions, the near collapse of his marriage, a brutally difficult merger, and a pair of tumultuous quit/unquit moments, all to steer the company to become one of the most dynamic, successful, and revolutionary startups in the world. With a razor-sharp wit, Mike reveals surprising insights about how people approach food, and hard-won truths about how startups succeed—and even harder-won truths about how startups fail.

Shocking everyone, at the pinnacle of startup success, Mike leaves it all behind, quitting the company he started to bike across the United States in search of balance. But eventually, the grand vistas of America bring the lessons of the past into focus, driving the realization that for entrepreneurs a hunger for success doesn’t end, and he considers starting another company, even more ambitious than the first.

OUR SPECIAL GUEST

Mike Evans

Author, HANGRY: A Startup Journey

Mike Evans founded GrubHub in his spare bedroom and grew it into the multi-billion-dollar online food delivery colossus that is a household name. After leaving GrubHub post-IPO, he punted it all to ride his bike across the United States. His book Hangry comes out November 2022. More recently, Mike founded Fixer.com, an on-demand handyperson B-corp that trains its employees from scratch. Mike is passionate about professional and personal vision, and a strong proponent of impact businesses – for profit companies that use their power to bring about positive social change.

Matt Paget

Board Member at Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center; Founder at Extension PR

Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center board member Matt Paget is a communications advisor to some of the world’s most innovative companies and entrepreneurs. He is co-founder of Extension PR, a Los Angeles-based agency that works with category-leading brands in the technology and consumer spaces. Prior to founding Extension in 2011, Matt worked at global agencies Rogers & Cowan and Hill & Knowlton, and began his career at Citigroup. He has previously co-chaired Auction Napa Valley and the Hospital For Special Surgery Junior Committee.

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