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Hangry: A Startup Journey
Nautilus Book Awards' Better Books for a Better World | Axiom Business Book Award Winner
GrubHub founder Mike Evans reveals the inside story of how he grew a multibillion-dollar behemoth that changed the way we eat. 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.
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 by the seat of his pants. Hangry reveals a decade of eighty-hour work weeks, detailed steps of how Mike garnered his first customers, his 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 successful startups in the world. With a razor-sharp wit, Mike reveals 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 starts another company, even more ambitious than the first.
GrubHub founder Mike Evans reveals the inside story of how he grew a multibillion-dollar behemoth that changed the way we eat. 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.
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 by the seat of his pants. Hangry reveals a decade of eighty-hour work weeks, detailed steps of how Mike garnered his first customers, his 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 successful startups in the world. With a razor-sharp wit, Mike reveals 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 starts another company, even more ambitious than the first.
272 pages, Hardcover
Published November 1, 2022
64 people are currently reading
1216 people want to read
About the author
Mike Evans
1 book12 followersStartups. Ethics. Adventure. Author of Hangry: A Startup Journey releasing November 2022 - Preorder on my website. Founder at Fixer. Founded GrubHub back in the day.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews
November 7, 2022
Devoured this. No pun intended. Wow.
January 15, 2023
As someone who has worked very closely with companies like Grubhub, it was fascinating to read the behind the scenes. But it was more then just talking about it’s startup. Evans brought you on the journey of his life post Grubhub and all he saw across the country at this time. Would recommend it for anyone looking for a business/tech memoir without too much business or tech.
January 2, 2024
Quick, enjoyable, and entertaining read! I laughed a lot at Matt’s comments and jokes 😁. His comment on the difference between quitting and giving up resonates: Giving up is something you do when things get too hard. Whereas quitting is something you do when your goal is no longer attainable or when your goal has changed 🙌🙏.
January 18, 2024
fun, engaging, and shockingly poignant. highly recommend
June 10, 2023
An instant classic, this book will be passed around in entrepreneur circles for a long time. Everyone knows I am biased to any story regarding an entrepreneur let alone a tech focused story. It's no secret I get weak in the knees for these stories in the same way a teenage girl would be for Justin Bieber in 2012. The author shows humility, flaws, ego, mistakes, stupidity and serendipity. At times he describes himself in unflattering ways which humanizes him to the reader. All too often, we're told these stoic stories of entrepreneur's that borderline a master of the universe persona, when in reality starting a business is full of errors, randomly guessing solutions and then iterating again to see if you made progress. The book tells the story of an online company called GrubHub. It charters it inception to it becoming a behemoth and where it all went wrong morally, according to the founder. Let's dive in.
Its the early 2000's, the internet is still being assembled, its uncharted territory. No one really understands it outside of Silicon Valley. Forget Silicon Valley, let's say you're hungry, no you're starving, the kind of hunger where your stomach starts making audible whale sounds. You don't have any food in the fridge and if you did you're too lazy to cook. So what do you do? You go for delivery, okay awesome idea! So how do you find all of the best restaurants in your vicinity and how do you find out if they deliver? Is their food any good? What do you have to solve this? You have the fucking yellow pages, I don't know if any of you are too young to know what the yellow pages are but think back to when you were in chemistry in middle school. Picture that textbook, can you see it? Now imagine if you could combine 4 of those together and then turn it yellow and boom we got the yellow pages. A tome of stores, restaurant's etc. Now all you have to do is flip through this thing and find out where you should order from... Sounds good? No of course not it sounds awful. Like civilization has went back 4000 years if you had to do this but this was reality at the early 2000's. So what does the author do? Coming back to his place starving, figures out what to order and then having a background in computer science, he think "Hmm I should just code this out myself".
The idea for GrubHub is born. It starts off in Chicago, the author gives advertising to restaurants who give him a subscription based fees. The way he sells them is to literally walk into restaurants and pitch. Getting rejected fairly all the time, some pitches work but they get him very little. So its back to the drawing board, he needs to show restaurant owners that his site brings orders to their business in a tangible way. Eventually he comes up with the solution to order through GrubHub and they take a percentage close to %10. Once this is done, there are still hurdles to accomplish but the business is growing, hmm no. "Growing" does not do it justice, its sky rocketing, doubling and tripling over and over again as they solve business problems. The whole purpose of starting the business from the authors perspective was to pay he and his wife's student loans. He also wants to help small businesses and since the restaurant business is so brutal that many will fail.
This brings us to the psychological side of the story, the business booms. He wants to sell and start the next chapter of his life with his wife. She has put her career on hold for him and he feels guilty about this. He's also burnout from working long days, meetings etc not to mention. The author is a little naive, without a doubt he's a good person I can tell by how unselfish his mistakes are. He starts the business and accepts cash from a coworker to be 50-50 when the co-worker is smart but doesnt work like he did the first 2 years of the business. They never signed a contract or term sheet, he was naive in this sense because the co worker is much more concerned with making money than serving the restaurant owners. This torment's the author because at this point, so many investors are putting their thumbs on the scale and changing the way the business works to extract more fees from restaurant owners. At one point Grubhub is beloved by restaurants, it saves many of their businesses. It gave them equal footing against chain restaurants but then they start doing partnerships with chains, destroying the ranking system with smaller restaurants by filtering the chains to the top of the search results on their site. Since the author made it clear, he wants to quit immediately after the IPO, he has no control and since the company took money from specific types of investors. They will be forced to adhere to their ideas about turning the business into something that is eager for short term cash rather than long term dynasty.
The author goes on a bike trip across America, during this trip he asks himself 'Where did things go wrong?'. He feels as if the decade he invested into the company has changed him, made him a person he does not recognize and he wants to go back to a time period when he knew who he was. He thinks this bike trip is going to help him get there. If we pause for a moment and think about this, the author just built one of the most successful startups in the country, is fantastically rich and yet he's asking himself "Where did things go wrong?". Take a moment and picture yourself in his situation, you're a zillionaire, you have fuck you money. Would you be asking yourself the same questions as he is? Probably not. The author feels more disgusted with himself more than celebratory which is odd given the fact that he can now do whatever he wants in the world. It's this type of reflection and humility that make the book worthwhile. I thought about it myself, is the author just making these claims for a baseless virtuous claim? It doesn't feel fake to me, it feels genuine, like he created a company that is now doing the opposite of what he intended it to do and he knew he could not stop it internally so he quits from hating it? From being away from his wife? I don't know exactly and the author doesn't know because he spins back and fourth between the two. It's a great story and I have a feeling this will be massively popular in the years to come.
5 stars for me.
Its the early 2000's, the internet is still being assembled, its uncharted territory. No one really understands it outside of Silicon Valley. Forget Silicon Valley, let's say you're hungry, no you're starving, the kind of hunger where your stomach starts making audible whale sounds. You don't have any food in the fridge and if you did you're too lazy to cook. So what do you do? You go for delivery, okay awesome idea! So how do you find all of the best restaurants in your vicinity and how do you find out if they deliver? Is their food any good? What do you have to solve this? You have the fucking yellow pages, I don't know if any of you are too young to know what the yellow pages are but think back to when you were in chemistry in middle school. Picture that textbook, can you see it? Now imagine if you could combine 4 of those together and then turn it yellow and boom we got the yellow pages. A tome of stores, restaurant's etc. Now all you have to do is flip through this thing and find out where you should order from... Sounds good? No of course not it sounds awful. Like civilization has went back 4000 years if you had to do this but this was reality at the early 2000's. So what does the author do? Coming back to his place starving, figures out what to order and then having a background in computer science, he think "Hmm I should just code this out myself".
The idea for GrubHub is born. It starts off in Chicago, the author gives advertising to restaurants who give him a subscription based fees. The way he sells them is to literally walk into restaurants and pitch. Getting rejected fairly all the time, some pitches work but they get him very little. So its back to the drawing board, he needs to show restaurant owners that his site brings orders to their business in a tangible way. Eventually he comes up with the solution to order through GrubHub and they take a percentage close to %10. Once this is done, there are still hurdles to accomplish but the business is growing, hmm no. "Growing" does not do it justice, its sky rocketing, doubling and tripling over and over again as they solve business problems. The whole purpose of starting the business from the authors perspective was to pay he and his wife's student loans. He also wants to help small businesses and since the restaurant business is so brutal that many will fail.
This brings us to the psychological side of the story, the business booms. He wants to sell and start the next chapter of his life with his wife. She has put her career on hold for him and he feels guilty about this. He's also burnout from working long days, meetings etc not to mention. The author is a little naive, without a doubt he's a good person I can tell by how unselfish his mistakes are. He starts the business and accepts cash from a coworker to be 50-50 when the co-worker is smart but doesnt work like he did the first 2 years of the business. They never signed a contract or term sheet, he was naive in this sense because the co worker is much more concerned with making money than serving the restaurant owners. This torment's the author because at this point, so many investors are putting their thumbs on the scale and changing the way the business works to extract more fees from restaurant owners. At one point Grubhub is beloved by restaurants, it saves many of their businesses. It gave them equal footing against chain restaurants but then they start doing partnerships with chains, destroying the ranking system with smaller restaurants by filtering the chains to the top of the search results on their site. Since the author made it clear, he wants to quit immediately after the IPO, he has no control and since the company took money from specific types of investors. They will be forced to adhere to their ideas about turning the business into something that is eager for short term cash rather than long term dynasty.
The author goes on a bike trip across America, during this trip he asks himself 'Where did things go wrong?'. He feels as if the decade he invested into the company has changed him, made him a person he does not recognize and he wants to go back to a time period when he knew who he was. He thinks this bike trip is going to help him get there. If we pause for a moment and think about this, the author just built one of the most successful startups in the country, is fantastically rich and yet he's asking himself "Where did things go wrong?". Take a moment and picture yourself in his situation, you're a zillionaire, you have fuck you money. Would you be asking yourself the same questions as he is? Probably not. The author feels more disgusted with himself more than celebratory which is odd given the fact that he can now do whatever he wants in the world. It's this type of reflection and humility that make the book worthwhile. I thought about it myself, is the author just making these claims for a baseless virtuous claim? It doesn't feel fake to me, it feels genuine, like he created a company that is now doing the opposite of what he intended it to do and he knew he could not stop it internally so he quits from hating it? From being away from his wife? I don't know exactly and the author doesn't know because he spins back and fourth between the two. It's a great story and I have a feeling this will be massively popular in the years to come.
5 stars for me.
April 23, 2023
Excellent read about the entrepreneurial making and success of GrubHub, authored by the founder who started it on a whim when he was frustrated with pizza delivery service where he lived in Chicago. The author quit his steady but boring job to start up the company from scratch, and developed it into a billion dollar multi-national enterprise. He also rides a bike and when the IPO was completed, he goes on to bike a >4,000 mile cross country trip from the Atlantic to Pacific oceans. The story is heartfelt, humorous and enlightening. The author's endeavors are based upon his belief that the value of a company should be measured by the benefit that it provides to humanity, over and above it's ability to generate profits and wealth for the owners.
December 3, 2023
Hangry is a great book divided into two halves which are narrated concurrently.
The first half details the author Mike Evans journey of starting Grubhub single handedly from his small apartment in Chicago all the way to its IPO when he cashed out.
The other is his experience of biking through the TransAm trail across America.
While the first half is more riveting, and the main reason why most will pick up this book; the second one eventually becomes equally interesting, as Evans cycles through the various parts of America - well-to-do havens in the midst of run down towns dominated by chain stores.
The first half details the author Mike Evans journey of starting Grubhub single handedly from his small apartment in Chicago all the way to its IPO when he cashed out.
The other is his experience of biking through the TransAm trail across America.
While the first half is more riveting, and the main reason why most will pick up this book; the second one eventually becomes equally interesting, as Evans cycles through the various parts of America - well-to-do havens in the midst of run down towns dominated by chain stores.
November 4, 2022
A candid account of building a multibillion-dollar business, Hangry takes readers on a thrilling startup journey from a spare bedroom all the way to Wall Street IPO. More than just a business book, Hangry readers ride along on Evans' personal journey founding Grubhub as well. Hangry is a must-read for anyone running a company or thinking of starting one.
February 6, 2023
Fantastic, honest book about how start-ups get ... started. It's also a perfect snapshot of the Chicago tech scene in the early 2010s. There's a bunch of stuff in here about the origin story of GrubHub that I didn't know, and seeing it from Mike's perspective is a treat. And he's a good writer! Definitely recommend for anyone considering founding a technology startup.
May 1, 2023
This was a very interesting look into the humble beginnings and humble goals for a company that has now well outgrown that. As someone who loves watching Shark Tank and seeing small businesses and startups succeed, it was interesting to see how exactly Mike Evans measured success and whether or not he achieved it.
Excellent book, Mike. I look forward to hearing about your next adventure.
Excellent book, Mike. I look forward to hearing about your next adventure.
February 20, 2023
I really enjoyed it! I liked how in-detail this book got. It did the two stories at once thing that I don’t like but it was at least very clear when times were changing. I thought the grubhub story was so fascinating. The bike part of the story not as much until it got closer to midway to the end.
March 20, 2023
Really enjoyed this book. Heard the author speak at the Tucson Festival of books and decided to read it. He can also be describe d by my favorite moniker: Corporate Hippie. Have never used GrubHub, nor DoorDash...
October 6, 2023
"I am, in fact, still very much an asshole. Mathematically, this is a problem: I have ridden my bicycle across half the country. But I'm still 100 percent asshole. I should have lost half the assholery by now. I should be down to just one cheek's worth."
December 29, 2022
Four+ stars. I really enjoyed this and the background into GrubHub (which I really knew nothing about). This book is engaging and readable.
December 31, 2022
This book was tons of fun. Not into the "business" genre, give this a try. I listened to the audio which was fantastic.
December 19, 2022
Finished reading this book “Hangry by Mike Evans”.
It’s evident that I’m not a fast /avid reader and also can’t write a better book review. Although I’m hoping to improve this in my journey, I am not going to back down and will attempt to write one.
An honest account of a founder, who climbed many challenges of Bootstrapping a start up, wooing investors /VCs, streamline business challenges/processes. As a public market observer, I do find the explanation about GRUB ipo and M&A is intriguing.
GrubHub as an early player/first of its kind to go public in the online food delivery business before Uber/door dash, had a successful IPO. At the time of IPO, it only accounts for only 1% of total take-out orders. Hungry Wall Street behemoth and investors started pouring in money which is evident is 4x spike in listed ipo stock price.
I found based on the below information (which is not listed in the book), Grubhub was quite successful for IPO investors as well which is rare in IPO world (atleast in years like 2022):
Amsterdam-based Just Eat Takeaway said it will pay $75.15 per share for Grubhub in an all-stock deal with an equity value of $7.3 billion.
Shockingly he quit his very own company which was a blockbuster in Wall Street. His constant hunger to achieve more/do good for the society is commendable.
I suggested this book to my hiking friends. You might be wondering why I’m posting about this book in Hiking community ;), his 75 day excruciating trans-am trail bike journey after quitting Grubhub is evident for his constant hunger/thirst for self discovery/discipline to achieve more in life.
It’s hard to take on such a challenging ambition, his rules can help/challenge oneself to adopt to hard things we encounter in life.
Mike's Rules for Hard Things:
One: Hard things are hard.
Two: Hard things have consequences.
Three: Hard things have big rewards.
Four: Don't give up hard things at the end of a long day. Wate morning.
Five: Hard things become easier with a vision, or goal.
I highly recommend this book to everyone and definitely inspires us to stay on course to relearn something useful every day and start anew.
relearn something: Startups and life are the same thing because once you attain a difficult goal, you're forever changed, and that new person finds themselves back at the start, once again urgently needing to establish a new vision. It's the cyclical nature of the hero's journey, of all human journeys. But, unlike a novel, it doesn't finish at the end. It starts anew.
Have fun/ let’s learn something everyday!!!
It’s evident that I’m not a fast /avid reader and also can’t write a better book review. Although I’m hoping to improve this in my journey, I am not going to back down and will attempt to write one.
An honest account of a founder, who climbed many challenges of Bootstrapping a start up, wooing investors /VCs, streamline business challenges/processes. As a public market observer, I do find the explanation about GRUB ipo and M&A is intriguing.
GrubHub as an early player/first of its kind to go public in the online food delivery business before Uber/door dash, had a successful IPO. At the time of IPO, it only accounts for only 1% of total take-out orders. Hungry Wall Street behemoth and investors started pouring in money which is evident is 4x spike in listed ipo stock price.
I found based on the below information (which is not listed in the book), Grubhub was quite successful for IPO investors as well which is rare in IPO world (atleast in years like 2022):
Amsterdam-based Just Eat Takeaway said it will pay $75.15 per share for Grubhub in an all-stock deal with an equity value of $7.3 billion.
Shockingly he quit his very own company which was a blockbuster in Wall Street. His constant hunger to achieve more/do good for the society is commendable.
I suggested this book to my hiking friends. You might be wondering why I’m posting about this book in Hiking community ;), his 75 day excruciating trans-am trail bike journey after quitting Grubhub is evident for his constant hunger/thirst for self discovery/discipline to achieve more in life.
It’s hard to take on such a challenging ambition, his rules can help/challenge oneself to adopt to hard things we encounter in life.
Mike's Rules for Hard Things:
One: Hard things are hard.
Two: Hard things have consequences.
Three: Hard things have big rewards.
Four: Don't give up hard things at the end of a long day. Wate morning.
Five: Hard things become easier with a vision, or goal.
I highly recommend this book to everyone and definitely inspires us to stay on course to relearn something useful every day and start anew.
relearn something: Startups and life are the same thing because once you attain a difficult goal, you're forever changed, and that new person finds themselves back at the start, once again urgently needing to establish a new vision. It's the cyclical nature of the hero's journey, of all human journeys. But, unlike a novel, it doesn't finish at the end. It starts anew.
Have fun/ let’s learn something everyday!!!
January 19, 2023
I was surprised how much I liked this. I know almost nothing about for-profit business or the food industry (like Barack Obama, I did work at Baskin-Robbins, but ......that was one summer 45 years ago), am low-tech in the extreme, have never used GrubHub (isn't that the thing restaurants were asking people NOT to use during early part of pandemic, as they take too high a % of the charge?), cannot relate to his origin story (it was just so darn hard to order pizza delivery -- um, no it's not, but ok) and am generally allergic to business-hero writing (I made an obscene amount of money by working all the time and outcompeting everybody in this market sector, so now i know everything about how to be a winner in any aspect of life. As indicated in The Art of War blah blah......).
Which is just to say that getting me to a 4-star reaction is a big feather in the author's cap! Very engaging writer. Hard to describe, but informal/breezy tone, and he has a good sense of what anecdotes suffice to paint the picture without going on forever. He had me on the edge of my seat and unable to put the book down describing walking around San Francisco with a friend asking restaurants for their menus to post, or (much later) fielding pitches from major money firms to determine who would handle their IPO.
Other positives:
(1) seamless interweaving of the business startup story with an account of his cross-country bike ride to unwind after he left the company
(2) warts-and-all self-reflection. Doesn't gloss over the toll that working all the time for a decade on this business took on his marriage; doesn't let himself off the hook for mistakes made along the way or his role in various people conflicts -- quite a few passages read like AITA reddit posts in which he gives even-handed analysis of what he and the other person got wrong.
All told, quite an interesting read whether or not you're an entrepreneurial soul.
Which is just to say that getting me to a 4-star reaction is a big feather in the author's cap! Very engaging writer. Hard to describe, but informal/breezy tone, and he has a good sense of what anecdotes suffice to paint the picture without going on forever. He had me on the edge of my seat and unable to put the book down describing walking around San Francisco with a friend asking restaurants for their menus to post, or (much later) fielding pitches from major money firms to determine who would handle their IPO.
Other positives:
(1) seamless interweaving of the business startup story with an account of his cross-country bike ride to unwind after he left the company
(2) warts-and-all self-reflection. Doesn't gloss over the toll that working all the time for a decade on this business took on his marriage; doesn't let himself off the hook for mistakes made along the way or his role in various people conflicts -- quite a few passages read like AITA reddit posts in which he gives even-handed analysis of what he and the other person got wrong.
All told, quite an interesting read whether or not you're an entrepreneurial soul.
July 5, 2023
Mike Evans' story of living through the frustrations of cubicle dwelling mixed with a desire for tasty food showing up at the door was a great read. He tells the rare story of a tech founder who knew enough to code his MVP, tests and pivots over the years, mergers, failures, acquisitions, and the most rarified of experiences - an IPO. His remarkable clarity of his purpose for having (and leaving) the business and the ability to achieve it makes a worthy read.
This is the tech entrepreneur version of Eat, Pray, Love, much of which occurs in Chicago. The author's reflection, however, is interspersed throughout the book via the coast to coast, Trans America journey he undertakes on a bicycle. Lessons learned on the journey are poignant and told with humble brevity.
It is, simultaneously, an entrepreneur's guidebook. Mike channels his remarkable (and unwanted) mentors from his Grubhub journey by avoiding professorial lecturing. The aphorisms of entrepreneurship aren't delivered as chapter headings or even articulated directly. The wisdom, instead, is imparted through his own experiential learning over the course of two decades. I found myself taking so many notes throughout the book to capture the true essence of these stories.
https://tejdhawan.com/hangry-the-eat-...
This is the tech entrepreneur version of Eat, Pray, Love, much of which occurs in Chicago. The author's reflection, however, is interspersed throughout the book via the coast to coast, Trans America journey he undertakes on a bicycle. Lessons learned on the journey are poignant and told with humble brevity.
It is, simultaneously, an entrepreneur's guidebook. Mike channels his remarkable (and unwanted) mentors from his Grubhub journey by avoiding professorial lecturing. The aphorisms of entrepreneurship aren't delivered as chapter headings or even articulated directly. The wisdom, instead, is imparted through his own experiential learning over the course of two decades. I found myself taking so many notes throughout the book to capture the true essence of these stories.
https://tejdhawan.com/hangry-the-eat-...
January 19, 2023
There are two main stories in the book. . the founding of GrubHub and a transcontinental bike ride.
It all starts with a Chicago coder starting a website after wanting more options for food delivery for his dinner. It evolves into a company with a mission statement of assisting small restaurants and customers by improving the ordering process. According to Mike Evans, over the years the venture capital brings investors and board members who turn GrubHub into a money grabber. During these years Mike doesn't stop this form happening because he is busy avoiding meetings, while putting no effort into finding board members who support his vision and makes it clear to everyone involved he is a short timer who wants out at the IPO. The second story is about his bike ride from Virginia to California after he leaves GrubHub which I felt was an attempt convince me he was a really good person who deserves the huge payout he got through the IPO.
Thing is it doesn't matter if he is a good person or not. He started something amazing, unfortunately, the book doesn't bring that alive. Both stories are flat and one dimensional and had me skipping through them to just finish the book. :(
It all starts with a Chicago coder starting a website after wanting more options for food delivery for his dinner. It evolves into a company with a mission statement of assisting small restaurants and customers by improving the ordering process. According to Mike Evans, over the years the venture capital brings investors and board members who turn GrubHub into a money grabber. During these years Mike doesn't stop this form happening because he is busy avoiding meetings, while putting no effort into finding board members who support his vision and makes it clear to everyone involved he is a short timer who wants out at the IPO. The second story is about his bike ride from Virginia to California after he leaves GrubHub which I felt was an attempt convince me he was a really good person who deserves the huge payout he got through the IPO.
Thing is it doesn't matter if he is a good person or not. He started something amazing, unfortunately, the book doesn't bring that alive. Both stories are flat and one dimensional and had me skipping through them to just finish the book. :(
July 13, 2025
Hangry was one of my favorite biographies I have read. Mike Evans does an excellent job keeping his journey to a relatable level. Many of the other biographies or startup books I have read can get out of touch as to what it is like for a “ordinary” person to be at the top of the business world. Evans gives a perfect framing as if we are sitting in his seat throughout the book. I didn’t enjoy the parallel biking story along with the GrubHub journey, but that’s just personal preference. His ability to stay grounded through the exponential growth his company experienced is amazing. Everything rooted back to solving a problem and helping a customer which ultimately lead to the success of his business. His “don’t be an asshole” mentality is something that I will look to carry with me, but inversely his ability to be an asshole when the time came is just as important. Another aspect I enjoyed was seeing the growth of his relationships whether that was Matt, Christine, or the board. He surrounded himself with great people and was rewarded through that throughout the book. Grubhub would not have been what it is at the IPO without his empathetic and graciousness. Finally, I found his input on taxes and the “self-made” tagline that so many founders use to be fascinating.
November 1, 2025
I reaaaaaally wanted to give this book a 4 out of 5, it just lost be a little bit with the in betweens from biking to the IPO at the very end. But don't mistake my rating for the fact that I thought this book was mediocre, I thought it was really really good. Mike did a good job explaining how he came up with the idea after a long day of work, where he really was never satisfied which I think of myself like this a lot as well. Afterwards, he had a problem of not wanting to go through the hassle of ordering pizza, and coded up his own solution (genius). After coding this, he eventually quit his job and took it on full-time, partnered with his co-worker Matt, and lead the entire startup to an IPO, an amazing feat very few have been able to do. It follows the entire journey from the first customer, making a few startling realizations on his startup journey with the business model, getting funding from VC's, and eventually merging with Seamless towards an IPO. Lots of startup lessons that I learned in my own aspirations to start my own business, therefore I really really enjoyed the book. Highly recommended to anyone with any interest in starting their own business.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 18, 2023
Nhiều người so sánh của Hangry - của Mike Evans (người sáng lập ra Grubhub) với Shoe Dog - một trong những cuốn memoir viết về startup/ business mà mình thấy hay nhất. Đọc xong cuốn này, mình thấy so sánh đó, đúng ở một vài điểm: hành trình của Mike Evans cũng đầy chông gai và cuốn hút như của Phil Knight, nhưng vẫn chưa đạt được đến tầm của Shoe Dog.
Mà thôi, đang bàn về Hangry: A Startup Journey.
Đây là cuốn sách đáng đọc. Điểm mạnh nhất của tác giả là không dùng những lời hoa mỹ, cao cả, có cánh, mà chỉ kể lại quãng đường làm startup của mình, một cách chân thật, và trần trụi nhất. Đọc sách, cứ như ngồi cạnh một người tình cờ gặp trên đường, và nghe họ kể lại câu chuyện đã qua của họ, của công ty họ. Thế thôi...
Mà thôi, đang bàn về Hangry: A Startup Journey.
Đây là cuốn sách đáng đọc. Điểm mạnh nhất của tác giả là không dùng những lời hoa mỹ, cao cả, có cánh, mà chỉ kể lại quãng đường làm startup của mình, một cách chân thật, và trần trụi nhất. Đọc sách, cứ như ngồi cạnh một người tình cờ gặp trên đường, và nghe họ kể lại câu chuyện đã qua của họ, của công ty họ. Thế thôi...
January 24, 2023
- Never let other’s definition of success dictate your life and make you miserable. Develop your own personal definition of success.
- In sales, listening and learning about your customers first instead of talking about your product.
Quitting vs giving up: Giving up means we abandon the end goals because it’s too hard. Quitting means that the end goal or the context has changed. Quitting is ok. Giving up is not ok.
- Don’t give up the trip at the end of a hard day. If I’m going to quit, it needs to be when I’m rested, well-fed, and thinking clearly.
- In customer service, the most important step of an apology is to promise that it won’t happen again and describe the specific steps you’ll take to make that promise come true.
- When going on a road trip, stay at a Comfort Inn.
- In sales, listening and learning about your customers first instead of talking about your product.
Quitting vs giving up: Giving up means we abandon the end goals because it’s too hard. Quitting means that the end goal or the context has changed. Quitting is ok. Giving up is not ok.
- Don’t give up the trip at the end of a hard day. If I’m going to quit, it needs to be when I’m rested, well-fed, and thinking clearly.
- In customer service, the most important step of an apology is to promise that it won’t happen again and describe the specific steps you’ll take to make that promise come true.
- When going on a road trip, stay at a Comfort Inn.
June 10, 2023
Absolutely loved this book. Although I think the actual founder of grubhub was way too complacent and sometimes a little too annoyed at his own success, I learned a lot listening to his insights about his own company.
The parallel bike ride after his departure across the US makes this book so much better too. The book makes you feel like you were there during the journey, which is something I appreciate in books a lot.
If you're a founder of a company, this is a must-read.
You can only read so many "Lean-Startups" and theory-based business books.
Reading and listening to an actual journey is refreshing, and I loved it!
The parallel bike ride after his departure across the US makes this book so much better too. The book makes you feel like you were there during the journey, which is something I appreciate in books a lot.
If you're a founder of a company, this is a must-read.
You can only read so many "Lean-Startups" and theory-based business books.
Reading and listening to an actual journey is refreshing, and I loved it!
May 23, 2023
Have this is a weird thing to say: I feel a lot of compassion reading this book. A few moments where I almost bursted into tears. I was somehow duped into a career in investment banking, but clearly, engineers are those who make changes to this world. Not that bankers cannot start companies, but without the tech, it’s harder compared to coders.
One of the best memoirs/biographies I’ve read in the last 2 years, even better than Shoe Dog.
One of the best memoirs/biographies I’ve read in the last 2 years, even better than Shoe Dog.
July 19, 2023
This book feels a lot like Shoe Dog while reading into. It’s not purely chronological like Shoe Dog as it is presented as a reflection on a current trip. I found this to be at times confusing which may be because I listened to an audio version of the book. It also in many ways left me wanting more. For example, when the merger is discussed there is some really interesting comments on the process but the whole section ends somewhat abruptly.
July 22, 2023
A gem of authenticity, standing out amidst the sea of startup success stories. Mike Evans bares it all, sharing the raw and unfiltered reality of building GrubHub from scratch. His candid account of eighty-hour work weeks, financial struggles, and personal sacrifices resonates deeply. Evans' unwavering honesty about the ups and downs of entrepreneurship is a refreshing and invaluable guide for aspiring founders.
November 29, 2022
Hands on experience/lessons in a good story
Light read, yet i found good gems, lessons. Good all around leader,not perfect leader, a good human being struggling with the inner voice like we all do and grinding away at his limits to push the worl in a better place in his own way. I enjoyed the read, and stories. If the author writes more,I will read more!
Light read, yet i found good gems, lessons. Good all around leader,not perfect leader, a good human being struggling with the inner voice like we all do and grinding away at his limits to push the worl in a better place in his own way. I enjoyed the read, and stories. If the author writes more,I will read more!
April 25, 2023
A few good ideas about perseverance, sales tactics, and managing people with occasional cringey SJW EXvangelical preciousness. The author became vegetarian after seeing a cow standing on a pile of manure. 😂🥱The epilogue was silly and the idea that corporations having “woke” vision is simply poisonous.
September 14, 2023
Audiobook read by the author! This was an engaging read & I enjoyed both the journeys he depicts: GrubHub (from founding, growing & getting investors, to going public & leaving the company) and his bike ride across America. (Though I didn't really appreciate his determination when Oregon was literally on fire)
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