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“Once you can implement it, and frankly that’s hard, it’s winning in the long run,” he said.
Gopuff added that because the stock market was volatile and he had enough cash on hand, he threw it into the background. He said the layoffs are part of a global restructuring.
Mr. Gola and Mr. Ilishayev met in 2011 as students at Drexel University in Philadelphia. In their sophomore year, they founded Gopuff, which offers late night fast food, condoms, and smoking paraphernalia for college students. They called themselves a “one-stop puff shop” which earned it the name Gopuff. Deliveries were available until 04:20
To differentiate themselves from DoorDash and Instacart, which connects customers to restaurants and grocery stores through their apps, Mr. Gola and Mr. Ilishayev decided that Gopuff would purchase goods from distributors and wholesalers and own warehouses. While delivery drivers and bike couriers would be contractors, warehouse workers would be full-time employees.
Mr. Gola, who dropped out of college, and Mr. Ilishayev, who graduated from Drexel with a degree in law, became managing directors of Gobrands, Gopuff’s parent company. They sold used office furniture on Craigslist and eBay to fund the business. They also offered discounts on orders to attract customers and only charged $2.95 for delivery.
As Gopuff expanded beyond Drexel students, Mr. Gola and Mr. Ilishayev expanded their product offerings and established warehouses in Boston, Washington and Austin, Texas. As of 2016, the company has raised money from venture firms like Anthos Capital and later from investors including Japanese conglomerate SoftBank.
“We’ve seen in the data: customers who come back multiple times each month, very strong customer retention, customers that basically stay forever,” said Jett Fein, partner at Headline, a venture capital firm that invests in Gopuff.
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