Episode 356 – Guest: Mike Evans
Guest: Mike Evans

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Kelly gets to know Mike Evans, the founder of GrubHub, who has a new book called “Hangry: A Startup Journey.”

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This isn’t just a business book.

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“The book is a personal story of what it’s like to create something from nothing and bring it all the way through an IPO. I started with a hundred- and forty-dollar check and GrubHub got purchased for seven billion dollars. So, it was a pretty big growth story, right? But, there’s a personal story there, too. There’s what it’s like to go through that which I think a lot of people will find interesting. And a lot of that I didn’t really discover until after I was gone and was reflecting on it, which I do on the bike trip when I ride off into the sunset, and actually ride my bicycle from Virginia to Oregon.”

I did find it funny that you ask the question in the book as to whether or not you are an ‘a**hole?

“I can answer that question. The answer is yes. So, I appreciate you giving me a little bit of a softball there. I know there were times during the journey when I wasn’t the person I wanted to be, for sure. But that’s all of us. I don’t know a human being who can’t look back at their life without some regret, especially when you have a certain level of success.  Because at that point you have ethical things that come up if you are going to do the right thing and It is going to hurt your business.”

I thought your take on goals and having the clarity to change or quit when you need to was interesting.  

“Your goals are really all the things you can do. I think there’s a stigma associated with changing your goals or being flexible about goals and being willing to change them which allows you to make more aggressive and experimental ones in the first place. And so, I talk a lot about the value of leaving behind things that don’t match your values, your goals anymore. And I did that a  number of times throughout the book. It’s an emotional experience. I sound way more clinical about it now, but in the book, I feel like I capture some of the, oh, this sucks moments.”

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