Liven founder Grace Wong on impact of Deliveroo collapse

Melbourne tech founder Grace Wong says the Deliveroo and Voly collapse came as no ‘surprise’.

Grace Wong, co-founder of Liven in Melbourne. Picture: Penny Stephens.

The collapse of Deliveroo and Voly and the mass lay-offs that have landed at Menulog and DoorDash came as no surprise to anyone in the hospitality technology sector, says the co-founder of dining and restaurant payments service Liven.

Grace Wong said start-ups who had built their “business over hype and PR and marketing” had gone down an unsustainable path and were bound to close.

“Start-up founders like myself already knew that in order to build a sustainable business that lasts over generations, you need to have a unit of economics that makes sense,” she said.

“The delivery space has never been that way and then it’s very predatory. They usually raise venture funds and then use the funds to grow users and then try to excite customers in the greater marketplace and then whoever dominates wins.”

The overuse of fancy marketing campaigns and public relations stunts was like “botox”, she said.

“Marketing usually involves saying that your company is doing well and gives you a lot of like vanity metrics that do not matter at all,” she told The Australian at the West Tech Fest in Perth.

Liven co-founder Grace Wong. Picture: Penny Stephens

“Businesses tend to want to do more and more when they get results this way and that’s when they neglect building other modules and becoming sustainable on their own. At some point the effect does not even last long just like botox.

“It’s the same on Twitter and Instagram. In the beginning, they give you amazing likes and followers and whatever but then later, if you don’t spend enough money and create more and more, you don’t get enough visibility anymore.”

Ms Wong considers Liven – which was backed in its infancy by Silicon Valley veteran Bill Tai – to exist in the Web3 space.

The business model, which at first glance appears to be a loyalty marketing app, allows business to create tokens which customers can purchase or earn.

Coffee stamp cards are now a thing of the past, says Ms Wong, who believes loyal customers are willing to splurge on 10 coffees at once so long as it comes with some kind of instant reward.

“We like everything to be like happening right now. Nowadays, if Amazon isn’t sending you the delivery within two days, that’s not fast enough,” she said.

“Asking me to visit 10 times in order to get a free ice cream at the end, that doesn’t satisfy me or doesn’t change my behaviour. Businesses don’t want word commitment, they want financial commitment. If a customer buys 10 ice creams in advance, businesses now guarantee three free ice creams.”

Ms Wong said Liven tries to teach restaurants not to limit their sales to in-person but rather try an e-commerce approach.

“It’s about teaching businesses how you can get your customers from San Francisco to still buy your burger even though they’re in New York. You should be able to do this, e-commerce already sells items this way,” she said.

“The more you reward your customers, the longer they will stay with you. The more you empower the suppliers and investors and vendors, the more they will help you. That is the Web3 model.”

Joseph Lam travelled to Perth as a guest of West Tech Fest.