Back in 2011, Fez and Sal Rismani figured they’d stumbled upon a great business idea.
Sal had started working for an online grocery startup venture and saw some untapped delivery options. The idea led him to brainstorm with his brother around the idea of a “one-stop” online shop where you could have everything done for you – from dry-cleaning to restaurant food pickups – and all within an hour.
The brothers, whose entrepreneurial streak stretches back years to ventures selling fireworks and running web and development applications, were attending Simon Fraser University (SFU) while working two jobs on the side.
Fez Rismani was working as a teaching assistant at SFU’s economics department, and at Cactus Club at night. Sal Rismani was managing some tech projects while working at Rogue restaurant. The two naively figured their innovative idea would take off immediately.
The DailyDelivery.ca website got some traffic when it launched, but it was mostly from people ordering food delivery and pickup. The business stalled, and the brothers moved on to other projects.
By February 2013, they were back at the starting blocks with little to show for their efforts.
“We realized that our Plan B was also about to fall apart, so we went back to Plan A: Daily Delivery,” Fez Rismani said. “We realized that the problem we were trying to solve was more of a business-oriented one rather than a customer-oriented need. So we decided to move away from the business-to-consumer model and become a business-to-business service provider.”
By October 2013, Daily Delivery had secured enough sign-ups in the restaurant sector to put it on Just Eat’s radar, landing it a trial run with the company in which Just Eat sent orders to restaurants, and Daily Delivery took care of the “last mile” deliveries to their final destination. The fledgling company achieved this by using electric scooters. It has since outsourced drivers as sub-contractors, much like Uber or Lyft.
In February 2014, the partnership with Just Eat became official, opening the floodgates to a host of other business opportunities including Foodee and YP Dine. The brothers quit their other jobs to focus on the company.
They further cemented their venture by appearing on Dragons’ Den that year.
Although they were initially skeptical about the TV show, the two signed a deal with two Dragons, including Buytopia.ca co-founder Michele Romanow, who Fez Rismani said has been a huge help.
The company now has more than 250 part-time drivers in the Vancouver area running deliveries for more than 300 stores and restaurants within the “under an hour” time frame.
Fez Rismani said drivers can make anywhere from $500 to $3,500 per month, but he noted most of them use the work to supplement full-time jobs.
The brothers have moved into a downtown Vancouver office on West Pender Street, and say the next goal is to go countrywide.
“Toronto’s operations are in full swing now, and we’ve already surpassed our growth in Vancouver,” Sal Rismani said. “We couldn’t be happier with how things have turned out.”
