I’m excited to say that DN Capital are now investors in Quandoo via an $8m round with Holtzbrinck Ventures. I want to share some of the reasons for this excitement.

Speed of execution: One big reason I love investing is that I get to choose who I work with and the Quandoo team are one of the most driven I know. At CityDeal they launched sales operations in more countries and faster than anyone had done before and they’re doing the same again with 5 countries launched in 12 months. I also like being pushed to do better as much as I am pushing others and if you’ve met Philipp you will know what I mean by that. One small example, it took 42 days to go from the first phone call to closing the deal.

Tightly integrated team: I count 12 of the current team that did the exact same role when they previously worked together at CityDeal and it shows in the trust and co-ordination between individuals. People finish sentences for each other and the integration between Jens in technology, Ronny in marketing, Tim in sales/operations and Sebastian on the roll-out is seamless.

Rapid product development: After 12 months Quandoo already has a better product than their closest competitors based on customer calls with restaurants across three countries. Quandoo’s net promoter score, the proportion who love them minus those who hate them, was 24% better than the 2nd best. There is also a lot more coming through the product development pipeline.

There was lots more to like but those were the big ones for me. One last thing, thanks to every one of the team I met at the Christmas party and to whoever re-discovered what I like to think of as the unofficial company song: