The Mike Evans Grubhub Story: From Startup Dream to Delivery Giant
Not too long ago, ordering food to your door was a hassle—menus got lost in kitchen drawers and you had to read your credit card number over the phone every time. Then along came Mike Evans, a Chicago engineer who simply wanted an easier way to find and order delivery. That ordinary frustration became the spark for Grubhub, a side project Mike started in 2004 with friend Matt Maloney. What began as a local website listing neighborhood takeout joints would, within a decade, help transform how America eats—connecting more than 300,000 restaurants and serving millions of customers nationwide.
This is the story of how one engineer’s craving—and his drive to solve a problem—grew Grubhub from a tiny startup into a $2 billion public company. Whether you’re curious about startups, tech, or just love a good underdog journey, Mike Evans’ path from a hungry night at home to revolutionizing an entire industry is worth a closer look.
Who Is Mike Evans? Early Days Before Grubhub
Background and Education
Long before Grubhub became a household name, Mike Evans was growing up in small-town Michigan. Scholarly curiosity came naturally to him. He excelled in math and science, earning a place at MIT—Massachusetts Institute of Technology—where he studied electrical engineering and computer science. Surrounded by brilliant minds and tech visionaries, Evans first got a taste for using software to solve stubborn, everyday problems.
Early Entrepreneurial Instincts
Evans’ knack for tinkering with technology showed up early. While other kids were riding bikes or playing video games, he could often be found pulling apart old radios and piecing them back together just to see how they worked. At MIT, he didn’t just study theory; he took on side projects and dabbled in small ventures. Whether building websites or collaborating on coding competitions, Evans gravitated toward solving real-world puzzles with resourceful, hands-on ingenuity.
This mix of technical grit and creative problem-solving laid the foundation for what would become a revolution in online food ordering. Little did Evans know, a single moment of frustration in his Chicago apartment would soon set him on the path to changing how America orders takeout forever.
How Grubhub Started: The Spark Behind the Idea
The Frustration That Led to Grubhub
Back in the early 2000s, Mike Evans wasn’t dreaming of building a tech giant—he just wanted some decent takeout. Like thousands of hungry Chicagoans, he found himself stranded in a sea of crumpled menus, endless phone calls, and mysterious delivery wait times. Ordering food was anything but convenient. The process felt stuck in the past, with no simple way to browse restaurants or keep tabs on an order. Frustration quickly turned into curiosity: why couldn’t picking a place to eat be as easy as checking your email?
Building the First Grubhub Prototype
Unlike many Silicon Valley tales, Grubhub’s journey started in a small Chicago apartment, not a glossy tech incubator. Mike, already working a demanding engineering job, began tinkering after hours. He teamed up with friend Matt Maloney, and together they set out to solve their own dinner dilemma. Evans wrote code for a basic website that let users search for local restaurants offering delivery—a single-minded project built to scratch an itch.
The first version was far from fancy, but it mapped nearby eateries and displayed digitized menus—something shockingly rare at the time. Evans and Maloney delivered flyers door-to-door to snag their first users, eager to see if others were just as annoyed by outdated takeout options.
This simple solution quickly hinted at a bigger opportunity—one that would set the stage for rapid growth, unlikely risks, and the transformation of a humble side project into an industry game-changer. Next, we’ll explore how that local hustle turned Grubhub into a name known nationwide.
Taking Grubhub from Local Project to National Disruptor
Bootstrapping Growth: The First Users and Restaurants
In the early 2000s, Mike Evans and Matt Maloney weren’t armed with venture capital or Silicon Valley buzz. Their initial marketing weapon was shoe leather. Evans personally visited Chicago’s independent restaurants, demoing Grubhub to skeptical owners. The pitch was simple: more delivery orders with less hassle. At first, a handful of local pizzerias and takeout spots tried it, their order slips crossing Evans’ own desk. Word spread slowly—restaurants not only signed up, but told their peers about the platform. Hungry users, starved for convenience and options, found Grubhub through Google search and grassroots flyers stapled to coffee shop corkboards.
Key Challenges and Breakthroughs
Grubhub’s earliest version was clunky. Menus arrived as faxes. Owners were wary of scraping profits for unproven tech. In response, Evans and Maloney rolled up their sleeves—literally spending nights coding and days negotiating with restaurant partners, refining the platform to make digital ordering just work. The “aha” moment came when they automated menu updates and smoothed the ordering workflow. Suddenly, what started as a clunky database became a one-stop shop for hungry city dwellers. As bigger competitors entered the scene and tech evolved, Grubhub differentiated itself by focusing relentlessly on local relationships and delivering reliability over flash.
The hustle that began with handshakes and flyers would soon face new terrain—raising capital, attracting national partners, and dealing with the explosive growth that defined the next phase of Grubhub’s story. The journey into uncharted territory was just beginning.
The Turning Point: Scaling, Funding, and Going Public
Finding Investors and Partners
By 2009, Grubhub had captured Chicago’s attention—but growing from local sensation to national contender required capital and connections. Investors weren’t immediately convinced. Food delivery, to many, seemed like a logistical headache wrapped in thin margins. Mike Evans, however, refused to accept no for an answer. He swapped scrappy pitch decks for genuine conversation, ensuring investors saw the real pain Grubhub solved for both hungry customers and bustling restaurants.
Eventually, the company connected with Origin Ventures, and then others followed. Evans and co-founder Matt Maloney leveraged these early relationships not just for funding, but for mentorship. Their partners became sounding boards and door-openers—accelerating decisions and untangling the knotty logistics of multi-city expansion. Each funding round didn’t just add dollars to the bank—it unlocked the next challenge, the next market, the next feature.
Modern kitchens brimming with laptops and city maps: the original Grubhub team thrived on both caffeine and chemistry, plotting routes to bring more restaurants onto the platform across increasingly distant time zones.
IPO and Grubhub’s Market Impact
Years of relentless expansion transformed Grubhub from an upstart to an industry leader. By early 2014, the company merged with competitor Seamless, fortifying its national reach and making investors’ heads turn. On April 4, 2014, Grubhub went public. The energy was palpable: Mike Evans watched the company’s ticker symbol debut, signaling a new era for online food ordering.
Grubhub’s IPO didn’t just make headlines—it signaled legitimacy in a market previously regarded as a niche experiment. The company’s robust technology and expansive network rippled through the restaurant industry, giving small eateries a fighting chance against large chains. For Wall Street, it was also a moment of awakening: digital marketplaces weren’t just dreams—they were reshaping how Americans ate dinner.
With success came inevitable shifts, and the company that once fit around a kitchen table now faced the challenges—and freedoms—of the public market. Yet for Evans, the ride was far from over. The next phase of his journey would prompt reflections, pivots, and unexpected ambitions that few could have predicted.
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Life After Grubhub: Mike Evans’ Next Chapter
Why Mike Evans Left Grubhub
After guiding Grubhub from a modest Chicago side-project to a public company trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Mike Evans made the unexpected decision to step away. Success brought stability—and a new set of responsibilities. Evans found himself spending more time in meetings and less time building. He realized he missed the fast pace and creative energy of early startup days. The prospect of becoming a lifelong executive didn’t appeal to him; he preferred being a creator, pushing boundaries rather than managing scale. Stepping away, Evans chose to rediscover the thrill of inventing something new.
New Ventures and Lessons Learned
Freedom from the demands of Grubhub unlocked new possibilities. Evans didn’t retreat from entrepreneurship. Instead, he sought a way to channel his curiosity and drive into another ambitious project. He pedaled—literally—across the country to clear his head and rethink what mattered most to him. That journey inspired his next move: founding Fixer, a business tackling home repair with the same relentless focus on quality and convenience he brought to food delivery. For Evans, each mistake and success at Grubhub shaped his philosophy—build things that solve real problems, and don’t be afraid to start again, even after reaching the top.
Mike Evans’ story doesn’t end with a triumphant exit. Instead, he continues breaking new ground, always searching for fresh challenges to chase. His evolving journey sets the stage for deeper lessons on resilience, adaptation, and the realities behind the headlines.
Lessons from the Mike Evans Grubhub Journey
Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
Mike Evans’ Grubhub story isn’t about chasing the next get-rich-quick trend. He started with a simple goal: make ordering food less painful. His journey underscores the importance of solving a real problem you actually care about. Evans didn’t wake up with a brilliant blueprint—he built, tested, failed, and rebuilt. His perseverance and willingness to tinker were often more valuable than business school theories. For founders, this means sweat beats swagger. Start with what bugs you, build for people like you, and let customer feedback shape the product—no slideshows required.
Reflections on Startup Culture and Growth
The Grubhub story flips the myth that success must come at the cost of burnout and bravado. Evans learned, sometimes the hard way, that rapid growth magnifies both wins and flaws. He’s candid about mistakes: stretching too thin, ignoring the team’s bandwidth, or letting work eclipse life. What mattered wasn’t rocket-fueled expansion, but finding pace and purpose without burning out. His journey is a reminder: the startup hustle doesn’t have to be relentless. Listen to your gut as much as your growth charts, and don’t be afraid to step back or pivot when the soul of your work is on the line.
As Evans’ story shows, success isn’t just what you build, but how you grow. The next chapter in his life offers even deeper insight into what founders discover once the IPO confetti settles.