Lieferoo

Aazar Shad arrived in Munich from Pakistan in 2014 with a frustrating problem: he loved Pakistani tea and other goods that were expensive or unavailable in Germany, so he kept asking friends traveling between countries to bring him things. "If people are paying other people to transport them, why wouldn't people pay other people to transport them certain things?" he thought. He discovered this wasn't just his problem—Pakistani expats wanted electronics, Mexicans wanted cultural products from home, and others faced the same gaps. That spark became Lieferoo: "the BlaBlaCar for logistics and awkward items."

Aazar did serious validation first. He created a survey, talked to around 100 people who traveled regularly, and launched a Facebook group for people interested in shipping between Pakistan and Germany. The response was immediate—"a huge number of people were asking about what I wanted to build." But after a few months, he realized the core idea had fatal flaws: international shipping meant risking illegal drug smuggling accusations and complex tax issues. So he pivoted to domestic logistics—helping Germans move chairs, tables, and other bulky items long-distance.

He co-founded with a tech person from university (avoiding developer costs) and built a website that "looked like Airbnb but for domestic logistics." The technical side went smoothly: "I really enjoyed the process of building the platform because I never had built a website and a software product before—it was very interesting for me." But the business side immediately broke: "People began signing up the project and putting stuff there that they needed to be transported. But really few people signed up in the supplier side."

The demand signal looked promising—over 25 requests to move items. But no one actually completed a shipment. The problem wasn't product-market fit; it was trust. Germans didn't believe in peer-to-peer services like Uber or Airbnb worked, fearing scams or that strangers would steal their packages. Aazar's payment model made it worse: following BlaBlaCar's model, service was free upfront and payment happened after delivery. That terrified users even more.

The real moment of failure came when Aazar tried to ship a "beer" (apparently a mascot or physical item) around the world as a marketing stunt. It traveled 30 countries via person-to-person handoff, but then got lost. No traction, no trust, no revenue.

What worked: validation. Aazar spent 1-2 months understanding the problem, surveyed broadly, and built a Facebook community that showed real demand. What failed: everything else. His marketing strategy was "just Facebook—I worked as much as possible in the social platform because the whole Lieferoo audience was there." He never paid for ads, never attended events, never invested money in growth. "My innocent idea was to make thousands of dollars with my business whose marketing efforts were based completely on word of mouth." That was the first mistake.

The second mistake was team. His co-founder moved to Nepal and stopped caring. A second co-founder (a German required for legal reasons) was unmotivated. Aazar was part-time while studying. No one was full-time or passionate. The third mistake: Aazar didn't speak German fluently, so he couldn't talk to customers or understand their feedback. The fourth: German culture itself—Germans simply didn't trust online peer services the way Americans or people in other countries did.

After 1.5 years (6 months full-time, 1 year part-time), Lieferoo shut down. Total spend: around 5,000€ out of pocket (personal contribution 4,200€). The financial loss was minimal—they were still in MVP stage—but the time loss was total. Aazar later reflected: "I should have tried one more pivot and moved to the B2B market." He should have spoken German. He should have hired full-time. He should have paid for Facebook ads.

Today, Aazar has moved on: he built ECOMPLY.io (a GDPR SaaS solution) and now works as VP Growth at Userpilot, helping companies with user onboarding. He reads Ben Horowitz, listens to startup podcasts, and shares what he learned from the wreckage.