Jesper Buch: How I delivered profits from takeaways

When Jesper Buch got a midnight craving for pizza, he spotted a gap in the take-away food market. After four years hard work, his company broke even. Soon after, he sold his share of the business for £3m.

Jesper Buch got his business idea from a midnight craving for pizza. In 2000, the Dane now 35 was completing a diplomatic internship in Norway. "I was new in town and didn't know what number to ring to order a takeaway pizza so I looked online." When Buch couldn't find what he wanted he realised there was a "massive gap in the market".

His plan was for a website that would act as a "one-stop-shop". Customers would only have to go to one site for all their takeaway needs. Restaurants, meanwhile, would benefit from extra custom. "It was the perfect business model because I did not need to handle any product I could just charge a commission for every transaction." Buch returned to his native Denmark to set up the site, but he realised he needed "expertise and money". He approached the banks with his business plan and found that "they liked the idea". However, "after the dotcom crash they were giving out thousands rather than millions".

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James McKeigue

James graduated from Keele University with a BA (Hons) in English literature and history, and has a certificate in journalism from the NCTJ. James has worked as a freelance journalist in various Latin American countries.He also had a spell at ITV, as welll as wring for Television Business International and covering the European equity markets for the Forbes.com London bureau. James has travelled extensively in emerging markets, reporting for international energy magazines such as Oil and Gas Investor, and institutional publications such as the Commonwealth Business Environment Report. He is currently the managing editor of LatAm INVESTOR, the UK's only Latin American finance magazine.