Sam Altman should take Niklas Östberg’s number—what the Delivery Hero founder doesn’t know about taking a company public and handling grumpy shareholders isn’t worth knowing

(Credit: Courtesy of Delivery Hero)

Niklas Östberg is a rare beast. A founder-CEO who took his company public and survived a shareholder backlash. Sam Altman might like to take his number as he considers floating OpenAI. Reporting on your results every three months is not for the faint-hearted. 

Östberg is the entrepreneur behind Delivery Hero, the €7.65 billion global food delivery business that went public in 2017. It was the largest float of the year on the German stock exchange, and unlike other, rockier food delivery debuts (Deliveroo, Blue Apron), its share price rose strongly.