hungryhouse.co.uk

As well as vastly improving and simplifying the takeaway ordering process, hungryhouse.co.uk boasts a thriving community that's contributed 91,000 reviews to date. Turnover grew by about 90% in 2009, and the team reckon they serve about 50% of the UK metropolitan population. They appeared on Dragons' Den in November 2007, attracting investment offers from James Caan and Duncan Bannatyne. The deal hit the stumbling blocks at the due diligence stage, but the publicity led to a flood of offers that resulted in hefty investment form elsewhere. hungryhouse.co.uk negotiates supplier deals on behalf of the small, family-run takeaways they list, making these partners big savings on hundreds of day-to-day purchases and earning the business more loyalty. They've also cannily set up their operations office in the Czech Republic, meaning they get the top English ex-pat talent at a fraction of the normal cost.

• Simplifying and improving a long-established process
• 90% increase in turnover in 2009
• Support smaller businesses by negotiating cost savings on their behalf
• Savvy cost-cutting by establishing an office in the Czech Republic
• Yahoo! Search Finds of the Year nominee 2007