Zeynep Demirbilek is a multi-award-winning entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Service Club, a Barcelona-based gig-economy platform that trains and places delivery drivers and riders. Although the business was built in Spain, its focus on workforce quality and tech-led scaling offers useful lessons for women in business across the UK on how to write a business plan.
BuService Club is a members’ club and workforce platform for delivery personnel that is building a gig-economy platform with riders at the centre and provides resources explaining what is a limited company. It brings together two groups that traditionally struggle to connect: couriers who need reliable work, and delivery apps and logistics companies that need vetted, job-ready staff.
The platform’s model combines edtech and HR tech. The Service Club Academy offers short, gamified microlearning modules that teach practical skills, safety awareness and customer service. Once riders complete the training, they can apply for delivery jobs in their area through the platform’s job board. For employers, Service Club acts as a filtering, recruitment and onboarding tool that reduces the time and cost of hiring high-churn gig workers.
Its customers fall into two camps: delivery apps and logistics operators looking for quality candidates, and delivery drivers and riders looking for steady income and clearer career progression.
Why the business started
Zeynep describes herself as a problem solver. The delivery sector presented two linked problems that no one seemed to be addressing together.
For delivery apps and courier firms, the cost of acquiring quality leads is high and staff turnover is relentless. Recruitment funnels are expensive, onboarding is slow, and many new hires drop out before they complete their first delivery. For drivers and riders, work can be patchy, pay unpredictable and guidance scarce. The result is a market with strong demand for couriers but poor retention on both sides.
- Delivery apps and logistics firms: high lead-generation costs, long onboarding and high staff rotation.
- Delivery drivers and riders: inconsistent jobs, income volatility and limited support.
The UK faces similar pressures. According to TUC research from 2024, around 4.5 million people work in the gig economy in England and Wales, with courier roles among the fastest-growing categories. That creates a clear opportunity for founders who can improve working conditions while helping businesses hire more efficiently. Service Club was built to bridge that gap by educating riders first and then matching them with vacancies.
Scaling through customer feedback and compliance
High points on the journey
Since launching in 2018, Service Club moved from a shared co-working space to its own headquarters and built a diverse team spanning technology, operations and customer success. The platform registered tens of thousands of jobseekers and delivered thousands of microlearning modules, with contracts signed across Europe to support further scaling.
Perhaps the most important milestone, however, is cultural. The company created a team that could execute its dual mission: commercial growth and genuine rider support. For women founders watching from the UK, the lesson is that traction is not only about user numbers; it is also about building an organisation capable of repeating its success.
Toughest challenges and how they were overcome
The hardest part of any start-up is building a product that genuinely adds value. The antidote is to stay close to customers, ask for feedback constantly and act on it quickly. Service Club keeps its request queue short so users do not wait too long for improvements, and treats every piece of feedback as part of the product roadmap.
Cash flow, hiring and cross-border regulation have also tested the business. Like many UK founders expanding into Europe, navigating different labour laws and employment statuses has required careful legal advice and local partnerships. The experience underlines a point that applies on both sides of the Channel: international growth is easier when compliance is baked in from the start.
For UK founders today, compliance is only getting more important. The UK government’s Employment Rights Bill, introduced in 2024, includes reforms taking effect in 2025 and 2026 that introduce day-one rights, changes to zero-hours contracts and new rules on flexible working requests. Any platform business placing workers in the UK needs to track these changes closely.
Marketing, sales and technology choices
Marketing and sales channels that work
Service Club’s marketing has been deliberately diverse. LinkedIn, industry forums, targeted email campaigns and social media have all played a part. The tactic that consistently delivers, though, is building strong relationships with early customers and turning them into advocates.
The team has also invested in content marketing to drive organic traffic. Because the academy covers real questions that drivers and fleet managers ask, the business can publish genuinely useful guidance rather than generic promotional material. This approach builds trust with both sides of the marketplace and keeps readers interested in delivery careers.
The academy itself is the main differentiator. While most gig-economy job boards simply list vacancies, Service Club trains riders first, making them a safer bet for employers. In B2B sales, that unique proposition usually leads to a pilot contract for a set number of couriers, which then expands if the trial succeeds.
Technology at the core
Technology is at the core of Service Club. The company took a tech-first approach from day one, using its own platform to deliver microlearning, match workers with jobs, communicate with users, run marketing campaigns and collect feedback.
The app is designed to be scalable. As the business enters new cities or countries, the same infrastructure can onboard new learners and employers without rebuilding the underlying systems. Gamification keeps learners engaged, while data from the academy helps employers identify the most reliable candidates.
For UK women founders, the broader takeaway is that technology is most powerful when it solves a specific operational pain point. In Service Club’s case, that pain point is workforce quality in a high-churn industry. A clear problem, a measurable outcome and a repeatable tech solution form the foundation for investor conversations and customer pitches.
What UK women founders can apply now
Zeynep Demirbilek’s experience shows that a start-up can grow internationally while staying rooted in customer feedback, workforce development and disciplined technology choices. For women founders in the UK, the Service Club story is a reminder that some of the best opportunities lie in improving the day-to-day experience of overlooked workers.
The UK context makes this especially relevant. The TUC’s 2024 report estimates that 4.5 million people work in the gig economy in England and Wales. At the same time, the UK government raised the National Living Wage to £12.21 an hour in April 2025 for workers aged 21 and over, putting further pressure on platforms and employers to manage costs fairly. You can read more about what this means for employers in our guide to the National Living Wage for women founders.
Funding remains a structural challenge. The British Business Bank reported in 2024 that all-women founder teams receive around 2% of UK venture capital, while the Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship found that women-led businesses contribute £85 billion to the UK economy each year. For women building platform businesses, this means investor readiness, clear unit economics and a repeatable model matter more than ever.
Regulation is also shifting. The Zero Hours Reform 2026 changes and the wider Employment Rights Bill timeline affect how platforms classify, pay and schedule workers. Since 2025, Companies House has also required all new and existing directors to verify their identity, adding a compliance step for any woman setting up a limited company. Founders who build compliance into their operating model from the start, as Service Club did for cross-border expansion, will find it easier to adapt.
Action steps
- Audit your workforce model against the latest UK gig-economy rules, including the Employment Rights Bill and National Living Wage requirements.
- Build feedback loops into your product so customer input shapes your roadmap, not just your support queue.
- Identify one operational pain point that technology can solve measurably, then design the simplest repeatable solution before seeking investment.
- Map the UK funding landscape for women-led businesses, from British Business Bank programmes to Start Up Loans, before you need the capital.
Service Club’s story is not just about delivery riders. It is about spotting a gap in a fragmented labour market, educating the supply side and using technology to make matching more efficient. Those principles apply whether you are building in Barcelona, Birmingham or anywhere in between.
