The Feed

Atul Sood is the Chief Business Officer at Kitchen United, one of the leading ghost kitchen providers in the US with 13 live facilities. The startup has recently partnered with Simon Property Group and Westfield to open next-gen food courts within their malls as well as Kroger to allow shoppers the ability to mix and match from different virtual and physical restaurant brands in a single takeout or delivery order. In this episode we’ll talk about how ghost kitchens can disrupt the marketplace model, the importance of pickup, and how retailers and real estate owners are leveraging Kitchen United’s technology and labor.

Stephen Klein is the Co-founder and CEO of Hyphen, an automated makeline for salads, bowls, tacos, and burritos, reducing total restaurant labor costs by nearly 50%. Thanks to its pricing model that charges restaurants as low as 70 cents per meal, the startup is transforming the fixed cost of kitchen labor into a variable "AWS for restaurant labor." We’ll chat about what sets Hyphen apart from other articulated robots, how it plans to expand into new categories, and the future creator economy around food as the marginal cost of production falls to pennies per dish.

Zeke DeSantis and Conrad DeMasi are the co-founders of Provecho, a link-in-bio recipe product for the next generation of chef creators building their audiences on social media. On TikTok alone, there are nearly 60 billion views for content tagged #FoodTikTok, but no easy-to-follow recipe guide nor a streamlined way for culinary influencers to monetize their recipes through branded sponsorships. In this episode, we’ll dive into the startup’s two-sided marketplace between chefs, CPG brands, and consumers, what Instacart’s TikTok partnership means for its strategy, and the startup’s vision to become the link between online recipe discovery and home cooking.

Brendan Sweeney is the Co-Founder and CEO of Popmenu, a direct end-to-end platform that provides a website builder, online ordering platform, delivery aggregator, and more to over 6,000 small and medium sized restaurants. We'll chat about how the team used its outsider mindset to identify major whitespace for restaurants, the impact of first-party reviews on SEO, and the need for consolidation and competition in the space.

Nabeel Alamgir is the Co-Founder and CEO of Lunchbox, an omnichannel white-label ordering solution for virtual and physical brands like C3, 16 Handles, and Fuku that has raised over $70mm to date. In this episode we’ll talk about the accelerated consolidation in this space from players like DoorDash and Olo, how Lunchbox is able to retarget customers from third-party delivery apps over to direct channels, and the future of virtual brands and the metaverse.

Michael Suswal is the Co-Founder and Chief Business officer of Standard AI, an autonomous checkout startup that’s raised over $250mm for its AI-based computer vision technology. In this episode we’ll talk about why Standard chose to retrofit vs. compete against existing convenience stores, how c-stores plan to leverage Standard to compete against Gopuff and DoorDash, and the role of the retail experience amidst the growing demand for delivery.

Chaz Flexman is the Co-Founder & CEO of Starday Foods, a next-gen food conglomerate that leverages best practices from the software industry to quickly test, launch, and iterate on CPG brands like All Day seasonings and Gooey Snacks. In this episode, we’ll chat about the processes that enable Starday to launch new brands for less than 250k in six months, how it approaches online and offline retail, and how the company likens itself more to a Ford than a Unilever.

Dan Folkman is the SVP of Business at Gopuff, the market leader in delivery of instant needs. Since its start on college campuses in 2013, Gopuff has evolved from selling convenience goods to a selection of over 4,000 unique items ranging from prepared food to liquor, produce, and beauty products, and it’s just getting started. In this episode, we’ll dive into what sets Gopuff apart from newer 15-minute delivery players, its new advertising business, the capital expenditures it has invested into its network over the last eight years, and much more.

Alice Crowder is the CMO of Krystal, a 300-unit regional QSR operating across the Southeast. The iconic Georgia-based slider chain was acquired out of bankruptcy by Fortress at the beginning of the pandemic and has since transformed itself through the launch of new AI-powered drive-thrus and celebrity-branded locations from former Giants player Victor Cruz. In this episode, we’ll dive into how Krystal A/B tests dynamic drive thru menus, launches new menu items, and is optimizing the drive-thru and off-premise experience.

Clayton Wood is the CEO of Picnic, an automated pizza station that can improve foodservice labor costs by as much as two-thirds, doubling to tripling four-wall EBITDA margins. Picnic is currently being used on-premise at stadiums and will soon be powering delivery for national pizza chains, convenience stores, grocers, and much more. In this episode, we’ll chat about what makes the pizza industry a unique place for automation, lessons learned from the first wave of startups, and how operators are looking to scale brands using this technology.