Hey Yo,
So I have been trolling around this site for a while now, though I just recently made an account, and I never felt the need to post a thread topic until now. I had some downtime in the office recently and was hit with what may be an epiphany (probably not, but just wanted to bounce the idea off of some capable minds). Like most of you, I am pretty busy most of the time at work and usually not able to take the time to go out and get a lunch.
Today, I have some time so fuck off. I can only speak for the Pittsburgh area here, but the options on Seamless, Grubhub, etc. are very weak, like 5-7 restaurants that deliver to me and many of the best spots delivery are extremely slow, or just flat out don't offer delivery. My idea is to take the Grubhub/Seamless model and limit it to the working professionals of the city, and completely cater it to what I believe is the most lucrative market for delivery...corporate America. The model would be to take the top 50-100 restaurants (number here is arbitrary) in terms of their lunch revenue and add them to the website. For these restaurants the company would offer delivery for all orders generated through the site, whether they already have delivery but need help with the increase in orders, or they never offered delivery in the first place. The company would take a 10% fee on orders through the website from the restaurant, and an extra 10% processing/delivery fee (added to the bill) from the customers. In theory, with successful marketing and advertising (easier said then done, talking hypotheticals here), both the restaurant would benefit from the increase in sales generated from the website and the ability to take on these orders, as would the customer with the most popular restaurants being delivered to their office during their work. Only costs would be domain name, maintenance, etc., marketing/advertising, minimum wage paid to drivers, and an investment in heated delivery bags.
So to recap:
Grubhub/Seamless website -> focusing on the corporate America's lunch market -> deliver for 50-100 most restaurants by revenue -> take 10% fee from restaurant for orders through website + 10% from customer in processing/transaction fee on bill -> only offer delivery from 11-5/6/7 -> cost of domain name, marketing, driver wage, heated delivery bags
That's my idea. I'd really appreciate you guys telling me what you think (though that's not a problem for most of you). If its bad, its bad and Ill accept my career as a corporate drone/finance monkey. If its good, I will quit my job today and pursue it wholeheartedly with the passion and fervor of a naïve high school kid ready to change the world, end world hunger, and create world peace. Not really, but will keep it open as an option down the line.
you will only get my opinion for 5% equity. Balls in your court.
People do this already. Could be a good business - I'm not sure - but it's not revolutionary.
Seamless/Grubhub - Charges restaurants fee which is why not all restaurants are on the app but everyone uses it
Postmates - Charges the consumer a delivery fee. Every restaurant/store is on the app because most times the store doesnt even know. However, less people use the app because they dont want to pay for the delivery fee.
You are suggesting taking the worst part of both of these companies and combining them. The results will be less consumers and less offerings. Not trying to be a dick, but this you might need to re-think the strategy.
My idea for this has always been to make it free to both businesses and consumers and sell ads on an app/website.
Don't ever do this.
If you can find a way to make money while still handling the delivery, you'd be a magician. Ads don't generate enough revenue to offset the cost of on the ground delivery. You might be able to do something like this if drones became popularized, so that the delivery costs could be shrunk significantly. Today, it's just not feasible.
Wow, I was sorta thinking of something like Postmates (had never heard of it). It looks pretty awesome.
If you can find a way for people to get their Chipotle orders delivered without spending $20 for a burrito then go for it
Why not create a discount card for restaurants. Participating restaurants gets benefit of increased custom, customers get % off food, you get % of sale. boom baby
In addition to the good advice above, if you have a business idea that you genuinely think is good it's a terrible idea to post it in a public forum.
A week after he told me, someone else came in with a patent that was near identical. It wasn't me, but I felt super awkward for the next week or so. In the end he got in touch with the patent holder, and it was an existing firm in the industry, so I got to clear my name. Still, I felt really bad for him.
If you're decreasing a restaurant's margin they would need to compensate through higher volume. Not sure that all the 22 year old banker bros will suddenly start scarfing down Le Bernardin for lunch in between power point slides
I like how your idea focus on corporate America lunch market and how it - by design - only offer delivery from 11-5/6/7. With a focus in mind you could just, well, focus on a specific market of your choice and find the most effective and efficient way to thrive.
That being said, I can't say much about profitability because I have never read any research/survey on this "Delivering appetite to the corporate America" kind of business, esp. on the demand side. Because from what I've read, it's pretty much nothing to lose for the restaurants.
There is a similar service here in Indonesia called GO-JEK, but since they cater to basically any delivery (you could even ask them to deliver your forgotten laptop from your cubicle to your room) and has been very aggressive in their pricing ($1.00 to anywhere in 25km radius!), I've heard they're still bleeding hard. You should read about them; some articles are written in English I believe.
This is just a niche Postmates, nothing new. Honestly if you haven't used Postmates yet, use that, that's how I get food to work when I can't leave. It's the Uber of insert anything delivery.
Restaurant margins are not fat enough to charge them 20% off the top
My college has something like this. The service delivers food from restaurants that are quite far away from campus. It has most of its flyers in the libraries where most people are tempted to order food to eat while they study. What I don't understand is how they keep the food hot and fresh when they have to drive 20-30 minutes to get the food to the customer.
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