Berkeley Start-upsCyber-Stalk Your Next Meal
by Tama Teig
Next time you’re hungry, but want to avoid a fast food line, you can get a hot gourmet meal delivered to your door in 15 minutes or less–if you live in select areas of Seattle, San Diego, or San Francisco/Oakland. Even better, you can watch your dinner’s progress to your door, Uber style.
Good Food Fast - NOT Fast Food
For those of you in the right zip codes, SpoonRocket’s high-tech logistical genius has created an efficient, convenient process. After you order one of the daily selections on their website or app, it’s assigned to the closest driver to your area, who has a heating unit in the vehicle to keeps hot meal portions piping hot. Then you can follow your meal’s progress on a map. Over 80% of deliveries are within 15 minutes or less, and you’ll receive a two-minute warning call, just in time to put your shoes on and meet the driver curbside.
With tiered-level meal prices ranging from $7-$12, SpoonRocket is offering a higher-quality yet affordable alternative to fast food drive-throughs, and even cooking at home.
These guys aren’t kidding when they call it affordable gourmet food–they have a professional chef on staff. Executive Chef Barney Brown, formerly of The Rotunda at Neiman Marcus, comes up with the recipes and concepts.
The key to their ability to make the meals low cost is limiting daily selections. In the San Francisco Bay area, for example, there are typically three hot meals (one is usually a vegetarian option), one salad, a drink and a dessert.
The Berkeley-based start-up is the brainchild of co-founders Steven Hsiao, CEO and Anson Tsui, CTO, who seek to differentiate themselves in the burgeoning on-demand food delivery market in several refreshing ways: besides the real-time delivery monitoring, they deliver all unclaimed meals to local homeless shelters.
So far, diners’ reviews are stellar–the only problem appears to be meeting the challenge of expanding the service nationwide. At this point, all you can do is put your request in for your neighborhood, be patient, and maybe buy a gift card if you know someone fortunate to live in SpoonRocket’s current delivery area.
Note: SpoonRocket co-founders Steven Hsiao, CEO and Anson Tsui, CTO are UC Berkeley alums.
