The Seattle meal-delivery startups are the brainchilds of former Amazon employees but have unique approaches.
The idea: Deliver meals to time-crunched workers by use of text message or mobile app. Two Seattle startups, Peach and Lish, have their own twists on making it a business.
With Peach: Each morning, office workers receive text messages on the day’s single restaurant-prepared lunch option — $12 or less, fees and tip included. Customers in one building receive a different text than customers in another.
With Lish: Customers use an app to order dinner from a rotating daily menu of 8 to 10 entrees — $12 on average — prepared by vetted chefs.
Amazon grads: The companies’ CEOs — Nishant Singh, 31, of Peach, and Aakhil Fardeen, 34, of Lish — both left Amazon.com last year with two co-workers to launch their companies. “We didn’t know each other,” Fardeen said. “It’s not some grand conspiracy to divide and conquer the market.”
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Local boost: Peach has 90 participating restaurants that fill “a couple thousand” orders a day at 145 offices in the area. A given restaurant will prepare one lunch item in bulk and deliver it to up to three closely located office buildings. “We account for 75 percent of weekly sales at one downtown restaurant,” Singh said.
Working chefs: At Lish, 20 chefs use the platform to sell “hundreds” of orders a day, which are delivered by contracted deliverers. The chefs take home 70 to 80 percent of the revenue, making dinners during slow hours in their restaurants or using Lish’s kitchen. One chef is on pace to generate $100,000 in gross annual sales, according to Fardeen.
Culinary curation:If customer reviews fall below four out of five stars on a particular meal, Lish removes the meal from the app. Meanwhile, Peach analyzes data about office ordering habits. “It turns out Amazon loves Asian food, and offices in the International District don’t,” Singh said.
Numbers: Peach said sales have increased 40 percent monthly since October. Lish said it has seen revenue increase 30 percent in each of the past three months.
Employees: 19 at Peach, 6 at Lish.
Congestion:Three San Francisco companies, Munchery, Caviar and Postmates, have begun delivery services in Seattle in the past two years. There probably will be a shakeout, but it’s early, Fardeen said.
Expansion: Lish delivers dinner to households from Safeco Field to Wedgwood, with plans to expand beyond the city limits soon. Peach plans to recruit restaurants in another city starting in May — possibly Boston or San Diego.
— Ken Christensen