GrubHub Food Delivered To Your Home, Fast

There is a good story on GrubHub in INC Magazine this week. I like the concept, and the IPO was so successful the company is now valued at $3 billion.  Very high, but they seem to own the high ground in a very hot area of smart phone technology  -- taking your hunger and turning it into a great meal, at your house, in 60 minutes or less.

Some fast facts:

1.     they have 28,000 restaurants signed up in 600 plus cities

2.     they monitor your order, so they call the restaurant if the order is not confirmed in 5 minutes or less

3.     they put tablet computers in all the restaurants, so they get the orders correctly (no longer sent to them by fax).  The restaurants must fix the meal in 20 minutes. 

4.     they store your PayPal or Credit Card, and so there is no payment hassles, also they can store your address for reorders from the same restaurant.

5.     far easier and fewer clicks than on the various restaurant’s own websites, which are not usually well designed, up to date, and or user friendly.

6.     by using your smart phone, the app knows where you are, and can show you all the restaurants in your immediate area that participate --- and you can choose by type, Chinese, Pizza, and so on.  It works so well, restaurants biggest problem it keeping up with the flood of orders coming in.

7.     coupons and discounts, they have ‘em too.

8.     it is a rare APP that gets 1,000 plus reviews in the iTunes store, and survives with 4.5 stars out of 5.  But this company has that, pretty amazing.

Concept is low advertising budget, mostly in big cities they use ads on subways and busses or outdoor ads, to get you in your car, or on the subway when you are “hungry”.  Order then, and by the time you get home and cleaned up, your food will be there.

“Innovation works best when there is a problem to solve” .. is the opening line of the story by Liz Welch.  That’s a good quote, and this company found a serious problem to solve since they had bad experiences ordering their on food on line in Chicago – too many clicks, too many phone calls, too many orders not correct. People eat, people don’t like hassles.  That’s a good combination to work on.