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Steven Hsiao, Co-Founder of SpoonRocket is changing the way people eat food. They deliver healthy gourmet food for just $6 (~£3.60) and with an average delivery time of 10 minutes - it is not hard to see why they are one of the hottest start-ups in the US.
The Y-Combinator backed start-up currently operate in the East Bay but plan to roll their service out further in the near future. Self-proclaimed as the “Most convenient meal ever” they deliver from 11am right through to 4am. They bring the efficiency of a completely new method of food production and delivery, mix it with tech and end up with an unbelievable product.
So how do they do it? I was very fortunate that he took the time out of his busy schedule to answer a couple of questions.
Could you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I got started in my last semester of college and it was more of a project that my cofounder and I did on a whim. We realized that there were no delivery services to satisfy the late night crowd. We started a business called Pho Me Now that delivered hot Vietnamese food and it eventually developed into a Late Night Food Court. We had 5 different online restaurants where we produced all the food and it was all aggregated into a virtual Food Court. After working for 4 years we applied to YC & realized that are old business model would not scale because of the complexities innate within the business model. We simplified all aspects of our model and the birth of SpoonRocket arose.
How do you manage to deliver your meals for such an affordable price? What does the future hold for SpoonRocket?
Since we took out a lot of the complexities and inefficiencies in a traditional business model it really allows us create a good service at a good price. We went from offering 200+ menu items with Late Night Option to 2 menu items a day. Instead of making the food after the customer orders we actually prepare the food and load it into vehicles before the customer orders. Instead of having drivers call the customer when they arrive at their residence and bring it to the door we have an automated system that calls the customer 2 minutes in advance so that the customer is waiting for us right before we arrive at their residence. Because our service is really price and time sensitive it is quite challenging if we are inefficient so we resolved all those issues in order to scale.
What advice would you give to a university student who is looking at creating their own start up? You attended the Y-Combinator accelerator programme - that must have been a crazy experience, what was the biggest lesson that you learnt there?
Advice that I would give any aspiring entrepreneur is to be resilient. Entrepreneur life isn’t for everyone initially but you can quickly develop the tools and skills to become successful. A lot of people have the preconceived notion that building a startup it is easy. It is true that we have more tools and access now to create a startup but to create a successful startup really comes down to desire to succeed and commitment. There is a lot of ups and downs for entrepreneurship however I do believe that dedication and willingness to listen to your users and doing everything necessary to please them will help propel you into a more successful trajectory. YC was a remarkable experience. I learned a lot going through the program but I think what was more important that it just gave me the confidence that I was doing something that people saw a lot of potential in. That allowed me to really operate and scale SpoonRocket quickly and efficiently.
SpoonRocket seem to be leading the way with food delivery innovation. The food industry is notorious for being an extremely tough industry to be in with some of the highest failure rates of any industry but their model allows them to create an astounding offer for their customer. I just hope that they can get to the UK soon.
