Foodee is Bringing Exciting Local Culinary
Gems to the Workplace
Point Roberts WA
, Vancouver BC – April 8, 2019 – Investorideas.com (www.investorideas.com), a global investor news source covering the food
and beverage sector issues an exclusive interview with Vancouver-based Foodee CEO, Ryan Spong, discussing how he connects the top
local owner-operated restaurants with innovative companies looking for a
competitive edge.
Read this in full at https://www.investorideas.com/news/2019/beverage/04081Foodee.asp
“It use to be fine to bring in cafeteria
food but we are seeing now that having the best of local chefs and restaurants
that a city has to offer tends to be a competitive advantage for
Companies.”
From restaurateur to CEO of the fastest growing corporate catering
concierge, Foodee, Ryan Spong and his team are establishing that lunch time in
the office doesn’t have to be drab or anxiety inducing.
The Vancouver dining scene is bustling and right in the
center of all the excitement is the city's most vibrant West Coast/Mexican
inspired restaurant, Tacofino. Once a popular food truck option, Tacofino has
enjoyed success as a charming fixture in the Vancouver restaurant scene. Spong
explains how his experience in the restaurant business coupled with a 12 year
tenure in investment banking made it ripe for the moment for him to launch
Foodee as a corporate meal providing service.“...when I moved backed to Vancouver
I actually left investment banking to become more operational and as luck would
have it I owned some restaurants in Vancouver. One of the restaurant's people
know me for here is called Tacofino. We started as food trucks and then moved
into restaurants. There is about 7-8 of them now. I had spent about half my
life in restaurants and half in corporate offices so that is a convenient
background to have as the CEO of this company. That bridges the two worlds.”
Organizing lunch in an office is no easy feat. When you
take into consideration personal preferences and dietary restriction for
sometimes upwards of 500 people the task can seem near impossible.
“What people don't really understand
about the office admin is that ordering lunch is kind of a thankless and
irritating task that they weren't necessarily trained or hired to do. It also
can be quite an anxious moment. You might have 50 or 100 people in your office
who have low blood sugar and are waiting for the food to show up, and if it's
late, or inaccurate, if it's not good, it can be a stressful situation for that
EA.”
When Spong joined Foodee in 2013 it had been sitting a few
different models, all of which had the same problem-How do you address the
issue of the office meal influx during the lunch hour, all the while empowering
local companies and restaurants?
“Foodee had rightly landed on
addressing the corporate market when it came to addressing food and catering
with its technology platform, but hadn't quite landed on how. So when I came
along and met the founder I had a bunch of ideas on how we could improve our
business and really add value to restaurants...so we got together and white-boarded
things out and re-launched in September 2013 as a corporate catering concierge”
Setting out to create a platform which addresses the
individual preferences of each employee all in a timely manner is not an easy
problem to solve. The ability to customize each order in real time is essential
for a successful lunch hour.
“The software essentially starts out
with a dashboard where the admin can manage all these things on a per employee
basis. They can manage notifications, preferences, budgets, on a individual team
and user level. We also get feedback and preferences based on their ordering
history.”
Powering local economies is yet another goal at the
forefront of Foodees mission. Rather than partnering with large food chains
Foodee can provide an edge that no other company can, while sending the money
back into the hands of locally owned companies.
“For the local economy for each city
we go into we are leaving the lion's share of the money in the hands of the
local economy...from that side the restaurateurs get a lot of benefit partnering
with us. For the corporate clients that we service, feeding your staff has
become kind of table stakes. We see a lot of war for talent these days and a
lot of innovative companies are feeding their staff to attract and retain top
chair talent.”
Having expanded into twelve different markets, ten of
which are in the US, Foodee has its finger on the pulse of what is driving the
corporate catering market and intends to lead the way.
“...the big players in the industry
will start to see some consolidation around these ideas and for Foodees part we
want to be the software solution that powers the corporate aspect of that
convergence.”
Interview by Noel Campbell for Investorideas.com
About Ryan Spong, CEO of Foodee
Ryan Spong is a reformed investment banker, successful partner and restaurateur of the popular Tacofino and Superbaba brands in Vancouver and now CEO and co-founder of the Vancouver-based food-tech startup, Foodee. He is a founding board member of the Knives & Forks Investment Co-op where he advocates for local businesses and economies.
Ryan Spong is a reformed investment banker, successful partner and restaurateur of the popular Tacofino and Superbaba brands in Vancouver and now CEO and co-founder of the Vancouver-based food-tech startup, Foodee. He is a founding board member of the Knives & Forks Investment Co-op where he advocates for local businesses and economies.
Ryan was recruited from his MBA at the University of Toronto in 2003 to a formal career in investment banking. Three years later, he founded Mainstreet Advisors, a boutique financing company. There, he and his team raised tens of millions of dollars for public companies, some of which he served as CEO and CFO. Over the years, he started, grew and sold several innovative businesses, including Raincity Rock and Preform Construction. In 2010, he invested in Tacofino Cantina and helped lead its growth to eight stores. In 2013, he joined Foodee as CEO and put in place growth strategies that led to the 2017 and 2018 Deloitte Fast50 Awards.
Vancouver-based Foodee has since grown by 1125% and serves 12 major North American cities with more than 700 restaurant partners. Foodee is among the first companies to receive investment from the $100 million-dollar BC Tech Fund in 2017. This is due to the company’s considerable growth and ability to create jobs and strengthen local economies. Foodee most recently partnered with DoorDash to support further expansion.
Foodee’s growing list of clients includes top names in tech, finance and consulting, such as Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Visa, Comcast, and The Weather Channel. Its innovative approach is the secret to success. Foodee evolved its unique business model, finding its niche as a software platform with innovative partnerships that allow for greater transparency and personalized customer preferences. The company aims to become the largest local food provider to offices without owning any kitchens, cooking any food or delivering any meals.
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