With 8 million lunches served in 16 cities around the world since it launched two years ago, the food delivery service MealPal has found success by cozying up to the people dishing out the food.
"You've got the challenge of an industry, the restaurant industry, that historically has really low profit margins," said Mary Biggins, MealPal's co-founder. "The average restaurant has a margin of only six percent."
That's been too tight for some Silicon Valley food-delivery startups such as Maple and Munchery to operate (both went under). Postmates struggles to find its own profit within those margins.
The difference for MealPal, Biggins said in an interview on Cheddar, was that it tied its model to restaurants' profitability from the start.
"We want every restaurant on MealPal to be able to say that MealPal is their most valuable partner," she said.
Biggins first had success with Classpass, an app that allowed users to sign up for a bunch of gym classes for an affordable fee. MealPal functions similarly, offering lunch for just $6 from some of the most popular restaurants in a city.
"You need to build something that's going to resonate with consumers, but also work for the supply side as well," she said.
For full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/digging-into-the-world-of-apps).
Simon Shuster, Senior Correspondent at TIME, discusses his recent article, how the friendship between Musk and Trump may affect US spending, “DOGE” and more.
Christa Pitts, Co-Founder & Co-CEO of The Lumistella Company shares the origins of Elf on the Shelf Plus Extraordinary Noorah's Macy's Day Parade debut!
Hayley Berg, Lead Economist at Hopper breaks down her best tips for navigating holiday travel and how to score the hottest deals on Dec. 3 - Travel Deal Tuesday
MarketWatch's Hannah Erin Lang joins Cheddar to discuss how economists are viewing Trump's immigration policy and how it will affect the job market in America.
Zack Malet, Senior Director of Business Development & Innovation, joins Cheddar to discuss ESPN experiences and how they are changing the sports travel game.
Smashburger CEO Denise Nelsen discusses how her time building the Starbucks brand gave her the tools to lead a Smashburger brand refresh, value wars, and more.