Add another company to Chicago's growing list of on-demand startups.
Wang Thang, a Chicago startup that launched at the beginning of July, is out to do one simple thing: get chicken wings to customers in and around the West Loop. Launched by entrepreneurs Jason Dunlap and Alex Campillo, former developers at AppDevy, Wang Thang lets customers text in chicken orders and pick them up at select locations, or have the food delivered. Wang Thang has partnered with Caviar on deliveries, and it announces different pickup locations each day on Twitter.
The pickup locations are picked strategically, Dunlap says, and meant to start friendly rivalries with other restaurants, most of which are other chicken places.
"We’re doing (pickups) in front of other restaurants in the West Loop," Dunlap said. "Places that are over priced and are dead during lunch time. We like playing little games with them."
Wang Thang started as a joke, the two admit, after both left AppDevy. But after long hours and demanding schedules at the app and web development startup, Dunlap and Campillo wanted to do something they were more passionate about.
"We just got kind of burned out after that," Campillo said. "Jason has this killer wing recipe ... I've got my own chicken brine recipe, too. So one day we sort of combined them and said, hey these are good. We started giving them away. A lot of people liked them. We thought, this would be a lot more fun than what we are doing now. Now here we are, doing the Wang Thang."
Dunlap and Campillo cook the chicken in a kitchen in the West Loop, and orders are available between 11 a.m and 2 p.m. within a three mile radius of the West Loop. Customers order the chicken by texting (312) 620-0932, select delivery or pickup, and then get their basket of 6-8 wings. Payment takes place via credit card through a secure web form sent using Stripe, Dunlap said.
The chicken wings cost $8, but orders will likely be discounted next week for the company's "hard launch." In the future, the Wang Thang co-founders think they'll launch an app, and they see the service as not only a way to deliver chicken, but to connect chicken lovers in Chicago. Different options could include features like "chicken with strangers," where customers are randomly paired up to have lunch with someone new every day. Or "chicken with friends," which Campillo calls "more of a getaway app" where if you're in a conversation or situation you're trying to get out of, you can get a notification that says it's time to get chicken with friends.
"You don’t have to lie and say you’re going somewhere else. You’re actually going to get chicken with friends," Campillo said.
The Wang Thang founders are clearly having some fun with their new business, but the startup has seen positive traction early on. Wang Thang has gotten more than 100 orders in the 15 days it's been live, with only a $500 investment to start. The startup says it's eyeing outside investment to scale up the business and bring on more help.
But while Wang Thang may be generating some buzz in the West Loop, it faces an uphill battle against much larger food delivery players like GrubHub, UberEats, and the influx of new restaurants popping up in that area. But if Wang Thang can prove it has a solid chicken recipe, and get more people in Chicago to try its food, the startup believes it can make waves in the city, especially compared to brick-and-mortar alternatives, Dunlap said.
"Both of us think restaurants are kind of on their way out. They’re uncomfortable. They’re pricey. There's too many options on the menu," Dunlap said.
