Though food delivery is one of the most crowded spaces in startups today, Francisco Cantor believes most services can be split into food delivery "extremes."
On one hand there are food delivery services that try to offer a wide range of options and restaurants, but take upwards of an hour to deliver the foods (such as GrubHub). On the other hand, some food delivery services focus on just one or two meals and fast service, but meals might sit in a car waiting to be delivered (such as Sprig).
With that in mind, Cantor believes his food delivery app Nip, hits the sweet spot that other food delivery services can't match. Nip, which launches today in River North, Streeterville, and the Loop, works with restaurants to identify menu items that will travel well and easily integrate into kitchen logistics. Customers simply swipe to the menu item they want to purchase, tap to order, and are charged one flat fee ($19.99) for the meal, delivery, and tip. Customers can only get food from a restaurant within a mile of their home and deliveries are done by bike couriers, both factors that can cut down on extra delivery time.
Nip's promise is to deliver high quality meals in under 30 minutes. In beta testing done last December, Francisco said they delivered meals in 23 minutes on average.
To compare, a burger from Kuma's Too in Lincoln Park delivered downtown using GrubHub would cost $15 plus $3 delivery, before tax and tip. GrubHub estimated the wait to be about 45 to 55 minutes.
The idea came to Cantor, a current University of Chicago Booth MBA student, when he was coming home after a long day at school and wanted to order food. After 20 minutes of searching through different options, he settled on Chinese and in his hungry state ordered enough for "two to three people" by his estimate. When he finally order, the delivery was estimated at an hour and a half.
"The overall process and overall experience wasn't as great as I wanted it to be," he said. "I realized there was a lot of room for improvement."
But as mentioned before, the startup scene is inundated with food delivery from GrubHub to UberEATS to Sprig to Seamless to Caviar, not to mention grocery delivery services such as Blue Apron, Plated, FoxTrot, and Peapod.
Cantor hopes Nip can stand out on the customer side due to quick delivery, no hassle ordering, and one-price high quality menu items. But food delivery also requires winning over kitchens. He hopes to stand out on the restaurant side by offering additional value through data and analytics. Customers will be asked to rate each of their meals, which he said they can then supply restaurants to help them understand what demographics order what sort of menu items, as well as what items work well for delivery.
To start, Nip is launching with two River North restaurants Beatrix and Oak+Char, chosen for their brand recognition and ability to prepare meals that will travel well, he said. Meals include a the prime burger and three-grain arugula salad from Beatrix, and chicken wings from Oak+Char. Initially they're launching for dinner, with delivery from 6 to 9 pm.
Cantor said he hopes to work with restaurant groups in the future, and after a month of deliveries they plan on adding two new restaurants every other week.
Currently there are six people working on Nip, as well as a development team in Venezuela (where Cantor is originally from). They went through the Polsky Summer Accelerator last year (which gave them a bit of funding), but otherwise have not raised money. Nip is also a finalist in UChicago's New Venture Challenge, and they hope to raise a seed round when the competition is over.
He's hoping that the next few months will provide the foundation they need to stand out in the food delivery frenzy.
"It seems crowded, but there is still a lot of space to compete and make an impact," Cantor added.
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