When Win Feigle wanted to get serious about an idea he had for a restaurant subscription platform, he moved from Houston to Denver to build and launch it.
Denver's startup ecosystem is "significantly more attractive" than Houston's, said Feigle, who founded Feedplan. He also thought his startup, which works with restaurants to offer discounted meal plans to subscribers, would do better here because of the number of restaurant chains headquartered in Denver.
"I think that Denver really is a good place to launch a product like this, considering the number of major restaurants we have based out of here," Feigle said. "It's insane, the restaurants that we could potentially reach just in Denver."
Together, Denver and Boulder are emerging as a hub for foodtech startups, defined as tech-driven companies that are developing products and services to change how food is discovered, purchased, delivered, prepared and eaten. The sector includes technologies with a focus on improving agricultural efficiency and sustainability, as well as apps and services that provide access to food, such as food-delivery platforms, meal kit and grocery services and ghost kitchens, among others.
Startup Genome, an innovation policy advisory and research firm, listed Denver and Boulder together this year as one of the top agtech and foodtech ecosystems in the world. The cities ranked No. 5 in the firm's Global Startup Ecosystem Report: Agtech & New Food Edition and were listed behind some the world's biggest tech hubs: Silicon Valley, New York City, London and Tel Aviv.
Denver and Boulder ranked higher in the agtech and foodtech sectors than in startup ecosystems overall. In a June report, Startup Genome ranked the cities as No. 24 in the world among startup hubs.
"Among the most striking findings of the Global Agtech & New Food ranking is the presence of Denver-Boulder in the top five ecosystems," the report states. "The Colorado ecosystem ranks [No. 24] in the world overall but No. 5 in Agtech & New Food, a reflection of its specialized knowledge and focus on the sector."
Just this year, the food safety startup SnapDNA relocated its headquarters from the Bay Area to Broomfield, and Lumachain, an Australian startup that aims to increase efficiency across the global food supply chain, chose Denver for its U.S. headquarters. The formerly remote startup Bitewell, which developed a healthy eating platform, selected Denver this summer as the location of its first brick-and-mortar office.
Denver and Boulder will soon be home to two more foodtech startups — Feedplan, as well as Goodie Bag, a Boulder venture launching in December. A third startup is brand new to the area: South Carolina-based Gigpro recently announced its expansion to the Mile High City, too.
Feedplan
At age 25, Feigle feels as if he's situated squarely between the Millennial generation and Gen Z. His ability to speak the lingo of two generations has proven to be beneficial with his previous entrepreneurial pursuits, and that's the case this time, too, he said.
As a high school student in Bozeman, Montana, Feigle started an e-commerce sportswear company, in which he used his large social media following to sell clothing. His second venture was a digital media marketing company that helped businesses craft social media posts tailored for young audiences.
Now, Feigle has developed a restaurant subscription platform that he thinks Millennials and the Gen Z population will be excited about. His startup, Feedplan, allows users to create weekly meal plans with local restaurants and receive discounted meals by prepaying the total amount.
"It's kind of a bulk order for the restaurant, and then it's up to the user to redeem the meals when they want them," Feigle said. "Maybe that's one lunch a day for 10 days in a row if they have a 10-meal plan."
The platform is free for restaurants, and it costs users $5 per month, in addition to their food costs.
When discussing the idea, Feigle cited the National Restaurant Association’s 2022 State of the Restaurant Industry survey, which found that 80% of the Millennial and Gen Z populations would likely purchase a subscription for a specified number of meals per month, if the option was offered by their favorite restaurants.
"More than anything, I just want mealtime to be easier," Feigle said. "If someone can take this idea and do it faster than me, I'll be their first subscriber because it will make my life a heck of a lot easier. But I think I'm the best to do it because I really am in tune with the generations that are interested in this concept."
Feigle contracted an engineering team to develop the platform, and he's taken it through beta testing. It will launch in Denver by the end of this week with 50 to 75 users and five restaurants, he said. He plans to fully release the platform for all users in Denver by the end of the year.
So far, about 300 people have added their names to the platform's waitlist, Feigle said. Feedplan is also signing up Denver-based restaurants on a separate waitlist.
Gigpro
Gigpro, a hospitality staffing startup based in Charleston, South Carolina, entered the Denver market in August.
Gigpro's platform allows restaurants, hotels and resorts to post shifts and hire gig workers as needed. The startup was the idea of founder Ben Ellsworth, a former chef in Charleston who often dealt with the problem of trying to get employees to cover unfilled shifts.
A nationwide shortage of restaurant workers that was driven by the Covid-19 pandemic has persisted, causing restaurants to cut their hours or bolster benefits in an attempt to entice workers to return.
A survey by the Colorado Restaurant Association in January found that eight out of ten restaurants in the state were struggling to hire enough staff. The leaders at Gigpro think their platform can help fill in the gaps.
"Our mission is to become this trusted labor marketplace that's built and geared specifically toward the hospitality industry, where both the workers and restaurants can match and work together," said CEO Sam Mylrea. "There is demand on both sides. There are folks looking to pick up extra shifts, and there are hospitality businesses that are extremely short-staffed right now."
Gigpro was founded in 2019 and has so far expanded to 27 cities. Since it launched in Denver this August, 60 businesses have joined Gigpro's platform, including the restaurants under the Culinary Creative Group umbrella: Mister Oso, Ash'Kara and Tap & Burger. Rocky Mountain Catering and Iacofano's Catering have been Gigpro's most frequent users in the city.
"I think the exciting thing about Denver is its really rich and vibrant restaurant and hospitality industry," Mylrea said. "It's a pretty massive community."
About 1,500 gig workers in Denver have registered on the platform, and 2,000 hours of labor have been filled, Mylrea said. The average hourly rate that restaurants are paying workers is $18.75. To earn a profit, Gigpro charges restaurants about 20% of their total gig rate for each job posting.
Gigpro is continuing to expand across the country and will launch in three more cities before the end of 2022, Mylrea said.
Goodie Bag
University of Colorado students and graduates Eddy Connors, Ethan Mills, Luke Siegert and Kevin Gonzales came together this summer for a program hosted by Silicon Flatirons, which helps young entrepreneurs build their businesses in Boulder.
They brought with them the concept for a platform that works with restaurants and grocers to sell surplus meals for discounted prices, rather than discarding the food. The group honed the idea and won first place in the pitch competition that capped off the program.
"Since then, we've just been absolutely doing everything we can to bring it to market here in Boulder," Connors said.
The foursome plan to take their platform through beta testing in November and launch in Boulder this December. So far, three businesses have agreed to be listed on Goodie Bag.
The idea is for restaurants, grocers and other food providers to take inventory toward the end of the day of any surplus food they might have. They'll put the food in "goodie bags," and list them on the platform. Customers can then go through the goodie bag mobile application to reserve goodie bags for pickup. The startup will take a flat fee of $1.50 for each bag sold.
The meals will be heavily discounted — from 50% to 70% off what a customer would pay in a restaurant or store — but purchasers won't know what exactly they're receiving.
"It'll be kind of a mystery of what's what's inside," Connors said. "It might be several individually prepared items that make up a $15 retail price that we then sell at $5, but the customer really doesn't know what they're getting, just that it's restaurant-quality food at a great price."
The group believes the platform can help restaurants salvage sunk costs from food that would've been thrown out, as well as benefit people who want to get prepared meals on a budget.
They think Boulder is an ideal place to start. The college town has long struggled with income inequality, and 15,000 residents experience food insecurity, according to Boulder Food Rescue. It's also a place where environmentally conscious people want to see a reduction in food waste, Goodie Bag leaders said.
"It's another option to get restaurant-quality food at affordable pricing while having a role in reducing overall food waste and the negative effects that has," Connors said.
