Portland startup Epicurate is combining two of the region’s strengths: tech and hospitality as it builds out its private dining and luxury experience platform.
The company was started in 2020 by private chef Max Porterkhamsy who was looking for a better software solution to run his Sonoma-based private dining business Vine Dining. When he couldn’t find what he wanted, he enlisted a young software developer who specialized in building high-frequency financial trading models to build a new product.
The initial software was used by Vine Dining to coordinate six chefs in three markets: Northern California wine country, Southern California and Nashville. Customers could find and book private chefs and each party could talk to the other to work through logistics, menu and any other needs all within the platform. Chefs could run their entire businesses and remove the need for dozens of emails.
Porterkhamsy, though, saw an opportunity to integrate the platform with hospitality brand partners to power other private marketplaces. Last year, Epicurate signed its first travel partner, the short-term rental company AvantStay.
By the end of 2023 there were 100 private chefs in 20 markets using the platform, up from six chefs at the start of last year.
The startup is now moving into the luxury market with partners Nocturne Luxury Villas, Velocity Black and Myria coming online this year. The potential is huge, said Porterkhamsy. Consider Myria. Epicurate’s platform powers a marketplace for the luxury concierge club that is so exclusive it has 80 members who have a cumulative net worth of $400 billion, he said.
Epicurate generates revenue through a service fee on bookings. Last year, $2 million in bookings were coordinated through the platform. By early May of this year the company already had about $1 million bookings.
Epicurate has raised about $300,000 to date from friends, family and angel investors. He is working to raise a seed round this year.
Porterkhamsy tried raising money last year, but cut those plans short amid the challenging funding environment and a clear signal from investors they were only interested in artificial intelligence startups.
As he has restarted talks this year, he said, there is renewed interest especially with the focus on personalization and luxury.
“The luxury industry is big and luxury travel is big. Destination luxury experience is a $36 billion industry,” said Porterkhamsy. “Our focus is the personalized experience and powering connections between people who want it and the people who provide it.”
The startup was in the 2024 cohort of the Techstars Anywhere accelerator. It employs five, including product lead Scott McNeely, who co-founded luxury travel startup Modern Adventure, and COO Scott Breon, a former executive and early member of the Vacasa team. Porterkhamsy, McNeely and Breon are all based in Oregon.
McNeely joined because of excitement over how the platform can scale beyond the initial private dining focus. The team sees the platform being able to power curated marketplaces for any kind of specialized independent experience providers. And the focus on high-end offers some recessionary protection.
“That is what is unique and different,” Porterkhamsy said, of the startup’s product. “(These providers) are very fragmented and not online and this is not something (consumers) know they can do. It’s like when Airbnb first started.”
