Image Courtesy of Eyefull
What if you could feast your eyes on the food you're craving before you make the decision to order. What if you could see how big a meal is and what it looks from a professional photographer's point of view, making it all the easier for you to know exactly what you're spending your money on instead of relying on reviews from strangers to determine what you eat next. Eyefull can make that happen.
The Yelp for authentic foodies is here, a visual restaurant search engine app that helps you find meals in your city by scrolling through high-quality professional photos for each menu item. A sleek user interface allows you to transition effortlessly from one drool-worthy image to another until the ideal restaurant is located to satisfy all your munchie needs.
Eyefull Founder and CEO Jake Bender launched Eyefull alongside Vinnie Vendemia when they were both seniors at the University of Maryland. A psychology major, Bender thought he would end up in a big comfy chair come time to graduate, bat after launching a laundry business that expanded into a food delivery service and a house cleaning venture while still in school, Bender knew that entrepreneurship was the route he would take come graduation day.
"Eyefull started on a really simple idea," Bender told DC Inno over the phone. "We saw people looking at sites like Pinterest and foodgawker. They would want it [the food] and then engagement would end there. Our idea was very simple: why don't we localize that. Now let's let them eat that food they're seeing."
What Bender and his team of 60 are doing is making where to eat next a visual experience. "When people are searching for where to eat next, we get them hungry for the food," Bender explained. "It's not just words on a menu, there are high-quality pictures involved as well to make people educated consumers. We're giving people the power of choice back by saying eat what looks good to you, not based on what anybody else thinks."
While Eyefull sounds vaguely similar to Yelp and Urbanspoon, in reality it's quite different. Eyefull's target market is Millennials between the ages of 18 and 34 – a generation that's extremely visual (just look at Instagram'ssuccess). Gen Y is also looking for very specific types of food that align with their ideologies, which is why whenever Eyefull signs a client to its application, it asks about the restaurant's dietary options like USDA organic, Halal and Kosher as well as amenities that include LEED certification and whether the restaurant gives to charity. You can filter for dress code, too, which ranges from casual to jacket and tie required.
Eyefull does not have a one to five star rating system in place because according to Bender, "it's kind of biased." Reviewed will soon be added, he said, but they'll be time sensitive to ensure old reviews are chucked out. "This helps restaurants that have improved over time," Bender said, those that have taken constructive criticism into consideration and readjusted to better adapt to customers' needs.
Restaurants have been "very receptive to us," Bender added, partially because of the review policy Eyefull is planning to initiate, but also because of the company's professional photographs. "We help restaurants get people hungry for their food," he said. "Restaurants don't like Yelp because they don't have control at all. They want to regain control, so we allow them to show their food the way it should be presented. Amateur iPhone pictures of half-eaten hamburgers don't meet our standards."
Eyefull plans to expand his team of 60 to 150 employees by May 20. Bender chocks up much of Eyefull's success to the vast amount of resources UMd makes available to entrepreneurs both on and off campus.
"Whenever I would go to the Dingman Center for Innovation Fridays I'd be able to go talk to experts in the field. They had all types of professional mentors, many in the food industry," Bender said. "They helped me hone in on my idea: Eyefull."
Already in 10 local cities – Arlington, Baltimore, Bethesda, College Park, D.C., Fairfax, Harrisonburg, Newark, Richmond and Towson – Eyefull plans to add eight more areas by May 20: Blacksburg, Lynchburg, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, State College and West Virginia.
