Popchew
Setting the Scene
Over the last decade, some of the fastest growing brands have captured digital consumers without owning physical assets.
Here are some examples:
Uber is the world’s largest taxi business without owning taxis.
Instacart is the world’s largest supermarket without owning stores.
Airbnb is the world’s largest hotel business without owning hotels.
This week’s company is building the largest fast food chain without owning any real estate, employing any line cooks, or purchasing any inventory.
In a Sentence
Popchew is a digitally native fast food chain that leverages pop-culture and existing restaurants to fulfill its orders.
Digitally native: Popchew monetizes through an asset light model where they can scale globally without investing in real estate, food, or labor, serving customers solely through food delivery platforms.
Pop-culture: Popchew partners with iconic brands and celebrities to build its customer base, then engages them through gaming, content, and rewards.
Restaurants: Popchew adds to the revenue stream of established restaurants, providing recipes, a supply chain, and technology, but leaving the prep to their partners.
Bulleted Version:
- Popchew is building the world’s next big fast food chain with pixels instead of bricks. 👾
The Basics
- Headquarters: New York City 🍎
- Employee Count: 10
- Funding amount: $7M
- Business model: 40% take rate per kitchen sales
- Early traction: $2.51M revenue run rate ($7.52M GMV), 93 active kitchens, sold more than 320,000 meals, partnerships with Doritos, PepsiCo, and celebrities like Trippie Redd
Due Diligence
WHAT WE LIKE
🛒 Market and consumer sentiment: Popchew is positioned to capitalize on the rapidly growing $26.1B US food delivery market expected to double in the next 5 years.
Additionally, behavior among Gen-Z and millennials is shifting towards convenience and ordering in.
👩💻 Adding revenue to restaurants: Popchew's business model significantly benefits partner kitchens, offering the average restaurant an extra $92k a year.
⭐️ Playing into pop-culture: Popchew has incorporated drops, mini-games, content, prizes, collectibles, competition, and more to build trust, brand affinity, and create an emotional connection with customers.
Popchew also collaborates with renowned brands and celebrities to enhance brand appeal, setting it apart in the competitive food delivery market.
POTENTIAL RISKS
🙄 Failure of past models: Notably, Virtual Dining Concept’s Mr Beast Burgers, exploded to $100M in revenue and then shut down due to quality control issues and lawsuits.
Despite Popchew's emphasis on quality control software and its consumer facing brand, continuous monitoring is essential to avoid similar pitfalls.
😳 The health-conscious consumer: Popchew’s fast-food-centric menu might clash with the health-conscious tendencies of its Gen Z target audience.
📈 Buying into the brand: Popchew faces the challenge of swaying users to buy into its brand and initiatives over other established and well recognized brands.
Founder Profile
Nick Sopchak, CEO: Previously on the founding teams of Super Order, Hoist, and Pilotworks.
Rushir Parikh, CSO: Experience in product management at Fetch, Shipt, and Bellhop
Comps
Superorder: Backed by Y Combinator, BBQ Capital, Slow Ventures, Foundation Capital, and others.
C3: Backed by Brookfield Asset Management, REEF, Triartisan Capital Advisors, Lurra Capital, and others.
Nextbite: Backed by Techstars, TenOneTen Ventures, Nosara Capital, Foundry Group, SoftBank Vision Fund
Virtual Dining Concepts: Backed by Spice Private Equity and others.
Why Popchew
Popchew is poised to redefine the fast-food landscape with its innovative, asset-light model and customer-obsessed approach, perfectly positioned to take a bite out of legacy restaurant franchises. 😋