You’ve heard of the many startups delivering food and while you like the idea, you realize that you eat your worst at work (no thanks to take-out food). This is why Ripe is remodeling the idea to deliver the freshest foods to your office. This is for those of you that truly aspire to eat healthier, wont settle for a Cliff Bar lunch, don’t have time to eat out everyday and wants healthy food delivered to your desk. If you feel the office diet struggle it is due time you check out the ripest startup in NYC.
AlleyWatch chatted with Ripe and learned the ins and outs of their company and how they deliver an incredible service right to your office.
Tell us about the product or service.
Ripe delivers organic and wholesome meals to corporate offices in New York City. Our team of health coaches and nutritionists help curate meals and educate employees on the benefits of eating a high quality meal. With healthier employees, companies are able to see a high ROI, increased productivity, and a strengthened company culture.
How is it different?
First off, our meals are better quality than the majority of other food delivery startups. We work with a nutritionist to create menus and have our chef, a seasoned head chef at some of NY’s best restaurants, make them fresh daily. We take pride in that our meals are 98% organic and sourced locally when possible. In addition, the absolute major factor that differentiates us from our competitors is our delivery service. Each meal is delivered by knowledgeable brand ambassadors who have backgrounds in either health or fitness. They’re available to help employees learn about food and provide “lunch and learns” to encourage workers to live healthier lives. We’re not only in the business of food, per say, but in the business of health.
What market are you attacking and how big is it?
We’re integrating ourselves among businesses in NYC that provide employee breakfasts, lunches, or dinners. With the corporate wellness trend picking up all over the world and healthy food becoming a priority, hopefully our market will include all companies in the city.
What is the business model?
We cook all of our meals in a commercial kitchen we own, which keeps down our costs. Also, our relationships with local farms in the region help keep our costs down before we sell our meals to companies. They’re served either family style or individual boxes, which are a little more expensive.
What inspired the business?
Our four co-founders all have backgrounds in nutrition and health and wanted to be able to make an impact on others. A company that brought people together over healthy food was a natural next step.
How do you plan to compete as another meal delivery startup in a crowded space in NYC?
By having better quality food, better service, and focusing on companies instead of individuals.
What are the milestones that you plan to achieve within six months?
We recently reached a milestone of owning our own kitchen, but with the rate we are growing, we are looking into additional kitchen space. Another milestone we want to achieve is integrating a split-check payment plan for company’s that don’t offer free lunch for employees. We’re also looking to expand our weekly workout to have it be specific for each company, and really build up the corporate wellness aspect that way.
Our biggest priority is to build a really strong presence in New York before looking to expand to cities like Boston and Philadelphia. There’s still so many startups and investment firms that all get unhealthy catered lunch that we want to tap into.
What is the one piece of startup advice that you never got?
It’s always about the core team you have, to lean on and learn with them from the start.
If you could be put in touch with anyone in the New York community who would it be and why?
Arianna Huffington. She just launched her corporate wellness company and we’d love to pick her brain on how we can expand more into that sector.
Why did you launch in New York?
None of us are from New York, actually, but we all came together and met here over 5 years ago. It’s the city where dreams go to thrive or die. And our dream just happens to be thriving in the food industry.
What’s your favorite restaurant in the city?
It’s cheesy to say our own kitchen… so we’ll say Little Choc Apothecary in Brooklyn! It’s vegan crepes and handpicked teas that we love sharing as a team.
