In the latest episode of Hospitality Hangout podcast, Michael Schatzberg “The Restaurant Guy” and Jimmy Frischling “ The Finance Guy” chat with Nabeel Alamgir, chief executive officer and co-founder of Lunchbox about the current state of delivery and what the future will look like for restaurants.
Alamgir talks about starting as a busboy at Bareburger when he came to the United States and how he loved the industry, working his way up to chief marketing officer before he launched Lunchbox.
Alamgir who is on the 2021 Forbes list 30 under 30, is the co-founder of the digital ordering and marketing platform Lunchbox. The operating system for managing a restaurant’s entire digital experience.
Alamgir discusses how Lunchbox recently has raised fifty million dollars in Series B funding so his food technology company can accelerate product research and development as well as expand teams. Alamgir says he wants to do three things with the capital, one is to push the Lunchbox agenda, building a digital storefront and make sure it’s incredible looking, two is to build more engagement tools that can convert third party sales into first party, three is to bring in the best talent in the world to the Lunchbox team. The company brought on a new executive to the team, chief operating officer, Kieran Luke from the General Assembly. Lunchbox is about to release the first Metaverse restaurant, fully walkable. You can go anywhere and order food, it will be sold on OpenSea on the blockchain, says Alamgir.
Alamgir talks about the partnership between Lunchbox and Olo saying he is excited to partner with them and be part of their ecosystem. Adding, they are excited to elevate their design and elevate their marketing as well. They’ve paved a way for companies like us to exist so we’re pumped to work together.
Frischling asks Alamgir what the current state of the delivery market is looking like from a growth perspective and he says, they are studying companies in China, specifically BingoBox. It is a convenience store with no staff that is entirely automated and compares it to Amazon Go. He adds, “our prediction is it’ll be seventy five percent delivery and the rest will be in store. The number of seats you have within your restaurant is limited. You know it’s fifty to hundred but the number of people you can feed around your community is a lot more. More importantly, right now, it’s a sign of shame if you have a second brand out of your kitchen. It means you’re not doing well.” Alamgir goes on to say that it is a stigma that is not real and in the future that will be how you run and optimize a kitchen to be efficient.
Tune in to learn more. You can subscribe and listen to Hospitality Hangout Podcast on Spotify or directly on the Foodable Network.
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