The age of startups has been upon us for long enough that it no longer surprises us how some people can hit massive success with their ideas. It would seem that all one needs is a good idea and the rest will follow. But how true is this? Forbes explores what a group of twenty-somethings who raised $13M did to get to where they are now.
Eric Martell founded EatStreet when he was only 20 years old. EatStreet, as you may or may not know, is the largest independent food ordering company in the US. Eric founded the company together with two former classmates at the University of Wisconsin. Since its founding in 2010, the company has grown to $13M and operates the online ordering needs of 15,000 restaurants nationwide.
EatStreet is but one of the foodtech companies now which boasts incredible growth and cash flow and they share the stage with Instacart which has raised $220M and Postmates which has raised $138M.
Martell shared that getting restaurants to trust a 20 year old with an idea was not easy. With perseverance, however, he finally got five restaurants to go with his idea. The initial fear of restaurants was making sure that they get the orders of their patrons and get EatStreet to deliver.
If EatStreet failed at this, then the restaurants would be held liable. Their next struggle was ensuring that the online payments would go smoothly. For this, they had to make sure that their weekly payments to restaurants would be made religiously. By the end of 2010, 100 restaurants from the Wisconsin area signed up with EatStreet.
Processing online payments required a credit card processor. The inherent risk of the venture meant that Martell had to approach six processors before one finally agreed. The search for this alone took two months.
Nowadays, they face a different kind of problem which is attributed to their lack of experience. Martell and his company have now turned to Yelp, Google, Single Platform, and Hotel Communications Network as their strategic partners. As a result, venture capitalists have taken the risk and have pumped in millions needed by the company to operate nationwide.
