With 8 million lunches served in 16 cities around the world since it launched two years ago, the food delivery service MealPal has found success by cozying up to the people dishing out the food. "You've got the challenge of an industry, the restaurant industry, that historically has really low profit margins," said Mary Biggins, MealPal's co-founder. "The average restaurant has a margin of only six percent." That's been too tight for some Silicon Valley food-delivery startups such as Maple and Munchery to operate (both went under). Postmates struggles to find its own profit within those margins. The difference for MealPal, Biggins said in an interview on Cheddar, was that it tied its model to restaurants' profitability from the start. "We want every restaurant on MealPal to be able to say that MealPal is their most valuable partner," she said. Biggins first had success with Classpass, an app that allowed users to sign up for a bunch of gym classes for an affordable fee. MealPal functions similarly, offering lunch for just $6 from some of the most popular restaurants in a city. "You need to build something that's going to resonate with consumers, but also work for the supply side as well," she said. For full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/digging-into-the-world-of-apps).

Share:
More In Business
Layoffs are piling up, raising worker anxiety
It's a tough time for the job market. Amid wider economic uncertainty, some analysts have said that businesses are at a “no-hire, no fire” standstill. At the same time, some sizeable layoffs have continued to pile up — raising worker anxieties across sectors. Some companies have pointed to rising operational costs due to U.S.'s new tariffs, while others have redirected money to artificial intelligence investments. Workers in the public sector have also been hit hard. Federal jobs were cut by the thousands earlier this year. And many workers are now going without pay as the U.S. government shutdown has now dragged on for more than a month.
Load More