Food celebration with exclusivity, human choice
“If robots are the future of work, where do humans fit in?” asks Zoe Williams in her article datelined May 24, 2016 in The Guardian. The left brain-driven view of the world is that intelligence is determined through logic and quantitative skills. There is no place in a robotic world for words like appreciation, creativity, art and imagination.
The utopian future painted for all of us by the public narrative hinges on a world in which human effort is rendered useless by robots that can do better. For instance, self-driving cars, from automated factories, made from raw materials quarried by robot miners and transported by drone ships.
On the other hand, there is the question of human choice. A choice that wonders about the economics of mass production and leverage-based consumption for its own sake. The choice that asks if artificial intelligence is indeed, the future.
Consequently, there is growing evidence of a shift towards artisanship, art and creativity. The celebration of human choice, even imperfection. A Swiss hand-made watch, a Jackson Pollock painting or a meal that’s just for you.
And the market for food ‘just for you’ is estimated by Karl Naim, co-founder and CEO of ChefXchange (www.chefxchange.com) to be over $7.5 billion in the UK and the Middle East/GCC alone. Naim understands numbers. A finance professional with companies like Goldman Sachs, UBS and Mubadala. And pedigree academics — a London Business School (LBS) MBA and a Warwick Business School M.Sc. Marc Washington is co-founder with Naim. He is CFO and head of International Operations outside EMEA. Washington has an M.Sc. from Stanford and an engineering bachelor’s from MIT. He attended LBS along with Naim, previously working for The Carlyle Group before joining Mubadala.
What brought the two together was their right-brain driven passion for great food. While discussing the Airbnb model, they had a ‘Eureka’ movement. The concept could just as effectively be applied to gastronomy and fine food. The ‘capacity’ was not empty seats in a car e.g. Uber or available real-estate like Airbnb. Instead it was to make available the talents of great chefs — professionals and hobbyists. A deepdive into the business model resulted in isolating specific events and occasions where the current process can be totally disrupted. Who hasn’t moaned at the lack of creativity of food-delivery services or at the sheer boredom and repetitiveness of yet another catered meal. At the same time, we have all celebrated (mostly) when the host or hostess cooks up a meal from scratch.
ChefXchange has an interesting comparison model versus home-cooking, ordering-in and eating out based on 10 variables. These include grocery shopping, preparation time, choice and the sheer experience. The ChefXchange model has the best scores in 9 out of the 10 dimensions.
Naim and Washington have attacked the opportunity with gusto. Knife-edge planning and the right mix of timing and placement are the recipe. They fully understand from experience that great businesses require investment. They have not scrimped on excellent website design, the right quality of staff and the development of a user-experience for both Chefs and Hosts. Having started the journey in 2014, they set up their offices in 2015 at the Dubai Technology Entrepreneurship Centre in Silicon Oasis. ChefXchange now has operations in four cities and will be operational in 10 by the end of 2017, including ones in the Middle East, the UK, US and Europe.
The model is simple. Hosts and Chefs register on the site. They get to know about it through word-of-mouth as well as very well developed online search mechanisms that significantly bring down the effective cost of customer acquisition to levels that are easily recouped in the first booking itself — their unit economics are already profitable. A percentage of the bookings made via the website is retained by ChefXchange. Diners like to spend well on a bespoke meal, especially when it’s made exclusively for them in a venue of their choice. With ChefXchange, this is made possible at a price that could even be less expensive than eating out in a restaurant. Of course, the duo has the knowhow to monetise the customer acquisitions through expansion of the core offering.
In addition to growth in the offering verticals, ChefXchange recognises the immediate scalability of their model to other wealthy urban geographies globally. They plan to more than double their presence within the next three years. The team is confident that their proposition is unique in the region with miniscule direct threats from other similar operations globally. Clearly, the barriers to entry are high because it is indeed rare to find the kind of left-brain, rightbrain balance that the two co-founders have.
So the next time you’d like to enjoy a bespoke and ‘nonrobotic’ meal, log in to www.chefxchange.com and get their chefs to create your culinary experience.