Founder Profile: Homemade Meals In Minutes With CEO, Carlos Ventura Of Feast And Fettle

Feast & Fettle was founded back in 2016 by our Executive Chef, Maggie Mulvena. Before the business officially launched, Maggie was a nanny for a family in Providence, Rhode Island. Word quickly spread about her delicious meals and unique cooking style that catered specifically to families. Maggie decided to take “the leap” and started a meal delivery service – the rest is history.

On a personal note, I’ve known Maggie for several years. It wasn’t until I moved back to the U.S. after spending time at a food delivery business, where we felt it was the perfect time to partner. Her strengths are my weaknesses and vice versa – which creates a great dynamic. Maggie oversees our product and I’m responsible for running the business.

We’ve been able to grow substantially this year as we can now utilize our resources and strengths in a way that is healthy for the business going forward.

First and foremost, we are solving a completely different problem than the standard meal kit players out there. Our members don’t have the time and / or desire to cook each evening. Our meals arrive prepped, ready to reheat and serve – the epitome of true convenience.

Second, our quality standards are that of a high-end restaurant. Our members desire delicious, wholesome meals on the dinner table every night and don’t mind paying a premium for that service.

Finally, Feast & Fettle is designed around the busy household. Our meals are packaged and delivered ‘family-style’, such that entrees and sides can be mixed-and-matched based on the individual preferences of anyone in a household. It is our intent for our members to spend time at the dinner table as a family and this all stems back to Maggie’s experience as a nanny.

We target working families and professionals that do not have the time to prepare a delicious dinner, but refuse to sacrifice quality.  

Surprisingly, before 2018 we invested nothing in marketing. The business was growing purely by word of mouth.

Since February, we’ve invested in various marketing channels but the most effective have been both extremely targeted and personal. We also don’t shy away from traditional channels such as print or radio if they’re effective – we know our target demographic and spending smartly versus just a blanket marketing strategy has worked very well for us.

Regarding profitability, the business has already had a positive EBITDA for several months in 2017. This is essentially unheard of in the meal delivery space! We’ve found a ‘niche’ in what is an enormous market and profitability will always be at the forefront of our minds. We are interested in servicing our members over the long run and creating value – growth at the expense of profitability isn’t something that will work any longer in the meal delivery space.

Realistically, we’re competing with everything from grocery stores, restaurant takeout, meal kits and frozen dinners! As mentioned before, this market is enormous so there will be several winners.

Convenience is becoming more of a priority in the food delivery space as the market segment growth for meal delivery is outpacing traditional segments. We’ll continue to couple convenience with superb quality to remain differentiated as Feast & Fettle expands.

Food cost is the major component of our gross margin, which currently sits in the high 60’s. Our gross margin does not include delivery drivers which are actually not a major cost for us in comparison to meal kit / food logistics businesses.

We’ve recently partnered up with a national food supplier that will allow us to keep our gross margins steady as the business grows.

Geographically, we’re looking at the suburbs and outskirts of major cities. Think of all of the working households that don’t have time to cook and are at the mercy of what is available for takeout at the restaurants in the immediate area. It gets old and (often) unhealthy pretty quick.

Our long-term distribution strategy revolves around a hub-and-spoke model where each one of our future kitchens will be the central point in a broader delivery network.

Currently, we use a logistics software that optimizes our driver routes for traffic, time of day, and driver efficiency among many other factors. We know how far we can travel from our hub while keeping the meals 100% fresh which is first priority.

Our drivers are hired as employees – they are the face of our company and part of our team. Until labor laws evolve to better suit ‘gig economy’ jobs, we intend to keep this strategy.

The new kitchen space will allow us to do at least 4x the volume we currently do. At minimum this is ~$2 million in sales per year.

For now, we only need one facility to service all of Rhode Island and were expanding into Massachusetts later this year.

As we think about product expansion and we begin to saturate the market, we may consider a second kitchen in Rhode Island but the next realistic location will be a kitchen that can serve a wider market in Massachusetts.

The capex required to launch a kitchen is ~150-200k. Our first location is on the higher end as it’ll also serve as our HQ.

Our first kitchen will be the basis for future replication, whether organically or through franchising. We will choose the optimal capital strategy once our kitchen is efficient, profitable and ready for additional rollouts.

Regarding geographic expansion, we’ll start in New England and expand nationally thereafter. Our vision for Feast & Fettle is BIG.

It would be unwise to say we wouldn’t consider any acquisition, but we are doing what we love and it’s not something we think about at this stage.

We want to see this business succeed and there is enormous amount of opportunity whether its from a product or geographic expansion standpoint.

More importantly, we want to show that food delivery can be a successful, profitable endeavor over the long haul.

Coming from someone with a more traditional fundraising background, it is important that business owners understand that crowdfunding is also a marketing effort. Trying to convey your product of venture via online is much different than in-person and the audience is much broader.

Get your supporters educated and onboard early in the campaign. Don’t forget that each day is a grind and it is definitely a marathon versus a sprint!