You’ve had a long work day followed by an even longer commute. Now you have to figure out dinner too? We can hear you groan from here. Chefter wants to help you end your day with a delicious home cooked meal, made by you with ingredients you already have in your kitchen.
Find a recipe on their app then Chefter connects you with expert chefs via phone or video chat to help you cook meals and offer advice when you get stuck on a recipe. It all happens in real time too — no waiting for your favorite food blogger to answer your recipe question or rewind that YouTube video a hundred times to see why you got it wrong. Chefter’s on-demand service will help you every step of the way.
Founded in 2015, Chefter now has five employees, including co-founders Steve D’Angelo and Bryan Spencer, and are looking for $300K to continue expanding their user acquisition. Plus, they are “open to varying degrees of investor experience with a preference for those with experience in food-tech and/or B2C,” according to D’Angelo.
Learn more about their revenue model, the celebrity chefs available through the app and how the Chefter’s chef community can help you become a rockstar in the kitchen. Our mouths are watering already.
What’s the pitch?
Chefter helps people “cook better together” by connect people who need instant answers to food/cooking questions with live chefs who can help them. Chefter provides a “chef-on-your-shoulder” experience, allowing the chef to see the user’s smartphone camera feed while they talk the user through their problem.
How’d you get the idea for it?
I was helping my daughter cook while she attended college and asked her to FaceTime me. It was a eureka moment. I knew that I had to bring this idea to life and share the joy of cooking with more people. Spencer and I worked together and was the first person to truly see the concept for what it was. Together, we founded a company and set forth to build Chefter.
What problem are you solving?
At 4:30 pm, on any given day, 81% of American consumers are unsure about what to make for dinner. With an increasing amount of recipes and tutorials online, it can be incredibly overwhelming for anyone trying to tackle a meal for themselves or their family.
And what’s your revenue model?
Pay-per-use currently. You can get instant, on-demand access to a chef or make a reservation with a specific chef. For example, we have season one and two Masterchef winners taking reservations.
What have been some challenges and what do you hope to accomplish with this company?
With anything, there’s always obstacles but there’s been so many signs that this was a needed service. It’s a way to use tech to bring people together like never before and a way to reintroduce people to food. It just seemed inevitable from the very beginning.
Who are your competitors and how do you stand out?
Talktochef attempted to solve this problem, but it was more of a “yellow pages for video skype” — people would conduct a video face-to-face call with a chef. Most people are intimidated by a face-to-face calls with a stranger and are uncomfortable about their cooking skills to begin with. For indirect competition, YouTube, SaltedTV, Google, but they don’t provide instant access to chefs that can answer questions faster or customization to your dietary preferences. Plus, YouTube videos take too long to watch and don’t always answer the questions you have. At Chefter, we believe the focus is the food and that’s why we streamlined the experience to do just that.
How does Atlanta weave into your story?
Bryan had just moved to Atlanta when he met Steve and fell in love with the concept of Chefter. He knew that the Atlanta tech scene would be the perfect place to build and grow the company. It was so amazing that he convinced Steve to move to Atlanta and they met Vincent — their rockstar co-founder and CTO.
How can folks start to use Chefter?
Well, Hype readers can start using Chefter with a $20 credit when they signup! Simply type ‘hype20’ to get a discount.
