Delivery

ClusterTruck founder rolls out self-tested delivery platform

Provided

September 7, 2022

Chris Baggott and Meredith Sandland have created Empower Delivery, a software company that allows delivery-centric restaurants to profitably and sustainably serve off-premise demand, according to a company press release.

Born from ClusterTruck, a vertically integrated virtual restaurant and ghost kitchen, Empower Delivery allows restaurants to offer less than 30-minute delivery times, food that is never older than 7 minutes, and less than 10% delivery fees.

"[Empower Delivery Co-Founder] Chris Baggott and his team have been consistently building a digitally native solution to the changing consumer demand for off-premise, restaurant-quality meals," Sandland said in the release. "The system that enabled ClusterTruck to achieve its results is inspiring to all restaurants, and the opportunity to lead industry-wide access to the software that powers it is incredible. Consumers want the convenience of digital ordering and delivery fulfillment, and their options today make them sacrifice value, time or quality to access that convenience. We can't wait to bring this solution to digitally-focused restaurant companies who have been wrestling with how to best serve the consumer using the current dominant high-cost, no-control models."

Drawing on his experience as a software innovator and accidental restaurateur, Baggott developed his vision for ClusterTruck after observing how unsustainable an incremental approach to delivery was for many restaurants. The software that has been the key to ClusterTruck's success isavailable to restaurant groups who want to take control of their off-premise delivery business.

"The restaurant delivery market is starting to mature towards more purpose-built, delivery-centric kitchens," Baggott said in the release. "Restaurants are realizing the opportunity to make more money while delivering a best-in-class experience and better value to their guests. For hospitality-focused restaurateurs, this is the tool that enables them to serve their fans on delivery occasions without sacrificing their brand or guest relationship.

"Restaurants deserve to make money on their delivery efforts. Consumers deserve fast, fresh, hot food at a low delivery fee. Drivers deserve a great gig."

ClusterTruck COO Brian Howenstein, who is joining Empower Delivery as chief product officer, said, the team went back to first principles to make delivery a profitable business — not just incremental.

"To truly revolutionize delivery we had to build our own kitchen, because nothing like this had been built before," he said in the release. "Building the software system from the ground up allowed us to enable a business that wasn't previously possible."

The software has been battle-tested at ClusterTruck, delivering over 3 million orders during the last six years.

"We could not have made such an elegant solution without designing the software hand-in-hand with our restaurant operations," Baggott said. "But now it's time to share the results of that hard work with the restaurant industry," he continued. "The performance of ClusterTruck, driven by its software, was too good to keep to ourselves."

Baggot tapped Co-Founder and ClusterTruck CTO Dan McFadden to commercialize the Empower Delivery software, splitting the business into two companies: the ClusterTruck restaurant business and the Empower Delivery software business.

"Not having an ounce of restaurant experience prior gave me a blank slate to create a system that was unlike any other," McFadden said in the release. "I was not limited by the way it's always been done. Running a business on software you wrote gives you a lot of control and perspective that others do not have. I cannot wait to see our system empower others to take back control of delivery."

ClusterTruck will continue to operate its multi-unit restaurant group but will license its brands and operating model to other foodservice companies. Empower Delivery will offer the software in a SaaS model to other restaurants.

Empower Delivery recently closed a seed round led by Allos Ventures along with High Alpha Capital and several original investors in ClusterTruck.

"We are thrilled to partner with this experienced leadership and engineering team as they simplify and streamline the restaurant technology stack," David Kerr, lead investor from Allos, said in the release.