Appétit founder and CEO Steve Ambrose continues to plot the next steps for his restaurant delivery startup even as he deepens his grip on the Buffalo market.
Appétit, which unveiled its mobile app earlier this year, has seen orders double to about 2,000 a month.
The company has processed more than $1 million in orders since starting in late 2020 as an alternative to services such as Uber Eats and DoorDash.
Those companies use aggressive recruiting practices to sign up restaurants, then takes a significant percentage of their orders, Ambrose said. That ultimately drives up costs for everyone, he said.
Appétit charges a flat fee for service, essentially as an all-in-one e-commerce and marketing platform for its restaurant partners. It is significantly less expensive than the corporate alternatives, he said.
The startup now has more flexibility in connecting restaurants to consumers, giving it the marketing power to drive those two groups toward one another.
“There’s a shift in the industry where restaurant owners and operators are sick of losing to these companies,” Ambrose said. “We allow them to keep 100% of their sales.”
Despite its fast traction, scaling Appétit has been a challenge for Ambrose, who has been leading a small team responsible for the many demands of a small business. He shuttered a WeFunder campaign that was introduced last year because of logistical issues with the platform. He hopes to raise a round of pre-seed/seed funding this year.
But he said the building blocks are there for a Buffalo-based business that offers restaurant owners a better long-term deal than the corporate competition.
Appétit is preparing to go live in Rochester with about 15 restaurants.
“We’re saying, ‘OK, we’ve been in business over a year and we have legs now,' ” Ambrose said. “The next step is figuring out who we want to be and how we get there."
