4 Startups Revolutionizing Food Distribution and Discovery

16 Aug 2012

At the July Food+Tech Meetup, the theme was distribution — more efficiently getting food from farm to fork. Presenters from three startups outlined how they are tackling the issue, their business model and their vision for a new food system, including Matt Hatoun of Wholeshare, Jennifer Goggin of FarmersWeb and Arnie Katz of Relay Foods. Also presenting was George Fatakhov on behalf of Appetude, a dish discovery startup.

Some of the new distribution efforts represent a different take on CSAs. For instance, Wholeshare brings together individual shoppers and leverages their group-buying power to order directly from the source. For instance, say a local farm is selling a 10 lb block of cheddar but you only want 1 lb. Wholeshare allows you to split that block of cheese with others in the group and each take a share.

It is currently invite-only but looking for new buyers to take part in the beta and producers to feature on the site.

July Food+Tech Meetup with Wholeshare from Food Tech Connect on Vimeo.

Relay Foods is another startup that connects consumers directly with local farms and producers but, born in Virginia, it focuses more on cities between the coasts. And while its model also relies on drop off/pickup locations, it tries to locate these where large groups gather, like at a church or office park. The site is up and running and while the service is currently only available to Charlottesville, VA residents, the company plans to expand in the near future.

July Food+Tech Meetup with Relay Foods from Food Tech Connect on Vimeo.

FarmersWeb is also tackling the issue of getting food direct from the farm, but from the wholesale side. It allows local farms and producers to enter all of their inventory and wholesale buyer’s to shop and order from them. The online platform is up and running and accepting new members.

July Food+Tech Meetup with FarmersWeb from Food Tech Connect on Vimeo.

July Food+Tech Meetup with Wholeshare from Food Tech Connect on Vimeo.

Taking on a slightly different problem is appetude. Not distribution but more in the user review category, the startup is helping eaters find delicious dishes and restaurants. Just looking at the website will make you hungry. It is in beta but accepting new users.