Posted on 06/05/2023 11:51:19 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Hundreds of millions of dollars later, the California startup that tried to disrupt pizza delivery has gone belly up.
Zume, which had raised a total of $445 million since its founding in 2015, ceased operations last month and is liquidating its assets, according to a report from The Information. Once based in Mountain View but most recently headquartered in Camarillo, the firm planned to cook pizzas in the back of a massive truck, with robots, while en route to customers’ homes.
In 2016, Zume delivered its first pies, and positive reviews rolled in on Yelp. But Bloomberg reported that the company quickly gave up on the cooking-while-driving model — cheese kept sliding around when the truck hit bumps in the road — and started parking in central locations to send out typical deliveries.
Nevertheless, investors were intrigued — particularly SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son, famous for the $100 billion “Vision Fund” that dumped $4.4 billion into WeWork. Bloomberg reported that Zume CEO Alex Garden was projecting hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue and talking about becoming the “Tesla of fresh food, and the Amazon of fresh food,” trying to get Son to invest.
In 2018, SoftBank poured $375 million into the company, according to Pitchbook, valuing the startup, still with a relatively untested product, at around $2.25 billion.
The money didn’t last. Zume had employees jump from project to project, including a monthslong push to build a sensor that would monitor the heat of food as it was delivered, Bloomberg reported. The firm burned through cash without bringing in much revenue (less than $1 million in 2019, according to Bloomberg), and at the beginning of 2020, Zume quit the pizza game, laid off half of its staff and pivoted into engineering sustainable packaging.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
“...the company quickly gave up on the cooking-while-driving model — cheese kept sliding around when the truck hit bumps in the road.”
A hot (900 F) pizza oven can cook a pizza in two to three minutes. It seems that they could have made the pizza en-route to a customer’s house, then cooked it the moment they shut off the engine.
Proving once again ....... that every idea
is not necessarily a
good idea.
Leftists at play with OPM.
This idea may have legs .... write that business proposal up NOW.
I’ts key to be first to market ....
8-) on topic ...In the world of start up financing you could probably really get some big money funding for this. It's amazing what Seems to pass for innovative ideas now days.
By the way,
I have a pet rock breeding franchise for sale if you know anyone looking for an "opportunity"
Such as my idea to heat pizza using nuclear waste?
How to become a millionaire invest billions into a bad idea.
At least they tried to do something rather than cash in on green scams fleecing tax payers. I see a lot of logistical problems though. How many suburban and city streets are easily drivel by “huge trucks” (I assume semis with 40 ft trailers or maybe something like a converted bus). AND, never mind that O’Biden and the swamp vermin plan to END fossil fuels. Then there are the DOT requirements to drive around with large propane tanks which will also require certified class A driver’s licenses.
Don’t investors think of the simplest things?
I think only the government gets to do that.
I wonder how many deliveries they made in da hood?
Did they even get to the point the made deliveries?
Unless the thing was a money laundering scheme...
If so, reads like it worked to me.
hmmmm .... how many could you heat at one time?
And would they glow? ...that could be a real advantage?
... a little more R+D.. not invest able yet
Glowing pizza could be the next big fad. You can save electricity by eating it in the dark.
Today, it could be marketed as a Pizza Bowl. It’s all bowls, now.
I would assume it would be the Aruba Ariba and not a Mai Tai...
I think about the libraries built by Carnegie, the railroad built by Crocker and the hospital built by Danny Thomas. What did the pizza guys do with their cash? Nothing to improve American lives.
seems like they could have fixed the sliding around by having some surfaces that were on some kind of stabilizing system...kind of like a steady cam setup.
Only if the drones are self piloting and run on batteries so they don’t ever need to rely on fossil fuels.
Speaking of which, I have been thinkiing about a real plan to build Zeppilin style airships with solar panels on the top third or so powering electric motors to drive it. Since you wouldn’t need but a small battery set to maintain headway at night, it wouldn’t be near the weight of the battery powered planes in development.
Note: this post consitutes prior art if someone tries to get a patent on this idea.
So we call it CALIFORNIA pizzza ?
... hmmm this is starting to run ....
If we could get some Iranian backers .....
what do we need to source...?
gloves ...pizzzza will probably be hot don't you think?
flour ....we can use the Armenians for that
Archaeologists in Armenia Unearth a Bakery—Complete With 3,000-Year-Old Flour
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4158426/posts
ya it may be a little old, that just means cheap
..right
workers ... spotify just laid of 200 people so we are golden
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4158541/posts
we can get them cheap .. I wonder if they will work for food?
IS this how Elon felt when he invented coal power cars ?
we are going be RICH .....
there might be a couple more details to iron out ...but ...
But it think we got something here....
...you guys like that cool big font don't cha?
BWHAHAHAH
gundog showed me that
hmmmm... wonder if I could do color ?
CITIZEN ......you seem seem a bit confused
perhaps you have had a bit to much to think
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.